Bunch of Maloney

NORTH AMERICAN TOURING CAR SERIES IS FOR REAL

Ten months ago the motorsports media mavens from Detroit...weekly auto pubs joked about the advent of the North American Touring car championship series in 1996. Though the touring cars are just about the most popular racing series England and Europe, crowd-wise the nay sayers racing’s printed word predicted the series would never get off the ground.

Enter Chrysler, BMW, Honda and now we have a seven (soon to be 10)support series that is going to be gangbusters. With 300hp street machines like the Chrysler STRATUS, Ford Contour,BMW 3-series,Pontiac Sunbirds and Honda Accords the two-liter cars will run saturday-sundays as a prelim to IRL and other pro races.

First blast off for Danny Sullivan, Rod Milen and friends will be Limerock Park, Ct, May 25. More on this later.

ANOTHER RACE DRIVERS SCHOOL. TAKE OUT A G.I. LOAN

There seem to be a zillion race driver schools out there ready to take from $500 for a day to 2-3 grand for a weekend to teach you how to heel and toe, splitshift, trail braking(that's a Bondurant term...love it.. eg "wow, what did you do last weekend "? "I was TRAILBRAKING at Firebird international raceway!") and finding the proper apex before you come to a decreasing radius carousel. And they are probably all very good, worthwhile, effective and while they may not get you a competition license the experience has got to be very positive. For instance Danny McKeevers school at Willow Springs International Raceway in Lancaster, Ca trains all the celebs who compete in the celebrity race at the annual Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix. I've talked to many of the celebs...they love it. They think Danny is God.

Now comes the ultimate high ticket head-in-the-clouds drivers school. For $15,000...that’s like 15 BIG ONES as in 15 grand you can spend a weekend.. that’s right weekend...2-3 days/nites with Parnelli Jones, Johnny Rutherford, Al and Bobby Unser and get race driving instructions at Indianapolis Parks Mickey Mouse .7 mi oval and and very nice 2.5 road course. For the $14,850 (to be exact) you are allowed to drive SCCA spec 2000 (fenders) race cars and Formula Mazda cars and street cars. Also for the 15 grand you get ground transportation (but not airfare) catered lunch at the track (whee) hero gear (drivers suit/brainbox) a tour of the Indy Museum, retail $5.00 and you will be ALLOWED to buy designer label racing trinkets and trash. Give me a break.

SAAB ANNOUNCES NEW 'ACTIVE' HEAD RESTRAINT SYSTEM

Saab, much like its compatriot Volvo has been long known for leading the way in developing new forms of automotive safety. For instance Saab has had daytime running lights (DRL) for eight years. GM is getting into the DRL business this year. Now Saab announces the development of an innovative active head restraint system designed to reduce the risk of whiplash injuries.

It’s called Pro-Tech and will enhance safety in rear enders. The Pro-Tech unit is connected to a pressure plate in the seat back and in a collision from the rear the occupant is pressed into the backrest moving the pressure plate towards the rear. This action moves the head restraint upwards and forward to meet the head before the dangerous whiplash movement has started thereby helping to reduce the potential for neck injury. After the head restraint has been activated and limited the heads movement, it will revert to its initial position ready to perform.

Safety sells cars. Have you seen the Volvo TV commercials that depict a life saving situation via side airbags as found in some Volvos?