Musk and Peter Thiel (one of many founders of PayPal) had been on their technique to meet with enterprise capitalist Mike Moritz to hunt funding in PayPal when Musk crashed the F1 on a Palo Alto street.
As he advised Pando Daily, “We’re driving up Sand Hill Road, and I didn’t really know how to drive the McLaren.” Thiel requested Musk what the automotive was able to, to which Musk cheekily responded, “Watch this.” Musk mentioned he then floored it and instantly misplaced management of the 640-horsepower beast, crashing it into an embankment. All of the glass within the automotive was shattered, and it suffered intensive physique harm, however luckily, neither man was injured.
Musk did not have insurance coverage on the automotive, nevertheless, and in the end needed to restore it out of pocket. He stored the F1 till 2007, and this previous summer time, the automotive was displayed on the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England. However, the crash did irreparable harm to Musk and Thiel’s enterprise relationship. In his e-book “The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power,” creator Max Chafkin wrote, “The experience shook Thiel, who came to see Musk as reckless” (by way of Business Insider).
Dennis and Peter Adams, who used to work at a British sports car manufacturer called Marcos, decided to create futuristic cars that explore extreme styling. The result of their efforts ended up being featured in Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange.”
The M-505 Probe 16 stood at just 34 inches tall and didn’t have conventional doors. Instead, it featured a sliding glass roof that necessitated passengers to hop in and slide down into reclined bucket-style seats.
Although the interior resembled a jet fighter cockpit, it was powered by a 1.8-liter OHV, 1,900cc JanSpeed-tuned 4-cylinder Austin B-series engine from British Motor Corporation (BMC), positioned transversely behind the driver. It was paired with a 4-speed manual gearbox, along with four-wheel independent suspension and disc brakes.
The Probe 16 made its debut at the 1969 London Motor Show, where it received the “Best Styling Exercise” award. While three were produced, only two are currently known to exist (chassis no. AB/2 and AB/3). Initially, it was believed that the prototype was destroyed in a fire, a known issue with mid-engine cars from that era, leaving behind chassis AB/3 and AB/4.
However, according to Bonhams (who auctioned off AB/3 in 2020 for $184,800), the prototype, which was sold to songwriter Jimmy Webb, is still in existence, while AB/4 is not. Regardless, it’s without a doubt a concept car that should have been produced.
The AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame offers its condolences to the family and friends of Peter Starr — motorcycle racer, author, TV producer and filmmaker, whose work includes dozens of productions about motorcycles and motorcycling. Starr passed away on July 3 at the age of 80. Starr moved to the United States in the mid-1960s working as a DJ and later in record production before returning to his love of motorcycles as a filmmaker. His first film, titled Bad Rock, was funded by Hodaka and Penzoil and was distributed across the United States. Later, his film Take it to the Limit would become his most famous creation, starring riders at the top of their sport and a string of hit songs on its soundtrack.
Along with his films, Starr also directed over 50 television specials on motorcycling and motorsports. It was Starr who had the first film camera mounted on a motorcycle and later did the first live broadcast from a motorcycle in competition for ABC’s Wide World of Sports in 1985 at the AMA National on the Du Quoin Magic Mile. In recent years, Starr became a global ambassador for motorcycling, and after being inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2017 became an ardent supporter of the Hall of Fame and its annual induction ceremony.
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WOLF SIGHTING!
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Andrea Verona puts GASGAS Factory Racing on the top step of the FIM EnduroGP World Championship at round five in Slovakia. Racing in the mud and torrential rain, Verona battled hard with Beta’s Steve Holcombe. He won the final Cross test, stayed close in the Enduro tests and took his first victory of the year. Photo: Future7Media
I really liked the 1996 Suzuki RM250. It had received a huge re-make with an all-new machine that featured a 49mm Showa Conventional fork. The redesigned engine targeted low to mid-range hit that mated to a linear top-end pull. The RM ran very much like a ’96 CR250 with slightly less mid-meat. For their Factory racer Mike LaRocco the bike was slow, the suspension not right for SX. For the Wolf it was on point, stellar suspension and a tractable and easy to handle band of power. It also was very ‘off-road’ worthy and since Suzuki Off-road was shifting their main effort to the GNCC series (this is in spite of Randy Hawkins winning the National Enduro title in 1996) the timing was perfect. Here a motocross based machine was needed to handle the speeds and tenacious terrain that shadowed an outdoor motocross, rather than a tight cobby enduro. Steve Hatch and Rodney Smith were strong in GNCC, where Steve won two events in ’96 and Rodney won the final.
The international car design community is in shock and mourning following the sudden passing of Peter Horbury, a highly accomplished and respected figure in the industry.
Horbury, aged 72, tragically passed away during a business trip to China while visiting the headquarters of his employer, the Geely group. Until 2021, he held the position of executive vice-president of design at Group Lotus, where he played a crucial role in establishing a strong connection between Lotus and its Chinese owners. Prior to that, he served as the head of design for the fast-growing Geely group.
Throughout his career, Horbury worked on a wide range of design projects. He began his journey at Chrysler UK in the 1970s, where he was responsible for designing the iconic Talbot Horizon grille. After graduating from the Royal College of Art with a degree in design in 1974, he went on to achieve significant milestones. However, he is best known for his extraordinary tenure as Volvo’s design chief from 1991 to 2002. His innovative vision and philosophy played a pivotal role in saving the company, and his design influences can still be seen in modern Volvo vehicles.
After his time at Volvo, Horbury held design leadership positions at Ford’s Premier Automotive Group and eventually became the head of Ford design in the United States. He later returned to Volvo for another successful period before assuming his position at Geely. Regarded as a superb leader and mentor, as well as a captivating storyteller and a constant source of joy, Horbury will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege to know him during his illustrious 50-year career, including his close ties with Autocar.
Peter Hickman and the Monster Energy by FHO Racing BMW Team had a fantastic week, winning three races and setting new lap records at the Isle of Man TT. This year, Hickman won both Superstock TT races and the prestigious Senior TT, setting a new outright TT lap record and new lap records in the Senior TT and the Superbike TT. The new BMW M 1000 RR bike also made its debut at the Isle of Man TT and won both Superstock races. Hickman now has a total of 13 Isle of Man TT wins, with ten victories in the 1,000 cc class on BMW bikes.
Dr. Markus Schramm, Head of BMW Motorrad, congratulated Hickman and the FHO Racing team for their successful performance. He praised Hickman’s ability to continue BMW’s success story at the Isle of Man TT with the new M 1000 RR bike and acknowledged the hard work put in by Hickman and the FHO Racing Team.
The race week began with the Superbike TT, where Hickman faced technical difficulties but managed to set a new Superbike lap record and finish second. He then switched to the Superstock TT version of the M 1000 RR and won both Superstock TT races, setting a sensational new official outright lap record at the Isle of Man TT with an average speed of 136.358 mph. The week concluded with the six-lap Senior TT, which Hickman won comfortably, setting a new Senior TT lap record and finishing almost 20 seconds ahead of second-place Dean Harrison.
Hickman praised the competition at the Isle of Man TT, especially Michael Dunlop, and thanked everyone for their support. His teammate Josh Brookes returned to Isle of Man TT after five years and finished with a personal best of 132.529 mph.
BMW had 16 road racers competing at this year’s Isle of Man TT, with Hickman’s BMW M 1000 XR prototype providing a preview of the third M model at BMW Motorrad.
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