tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6444027985846756772024-03-13T15:29:54.140-07:00Porsche Racing HistoryRandy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-42652104825320535702011-07-20T17:29:00.000-07:002011-07-20T17:29:32.611-07:00Watching Brumos at Laguna<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBvMyBFf5FwH19MbhdAYSE40wPH9F5F1rkzla7N3KXCZ3mDbY1R4kmRqy0DzlDGaOuuOs4ifXLmFLhJhiKkt8Eff23OmUe8a8X5A2xe8c7rbXyQZvXgkhtCvF70WQbO-iiia3riVzm2Cwd/s1600/Rolex_159+turn+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBvMyBFf5FwH19MbhdAYSE40wPH9F5F1rkzla7N3KXCZ3mDbY1R4kmRqy0DzlDGaOuuOs4ifXLmFLhJhiKkt8Eff23OmUe8a8X5A2xe8c7rbXyQZvXgkhtCvF70WQbO-iiia3riVzm2Cwd/s400/Rolex_159+turn+2.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Andrew Davis in the Brumos #59 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup said what he liked best about starting in the Grand Touring class on the pole was looking at all the cars in him mirrors and they kept getting smaller and smaller. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It felt like returning to the warm and welcoming embrace of good friends. After a seven-week sprint to finish a Corvette history, I needed a Porsche racing fix. I charged the batteries in my cameras, blew the dust off my long lenses, and headed up to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to return to Porsche Racing History—this time, made live in front of my eyes. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Rolex Grand-Am Series came to Laguna on July 9 after missing the West Coast venues in 2010. The crowd and the racers were glad to see one another again. Some racing fans criticize the Daytona Prototypes for having a confusing sameness about them, although with the variety of engines—Porsche, Ford, Chevrolet, and BMW V-8s that powered them—the cars certainly sounded different. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> But it was the cars a bit further back in the field, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars competing in the Grand Touring class, that pulled me from quiet Santa Barbara to gloriously noisy Monterey. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To summarize the race succinctly, the Brumos team out of Jacksonville, Florida, always a formidable racing operation with a huge, important history running Porsches, did not disappoint. Covering the race for </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Excellence</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> magazine’s website, gave me a purpose beyond the longer historical view I’ve been taking since starting this bigger project. It also gave me the excuse to spend time in the Brumos pits, watching and photographing people I will interview later this year for the book. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I’ll make the two-hour-forty-five minute long race story short; the battle came down to what became a short sprint race after a full-course yellow on lap 88 of the scheduled 107-lap contest. The circuit went green again on lap 95 and seconds later another car went off, throwing the entire track under yellow immediately. A quicker clean-up got racing started again on lap 99, and Brumos team members watched driver Leh Keen with a mix of excitement and dread. Regulations introduced four races earlier reduced the fuel tank capacity by nearly 15 percent, enough that during full-green flag race, teams needed a third pit stop for fuel. Those 11 tours under yellow came late in the race and drivers lapped at an average 50-some miles per hour instead of racing at nearly 90 miles per hour. Keen crossed the finish first in Grand Touring. He and co-driver Andrew Davis added another Porsche victory to the more than 28,000 that I’m going to have to write about in this book.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx5RTirJc3x7E7G5A_nB7q1dwNUpRfmLxm8zN0A5kKrtSWLw7sFnALEgYbHxdd2VQz0SofC6c8II-4E1nSh0Mht3RG9zRhIL72jweCNCrnzu7hRkHD6YibMTmEQx8gOnbFrFWtRckHQZpj/s1600/Rolex_122+winners.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx5RTirJc3x7E7G5A_nB7q1dwNUpRfmLxm8zN0A5kKrtSWLw7sFnALEgYbHxdd2VQz0SofC6c8II-4E1nSh0Mht3RG9zRhIL72jweCNCrnzu7hRkHD6YibMTmEQx8gOnbFrFWtRckHQZpj/s640/Rolex_122+winners.jpg" width="424" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Brumos co-drivers Leh Keen, left, and Andrew Davis share in the thrill of victorty at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday, July 9, 2011. Keen and Davis won Grand Touring class in the Rolex Grand-Am series event at Laguna.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> One of those in the pits through it all was Brumos and Porsche racing legend, Hurley Haywood. Winning co-driver Andrew Davis summed up what it meant to work with Haywood: “To have Hurley as our mentor is tough. Because he’s done it all. He’s won a hundred races. He’s set a hundred lap records. He’s taken a hundred poles. Or more!” It also means that when Haywood tells the Brumos drivers something now, it’s because he’s experienced it before. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Hurley Haywood’s contribution to Porsche Racing History is one more element of what this project is about. So is the second 2011 season GT victory that Keen and Davis earned for Brumos in California. As one observer said, “It’s great to see the Brumos colors on a 911 again.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The interview list grows. The database expands. It’s really good to be back. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Stay tuned. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div><!--EndFragment-->Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-89549981642106680842011-05-26T13:23:00.000-07:002011-05-26T13:23:11.942-07:00Phased Re-Entry<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><!--StartFragment--> </div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZCv_vsycgilA5laBbhyk3oWrxplo1v3tKukdRTbnnjQ4CXM6S1HVsyUIrlukzP4SFwptiGfadAVDiBSq-NSXG2qk3S050Wm1Xksh7V21RWHlOmXTasS0w7ZrQpMCDx4vgO5UBqWiGgfF9/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZCv_vsycgilA5laBbhyk3oWrxplo1v3tKukdRTbnnjQ4CXM6S1HVsyUIrlukzP4SFwptiGfadAVDiBSq-NSXG2qk3S050Wm1Xksh7V21RWHlOmXTasS0w7ZrQpMCDx4vgO5UBqWiGgfF9/s400/4.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="padding-top: 4px; text-align: left;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I’d say the </span></span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim</span></span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> is The Ultimate Guys’ Museum, but that is giving it short shrift. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">This museum is privately owned and funded, and military history is a particular fascination of the owners. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Scores of mannequins are accurately clothed in period-correct apparel. How can such an enormous collection of expensive technology be in private hands? </span></span></i></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The owners hold the worldwide patent on the connectors used to hold building scaffolding together and in place.</span><br />
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</span></span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">It’s been a week of home work before getting into book work. My wife Carolyn and I moved just before I left for Germany. I know—talk about perfect timing! Circumstances and opportunities always intrude on life. But it literally was just before. I finished my last load into the new house, took a shower and headed to LAX to fly to Frankfurt the next morning.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">So returning to Santa Barbara involved not only finding where I had packed clean clothes. It also meant getting Internet access set up, rearranging furniture, and reconnecting with friends.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Now I’m going to loop back half a week to our last full day in Germany. Jerry and I went to one of the most eccentric museums. Well, no—it’s not really a museum. It’s a huge collection of transportation and technical things that also is populated with hundreds of mannequins dressed appropriately to what is around them.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">This place is huge—as the pictures will suggest. It measures 30,000 square meters, that’s about 350,000 square feet, and on display is everything from an Air France Concorde jet to mini-cars to huge (and vastly entertaining) mechanical orchestras to war-time vehicles to locomotives to showcases of women’s fashion from the turn of the 20</span></span></span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">th</span></span></span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> Century.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">There are two restaurants, an Imax Theater, and an incredibly well-stocked gift, souvenir, CD/DVD, and bookshop. If you go, take plenty of one and two Euro coins. There are lots of opportunities to get the mechanical orchestras to play, or even to swivel the gun turret of a German Tiger tank.</span></span></span></span></div></span></i></b></span></i></b></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz9GLJXthvBu2ART9wT2OlGOhSm7yx1shcMjhA7zpz_aD-O9SYeavixi40WRqk9yN7fWVqb-rC3F2y1HMwpe4TreUL50nBXOizbMLUaYF4AdUTD8-AsKuO-xgepJ9Y-veKfElt9WZNQmN/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuz9GLJXthvBu2ART9wT2OlGOhSm7yx1shcMjhA7zpz_aD-O9SYeavixi40WRqk9yN7fWVqb-rC3F2y1HMwpe4TreUL50nBXOizbMLUaYF4AdUTD8-AsKuO-xgepJ9Y-veKfElt9WZNQmN/s400/1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The two supersonic jets are an Air France Concorde and an Aeroflot Illyushin. Visitors can go into each by way of a spiral staircase. Go on a cool day.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></div></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Dioramas such as this one are scattered throughout the collection. Everything is spotless. The cars and the clothes show no dust. Imagine the maintenance challenge!</span></i></b></span></div></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Yep! That's a Los Angeles Police Department "Cruiser!"</span></b></i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj81aTsusbxSPtEScRkNdh48fSVC45u3RJib5DTpI879LTfxpyz1WomF3QhvrB5t8arJBuwdbhmCmCOvKJQkKrUIeG6JRoCYla9IN2M0Ric-0ZGFcePp9oFcRbUoE-QbZNZfnFrSgQj9QQz/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj81aTsusbxSPtEScRkNdh48fSVC45u3RJib5DTpI879LTfxpyz1WomF3QhvrB5t8arJBuwdbhmCmCOvKJQkKrUIeG6JRoCYla9IN2M0Ric-0ZGFcePp9oFcRbUoE-QbZNZfnFrSgQj9QQz/s400/5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Fun for the whole family! Swivel the turret! Aim the gun barrel!</span></i></b></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzUvCwqPNFDBCPMI3hxuqHhpPfyoWkKbNh2aikGRocdNbq6XCHLrZIU_hohUR6DT6yvZKPY-iyaMCijjhZYfmyqnNHOTa2nyBG1XpCFKlGi9tnKlI5OUmZ5h8Sagn3mMR_QiAlvLDrs47/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzUvCwqPNFDBCPMI3hxuqHhpPfyoWkKbNh2aikGRocdNbq6XCHLrZIU_hohUR6DT6yvZKPY-iyaMCijjhZYfmyqnNHOTa2nyBG1XpCFKlGi9tnKlI5OUmZ5h8Sagn3mMR_QiAlvLDrs47/s400/6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Running on compressed air, this Orkestrion plays cardboard music rolls that feed continuously through the machine at the near end. There are hundreds of songs available.</span></i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOzyBPHv_mZhi3VSRSeB9_1B7vU6OfQnKV0YszLLouni24fDMthpJsZAH6Tz2c3cZKm3mbjubXBWq2vThXWPTsZ-Y0tFiVw13EO9v11LjuMNSNAO-c9_bU5Dd2OhV5JoQPnwyQ12rjtAKL/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOzyBPHv_mZhi3VSRSeB9_1B7vU6OfQnKV0YszLLouni24fDMthpJsZAH6Tz2c3cZKm3mbjubXBWq2vThXWPTsZ-Y0tFiVw13EO9v11LjuMNSNAO-c9_bU5Dd2OhV5JoQPnwyQ12rjtAKL/s400/7.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">If you go, plan to spend at least three hours. Some areas have signs explaining what you see, mostly in German, though there is some English. Other areas just let your imagination carry you away.</span></i></b></span></td></tr>
