Members of the Phoenix Automotive Press Association recently participated in two special automotive events.

The PAPA parade of cars at the Copperstate 1000.

On Monday, April 16, several PAPA members drove to Roosevelt Lake for lunch with the 22nd Copperstate 1000 vintage sports car rally, which was making its way from Flagstaff to Tucson.

Part of the PAPA lunch bunch at Roosevelt Lake.

Joining the PAPA members were Darryll Harrison of Volkswagen of America and Richard James of General Motors.

Then, on Thursday, April 19, PAPA members Lucretia Torva and Larry Edsall were judges for the inaugural Third Thursday car show on Mill Avenue in Tempe.

Car show judges Lucretia Torva and Larry Edsall

Clockwise from top left are designers Bob Ackerman, Bob Marcks, Ron Will, Gary Smith, Robert Q. Riley and Allen Flowers.

STORY BY LARRY EDSALL / PHOTOS BY RANDALL BOHL

Flashing a photo of the Pontiac Aztek onto a big screen, car designer Ron Will admitted, “We don’t always come up with winners.”

Admitting one’s mistakes in very public forums is part and parcel of surviving in the highly competitive world of car design. Though design studio successes far outweigh failures, one mistake can have far-reaching consequences for both the designer and the brand.

Will, a former stylist for General Motors and Subaru, organized a forum on the subject for the Phoenix Automotive Press Association’s April meeting. Joining him on the discussion panel were fellow designers:

•  Bob Ackerman, who worked for 10 years for General Motors and for 27 for Chrysler, where his work included iconic 1960s muscle cars;
• Allen Flowers, who worked at GM, helped launch Nissan’s U.S. design office, and taught design at the Academy of Art in San Francisco;
• Bob Marcks, who worked in Raymond Loewy’s heralded Studebaker studio, did highly successful 1964 model year vehicles at Ford, and then worked on the west coast before joining Chrysler, where he suggested the “big rig” look for the Dodge Ram pickup truck;
• Gary Smith, long-time senior designer at GM, where his work included many performance-oriented show cars;
• Robert Q. Riley, a freelance designer whose work includes not only cars but dental product design, watercraft and fitness equipment.

Their discussion covered how designers set goals for themselves and the constraints, including cost, safety regulations and manufacturing capabilities, which they must overcome in bringing their ideas to production.

Despite such challenges, “Designers always are trying to stretch the limit,” said Will. Their ultimate goal is see automakers and car buyers embrace their personal visions of the future.

Some other notes and quotes from the evening:

• Bob Ackerman: “Three things in design are important: Proportion. Proportion. Proportion. If you get the proportions right, you can deal with the details. But if the proportions are wrong, you can’t save it [the vehicle] with details.”
• Allen Flowers also offered three key elements in vehicle design: “Beauty. Appropriateness. Originality.”
• Bob Marcks offered another key to good design: “Make it look like it costs more than it does.” He offered the example of the 1970s-era Chrysler Cordoba and Dodge Charger. “The body didn’t know what it was until it was halfway down the assembly line,” he said. “The Charger looked like a Chevrolet. The Cordoba looked like a Rolls-Royce or Jaguar. People were trading in Continentals and Eldorados for the Cordoba.”
• Asked how much “bean counters” interfere with vehicle design, Marcks noted that was not a problem during the dark days of the late 1970s at Chrysler. “We didn’t have any beans to count,” he said.
• On the other hand, Ron Will said that at one point, designers had created Ferrari-like tail lamps for the Chevrolet Vega, “but they cost 50 cents more so we ended up with tail lights that looked like sardine cans.”
• Several designers were perplexed by the popularity of retro design. “That’s not right,” said Ackerman. “Things need to move on.” He also noted the influence of the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro on the newest iteration of the car, and the high dollars original ‘69s bring at classic car auctions. “The ’69 Camaro was just something we did before the ’70 1/2 [redesign], but everyone goes nuts over them. That’s puzzling to designers. Now, the Monte Carlo, Eldorado, Riviera and Toronado, those were very good designs but aren’t pulling in the big bucks [at auctions].”
• Ron Will explained that “the magic in design is in the corners, in the transition from one surface to another. How do the surfaces flow together, or do they? What’s the surface development?” And then he shared a secret: “Some of the best ‘designers’ weren’t designers but the modelers [who translated those designs into full-scale clay models and] who knew how to make it flow.”

