Hey Nermal, & Flying Chick. I would like to respond to your thoughts.

First off while it is true that American drivers have not fared so well in F1 is simple we are not commited to living in Europe, nothing wrong with Europe, that is what happened to Mikey in ’93. He thought he could live in the U.S., and race in Europe, plus he had a teammate that took the most attention away from Mike’s side of the team. Are you saving that American drivers have not succeeded in F1? How’ bout Mario Andretti. Phil Hill, Carrol Shelby, Dan Gurney which he raced his own chassis. How’ bout Euro drivers that didn’t make in America such as Teo Fabi, Christian Fittipaldi, Maurcio Guglemin, Stefan Johansan, Raoul Boesel just to name a few.

2nd in response to Flying Chick, says that F1 came to America only to gain a financial windfall, while that is true as well, how is it that America has one of the largest attendances during the season? As I recall Bernie is not too fond of the British Grand Prix and could face the chopping block in the future. 😉

Why not put the driver back in the car? Why can’t they use sticky tires are the speeds that fast, have they really slowed down that much on grooved tires? Why not put shifters like CART and IRL instead of paddle shifter which seemed to me like an automatic? Ban driver aids such as launch control, and traction control, govern the rpms produced by the motors to let’s say 13,000 rpms , freeze technological progress for 2 yrs, and finally lets see some passing and not just in the pits,

I could go on and on, but I’m getting a cramp inhand and can no longer type!
Just my .02 worth 🙂

Hey guys and gals, I heard on SpeedChannel that if the Michelin shod teams are fined or penalized heavily that will sit out or boycott the race Magny-Cors. There you have it folks, if they decide to boycott, it looks like they’ll be handing a certain German driver his 8th title, hmmm…..perhaps? Sure greatness :diablo:

ERUPTION by Eddie Van Halen :dev2:

Okay guys. before you start ripping Indy, let’s get the facts straight. Michelin, said there tire was not safe and petitioned the FIA to put a chicane in turn 13 which is turn #1 during the Indy 500. Indy race organizers said that was fine with them, but the FIA Max Mosely said no due to be unfair to the Bridgestone teams as would give the Michelin shod teams a chance to slow down.

Second, Michelin said if they didn’t get the chicane they would reccomend to their teams to not race for safety reasons. If they had installed the chicane FIA would withdraw it’s sactioning from this race, thus being a ” non points race”

Third, while I do believe that Indy is a bit boring, I still believe there will be another F1 race in America, perhaps Long Beach again. If you are old enough to remeber before Eccolstone’s dictator rule, there were two U.S. Grand Prix’s.
Monza had high banked curves back in the “glory years” as well

What about Eddie Van Halen, or Stevie Vai, or Ted Nugent?

what about Pappy Boyington, I mean he flew from a primitive airstrip and had to fight against Japans finest in the Straight. Let’s don’t forget some of the jet aces such as Robin Olds, Gabby Gabreski, Boots Blessie, or Richie Cunningham for that matter.

Hawk driver I worked on the B-36, and she was at one time or another fully restored to static condition. She is a J model meaning light weight, though we added all of her armament. There is only one engine left, and the jet pods came off a B-47.

She was very derelict when we first started on her, full of dead animals, and droppings. At one time she was actually running during the late 60’s, with the intention to fly, but at the last minute the Air Force, decided that due to certain treaties that she could not fly, anymore becuase she was deemed nuclear capable.

I must say without Lockheed’s intial help we could not have got the restoration project off the ground. Most of the project volunteers where people who worked for Consolidated on the B-36 lines! Others like me were just off the street volunteers, who had a passion for old airplanes.

I must also say that this an emotional period for me as we tried desperatly to get funding for a museum, but for one squabble or another, we couldn’t agree on the final location or the size of building nad the cost of such task. This a very painful subject around here for the Fort Worth area.

On one note watch the movie Strategic Air Command with Jimmy Stewart. It was filmed at Carswell Air Force Base which was right across the runway from Consolidated.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions on this airplane. 😡 🙁 🙂

Don’t forget ultimate terrorist destroyer the AC-130U SPECTRE Gunship!!! :dev2: :diablo: