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Motor Trend, Hot Rod Publisher Dies at 80

31 Mar, 2007  No Comments

112_0703_hrobert_petersen Robert E. Peterson, who founded both Hot Rod and Motor Trend, passed away Friday after a bout with cancer.

After graduating from Barstow High School in the mid-1940s, he moved to Los Angeles, working at MGM studios as a messenger boy. Following service in the Army Air Corps toward the end of Word War II, Mr. Petersen, now an independent publicist immersed in the burgeoning customized auto culture of California, was instrumental in creating the first hot-rod show at the Los Angeles Armory. To help establish the event, in January 1948 he launched Hot Rod Magazine, and hawked the magazine at local speedways for 25 cents a copy. Motor Trend, a more upscale publication for production car enthusiasts, and dozens of other titles aimed at specialty automotive segments soon followed.

Robert E. Peterson [Motor Trend]

Via Paul Boutin

Corn Growers React to Ethanol With Bumper Crop

31 Mar, 2007  No Comments

If you grow it, they will come… ready to fill up.

The increasing demand for ethanol is pushing corn farmers to plant the largest crop of corn since President Bush was just a twinkle in his daddy’s eye. Corn planting is expected to be up 15 percent over last year, and the highest acreage since 1944, according to the Associate Press.

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The demand for ethanol, which is expected to rise by 32 percent this year, has nearly double the price of corn, and is putting pressure on the price of corn tortillas in Mexico and livestock feed in the U.S.

The higher prices will make ethanol even less competitive with gasoline. Many free market enthusiasts oppose the current 51 cent per gallon subsidy that refiners get for blending ethanol, according to BusinessWeek. This will surely be a political football throughout the presidential election.

The rapid expansion of ethanol is putting pressure on the food supply, and the situation will only worsen in the future. It seems that if nothing else, subsidies that encourage farmers not to produce to keep prices higher should end.

Source: AP

Via John Gartner

Canada Investing in Fuel Efficient Vehicles

31 Mar, 2007  No Comments

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The Canadian government is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the auto industry to encourage local production of more environmentally-friendly cars. Those Canadians are so courteous, helping Detroit with what it should be doing anyway. 

The government money will help auto companies to their south (Ford and GM) build manufacturing plants for building hybrid vehicles, according to the Globe and Mail.

GM and Ford are both expanding their hybrid vehicle assembly lines, with each company adding new lines in Ontario to produce the vehicles.

Canadian auto workers actually want more fuel efficient vehicles, asking for a 25 percent improvement. The UAW (United Auto Workers) in the U.S., however, are reluctantly coming around to marginal changes in fuel efficiency.

With financial aid increasing on both sides of the border, Detroit needs to prove that a turnaround will happen soon.

Source: Globe and Mail

Via John Gartner