By Larry Edsall (PHOTO ABOVE BY RANDALL BOHL)

For the past 44 years, some 400,000 people from around the country and from around the world, have come to the Bob Bondurant School of High-Performance Driving to learn car control techniques. Those students range from teenagers bearing their learners permits to accomplished professional auto racers,  and those who would play them in movies. Bondurant’s first two students were Paul Newman and James Garner, who were preparing for their roles in the movie Grand Prix.

But with school founder and former racer Bob Bondurant now in his 70s, the school is putting into motion a business plan to match its motoring passion. Soon, it will supplement its facilities adjacent to Firebird International Raceway with school grounds in three other U.S. sites and anticipates further expansion to as many as a dozen foreign countries.

Parts of that plan were revealed to the Phoenix Automotive Press Association at its annual pre-season motorsports panel discussion, February 21 in Singer Hall at the Phoenix Art Museum.

On the panel with Bob and Pat Bondurant were Dave Lockett and Jennifer Jepson of Phoenix International Raceway and Hal Sanguinetti of Speedworld, a grassroots racing facility northwest of Phoenix.

“China wants two Bondurant schools,” said Pat Bondurant, an architect and successful business person who also is the school’s president and Bob’s wife. She said all instructors and mechanics at the satellite schools will come to Phoenix for their own training and certification.

To put the new plan into action, she said, the school has hired champion auto racers Darren Law as the school’s chief operating officer and Johnny O’Connell as vice president for global operations.

Law and O’Connell both have worked as Bondurant instructors, teaching, among others,  some 90 percent of NASCAR Sprint Cup racers, who usually race on oval tracks but go to Bondurant to learn how to drive on twisting road courses.

Twice each year, those NASCAR drivers compete on the one-mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway, where Lockett and Jepson begin their first season as head of the communications staff. Jepson began working at the track as an intern while attending Arizona State University, but Lockett only recently has moved to Phoenix after 13 years as media manager for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League.

Lockett noted that Ken Whisenhunt, head coach of the Arizona Cardinals and a former assistant with the Steelers, will be one of the feature guests at the track’s Night of Champions, March 1 at the Arizona Biltmore, where NASCAR Hall of Fame racer Darrell Waltrip and the 2012 Daytona 500 winner also be featured at an event raising funds for the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Dave Lockett (PHOTO BY BRENDA PRIDDY)

Lockett noted that, because of their relationship with and representation of corporate sponsors, auto racers tend to be very careful in monitoring their personal behavior away from the track. He said other professional athletes could learn a lot about personal responsibility from such drivers.

Jepson talked about the revitalization of PIR’s five-turn racing oval late last year and how the track was improved with both competition and safety in mind.

She noted that while the changes “revolutionized” the facility, care was taken to be sure to maintain “all that had made PIR PIR.”

While PIR generates huge crowds twice a year, Speedworld attracts grassroots racers — and those who come to watch them — 50 weekends a year. The facility, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2011, includes a drag strip, off-road tracks, a bicycle-racing layout, five paintball fields — complete with old helicopters — and remote-control airplane and car facilities.

Hal Sanguinetti (PHOTO BY BRENDA PRIDDY)

Sangiunetti said the track actively opposes illegal street racing and offers a safe, low-cost alternative — weekly Saturday night “Street Meet” programs from 7 p.m . until midnight at a cost of $20 for a car to make multiple runs on the track.

Sangiunetti noted that everyone who races in Formula One or NASCAR started somewhere, usually on their local short track. For Phoenix, Speedworld is that track.

By Cathy Luebke

Auction Panel: Photo by Randall Bohl

PHOENIX, AZ (Jan. 18,2012) – Brass cars, customization, original-condition cars, vintage motorcycles and even pickup trucks are hot in the world of classics.That’s the scoop from a panel of experts invited for a discussion of the industry by the Phoenix Automotive Press Association as the Valley’s annual auction frenzy heats up.