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in Santa Barbara, I’m settling into my new routine. I’ll begin transcribing interviews for the book next week and with each, I’ll add to the blog updates one or two of Jerry’s photos of these folks. I am eager to get to their stories. As I do with most of my books, I plan to let these people who made the history tell you about it in their own words.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLdvIbn-xJ-FFdEJS1J_1wmHyHiEF_-4Vi-fbaeRh4gGFnNKL45l-CCRWuP4ikWF1EV2gPdBQVdSaL262xeaiV8HKF8h_OYIcrFofg-M-8NB87uqPt5krJsMZ3_YHuFd7Hn6oXLrsqyLN8/s1600/8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLdvIbn-xJ-FFdEJS1J_1wmHyHiEF_-4Vi-fbaeRh4gGFnNKL45l-CCRWuP4ikWF1EV2gPdBQVdSaL262xeaiV8HKF8h_OYIcrFofg-M-8NB87uqPt5krJsMZ3_YHuFd7Hn6oXLrsqyLN8/s400/8.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">This last shot shows the view from my front deck at 6 o’clock this morning, just before sunrise. Now you can see why I had to grab this place while it was available. Yes, that is the Pacific.<br />
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</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This weekend promises fun. One of my hobbies is making wine. Friday we are bottling our first vintage of Pinot Noir, from 2009. We’ll have about 85 cases when we’re finished. Our 2010 vintage is in oak barrels till next year. My partners in this adventure and some friends are gathering for a late lunch and we’ll taste our “product” from the bottle for the first time. I’ll report back.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stay tuned!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div>Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-9618722637053838332011-05-21T19:48:00.000-07:002011-05-21T19:48:54.967-07:00Not-Quite-Final Wrap-Up<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwBGBH_sdhI-K8HdCrTxOYRsWPjrU2-ZndittpThfWFt-mgNSUgSGmH8n4hVuhBTP9_FkLy4qSDU55ukvTXzI3UmZ2xkSM-d0qrfjY0yB4nDA1DKlgwK7fMvDeKdWu0eaDqZe5OKQ27MFH/s1600/Parked+cars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwBGBH_sdhI-K8HdCrTxOYRsWPjrU2-ZndittpThfWFt-mgNSUgSGmH8n4hVuhBTP9_FkLy4qSDU55ukvTXzI3UmZ2xkSM-d0qrfjY0yB4nDA1DKlgwK7fMvDeKdWu0eaDqZe5OKQ27MFH/s400/Parked+cars.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I want to give you one last image of how things often are at the Porsche Museum. Down below the lobby, in a corner of the garage, museum staff have parked a 997 GT3 (in white) next to their red 959, alongside their silver 996 GT2. Each day we pulled into or drove out of the garage, we never knew what we would find shuffled off to one side.</span></b></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"></span></b></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We fly back to the U.S. tomorrow. I’m going to wait to do a real wrap-up of my experience during this coming week after I get home. I have a lot of pictures for you—from last weekend, and from this one, as we were tourists in Southern Germany. So some will come today, the others in the next couple days.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">We arrived 26 days ago and on one hand it feels like nearly four weeks. But on the other hand, it feels just like only four days. When I think about the information we have gathered, I am stunned. So many times—especially during the past two days—we all have looked at each other and said, “I never have heard that. I never knew that.” Porsche’s photo archivist, Jens Torner, always is looking for photo collections and he came across two mechanics hired in Porsche’s earliest days. For two weeks, Jens and I kept talking about these men and we got to interview one of them on Thursday, the other on Friday.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Friday’s conversation was with Egon Alber, who started with Porsche in 1943. Some of you may know that when World War II ended and the Allies divided up Germany’s care among themselves, Stuttgart fell in the American Zone. There are famous stories about the U.S. Army taking over Porsche Works as a motor pool overhaul facility. But previously published reports always led everyone to believe the Army stationed a company or at least a platoon here to work on American trucks. Not so.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">According to Alber, there were just four or five Americans, led by a Captain Thompson who hired—yes, he paid them—as many Porsche mechanics as he could to keep American vehicles running. Because most of the trolley service in the area was destroyed, Thompson sent trucks each morning to pick up the workers and at night his men drove the workers home. They got breakfast and lunch at the motor pool and often they took home leftover food. Alber said Thompson was a real hero to many of the mechanics.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Before the war, Porsche employed 180 people, most of whom moved to several locations in Austria to work in a safer environment when it really got bad in Stuttgart. Alber said the only thing that hurt the men was that the Americans had to search them each night as they left. It was policy. Alber said not one of the mechanics would have stolen from the Porsche factory or the Americans. As Porsche’s Austrian workers began to filter back into town, Thompson hired them as well. When the American’s pulled out, the workers threw a party for them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As I begin to transcribe these interviews, I’ll begin to post some other pearls and some of Jerry’s photos of these men as well.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Meanwhile, here are a few more images from my "home" with Dieter and Sonja for these 27 days. </span></div></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoTv8z4Q8xKylJL3GMiMRMPPpPYDXPNqr1OOtUrtpa9phXa20zQlVM2FvAwq2XL5R9vwXIcdKnTRj5nN3sxfx6iokURJ7deoZ_m1I3NqHelrqw5QmdAYs9m1ffVc345AIpF6bvQMTgPR1m/s1600/Green.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoTv8z4Q8xKylJL3GMiMRMPPpPYDXPNqr1OOtUrtpa9phXa20zQlVM2FvAwq2XL5R9vwXIcdKnTRj5nN3sxfx6iokURJ7deoZ_m1I3NqHelrqw5QmdAYs9m1ffVc345AIpF6bvQMTgPR1m/s400/Green.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Across the street from their home is a wonderful park. At night owls call from a tree near their home.</span></b></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT-2plnJxeW8GQdTlmvwXRoA5C3mHWBHE9PvvRBW1aiZ1kjnwPFrunhgXKRN_nqwPPFsWKWt9fQpm7alLMCBreqBcpa6A97TuQTRzAI8v8Ju4h1Oz-9dO-AYoDVsE5vgLjTyBmY368VOvi/s1600/View.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT-2plnJxeW8GQdTlmvwXRoA5C3mHWBHE9PvvRBW1aiZ1kjnwPFrunhgXKRN_nqwPPFsWKWt9fQpm7alLMCBreqBcpa6A97TuQTRzAI8v8Ju4h1Oz-9dO-AYoDVsE5vgLjTyBmY368VOvi/s400/View.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Looking southeast from the terrace, nearly all of Stuttgart is in the front yard. Several evenings have been nice enough to eat dinner out here. With dark falling at just before 10pm, it makes for a relaxing evening. </span></i></b></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL525TiEJTwSo0oN3vO1ZeoKvUxYrAVDFXT54yQOIlduPZg39P5aVNhrQ6G5lBT9zlAcX5X4AYQvbIFVRkIp7t5-e62EY5nZVz_MAPw6brWsE_GVSZqYpLIbOcJmqaD_DTGcxbIOeAINER/s1600/Storm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL525TiEJTwSo0oN3vO1ZeoKvUxYrAVDFXT54yQOIlduPZg39P5aVNhrQ6G5lBT9zlAcX5X4AYQvbIFVRkIp7t5-e62EY5nZVz_MAPw6brWsE_GVSZqYpLIbOcJmqaD_DTGcxbIOeAINER/s400/Storm.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">This afternoon, we got a spectacular storm with hail for more than 30 minutes. You can see some of it accumulating in the garden. Visibility fell to about 100 yards. An hour later, the skies cleared and now, as I write this nearly at midnight, I can see stars.</span></i></b></span></td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, and speaking of stars, for those wondering whether Leica came through with miraculous overnight repair, "Rock Star" Reilly’s M9 arrived from Solms repair and it works great.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stay tuned.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div><!--EndFragment-->Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-12836237973845536072011-05-18T15:48:00.000-07:002011-05-18T15:48:25.928-07:00Precision Machines, Large and Small<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxZ_tWN5B2S5lHIaZFKS0o9JOtXoKF0Ke_laDCUVXdujVM6D3qzHHIRXJ4tXaP-vKo6MDx1E0NTdJtGzqIvl8rNz93inoZOchiZDZkX6iEtrDjgVas39Pu3BD-51tT3hhyrIhYjVGot7lL/s1600/Randy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxZ_tWN5B2S5lHIaZFKS0o9JOtXoKF0Ke_laDCUVXdujVM6D3qzHHIRXJ4tXaP-vKo6MDx1E0NTdJtGzqIvl8rNz93inoZOchiZDZkX6iEtrDjgVas39Pu3BD-51tT3hhyrIhYjVGot7lL/s640/Randy.jpg" width="427" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I've used Leica cameras since 1967, and in 1968, I shot riots in Paris, France, using cameras like those two I'm pointing out, the Leica MP, and the black Leica M3 and M2. For photojournalists in the 1960s, they were our workhorses. Small, discrete, lightweight, with the ability to focus precisely in low light—ever notice how all the worst riots happen after dark?—these cameras saved our lives by getting us the pictures, earning us our rent money, and occasionally deflecting a whack by a police baton or a flying stone. This half of Leica's family tree brought back memories.</span></b></i></span></td></tr>
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</span></div></b></i></b></i></b></i></b></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><i><b><i><b><i><b><i><b></b></i></b></i></b></i></b></i></div><i><b><i><b><i><b><i><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For those of you who don't know me well, I've been a photographer about twice as long as I've been a writer, and for many of the 43 years I've been making pictures, my camera of choice has been Leica. I love their precision, I love the quality of their lenses, I love their balance, and the way they feel in my hands.</span></div></b></i></b></i></b></i></b></i><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><i><b><i><b><i><b><i><b></b></i></b></i></b></i></b></i></div><i><b><i><b><i><b><i><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div></b></i></b></i></b></i></b></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photographers who have driven a 911 understand this; and 911 drivers who have shot with Leica M cameras get this: The Leica M is the 911 of photography. Throughout this three-plus week work trip so far, the similarities between the two companies and these two products has struck me repeatedly. What each of these machines do is remind you that you can do better, either to make better photos, or to drive better through a turn. They force—okay, I'll use a bad pun, they drive you—to do better at what you're doing.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My friend Jerry Reilly shares my fondness for Leica and he arrived in Germany with a couple lenses and two Leica M digital bodies, one of which quit on us soon after he arrived. Porsche's head of archives Dieter Landenberger is a talented, energetic, and accomplished photographer himself (he won best of show in the annual </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Auto Motor und Sport </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">photo contest, top prize for which was a Leica!) and he recognized our challenge. We wanted to make a big series of photos of each interview subject so we can have recent photos of each individual for this book, and possibly stitch them into a kind of video an e-book version of Porsche Racing History further down the line.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dieter phoned Leica, north of Frankfurt, and today was our day to Journey to Mecca. Andreas Dippel, manager for Press & Public Relations, treated us royally, getting us first to customer service where the shutter of Jerry's M9 was pronounced dead-on-arrival. Andreas hurried us through the process, introducing us to the head of M9 technical repairs and the camera goes under his surgical care first thing Thursday morning.</span></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE6P4dHf4hzKUXIFlsHfZeKJAenKjhtRTDplnYNg02hAPOOwiYT-8EpP5MBZVtQ5aG6CrZ5ce6nr5BiNuRiQ1xmSO701Ti4mnNQFur0yS0Gpe4bMrSkFCl_gWSpQtRzISBFVuyeawJ7DZR/s1600/heds_721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE6P4dHf4hzKUXIFlsHfZeKJAenKjhtRTDplnYNg02hAPOOwiYT-8EpP5MBZVtQ5aG6CrZ5ce6nr5BiNuRiQ1xmSO701Ti4mnNQFur0yS0Gpe4bMrSkFCl_gWSpQtRzISBFVuyeawJ7DZR/s400/heds_721.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">History kind of stops you in your tracks. My <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Porsche Racing History</span> collaborator Jerry Reilly talks with Andreas Dippel, Leica manager for Press and Public Relations, about the two cameras Dippel has pulled out of the company historic vaults for us to see today on our visit to Leica headquarters at Solms, German.</span></b></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></span><br />
