Video. Dany Bahar on the future of Lotus Motorsport. Porsche to enter F1? Paul Ritchie on the Porsche Hybrid.

In view of all the controversy over Team lotus, I thought I would embed this video I found on youtube.

I hope Dany starts to see the educational benefits of motorsport and looks to set up a facility in Malaysia to compliment his commitment to Hethel.
Hethel + Malaysia + China sounds good to me.
Just as an aside. I read that Porsche may be entering F1. Here is a portion of a Crash article:
Earlier this year, Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich had hinted that the Ingolstadt manufacturer and F1 'do not fit' on a technological basis  – with the inference being that if one of VW's two flagship names does join the grand prix grid, it will have to be Porsche.

My only dealings with Porshe were in the USA where I was invited by John Packwood then a senior advisor to Porsche engineering  in Troy Michigan and Paul Ritchie General Manager/CEO,  on a boat trip with Dave Jones.
Both John and Dave were former presidents of Hawtal Whiting, a now defunct design house. I used to work for Hawtals.
  Previously they all (John, Dave,Paul and myself) worked at both Fords and Hawtal Whiting. The ever present PA Moira was also onboard.
I had a long talk with John about my MUM proposal, he let me drive his Porsche. John and Dave were nice guys.It was a good day.

I'm sure Paul is excited about entering the world of F1.

Here is a video of Paul Ritchie in his present role as President of Porsche Motorsport:



I wish Paul, John, Dave and Moira all the best.
I do feel that Lotus has the possibility of competing with Porsche on all levels.
I look forward to being a participant in that competition...
Here is the company car that I'd like...

Malaysian Government swap Proton cars for Indonesian tanks.

Today, an article appeared on tempointeractive  titled:
Tanks to be Bartered with Proton Cars

Thursday, 10 June, 2010
14:03 WIB
It would appear that Proton being government owned has been used in negotiations with the Indonesian Government....

Indonesian Anoa manufactured APS-3 APC


“Malaysia has ordered with a value of around US$ 80 million per year,” said the Minister of Industry M.S. Hidayat yesterday.
Both sides agree on several terms of payment.

“Namely 25 percent of the trade value would be paid with trade offs,” said Hidayat.

This reminds me of a Design house I once worked for Hawtal Whiting. A friend, Bob Iliffe informed me all the managers had received  Daewoo company cars. Daewoo had used cars in place of cash as payment.

This however was because Daewoo were close to being bankrupt and had cash flow problems.

Hawtal Whiting is not trading anymore. Daewoo are now GM owned and branded as Chevrolets.
 
When I was in Malaysia, working on the GEN2 project, I worked with a team of ex Daewoo engineers.
 
Interestingly, once I wanted to promote one of the Korean team to a lead position. He refused, as another member of the Korean team was a higher rank in the military than he had been, and was higher ranking black belt. Such a promotion would mean a loss of face to the other Korean.
 
Had I offered a similar thing to one of the westerners this kind of conversation would never have happened!
 
It's an interesting old world we live in!