The panel: Jim Pickering, managing editor of Sports Car Market and editor of American Car Collector magazines; Ken Gross, former director of the Petersen Museum, selection committee member for and judge at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance; and McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty Insurance and founder of the Historic Vehicle Association.The trio agree classic cars have become an industry as well as a hobby.

“It’s all of those things now,” Gross said. But the core of it is a love of cars, according to Hagerty.As for newcomers, the panel advises caution. It’s easy to buy the first car you find, Pickering said, but that’s not the best idea, you need a plan.

And a budget. Hagerty agrees, saying buyers should do some research and seek advice. Tastes change so they also need an exit strategy for their early choices, he said.There also was some debate about original condition cars versus restorations and tribute cars, copies of classics.

Hagerty said copies may be fun to build and drive, but don’t see much in the way of reward from the market.As for restoring old cars, he said sellers usually make some money, but those in the original condition are getting more interest. “Their stories just kind of come alive.”

Roger Falcione of ClassicCars.Com discusses Road-Ready Certification program for classic vehicles. Photo by Brenda Priddy

The three also picked a few of their favorites up for auction. Pickering likes the Saturn Yellow 1970 Buick GSX, while Hagerty cites the BMW 507, a ’50s era roadster, and Gross fancies Marlene Dietrich’s former 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom.

PAPA also invited representatives from all of the January auctions to talk about their events, including the latest additions, Bonhams and Scottsdale International Auto Museum. The latter is working to organize a festival and parade of autos to go along with auction week next year.The consensus from auction reps and the panel is to expect a good year.

MotoeXotica’s Scott Brandt marked his second year in Phoenix Jan. 14 and 15 and promises to be back for a third.“I think it’s going to be a fantastic year,” Hagerty said.Pickering agreed some “nutty” stuff has happened in the industry, such as last year’s world record sale at Gooding & Co.’s Pebble Beach auction, a $16.4 million 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa prototype. That helps drive the market, he said.

There are new bidders and some of the old collectors are coming back, the experts said, predicting a 10 to 15 percent or more increase in sales this year.

Premier event now open to the public: 100 tickets available

Partial proceeds to benefit McPherson College Classic Vehicle Restoration Program

PAPA Auction Preview, Photo by Randall Bohl

PHOENIX, AZ (Dec. 29, 2011) – Each January, Arizona becomes the center of the classic car world, with more than half a dozen auctions at which several thousand vehicles will be sold. With so much going on, it can be difficult to sort things out. To aid with this effort, the Phoenix Automotive Press Association invites a panel of classic car experts to present personal observations and expectations. Now, for the first time, and by popular demand, PAPA is opening this ‘insider’ forum to the general public, to non-members.  A limited number, 100 tickets, are available to non-members.

The Preview will be held at the Phoenix Art Museum. Each ticket is priced at $20 and includes presentations from the auction houses, the panel discussion, an opportunity to ask questions of the panelists, a dessert buffet at the conclusion of the event, and a gift bag. Part of the proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the classic car restoration education program at McPherson College, the only college in the country that grants a four-year degree in classic vehicle restoration.

The Arizona Auction Week Preview begins at 7 p.m., Wednesday, January 18, 2012 in Singer Hall of the ground floor of the Phoenix Art Museum’s administration building

The esteemed panelists for PAPA’s 2012 Arizona Auction Week Preview are:

Jim Pickering, managing editor of Sports Car Market and editor of American Car Collector magazines.
Ken Gross, former director of the Petersen Museum, selection committee member for and judge at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and a veteran automotive journalist and car collector.
McKeel Hagerty, chief executive officer of Hagerty Insurance – world’s largest insurer of classic vehicles — publisher of Hagerty Magazine, and founder of the Historic Vehicle Association.

In addition to the panel discussion, each of the auction houses staging events in Arizona has been invited to offer a brief preview of its event and its noteworthy vehicles. Those auctions include Barrett-Jackson, Bonhams, Gooding & Company, RM, Russo and Steele, and Silver

Click here to purchase tickets. 

