GM Say's "Adios" To Racing
We guess one of the great things about going bankrupt is that you can just cancel contracts with people once you are out of bankruptcy and not worry about how it affects those people. That's what the "new" General Motors did to 54 entities as of late. Here's a list of the racetracks, teams and individuals that just got stiffed by the General:
Motorsport racing is expensive and this is going to seriously impact a lot of programs. As for the Oakland Raiders, they suck so bad that we are surprised the money tree didn't dry up on them sooner.
• California Speedway
70 suite passes w/ pit rowaccess, 35 VIP parking passes
• Charlotte Motor
Speedway 66 suite tickets, 16 pit passes, 10 parking passes
• Daytona Int'l Speedway
65 seats w/ 77 tickets, 11 parking passes
• Dover International
Speedway 50 seats w/65 suite passes, 30 VIP
• Richmond International
Speedway 60-person suite, 30 pit passes, 15 parking passes
• Racing Team Sponsorship Agreements
• Jeff Burton, personal service agreement (RCR)
• Ryan Newman Motorsports
• National Hot Rod Association
• National Muscle Car Association Event
• IMG Worldwide (official car)
• Other sponsorship agreements
10 Mostly Worthless Facts
1. One of the most common complaints among '84 to '87 Chevy C-series truck owners is that the plastic cover around the fuel tanks allows debris to get stuck and eventually rust out the bottom of the tank. This is especially common in the rust belt areas of the U.S.
2. In 1978, Ford offered the "Free Wheelin'" option package on F-150 pickups. The package included rainbow tape striping, a blackout grille and a black front bumper.
3. In 1946, Ford built 75,088 half-ton pickups for domestic sale. We wonder if they'll do that many in 2010?
4. Over the Top is a movie starring Silvester Stallone as a washed-up dad/truck driver/arm wrestler. Just thought you should know.
5. Professional baseball player, Tony Clark, of the Arizona Diamondbacks, digs custom trucks and owns several custom SUVs as well.
6. The Gunson Flashtest tool can be used to test the strength of the spark going to the spark plugs by measuring the length of the gap it will jump.
7. The infamous "Bluesmobile" is a 1974 Dodge Monaco. A total of 12 Bluesmobiles were used in the movie, The Blues Brothers, including one that was built just so it could fall apart. Several replicas have been built by collectors, but one original is known to exist, and is owned by the brother-in-law of Dan Aykroyd.
8. In the original film Gone In 60 Seconds, 93 cars were crashed, the movie was only 97 minutes long, that's almost one car per minute. In some movie theaters in Greece, the title was translated to Come in 60 Seconds.
9. Pontiac never really built a pickup with a separate cab/bed/chassis arrangement, although it did build the Caballero (think El Camino) and a couple prototype utility vehicles in '59 that were based on the Catalina sedan but shared El Camino architecture. The El Catalina never made it into production.
10. There were four 440-powered Dodge Challenger R/Ts and one 383 Challenger R/T used in the movie, Vanishing Point. All of the cars were not originally white though. They were just painted white for the film. During the scene where Kowalski has a flat tire, you can see green paint in the dents.