Once back at World Headquarters, Andreas then led us on a tour past all phases of Leica lens and camera body assembly. It is extraordinarily high-tech low tech. By that I mean, there are perhaps as many as a hundred proprietary machines and processes and computer programs that the 180 technicians use to hand-build every camera, from the D-1 point-and-shoot up to their flagship S2 single-lens reflex digital (yours for only 18,600 Euro without lens—that's roughly $25,000 at today's exchange rate. Because the processes are Leica "property," we couldn't shoot in the assembly factory but Leica also has opened a Leica boutique at the front of the factory where these photos are made.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
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As we wrapped up the visit, Andreas excused himself for a moment and returned with two treasures from the vault. Both are shown here; one is the camera that belonged to one of the engineers on the Hindenburg. The engineer perished in the fire after its tragic crash landing at Lakehurst, N.J., on May 6, 1937 but his Leica camera was recovered from the wreckage. The other saved the life of a British photojournalist covering the war in Vietnam. A bullet hit the camera just below the viewfinder, smashed part of the camera, and ricocheted away.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Jvucz42qtSn5GLfm9q9lnom0YejJ5BPaYwU6yPiHtAKcG5jxARfAfuZpDh9qwoLNVxgRWvSqF-_-_z08tB7owHcgwTvHVXcWsv4CsdIsEchMbLyEAxqoUUYu18mpc4bUNjEK-MoSLf_q/s1600/Hindenburg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Jvucz42qtSn5GLfm9q9lnom0YejJ5BPaYwU6yPiHtAKcG5jxARfAfuZpDh9qwoLNVxgRWvSqF-_-_z08tB7owHcgwTvHVXcWsv4CsdIsEchMbLyEAxqoUUYu18mpc4bUNjEK-MoSLf_q/s400/Hindenburg.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">According to Andreas, this camera belonged to the chief engineer of the Airship Hindenburg which crashed and burned upon landing May 6, 1937, at Lakehurst, NJ. The chief engineer perished in the fire. Rescue crews and investigators found his camera in the wreckage. It now is part of the Leica historic collection and will be displayed at their new museum in Wetzlar when their new factory opens in 2013.</span></b></i></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5dsTkupZurZFkyAP95DWTQeHfcYhs4Y5faaxCz8CoajyaCDEfMaTSBOv1Mqlx47mGR_QpFZktBSEeRGGKBcsOyoElNSiptlmHL-kOom6CVerYsGgW2o71F5OHd15tEH4WJaJrhd_dNFHE/s1600/Vietnam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5dsTkupZurZFkyAP95DWTQeHfcYhs4Y5faaxCz8CoajyaCDEfMaTSBOv1Mqlx47mGR_QpFZktBSEeRGGKBcsOyoElNSiptlmHL-kOom6CVerYsGgW2o71F5OHd15tEH4WJaJrhd_dNFHE/s400/Vietnam.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">British war photographer Tim Page has a lot of good things to say about Leica cameras, not the least of which is that this one saved his life. The story, as I got it, was that Page was aboard a US PT boat in the Gulf of Tonkin that mistakenly got strafed by American fighters. The sturdy Leica castings deflected the bullet.</span></i></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></span><br />
At this point, the Leica "museum" is little more than a family tree at the bottom of which are the earliest cameras produced by founder Oskar Barnack, and at the top, the latest digital models. But Dippel reminded us of Leica's coming return to its hometown of Wetzlar, (just 8 kilometers away,) with plans for a museum to show the hundreds of treasures in the Solms vault. Plans have been approved and ground breaking is scheduled for next month.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUAJBa0zMuk8KxGvSTkaMA5gdw2H1Ft59EDflfLlXH997t3Dd4JUZgkt5DNYHW6FgLAZC53bqYIl_8v-qdKppZnmRKF7ruUWl16vkAmX-di67Kpw43nslMLp15p4Bfd_BtjddydttUl9T/s1600/george.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCUAJBa0zMuk8KxGvSTkaMA5gdw2H1Ft59EDflfLlXH997t3Dd4JUZgkt5DNYHW6FgLAZC53bqYIl_8v-qdKppZnmRKF7ruUWl16vkAmX-di67Kpw43nslMLp15p4Bfd_BtjddydttUl9T/s400/george.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">This is "our" office in the Archives. My recorders are right in front of legendary engineer Hans Mezger, and Jerry Reilly's Leica is poised to shoot a continuing stream of images. In some cases, we have enough to make a major motion picture, coming soon to a theater near you.</span></i></b></span></td></tr>
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last photos I'm including here is one that shows how we are doing this book at this point. I record each interview on Olympus digital voice recorders - that way, if one fails, or if a battery dies, I have the words on the other recorder. On top of that, I tested both of them thoroughly before I came over and each records voices slightly differently. With sometimes challenging accents, it's a real help to have two versions of the same word or phrase. Dieter has essentially turned over the archive library to us for our interviews. Yes, others work in there, researching various projects, but the cooperation we have gotten from archives staff and our interview subjects has been incredible.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the right, Porsche engineer Hans Mezger returned for a second conversation with us Tuesday, and he brought us up to date with his racecar and racing engine developments till his retirement in 1993. The good news for Porsche fans is Mezger continues to this day as a paid consultant and he joked with us that he works longer hours now than he did when he was still an employee.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPktADQTt4tJ2vVFKN9R8JvX5SNdb4S_1idmKSqv7B7tbHEUTDhf4tYvbp6djifc6lgK__L06Sg1OZv-H-rge6UuH424W3b7XpdibNIBlWHZdxQxcVSPIUtwrT3UvlfLw88ouSnMv9Yv8C/s1600/mezger1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPktADQTt4tJ2vVFKN9R8JvX5SNdb4S_1idmKSqv7B7tbHEUTDhf4tYvbp6djifc6lgK__L06Sg1OZv-H-rge6UuH424W3b7XpdibNIBlWHZdxQxcVSPIUtwrT3UvlfLw88ouSnMv9Yv8C/s400/mezger1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Engineer Hans Mezger ponders a question. I initially create all my questions in the MacBook, record the answers on the two digital voice recorders, and make notes along the way so I remember key phrases and new bits of information.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></span>What have we learned? What did Hans Mezger tell us about why Indy efforts failed in 1989 and Formula One failed in 1990? The answers—and these are answers now that have had the benefit of four other interviews to fill in holes—surprised me. Am I going to tell you? Absolutely—in the book.</span></i></span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
That's what all this is all about.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
Stay tuned.</span></td></tr>
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</div><!--EndFragment-->Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-54430069228391394122011-05-16T18:47:00.000-07:002011-05-16T18:47:54.030-07:00Friday the Thirteenth Proved Lucky for Our Side<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxGJzuO2DeozrHaBoBy91VIzPwvlXGejh8MLD7qcpbuub6Dsz87TIdrq7TxVNwwii_qGXEyHwoSuIAGDEox3lzDYemYnT26QP_AwKGpmIAS-N-tmtdI0g4l4ApQe0WHqjVnFUu0EZyK9mC/s1600/PRH_063+RL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxGJzuO2DeozrHaBoBy91VIzPwvlXGejh8MLD7qcpbuub6Dsz87TIdrq7TxVNwwii_qGXEyHwoSuIAGDEox3lzDYemYnT26QP_AwKGpmIAS-N-tmtdI0g4l4ApQe0WHqjVnFUu0EZyK9mC/s400/PRH_063+RL.jpg" width="265" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First the statistics: By 5 p.m. this afternoon, we'd completed our 21st interview. We have five to go. I've recorded slightly more than 46 hours on two nearly identical Olympus digital voice recorders. And we have learned and learned and learned so much, and we have heard such astonishing stories!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wednesday, May 11, began with Tilman Brodbeck. Tilman headed Porsche Exclusive during his final years in Zuffenhausen. Having started his career as a body engineer specializing in aerodynamics, he was the man responsible for the tiny chin spoiler underneath the front bumper of 1972-and-later 911s, and for the stylish (and often imitated) </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">burzel</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, or ducktail spoiler on the rear of the 1973 Carrera RS 2.7. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</i></span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />
</i></span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />
</i></span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>All right, this is an unrelated photo. But I'll be posting more photos from our interviews in the days to come. Here I'm standing in front of Porsche's state-of-the-art paint center, which makes a fine background. This portrait, taken by Jerry Reilly, may wind up being the author photo in the book.</i></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During the 1970s, he worked on developing the 924 as a Volkswagen project and then continued on with it when the 924 returned to Porsche's management. Restless at the end of that time he contemplated leaving the company but instead transferred to the front office as executive assistant for Ernst Fuhrmann and then for Peter Schutz. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These two were the Yin and Yang of the 911's future, with Fuhrmann wanting it gone and Schutz re-energizing it. Our conversation with Tilman centered mostly on Porsche's philosophy of racing during these times. He told us that perhaps the only sentiment Fuhrmann and Schutz shared was that "Racing is <i>the</i> most important thing for Porsche."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Following Schutz, we met Christof Dimter who was one of the developers of the racing PDK transmission in the early 1980s. As a Master Mechanic inside Porsche, Dimter assembled the first 928 four-valve engine, and he told us that "Porsche throws you in the water to see if you can swim. They won't let you drown, but if you can't swim, you're not a Porsche person." He described developing the PDK as similar to every other project at Porsche: "Things are thought out to eighty-five percent. And the rest happens in development." His particular development led to a miniaturized PDK transmission for Formula One. But FIA rule makers outlawed it before it ever raced!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The afternoon wound up with current motorsports head Hartmut Kristen. He gave us nearly three hours of his time. Kristen worked first in marketing and has graduate degrees in engineering and economics, so he brings a wide, worldly perspective to motorsports past, present, and future. When he became 911 product planning chief in 1985, he understood the Porsche philosophy clearly: "Change as much as necessary but as little as possible." Before we got him around to the subject of racing, he added, "Ongoing development of the 911 keeps life interesting. A perfect 911 would be almost boring." He characterized one of the most significant contributions that motor racing makes to any automaker. "You have a clear challenge and a clear deadline: The next race is in two weeks." Regarding Porsche's new thrust toward hybrid power in its race cars, he told us some board members have been hesitant. "Does it have a future?" they have asked him. His answer: "It is <i>the</i> future. If we don't do something creative now, there is no future. The question for us is this: How do we get the same performance out of less energy? If we improve efficiency, we can't help but improve performance."