By Larry Edsall

Photography by Randall Bohl

“You are the link between the engineer and the customer. It is a big responsibility.”

Those words were addressed to the Phoenix Automotive Press Association by Chris Céret, an instructor for the Audi Academy and one of the panelists assembled to suggest how automotive development engineers think car reviewers could do a better job for their readers, viewers, listeners and website visitors.

Joining Céret on the panel were Paul Berardi, recently retired after a long career in customer service and development engineering for Ford, and Jim Contes, who retired from the General Motors’ engineering staff to teach automotive engineering at Arizona State University.

“What is the clientele for that vehicle, or are you testing merely for yourself?” added Céret, a former French rally racer who introduces Audi dealership employees to the automaker’s newest vehicles.

“I get a laugh when I see 0-60 mph times for a TDI [diesel] or a hybrid,” Céret said.

The panel (from left): Chris Ceret, Paul Berardi and Jim Contes

On a less humorous note, he said he finds factual errors in nearly all of the car reviews he reads in magazines. Such errors, he said, evaporate the reviewer’s credibility in his eyes.

“You have to push the vehicles,” Berardi suggested. “What you write is what people are going to decide to buy. Push the envelope when you’re testing. It serves a purpose.”

But, the panelists added, judge a vehicle the way its potential buyers will judge it.

Céret noted that German cars are designed and engineered for European driving conditions. But, he said, Volkswagen’s new Passat, which is built in a new factory in Tennessee, was created specifically for American drivers and their families.

Berardi said sometimes even within a single country such as the United States there can be regional differences that complicate vehicle design and engineering efforts. For example, he said, the size of cup holders.

“Everybody in Detroit drinks 12-ounce soda cans,” he said. But in the heat of the Arizona desert, where he, Contes and others worked at hot-weather proving grounds, “we drink Big Gulps!”

Berardi said it took a long time for Detroit to be convinced about enlarging its cup holders.

Jim Prueter of AAA's Arizona Highroads magazine asks a question.

“Let’s not talk about cup holders,” Céret suggested, knowing how reluctant his company was to incorporating such things into its vehicles.

The panel was assembled by PAPA member and automotive spy photographer Brenda Priddy, who’s business is to photograph prototype vehicles.

“She knows where we all live,” Berardi said.

Contes told of the time he was testing Corvettes in the Australian Outback, only to be captured on film by a spy photographer.

But he said he scored one on the spies in the 1980s when he was testing a future Oldsmobile Cutlass and had to create camouflage to hide the car’s design as much as possible. Contes fashioned a pair of cardboard fins, spray-painted them and attached them to the rear quarter panels.

Sure enough, he said, the car showed up on the cover of a car magazine with the headline: “Detroit first fins since the ‘50s.”

“I really did a good job,” he said with a smile.

Berardi encouraged reviewers to look under the hood and let customers know whether it will be easy or difficult to perform typical service, such as changing oil or spark plugs, and to push the automakers on such things.

“Making customers more knowledgeable is what you guys can do,” he said.

PAPA hosts Rusty Wallace and Lee White

By Nina Russin

Photos by Brendy Priddy & Company

Left to right: Tim Sharp, Rusty Wallace, Lee White

It wouldn’t be hard to argue that the muscle car era and all the accouterments which came with it would never have occurred if stock car racing hadn’t come first.

The Hudson Hornet and Olds Rocket 88, models whose reputations would otherwise have been limited to new car showrooms, acquired the notoriety of NFL quarterbacks. The concept of “race it on Sunday, sell it on Monday” and a whole new racing series was born.

What made NASCAR immensely popular was its accessibility. These were not exotic cars driven by pedigreed racing families. They were the same models, on the surface at least, which a working man of average means could put in his own garage.

What was true for the cars was also true for the drivers. Garages were open to the public, and drivers, however busy, made it a point to make time to spend with their fans.

Over the ensuing half century the sport grew exponentially and it also evolved. The series once dominated by Detroit opened itself to automakers outside the United States. And a new generation of drivers stepped behind the wheels.