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yesterday, we made a road trip up north of Cologne to meet another legendary racer, Willi Kauhsen. Willi raced many times in the US so his English was better than ours </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in some cases</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. As we listened to him describe racing 917s or taking government officials for rides through city streets his seasoned perspective and sense of humor merged so powerfully that he had tears streaming down our cheeks. Kauhsen drove in 1970 and 1971 for the "alternate" Porsche factory team, the one run out of Salzburg, Austria, by Ferry Porsche's sister, Louise Piech (Ferdinand’s mother). Kauhsen watched time and again as Porsche racing engineers made suggestions and recommendations to the official factory Gulf-sponsored team run by John Wyer. But Wyer had his own engineers and his own ideas so Porsche’s internal thinking was generally applied to Porsche Salzburg, and often the two teams competed against one another, both for resources and for race victories. Kauhsen’s stories of how this worked contributed a lot to my understanding of how Porsche racing functioned from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I wrote my first Porsche book in the early 1990s, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Porsche Legends</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, many people I met told me I should interview Gunther Steckkonig. I missed him then, and again, and again, until this morning. He was worth the wait. Steckkonig started at Porsche in 1953 as a mechanic, but one with special talents. A few of his bosses watched him and pushed him. Eventually, he was pushed out of Porsche's door to learn from Mercedes-Benz so Porsche could hire him back with experience different from every other Porsche mechanic. "In that time," he told us, "technical specialists did the whole car. That gave us a big volume of knowledge." That vast wealth of information turned him into a technician and a consummate racing and test driver who held the record at Weissach's test track many times in many different cars. One of his most interesting experiences was an 84-hour endurance race that started in Liege, Belgium, went to the Nürburgring to run 10,000 kilometers, and ended back in Liege. He brought with him the final engineering report on that event, itself a "big volume of knowledge", that particularly appealed to my colleague on this project, Jerry Reilly. Jerry owns the Marathon-winning car from that year, and in Steckkonig, he found answers to dozens of long-vexing questions about his car.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We ended the day with an old friend, Norbert Singer. Norbert is one of the most creative racing engineers anywhere in motorsports. Not only is he extremely imaginative but he also has a particular talent when it comes to reading racing regulations. He can understand not only what is specified but also what is not. As a result, many of his cars in past years have pushed the technical boundaries of what a car could be and do at that moment. I've interviewed him three times before but always left with some questions unanswered or some holes in those things we covered. This was the opportunity to tie up loose ends and Norbert generously walked us through obscure bits of his history for more than two-and-a-half hours. What we learned could—well, it will—fill a book. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tomorrow, Saturday, we're off to inspect the competition. We'll visit Audi's museum in Ingolstadt on Saturday, and head down to Munich on Sunday to see the German Transportation Museum which has a special exhibition right now on the history of motorsports. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I promise I'll take lots of pictures.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Stay tuned. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></span></div><!--EndFragment-->Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-75100637317173476682011-05-10T11:55:00.000-07:002011-05-10T11:55:22.309-07:00My Fascination Deepens as our Interviews Continue<!--StartFragment--> <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">This Typ 64 won for "oldest Porsche" during Sunday's great celebration that I described in the previous post. It was one of three assembled in 1939 for a planned race from Berlin to Rome. The race never happened and the cars remained with Porsche till after the war. Then one was destroyed, another nearly so, and this one survived, almost exactly as it is here.</span></i></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></i></b></span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Monday morning started with the news that Norbert Singer still was in Belgium at Spa and, as a recently elected official of FIA, he needed to go to another racing circuit that afternoon. So our interview with him has shifted to this coming Friday at 1 p.m. That's all the better for us because Singer is a great storyteller with a wonderful sense of drama and, since he is our only Friday afternoon interview, we will sit in rapt awe listening to tales until sometime Saturday morning. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not to say that the rest of Monday was disappointing. How can you feel cheated when you get two hours with Hans Mezger, the Engine Maestro of Porsche? But with Hans, we barely got started and soon after we began, we hatched a plan to follow up with him next week. Mezger's career with Porsche began with the assignment to work with Mr. Wulf in engine design. Mezger had completed his graduate degree in engineering and, upon completion of his degree exams, he had 25 job offers. Ironically, not one was from Porsche. So he came here and knocked on the door. His reception was good news and bad. Mr. Wulf was in charge of diesel engine design for Porsche tractor division. Wulf told Mezger he would be designing new valve gear. Mezger admitted that he really had hoped to go into racing engineering and Wulf sent him home. But two weeks later, Egon Forstner, the head of technical calculation for Porsche called Mezger and hired him. There his first job was—again—valve gear, but this time, it was to revise the legendary Fuhrmann Typ 547 four-cylinder Carrera engine. That complicated engine set Mezger up for the rest of his career.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Following Mezger, we met Eugen Kolb. Kolb joined Porsche in 1953 after working at neighboring Reutter Carrosserie, preparing body panels for a prototype Studebaker that Porsche was preparing. When Kolb moved around the corner to Porsche, the company put him straight to work turning the 550 "Buckelwagen," the "humpback" prototype, into the racing car everyone knows and admires. His body-building skills kept him in the racing department and as Ferry Porsche's nephew, Ferdinand Piech, arrived in 1965, Piech's interests were in minimizing drag and achieving the highest top speeds. His philosophy was that tapered long bodies could accomplish that feat best and Kolb became the Long Tail man. He stretched the back ends of 906s, 907s, 908s, and 917s in the 1960s, and then provided aerodynamic tricks to improve the top speed of 956 and 962 coupes in the 1980s.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This morning, Tuesday, we renewed an acquaintance with Porsche designer Tony Hatter. Tony styled the 993 version of the 911, the last of the air-cooled models from 1994 through 1998. In the mid nineties the racing department decided it was time to win Le Mans again and to that with a car styled to reinforce Porsche’s brand identity—epitomized by the 911. So Tony was tagged to design the 911 GT1, a sleek, zoomy futuristic spaceship of a car that looked pretty much like the 993 from the front and like no 911 you ever have seen from the rear. Tony stayed on to do the 1997 and 1998 versions of the car, which won Le Mans in June of that year. He drove to the museum today in a car he found in one of my other books, the <i>911 Porsche Color Buyer’s Guide</i>. And as Tony joked, he wished he had read that book before he bought the car. It needed work then. But we saw—and heard—it today and it was glorious.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We ended the day with more than two hours time with Helmut Flegl. He was the young talented engineer assigned to manage the 917 project from the start. He was 26, and he had to tame its challenging aerodynamic problems. He told us stories of dealing with John Wyer and his team to improve the body shape that helped keep the racer on the ground at speeds up to 380 kph (238 mph). Flegl also directed development of the luxurious and powerful 928 (which another of our interview subjects Walter Naher, took to Bonneville, Utah, and supervised its official run to 170 mph on the salt.) Flegl then got drafted to take on the ailing Indianapolis projects twice. It gave him a sour view of USAC the first time, and a sour view of his own management the second time. Then, of course, that management was dismissed, and Flegl stayed on. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tomorrow, Wednesday, we have a full day starting with Tilman Brodbeck, an engineer who became administrative assistant to Ernst Fuhrmann, Peter Schutz, Arno Bohn, Heinz Branitzki, and Wendelin Wiedeking—that's more than 30 years of chairmen. I think his perspective on how Porsche's philosophy of racing has evolved should be interesting. Next is Christof Dimter who co-developed the racing PDK transmission with a team of others; and our final conversation tomorrow will be with current competition director Hartmut Kristen, who will bring us up to date with Porsche's latest thinking. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stay tuned!</span><o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment-->Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-75518388721115140492011-05-08T16:35:00.000-07:002011-05-08T16:35:06.403-07:00A Surreal Experience<div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="font-family: Times; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is nothing quite like trying to keep up with Hans Herrmann and Jacky Ickx through traffic. This is specially true when Herrmann is in a 917K and Ickx is driving his 1976 Le Mans-winning 936 Sypder. On the Autobahn. Into a tunnel. </span></div><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1ubdozbvkPDetsxRKaItPejuHHee1H36cTXuZUcE38TH-1gtM-7V44kvpwy_3Lr1jFznBiTaq9eNDnH5PTn1KGnghYZXJ4op7LU0ojxFKmcUlCCf0tSyO8zTb5VUpTqzq_OJBrImq8kGU/s1600/PRH_123+953-936+tunnel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1ubdozbvkPDetsxRKaItPejuHHee1H36cTXuZUcE38TH-1gtM-7V44kvpwy_3Lr1jFznBiTaq9eNDnH5PTn1KGnghYZXJ4op7LU0ojxFKmcUlCCf0tSyO8zTb5VUpTqzq_OJBrImq8kGU/s400/PRH_123+953-936+tunnel.jpg" width="400" /></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><i><b><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><i><b>German Police blocked our side of the autobahn and stopped the other. We passed thousands of motorists who were parked on the opposite side of roadways. Some looked excited when we passed, honking, waving, taking pictures. Others looked a little less enthused. We shot through three separate tunnels en route to City Hall. Following a 220 mph Le Mans winner on public roads was a surreal experience.</b></i></span></div></b></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">It was easy for me. I was just holding the route card for my driver, former racing director Peter Falk, who was driving the 1983 Paris-Dakar 4-wheel-drive 911SC Typ 953 that he helped invent. Our excuse was a huge celebration of 125 Years of the Automobile in the German province of Baden-Wurttemburg, home of Porsche, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Each of these manufacturers pulled treasures from their museums to make a total of 125 cars that drove a 17.5-kilometer route from the Porsche Museum to the Mercedes-Benz Museum to the center of Stuttgart and the city hall.</span></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><i><b>My most capable pilot, Peter Falk, at the wheel. The 953 rode on tall bias-ply off-road tires meant for desert racing—in 1983. So on the road, this car jumped skipped and around, changing lanes at its own whim. I would have loved to drive it. And I was glad I didn't have to.</b></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">The parade started at 11 a.m. and the pace alternately stalled and sprinted, some of the cars reaching speeds above 200 kilometers per hour (125 mph) on three separate autobahn stretches. Through the city, crowds closed in on the cars narrowing roadways to single lanes lined with </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">men,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">women, children, and thousands of cameras. When progress stopped, people recognized Herrmann in the 917 and Ickx in his 936 and ran out to get autographs. We haven't heard crowd estimates but it's easy to imagine as many as 25,000 people lined the parade route and another 10,000 to 15,000 came to City Hall square to see the cars and greet the heroes. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i> </i></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPimbv589jA-7npd17OqIV4Psg9M1q-FDSLpmqkxdVfbPA6KD0IHKZyhWJPvGIynfJVNEF-lNZiCyzSkEq3zb2z49HSFsGWRr3dPHnLyIXOwT_t5KZuy2MbH6J0uun2OFoo2pIpCqygnOy/s1600/PRH_142+mbz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPimbv589jA-7npd17OqIV4Psg9M1q-FDSLpmqkxdVfbPA6KD0IHKZyhWJPvGIynfJVNEF-lNZiCyzSkEq3zb2z49HSFsGWRr3dPHnLyIXOwT_t5KZuy2MbH6J0uun2OFoo2pIpCqygnOy/s400/PRH_142+mbz.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Heading toward the Mercedes-Benz Museum still on the Autobahn. We rounded a corner and came to a halt as thousands of spectators had crowded the road to take pictures. </b></span></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We dive back into interviews Monday with a full slate of great and important talent: Norbert Singer, engineer extraordinaire, was responsible for everything from 935s to efforts in the Indy Car series. First thing after lunch we talk to another legend, Hans Mezger, who ran the Race Car Development Department. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">His work started before—and included creating—the 917 that Herrmann drove and the 936 that Ickx drove in the parade. Last on our schedule tomorrow is an unsung, and never-interviewed, engineer, Eugen Kolb, who is father of long-tail aerodynamics. Those extraordinary-looking racers with the back ends stretched out and tapering to a sliver are the work of this man. His cars routinely went 20 to 30 mph faster along the Le Mans Mulsanne Straight than the cars with the close-cropped tails. </span></div><div style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl5zXMeG66I7gbn3jCZb-gE_nGIRioHwHiHHmBRMAQU89qjEo29_Vn6-SdnbURPIQuVCkzOgn6XDVGu5blmP813apnrq0T90mltScJ7ZJZShy_fBYxthrRDMDGFv674Vo2j7bWR7rIupbL/s1600/PRH_177+917k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl5zXMeG66I7gbn3jCZb-gE_nGIRioHwHiHHmBRMAQU89qjEo29_Vn6-SdnbURPIQuVCkzOgn6XDVGu5blmP813apnrq0T90mltScJ7ZJZShy_fBYxthrRDMDGFv674Vo2j7bWR7rIupbL/s640/PRH_177+917k.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Stuttgart Neuschloss is the home of many of the state's ministries and division offices. Today it was host to the launch event for a summer-long celebration of 125 years of manufacturing automobiles in this part of Germany. This 917K, in a livery like that of Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood's 1970 Le Mans winner, was a star of the day's events. Hans Herrmann drove the car.</b></span></i></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">We have, in all, ten interviews to accomplish this week, so, unglamourously, most of Friday and much of Saturday was spent researching for these upcoming conversations. There's so much to learn and so little time!</span></div><div style="font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6HMitHH5JVwx2naWWt-dHkh70Eb0sqIZVYRc3O8oqN5KmWGHxBk87u1ySq7dvCCW_tieH8Fsxn68tjWrAO48nTn60JWeasbrJyepwspctwnsR5dQ3-7L1eU4fkx-6ozBLwHISx-JQH6ZY/s1600/PRH_006+953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6HMitHH5JVwx2naWWt-dHkh70Eb0sqIZVYRc3O8oqN5KmWGHxBk87u1ySq7dvCCW_tieH8Fsxn68tjWrAO48nTn60JWeasbrJyepwspctwnsR5dQ3-7L1eU4fkx-6ozBLwHISx-JQH6ZY/s400/PRH_006+953.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">This was my ride Sunday. Many people have called it one of Porsche's loudest race cars. I couldn't hear them. This was Porsche's 1983 entry in the Paris-Dakar Rally, the 4-wheel drive 911SC, also known as the Typ 953.</span></i></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></i></b></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>We interviewed each of these guys this past week. From left, rally hero Walter Rohrl; mechanic/racer Herbert Linge; mechanic/engineer and now historic collection manager Klaus Bischof, and racer Hans Herrmann. They still laugh at our jokes, so I guess we did well!</b></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b> </b></span></i></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-right: 1em; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px; text-align: left;"><tbody style="display: inline !important;">
<tr style="display: inline !important;"><td class="tr-caption" style="display: inline !important; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">One of Mercedes-Benz most fascinating combinations was this W196 race car on its specially-built transporter capable of speeds up to 170 kilometers - 105 miles per hour. This was a replica built by a devoted Dutch enthusiast several years ago. Owned by Mercedes now, it normally is on display in the museum. Amazingly, compared to American car events, there were no ropes around cars and no intrusive and abusive security guards. Visitors could look in windows and get very close to cars. But everyone was respectful - no one opened a car door to peek inside.</span></b></i></span></td></tr>
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</tbody></table></div>Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-76542481694537191572011-05-06T07:35:00.000-07:002011-05-06T09:25:46.334-07:00A Red Letter Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_AoHbbuo3HIVM47buPYyeu2pTSuYXqJOSQcQReYBfPMJQgMmQxdlxNdMEIdMqchh73tRPl5aeonW6NQpsxfieGUHoM6BpXde0iHHqJAA4c2FwY-N2hc0d_Fn6GWf8qwPgsMPxJl36uz76/s1600/Randy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_AoHbbuo3HIVM47buPYyeu2pTSuYXqJOSQcQReYBfPMJQgMmQxdlxNdMEIdMqchh73tRPl5aeonW6NQpsxfieGUHoM6BpXde0iHHqJAA4c2FwY-N2hc0d_Fn6GWf8qwPgsMPxJl36uz76/s400/Randy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Thursday has been a red letter day. Starting in the morning with one of my Porsche racing heroes, Roland Kussmaul, we learned a fascinating bit of his early history at Porsche. Every new hire at the company does a two-year apprenticeship. Because he already had mechanical experience and engineering training, for his training time between 1969 and early 1972, the company started him in the Konstruction program. He worked on tanks—Panzers—that Porsche designed and developed for the German military. One of his first tasks was to fabricate new pedals for a prototype Panzer. His boss told him tanks moved with hydraulic assistance to turn and stop the tracks. Light pressure was all that was needed. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Kussmaul had done some racing and wanted to be a racing engineer, so he fabricated a set of pedals that weighed about 5 kilograms—perhaps too much of a racing application for a combat vehicle, but they did the job. He installed them, other engineers did a test, and everything was fine. Then sometime in the afternoon, another engineer, not quite so familiar with tank operation got in, slid down into the operators chair and fired up the engine. Unfortunately, the previous operator had left the Panzer in gear, so it took off at a respectable pace. Toward a brick wall. As Kussmaul explained, this other engineer was not so familiar with the concept of hydraulically assisted brakes so he jammed both feet as hard as he could on the brake pedals, breaking them off. That's break, not brake. It wasn't until a few meters outside the wall that the panicked engineer found the ignition key and shut off the engine. Kussmaul laughed today as he described the perfect silhouette of the tank through the brick wall. His boss, whom Roland described as a very calm individual, looked at him and said, "Herr Kussmaul, perhaps Panzer Konstruction is not the right match for you." The next day, Kussmaul was learning Porsche's techniques for car manufacture.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Next on our calendar was Walter Naher. This quiet calm man could have been Kussmaul's boss in the Panzers. Instead, he worked on chassis engineering for a number of Porsche's racing and road cars. When Ferdinand Piech still was working at Porsche, he would get other manufacturer’s exotic cars, special sports cars, for a long weekend, and drive them hard to get impressions of what the company's competition was doing. The cars came back to the factory and the next to drive them was Naher, who was expected to evaluate them, as well, and report his conclusions to Piech. This led to a career developing competition and series production vehicles meant to be better than anything from other manufacturers. He was one of the three men who developed the "self-correcting axle," the famous "Weissach Axle" for the rear end of the 928, to turn it into one of the best handling front-engine/rear-drive cars ever. He worked on 956 and 962 models and spent a lot of time with Norbert Singer on the 2708 Indy Car project. He was a race engineer at more than a dozen runnings of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We had only two hours with him. It would have been easy to continue talking with him till next Wednesday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Last of the day was Manfred Jantke, who was PR and Racing Manager from 1972 to 1982, and then strictly PR manager from then until he left in 1993. Before coming to Porsche, he had been a journalist with Germany's premier enthusiast magazine, <i>Auto Motor und Sport,</i></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> and also had raced for a number of private owners and teams. When an offer came from Porsche, he had to consider it long and hard: On one hand, he had tremendous freedom as a journalist, driving everything, free to write what he thought, and available to race a variety of cars for generous owners. But he always had been, as he put it, "outside of the wall." He wondered what it was like to "know everything, not just what people like me would tell you now." He planned to stay four or five years and instead he left after 20. He experienced incredible repeat victories in the American Can-Am series, and then again with 935s, 956s and 962s at Le Mans and other venues, as well as incredible frustration in the company’s Indianapolis and Formula One efforts. His stories had us laughing and holding our heads. His perspective was very broad and very deep. He is the first individual that either Dieter Landenberger or I ever have heard who explained how a forty-year racing legacy came to an end in two years time, first with the withdrawal from Indianapolis racing and then a year later from Formula One. It is one hell of a story. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Tomorrow, Friday, is an open day. Porsche is preparing for the 125th Anniversary parade on Sunday, so we all decided to not confuse things by trying to get interviews scheduled. Jerry and I will sneak away in the afternoon to go visit another competitor. We'll go to Sindelfingen, across town, to see the Mercedes-Benz museum.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Pix tomorrow. I promise. Stay tuned. <o:p></o:p></span></div>Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-73454561981154105652011-05-04T20:24:00.000-07:002011-05-05T06:53:00.874-07:00Back to the interviews.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9V6hQdcF_Vzi_kwHKGyk4_83tg3QikmygNy0b5q5XIWK-voON0zNhFEKyaqZ1Yfm8BitPsRTLr3IYipKHT9B4Bk2juymeQPlQQ3pnoQpd9uxd446kjbRKhXkp5D-Iho2huBoeSZlfh3hP/s1600/PRH5-4_024+jr+GT1-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9V6hQdcF_Vzi_kwHKGyk4_83tg3QikmygNy0b5q5XIWK-voON0zNhFEKyaqZ1Yfm8BitPsRTLr3IYipKHT9B4Bk2juymeQPlQQ3pnoQpd9uxd446kjbRKhXkp5D-Iho2huBoeSZlfh3hP/s320/PRH5-4_024+jr+GT1-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Jerry Reilly is trying on "his" street-legal 1998 GT1 for a fit before Sunday's parade. This is in the glassed-in restoration shop on the ground floor of the museum.</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></td><td class="tr-caption"><br />