Today, NASCAR faces its own set of challenges in a struggling economy, to maintain a fair and competitive playing field, but also to bring new fans into the fold.

As Toyota’s TRD race team prepared to take to the track at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday for the Kobalt Tools 500, TRD president Lee White and NASCAR racing legend Rusty Wallace took time out for an informal panel discussion with PAPA members.

Tim Sharp moderated the panel, which covered topics ranging from Toyota’s engineering strategies to more general queries about the series’ future.

PAPA Members at the NASCAR Program

Although Toyota is a relative newcomer to Nextel Cup racing, having debuted the Camry race car at the 2007 Daytona 500, Lee White, who is president and general manager of Toyota TRD USA is a seasoned veteran. A former race car driver and engine builder for Jack Roush, he helped the automaker gain entry to Detroit dominated NASCAR, beginning with the 1998 Goody’s Dash Series and moving up to the Craftsman Truck Series before debuting the Camry.

ESPN racing analyst Rusty Wallace is NASCAR royalty, as much a household name as his former nemesis, Dale Earnhardt. In a professional racing career which spanned over three decades he was USAC rookie of the year and won the Winston Cup championship series in 1989, edging out Earnhardt by twelve points. When he retired from Nextel Cup as a driver in 2005, he had 55 NASCAR wins to his name.

Journalists take pride in going for the jugular whenever possible, and the panel discussion with White and Wallace was no exception. What struck this writer more than the questions about NASCAR’s struggle to replace carburetors with fuel injection or the challenge or appeal to a younger audience was the way the panelists took the heat.

It reminded me of my experience at the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994, having been to half a dozen Indy 500 races prior to that. Despite efforts by the track’s overzealous security personnel, NASCAR opened up its garage doors and invited the fans in.

Rusty Wallace

Both White and Wallace went to great lengths to give their perspectives on the challenges NASCAR faces, and did so in a manner which was refreshingly blunt and to the point.

White shared his personal experiences of developing a competitive engine for Toyota which complied with NASCAR specifications.

“Bill France (Junior) told me ‘You’re welcome to come. You’re welcome to race. And you’re welcome to win, but only by that much’.” White indicated a fraction of an inch between his thumb and forefinger.

At the time, the NASCAR rule book had ten pages on engines alone. Toyota’s solution was to bring in Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge engines and reverse engineer them.

Of course, when Toyota developed an engine which revved 1000 rpm high and was significantly lighter than the competition, the team had to agree to sell parts to Roush, Hendrick, Childress and Penske, essentially evening out the playing field. NASCAR also revised its rule book.

“I attended meetings about the engine of tomorrow in 2008,” White recalled. “It was all about shrinking the box. (NASCAR) doesn’t want anyone to have a technical advantage. It’s all about the driver. In NASCAR, every single part which goes into an engine has to be approved.”

Rusty Wallace added his own perspectives, recalling time he spent in England a decade back working on a new engine with Ilmore.

“That engine had the tiniest valves pistons and skirts you can imagine,” he said. “You wouldn’t know how that engine could run. But it could go up to 11,000 rpm.”

“Someone from NASCAR put a blue tarp on the ground and started ripping that engine apart. That started every part of the engine having to be weighed and measured… Everyone’s in this really tight box right now.”

“What people realized in this engine of tomorrow meeting is that with everyone bringing in their technology, the box was going to shrink naturally,” added White. “Typically the spread today between the best and the worst is fifteen to eighteen horsepower.”

“Electronic fuel injection is very expensive, but it’s something we’ve got to do,” White added, “even though the guys in sitting in the stands probably won’t know the difference.”

The challenge is to make fuel injection work on the current block which has a single point of fuel delivery. Otherwise the costs would be prohibitive.

Despite using the same basic block, the teams will be absorbing some major costs. One electronic control unit for the new fuel injection system costs $10,000.  Four ignition coils cost another $10,000. The bottom line is that each team will have to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars for each new engine.