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<tr align="left" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"> The Archive is a comfortable, well-equipped place to work. Information of all sorts is close at hand.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4gk-8GP-fzHlRBBRMkEZCJizImehfOJsaRlGRrMu0ueTjWGqvizUGCh_dvJ7UNVy_2xZ7fdv1FlM2MYb5rbdgM920b43ztWAw9TqN3_gAndn6iz6ZfEv79T_0NV1yZ7UJmN_HaVycVaLW/s1600/PRH5-4_071+550+patent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4gk-8GP-fzHlRBBRMkEZCJizImehfOJsaRlGRrMu0ueTjWGqvizUGCh_dvJ7UNVy_2xZ7fdv1FlM2MYb5rbdgM920b43ztWAw9TqN3_gAndn6iz6ZfEv79T_0NV1yZ7UJmN_HaVycVaLW/s320/PRH5-4_071+550+patent.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr align="left"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everywhere you look in the Archive there are treasures. This was the 550 Spyder "patent model," presented to the federal court in Germany at the time Porsche wished to sell full-size 550s to racing customers throughout Europe and America. The model remained with the court until the judge who had reviewed - and approved - the request retired from service. Then he called Dieter Landenberger, explained what he had, and asked if Porsche wanted it back! Dieter said he never had driven faster in his life than he did to get to the judge's office.</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr align="left" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: small;">This is a necessary inspection of the legendary 908/3. Leg room for the passenger is severely limited. Even the driver should be short.</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b>After two days working</b> in the Archives and in the museum, we got back into the swing of interviews today with two great ones. This morning, we spent nearly two hours with Hans Herrmann, who is utterly charming and is a great storyteller. Hans is most celebrated for his incredible luck. This had much more to do with surviving the dangers of racing in the 1950s (when he started) and 1960s, when one driver died each month </span><span class="Apple-style-span">on average</span><span class="Apple-style-span">, than his successes as a driver, which were considerable. As one example, Hans, and co-driver Herbert Linge, were racing in th</span><span class="Apple-style-span">e Targa Florio. The race comprised 11 laps around Sicily's </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie</span><span class="Apple-style-span">,</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span">over public roads lined with crowds and buildings and railway crossings. At one point they rounded a blind c</span><span class="Apple-style-span">urve at 100 mph and found the train crossing gates down. Hans never lifted, pushed his co-driver's head down, and they and their low 550 Spyder slipped under the crossing gates. The train missed them by less than 10 meters.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">In the afternoon, we got to spend nearly two-and-one-half hours with Herbert Linge. Amazingly, Linge started with Porsche as one of eight mechanics hired in 1943. During the war he got a student exemption as an engineering candidate but he was drafted just as it ended, so he returned to Porsche where he became the company's first mechanic for the U.S. market. American importer Max Hoffman gave Linge his Cadillac convertible and Linge drove from New York to Florida to Chicago to Washington, DC to Denver to Minneapolis tuning and fixing customer 356s in the early 1950s. Porsche and Hoffman recognized that this car was a tough sell since Americans (then and now) were used to big cars and big engines.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">Both Linge and Hermann spent a lot of time with each other, so it was fascinating to ask each of them to talk about the same event. Getting both sides of the story was an illuminating exercise.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span">This coming weekend will be a very big one in Stuttgart. Germany celebrates the 125th anniversary of the automobile, and on Sunday, the German car manufacturers are emptying their museums and collections of cars to parade through town. Porsche itself will contribute an impressive 50 cars to a parade that will total 125 cars. The route runs from the Porsche Museum across town to Mercedes-Benz, and from their to Stuttgart City Hall. Dieter is planning to get both Jerry and me into cars—me as a passenger in the Targa Florio-winning 908/3 (provided my tall frame will fit), and Jerry, himself behind the wheel of the one-and-only road-going 1998 GT1.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">The cars Porsche is pulling out is staggering, as is the roster of drivers coming to drive their own history: LInge; Herrmann; Paul Ernst Straehle, Jr; Derek Bell; Jacky Ickx; Walter Rohrl; Marc Lieb; and several others. Dr. Wolfgang Porsche will drive 356 Number 1, and the parade will include a privately owned Type 64 from 1939 up to the most recent Porsche Trans-Siberia Rally Cayenne, 14 race cars in all.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">And yes, I'll shoot photos like a demon possessed!</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">But now I have to stop. Dieter is hosting a symposium on the 1900 Hybrid car, led by its re-creator, downstairs in the museum. There will be pictures.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span">Stay tuned.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></div>Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-4264798617981190272011-05-04T13:40:00.000-07:002011-05-04T20:31:07.839-07:00Our visit to the BMW Museum in bustling Munich.<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim9W2dDnfRBBw5DyFMKtP65gMfnjV8Enwo2eGCCfK1aDuQQc5sfBZnrHOy6_3Mi8Q47GF8rst5p_P9Id04njSxMpR-pY6LX1AUMJz3_wp3OfeeZ866j925F9ZHV4Bz2b58I6bHb_tKow1N/s400/PRH5-1_095+BMW+Welt.jpg" width="400" /><br />
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</div></div></div><div style="border: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunday we decided to inspect the competition and we headed from Walter Rohrl's beautiful village of Sant Eglmar, to bustling Munich. We visited the BMW Museum and their customer car delivery center, BMW Welt (<i>Welt</i> means world in German). There is a big difference of architectural style and scale between Porsche's facilities in Stuttgart and those BMW has established in Munich, as befitting the two car manufacturers' sizes. With the BMW museum building, the architect—Wolf Prix of Coop Himmelb(lau) of Vienna, Austria—made the building an engaging part of the experience. Hidden projectors shine graphics and artwork on many of the walls, turning them into designers' canvasses. For some, it may approach a sensory overload, however I found it very entertaining. <br />
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Delugan Meissl Associate Architects, who designed the Porsche Museum, are </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">also based in Vienna,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but by contrast,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> they </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">let the cars remain the stars. Yes, the building is spectacular, but it has an elegant, art gallery aesthetic, which in my mind doesn't compete for your attention the way the BMW museum does. </span><br />
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I've included some pictures to show you the Welt center and some interior views of the museum. It now has a special exhibit of the famous Art Cars, those painted by the likes of Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, and a dozen others. These the museum showed most dramatically in their rotunda building which will remind almost any visitor of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Here, exhibit designers sited the cars on a succession of landings on the spiraling climb to the top level. The first cars from the 1970s started on the lowest levels and chronology rose with the altitude so that most recent efforts were just below the roof. <br />
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If you visit, you can park in a large underground lot directly below BMW Welt. A leisurely walk </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">leads you</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">past new cars and several enticing boutiques and cafes to two ways to cross the street to the museum. Most efficient is the bridge from the second level (get there through the <i>DoppelKone</i>; this is the small satellite, conical-shaped gallery that was showing the nicest of BMW convertibles when we were there). Allow two hours or more to see the exhibits and cars on display in the museum. I have read comments before that other photographers consider the BMW museum dark—and it certainly is darker than Porche's—but if you can adjust your digital camera to ISO 320, or even 640, and you are steady-handed, you'll do fine. There are interesting photos to be made there. BMW Welt not only has cafes at either end, but also a first-class restaurant (called Restaurant International, somewhat similar to Porsche's Christophorus). There also are boutiques offering BMW designer clothing and an entire shop devoted to Mini apparel and accessories. The museum has a sit-down service restaurant with spacious outdoor seating for nicer days. A gift shop is stocked with books, posters, some antique original brochures and manuals, some models, and other items. </span><br />
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From BMW, Jerry and I headed to Munich's Deutsches Museum (specializing in transportation and technology) which, unfortunately for us, was closed because May 1 is a German national holiday. That museum has mounted a special exhibition of the history of Motorsport so we definitely will go back on days when we know they are open. <br />
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So, with no destination in mind, we set off into the countryside. It is spring in Germany and fields and forests are lush and verdant. We drove through kilometer after kilometer of farmland and found fields of rapeseed, a brilliant yellow flower that is used to make a cooking oil, and nearly as many with hops trellises. Hops, of course, help the world make beer. <br />
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Tomorrow, Monday, we have no interviews and a full day in archives, beginning the paper chase. Dieter has promised us there is more than enough information to do not just one book or one volume but many so we'll see what we learn. <br />
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Oh, yes, before I forget; The Porsche Museum and archives have a T-Mobile Wi-Fi service throughout, but Dieter told me they turn the system off on Mondays when they are closed so I'll work a bit Monday evening to transfer all this to the new Porsche Racing History blogsite. <br />