NASCAR continues to be extremely cautious. Teams will be allowed to download nine to ten channels of information in the garage, but they won’t be able to touch the engines in the pits. Once again, the concern is to maintain a dead even playing field and force the drivers to provide the winning edge.

The series’ other big problem is the aging and shrinking of its current fan base. In the 1990s when series popularity soared, new tracks were built in anticipation that this trend would continue. Today the venues look empty, even if there are 60,000 fans in attendance. Empty stands affect everything from sponsorship to the moral among drivers.

Today, the average NASCAR fan is in his mid-fifties. What can NASCAR do to widen its fan base and bring in younger car enthusiasts?

According to Wallace, the move to fuel injection is just part of the answer.

“A lot of the stars who were once in NASCAR are no longer there,” he said. Drivers such as Earnhardt, Petty and himself had a polish and an interest in furthering the sport that he feels some of the new drivers lack.

One reason for the change he believes is that the new crop of drivers is younger and less mature. He cited several examples of aggression on the track to prove his point.

And while Wallace and his compadres were as competitive as any drivers on the track today, they were never above having a little fun with each other.

Wallace recounted a story about racing in the heat of summer, when the temperature on the track was a hundred degrees.

“I got into my car and the smell was terrible,” he said. “And when I sat down there was something mushy under the seat.”

Ever the professional, Rusty took his seat and ran a winning race. It wasn’t till later that he learned Dale Earnhardt had dumped four cans of sardines under his seat. Later, when Wallace stole Earnhardt’s steering wheel out of his car just before the start of a race, Earnhardt signaled to Wallace, “now we’re even.”

PIR had no trouble filling the stands for the Kobalt 500 race on November 13, coming at the climax of the current Nextel Cup season. It is the final west coast race of the year and the first Sprint Cup race on PIR’s newly repaved one-mile oval.

For additional information on the Kobalt 500, visit PIR’s web site.

… and welcome to our little corner of cyberspace.
As our name suggests, the Phoenix Automotive Press Association is composed of automotive media professionals who work in greater Phoenix and surrounding areas. Our membership includes writers, photographers, Web developers, and freelancers who cover the “auto beat.” PAPA also welcomes those who work in allied fields such as advertising, public relations, promotion, marketing, auto racing, event management, brokering, auctioneering, and dealer development. Read More

By Bill Zervakos

Twofortheroadusa.com

2011 CTS-V Sport Wagon

Let me start out by saying that I simply don’t have enough superlatives for this car. I was impressed with the V6 Sport Wagon I drove last year but this car is in a dimension all its own. The numbers are mind numbing; 556 supercharged horses under the hood and a thundering 551 lb-ft of torque rocket the V-Wagon from 0-60 in a blistering 4 seconds. Yep, you read it right; a nearly 4400 pound station wagon out runs the likes of the Mustang Shelby GT500KR and it’s just a tick slower than the Saleen Dark Horse Extreme Mustang, and the Z06 Corvette. In other words, it’s a monster, but a monster that offers a lot of utility. I was surprised when I saw the test car came with the Tremec TR6060 6-spd. Manual transmission, I mean station wagons and six speed manual transmissions seem a bit oxymoronic to me, but then again, the V Sport Wagon is far from a typical station wagon.
The engine features an intercooled Eaton Twin Vortices Series™ (TVS™) supercharger. This unique supercharger design employs twin four-lobe rotors, twisted 160 degrees. Typical superchargers feature three lobes twisted 60degrees. The fourth lobe and added twist, when combined with unique air inlet and outlet ports, create smoother, more efficient airflow into the engine. In addition to improved overall efficiency, this supercharger has superior noise and vibration characteristics compared to more ordinary designs.

The kind of power the 6.2 liter Supercharged engine puts out is managed by torque being channeled through the six-speed transmissions to a high-performance rear axle that features a limited-slip rear differential within a cast iron housing for greater thermal management, and asymmetrical half-shafts to smoothly manage the supercharged engine’s incredible torque. The unique design includes alternately sized half-shafts that also help dynamically balance the oscillation of torque from side to side, effectively eliminating “power hop.”

To read more of Bill’s review, visit his web site.