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Stay tuned.</span></div><div class="separator" style="border: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNHCNzQ23y-kIuqVeO8Zmpcd_FVFI2kRoNxaM6z-C6nVWKq0ZvEvsxi-_u5QNNwgfq99lPDZ3O4Vvm6vfH99qMHTVrN3h2CuNKUpvNvP2RSEPZycZKTPyiTMC7rUV9WUrl9ISQ35l2hi8D/s1600/PRH5-1_051+experimentals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div><div class="separator" style="border: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim9W2dDnfRBBw5DyFMKtP65gMfnjV8Enwo2eGCCfK1aDuQQc5sfBZnrHOy6_3Mi8Q47GF8rst5p_P9Id04njSxMpR-pY6LX1AUMJz3_wp3OfeeZ866j925F9ZHV4Bz2b58I6bHb_tKow1N/s1600/PRH5-1_095+BMW+Welt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><img height="63" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQOhUe4u6CsZyO_H_FdO4b8pqjU_ddqm3Z82AgCRkNN7QcZyczETJdra4mGhDu4PLcDPAXRHLThgDBpFcIv3rYFKjJBg0kAxmmfTrNgdntaAcXoFOuW7Yr0_-8eRlOqFljil5zmJnEaL6/s320/PRH5-1_038+BMW.jpg" style="left: 705px; opacity: 0.3; position: absolute; top: 57px; visibility: hidden;" width="96" /> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think we discovered the real story though. It starts with early training. He grew up in Regensberg, a larger city not too far from Sant Englmar, and his first job was with the Roman Catholic Bishop's office there. The office hired him as a driver to view and inspect all the properties the church owned in the district </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(sometimes with someone from the office and sometimes alone)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and this, apparently, was quite an extensive inventory. Walter drove 130,000 kilometers <i>each</i> <i>year</i>. That's 81,250 miles. And the roads in that area are wonderful, twisty, hilly.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Walter began saving his money for his own car and his father gave him life-changing advice: "Only buy a car if you can buy a good car. A good car is a Porsche." So in 1967, he bought his first Porsche, a 356. </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His active rally and racing career extended from 1971 until 1992, when he took a job with Porsche as a company spokesman and development driver. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that was when the stories went from really interesting and entertaining, to fascinating.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have a few images of "downtown" Sant Englmar for you here, too, and Jerry has continued his digital Leica documentation of everyone we've interviewed.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tomorrow, Sunday, we'll visit BMW Museum in Munich, as well as the German Transport Museum.</span><br />
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</span></div><div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stay tuned.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">randy</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="265" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqN8L6km82gKeqFDEWoDeKWEqUF7QOe-qSMknrxTDqRsfPer49gCzSjdOzKcbjvb54UhbokBPnOb-a5z2uliLqjapcF3HYgI0Xvo9aZj0EYdEqynGtrDZdcqbhWgJs7jowMtQlJ86kryc8/s400/PRH_066+Cayenne.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Here's our trusty Cayenne. It's the V6 version equipped with an 8-speed Tiptronic transmission. I'll calculate mileage when we get back to Stuttgart but meanwhile we put in gasoline in Sant Englmar and paid $9.75 per gallon.</span></span></div></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="265" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX5er-8nuXa1SqIWuJXvxIWExfsrSjD3uKPmL0VOK8d_10P9jyvdn6-A-SaU1fZdIXdJOCDVs-ov29LpQnwgL_0n174tbd4mT6hbC0h_PCyoX5PAXr8_0whnI_UYtlV40WSsFeFJLybUf7/s400/PRH_070+village-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Sant Englmar is in the Bavarian Alps. Walter Rohrl is an avid skier and mountain biker (he left for a ride with a friend as we drove away). His village gets more than two meters of snow each winter.</div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="265" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Jeqpk0J3o8mdfKnK744aXKSoxNHDw7In-RYjNC47e71jVDeRu2HNwN9GzseHnCI_liVVAl6i7jkkVpjduH5ncRLyWo2fgK5LGsalK9HnvoAcaEa0pB80MyRFFq-bGws8ECiEB82Ykmv8/s400/PRH_076+village-3.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is typical Bavarian residential architecture, and the build quality (mandated by the government code) is extraordinary. Walls are thick and roof pitches are fairly steep to aid snow runoff.</span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Jeqpk0J3o8mdfKnK744aXKSoxNHDw7In-RYjNC47e71jVDeRu2HNwN9GzseHnCI_liVVAl6i7jkkVpjduH5ncRLyWo2fgK5LGsalK9HnvoAcaEa0pB80MyRFFq-bGws8ECiEB82Ykmv8/s1600/PRH_076+village-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div></div>Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-74287453845795739062011-04-29T16:25:00.000-07:002011-05-04T19:19:32.131-07:00Hi all, Greetings from Stuttgart once again.<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUmkf1GLQ08Jg19Ai3o0Waljc0qZubeeCLkdpd_2dIGd5zzBI2l59vWsAhES7IqmC9qezqSa9CwXoL_IPPz6TgufxpJzC466SBf8kHjp4c8DFxcZ4PhlZq1g2DkQFSQ2vSXWyca9JzL9C/s1600/Museum_040+effect+of+ground+effects.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUmkf1GLQ08Jg19Ai3o0Waljc0qZubeeCLkdpd_2dIGd5zzBI2l59vWsAhES7IqmC9qezqSa9CwXoL_IPPz6TgufxpJzC466SBf8kHjp4c8DFxcZ4PhlZq1g2DkQFSQ2vSXWyca9JzL9C/s320/Museum_040+effect+of+ground+effects.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK67PJVR6GjU4EG8il6teNH264OuXn3hp1g1kj9KCLnA_Otsa4hHNd_vXSCQZtBK7JvWGqrimFuDoytvQnHuaKBIiiNOkNAvdoy-2VG7LZ7WKt4jYLAVaxYCJV2TBU4x85l88AsSAhtx9u/s1600/Museum_049+Africa+Safari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; cssfloat: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156px" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK67PJVR6GjU4EG8il6teNH264OuXn3hp1g1kj9KCLnA_Otsa4hHNd_vXSCQZtBK7JvWGqrimFuDoytvQnHuaKBIiiNOkNAvdoy-2VG7LZ7WKt4jYLAVaxYCJV2TBU4x85l88AsSAhtx9u/s320/Museum_049+Africa+Safari.jpg" width="320px" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today we did just two interviews, but there were as different as could be: This morning we talked for 90 minutes with Klaus Bischof whjo joined Porsche in 1968 as a mechanic and now is the Manager of Museum Automobiles. In his job he runs the historic collection and takes museum cars to events and locales as distant as Doha, Qatar in February, Moscow in March, Shanghai last month, Italy in the new few weeks for the retro Mille Miglia races, and, of course, to the Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca and the Porsche gathering at Quail Lodge later this year in mid-October. A regular participant in most of the world's greatest historic events, Klaus sports a watch on each wrist, each of them large chronographs that commemorate events we all dream about running. Now 63 years old, he grew up in a village just 4 kilometers from Stuttgart and when he was six and seven, he could hear factory mechanics and drivers such as Herbert Linge running the 550 Spyders up and down the uncompleted autobahn that ended at a tunnel near Heilbronn. He and his friends would run from their homes to the autobahn overpass and they'd see the 550s coming at them </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">up the hill</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, pass under them, speed toward the tunnel, brake hard, pull across the median, and rocket back down the hill toward Zuffenhausen. He told us those days changed his life; he dreamed that someday he would work on those cars. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br />
Klaus was full of great stories including one about one of the 917s he cared for during 1971. The cars were losing their brakes and he asked racing director Rico Steinemann what he should tell the drivers when they came into the pits and complained. Rico gave him an answer and the next time Helmut Marko came in, Bischof passed on the boss's advice: "If you want to win, don't use the brakes." Marko won, setting the fastest lap time and average speed of any 917 in competition ever. <br />
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Our second interview today was with a man Jerry and I met four years ago working on <i>Porsche 60 Years</i>. These days, Herbert Ampferer is Porsche's Director for Environment and Energy, and much of his time is spent dealing with issues of emissions and alternative fuels. But with the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Le Mans</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">regulations for 2013 and 2014 encouraging partial- and full-hybrid race cars such as Porsche 911 GT3-H and the type 918 RSR, the future is anything but dull. In fact, Ampferer is confident Porsche will continue to race, that it will continue to hold its unique place within the larger Volkswagen family, and he offered us some insights into the racing direction the company is taking now and in the future. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <br />
He said I can write about it—but for the book, not for this—since the book is a year or more in the future and the blog is, umm, tonight. <br />
<br />
Following nearly two hours with Ampferer, we prowled the museum. It is really a fascinating place and even on a Friday, the building had a large crowd. You'll see a few photos attached here.<br />
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We are off to see Walter Rohrl tomorrow afternoon in the tiny village where he lives south of Munich. As a former world champion in rallies, and in Trans-Am, and a winner at Pikes Peak, he has promised us he has stories to tell.<br />
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Meanwhile, if you're enjoying any of this, let me know and let your Porsche-enthusiast friends know as well, please. <br />
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Stay tuned,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">randy</span></div></div>Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-78978471815895124702011-04-29T08:42:00.000-07:002011-04-29T08:46:08.777-07:00Great Start To This Porsche Motorsport History<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our interview schedule gave us appointments at 10am, 1pm, and 3pm, which allows plenty of time to spill over without sacrificing time with the next subject. It paid off immediately today with nearly 90 minutes with Peter Falk. He is a tall slender Patrician gentleman, soft spoken but very quick to smile. He started at Porsche in 1959 and - get this - his first assignment was to install air conditioning into a 356. It was only experimental and he told us it was a nightmare -a small car with a tiny engine compartment that suddenly needed so much more plumbing. It had nothing to do with racing but I like to find out the very first assignments of everyone I talk to. Sometimes the surprises are startling. Like AC in a 356. <br />
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More to the point of racing, Falk was a participant in one of the most fascinating races against time that Porsche ever staged, a monumental record run staged at Monza race circuit, using the Number 001 911R. I've spent time digging into this event in the past but today Falk cleared up a few more lingering mysteries. And then he went on to talk about his development work on 911 rally cars, the 904, 906, 910, 907, 908, 909, and 917 racers. He gave us a fascinating litany of out-oof-the-box successes and a few dazzling failures that went on to capture world championships. We will have number of period photos of Falk and some wonderful recent portraits that Jerry shot today. <br />
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Our second subject was Ed Peter who spent two decades helping American dealers get the cars they needed to sell. He explained the structure that put Porsches in Audi sales rooms and put Porsche+Audi logos on the 1971 and 1972 Can-Am cars. Full of stories of working with Penske on Can-Am racers, as well as representing Porsche at hundreds of other races, he explained a number of the mysteries that cloud Porsche's unsatisfying efforts in CART and Indy Car racing. As enjoyable, he brought along two DVD's of images. Ed Peter was a talented photographer who chronicled all the races he attended, shooting thousands of previously unpublished photos - which you will see in this book. <br />
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The afternoon ended with Valentin Schaeffer. Porsche has an ability to attract exceptional talent and keep them a long time. Schaeffer started in 1956 and worked only in the motorsports department. A compact man with an extremely expressive face, he was sent by his boss in the late 1960s to a local company that produced turbochargers for trucks and tractors to buy some samples to begin the development experiments. But his boss insisted on secrecy; Schaeffer could not identify who he was with or even what they were going to be usesd for. Finally, the group of engineers around the table asked him, "Well, can you tell us how much horsepower you hope to produce?"<br />
<br />
Schaeffer grinned at them. At last there was a question he could answer: "More than 1,000," he answered.<br />
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Tomorrow, we have the next two interviews, plus time to get through the museum and shoot pictures for you to illustrate what we're learning. <br />
<br />
Stay tuned, Randy</span>Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-21625860444375432562011-04-29T08:40:00.000-07:002011-05-04T16:30:56.510-07:00You just gotta love it.<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In safe secure comfort, hurtling along the autobahn at 279 kilometers per hour, we are heading south from Munich. Both Jerry's plan and mine arrived early, we found our luggage and each other quickly, and headed out. <br />
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As the speed indicator bounced between 265 and 280 kph, the waitress walked through the car with our coffees. Oh, did I forget to mention we were on the ICE Inter City Express, the high speed train that runs all over Germany? Run by the German federal government, the trains are quiet, comfortable, and spacious. And they go 175 miles per hour. <br />
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The ride from Frankfurt to Stuttgart took just one hour 12 minutes to cover a distance that would have taken us four hours to gather the rental car and drive. From the Stuttgart Hauptbanhof main station, another 20 minutes in a taxi got us to Porsche's amazing new museum where our host, Dieter Landenberger, Porsche historian, director of Archives, and co-director of the museum, was waiting for us. <br />
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Dieter led on us a quick introductory tour of the museum (don't worry; I promise photos will follow). It is a photographer's dream, whether the shooter likes cars or architecture or people-watching. <br />
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Just before the Museum closed at 6 p.m., Dieter walked us two blocks to Porsche Werk I, the oldest building of the Porsche factory complex, to pick up the new 2011 Cayenne he had arranged for us to use the the near-month we are here. (Yes, a picture is coming—but we're going to wait to put it somewhere interesting!)<br />
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Tomorrow, Day 3, we begin interviews, starting with Peter Falk, head of Porsche racing from 1965 through the 1980s. Next is Ed Peter, who was export sales manager at Porsche from the early 1970s till early 1993. He was responsible for "encouraging" many dealers throughout North America and other countries to race Porsches and to support their customers. The final interview is with Valentin Schaeffer, who tamed the turbochargers and made Porsche's turbo racers indomitable. <br />
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But before that is dinner in Dieter's favorite Turkish restaurant two blocks from the factory, called Diyar. <br />
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Stay tuned. </span>Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-18738138960918094122011-04-27T10:56:00.000-07:002011-05-04T20:38:45.044-07:00On My Way to Germany.<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">April 26, 2011<br />
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Hi all, so begins the cross-pond slog. United Airlines into Frankfurt tomorrow midday. <br />
<br />
I got an e-mail from Dieter Landenberger this morning asking if we can change our interview plans with Wild Man Walter Rohrl (he's the extraordinary driver you may remember from yesterday's Day Zero blog launch?) It seems he cannot make it to the museum to meet us this coming Friday so, alas, we must go to his farm to meet him at home on Saturday. Which means there will be interesting trophies and photos to add to his stories! <br />
<br />
And perhaps he has something in the barn that he might drive that might be suitable to entertain/terrify a couple of American book authors?<br />
<br />
Drat the luck!<br />
<br />
Sunday we head from the south of Germany to the north to meet Dieter and a Porsche video crew at an event outside of Cologne that is known as the largest Porsche gathering in Germany. I'll be sure to include a few pix of that one. (And perhaps something of Walter driving our loaner Cayenne sideways across the hills?) <br />
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For years I've relied on an anti-jetlag concoction commercially available at travel stores. The newest incarnation is called JetZone. I used it on a three-day round trip to Doha, Qatar, for <i>Excellence</i> magazine in February. It worked superbly on that 17 1/2 hour flight east bound—I arrived 11 time zones from California and was on their time. That was important because <i>Excellence</i> editor Pete Stout had me working hard and fast the next morning. I'm banking on the same stuff for this trip because, as I mentioned yesterday, our first interview is with retired racing director Peter Falk. It's scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday. <br />
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We'll prowl the museum sometime Thursday and I'm going to ask Dieter to find me something cool—and behind the scenes—to shoot and send you all. <br />
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Stay tuned, <br />
<br />
randy</span>Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-644402798584675677.post-85640974204294121272011-04-27T10:55:00.000-07:002011-05-04T20:38:21.288-07:00The Beginning of an Exciting New Porsche Project.<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">April 25, 2011<br />
<br />
Hi all, <br />
<br />
My wife Carolyn suggested I do a blog of the trip I am about to begin. I think most of you know that several years back Dieter Landenberger, Porsche' s head of Archives and co-director of the new museum, asked me to write their racing history for them. He reiterated his request this past summer when he and his wife Sonja came to visit us in Santa Barbara. My long-time publisher Motorbooks politely deferred on this project, worried that in the current book and financial economy, it might be too tightly focused for their audiences. David Bull in Phoenix quickly stepped in and he and I have been plotting and scheming ever since this past winter to produce what we hope will be an exceptional history of Porsche's racing. <br />
<br />
But this is day zero, meaning tomorrow I fly to Frankfurt where I connect with long-time friend and serious Porsche enthusiast Jerry Reilly. I met Jerry 21 years ago while producing my first Porsche book, Porsche Legends. We hit it off and our friendship has grown deeper and deeper over the years. Jerry first accompanied me along on the trip in 2004 and 2005 when I researched and then wrote <i>Porsche 911: Excellence by Design</i>. (I also dedicated the book to him and to my late father in law.) Jerry's background is in business and each morning I'd go over the day's interview subjects with him and review the questions I had developed for each individual. Time and time again, Jerry came up with one or two or several questions that I never would have thought of, topics that grew out of a business-like approach to Porsche's design, engineering, marketing, racing. Many times, in my mind, his questions yielded the most interesting and thought-provoking answers and information of the day. He then came with me when I did <i>Porsche 60 Years</i>, and now, glutton for punishment that he is, he's agreed to yet another journey through Porsche's history. I already have tasked him with reviewing my daily questions and discovering the issues I missed. (There are other assignments but he doesn't know about those yet....)<br />
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If you can think of friends who love Porsches or racing and who you think might enjoy reading some of what I'm going to be learning—and passing along to you—please pass it along to them.<br />
<br />
At some point, I'll throw (c) copyright symbols on some of what you'll read. I'd rather not read it myself on some other site or publication (and I will be grateful for your respecting that request.) But for Porsche enthusiasts and for those who enjoy sports car racing, this next month will be a journey through some very interesting history. Dieter—and Porsche—have promised me full access and exceptional cooperation. In our first four days of interviews alone, we start by talking with Peter Falk, who ran racing for more than a decade and who was so effective at it that insiders and outsiders dubbed the Porsche motorsports department "Falkland." As though it were its own nation. (Probably it was a monarchy!) <br />
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Porsche was the first company to successfully turbocharge its race cars and a few hours after spending time with Falk, we'll talk to turbo "inventor" Valentin Schaeffer (perhaps we more accurately should call him Turbo Tamer.) <br />
<br />
The next day we meet Klaus Bischof, who started his career at Porsche as a racing mechanic (and was at Le Mans the first year the 917s won!). After returning to school and earning his engineering degree, he came back to Porsche as a racing engineer who helped steer a number of projects into winner circles. That same day we meet again with Herbert Ampferer, who worked with Schaeffer on turbocharging, but also helped develop Formula 1 cars, and endurance racers; Ampferer was one of my most favorite interviews from the <i>60 Years</i> project. The man simply did everythjing. That day we conclude with Walter Rohrl. Walter sometimes is known as Wild Man Walter. He is arguably one of Porsche's fastest and most capable racers who has served as development engineer on a number of extraordinary cars and who has run—and won—more races than I can count. He is regularly the driver the factory calls on to set new lap records with new models at German's legendary Nurburgring circuit. A ride with him would be a thrill, but that's unlikely to happen. I think hearing his stories should come close.<br />
<br />
The next day is all racers, all legends, Kurt Ahrens, Hans Herrmann, and Herbert Linge. Between them, they have more than 100 years combined experience racing Porsches into the victory circle. I've met and talked to Herrmann and Linge before; they are great story tellers. <br />
<br />
The next day...well, you'll just have to wait for that. And then there are 24 more days after that. I return to Santa Barbara on May 22. I am guessing it might take me a while to come back to earth even after the plane lands.<br />
<br />
I'm going to be recording each of these interviews. We have the idea of doing not only a print edition but also an e-book and David Bull and I have been bouncing ideas around that include excerpts of these individuals—in their own voices—telling their stories. We'll see how it works. <br />
<br />
Oh yeah, pictures. Well, just wait and see. So to speak. This book promises to be not only a reader's delight but a visual feast as well. I already have worked with Porsche Archive's Jens Torner, and I've heard he has entire new collections just waiting for me to see. <br />
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I'll try to keep you posted every day or so. In the meanwhile, as my friend Pete Biro says, "Stay tuned." <br />
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randy</span>Randy Leffingwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11725778372422765336noreply@blogger.com0