BILL FORD STUMBLES AGAIN ON "CASH FOR CLUNKERS"

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

As if to conclusively prove that William Clay Ford, Jr.: (a) is not a real automobile enthusiast, (b) was clearly the wrong Ford to ascend to leadership of Ford Motor Company (R), (c) has absolutely no clue about grassroots motorsports or automotive hobbies, and (d) has an abysmal sense of automotive history, an opinion column appearing under his name (who knows which appliance motoring Glass House "genius" actually wrote it) at Fortune.com removes any doubt.

Bill's great-grandfather once said "history is bunk." Now Bill Ford apparently thinks American automotive "history" is bunk and should be crushed in an expensive plan funded by federal money borrowed from the Chinese.

The engines and other parts from hundreds of thousands of restorable, tunable, and hot roddable historic Fords will be forever destroyed under Billy's "Cash For Clunkers" plan. These parts are necessary for restorers, racers, tuners and hot rodders to keep their vintage Fords on the road (mostly in very limited use) and in active competition.

Thousands of Thunderbirds, Mustangs, Cougars and other donor vehicles (which are not driven much and which do not contribute to the alleged environmental degradation that Billy's green friends worry about) will be flattened.

The cost of restoring, maintaining or modifying a vintage Ford will skyrocket due to the reduced supply of used parts and the lower demand for new replacement parts. The small businesses of many who make their living supplying racers, hot rodders, tuners and restorers will be damaged, if not destroyed. Even Ford's in house Ford Racing Performance Parts operation will be adversely affected as many historic vehicles that would in the future be built into performance Fords will be trashed. The potential for entire models of historic Fords to become virtually extinct would be come real.

Had a "Cash For Clunkers" plan been in place twenty years ago, many of the Mustangs shown at last weekend's Mustang Club of America Grand National event in Birmingham, Alabama, would never have been restored.

If "Cash For Clunkers" would have been the law in the 1980s, thousands of the restored Fords displayed for the Ford Centennial in 2003 or at the Ford Racing Centennial in 2001 would have been crushed when they were ordinary "used cars." Moreover, many of the parts necessary for restoration would have been destroyed.

Of course, Bill Ford could apparently care less. He is seemingly clueless about what Ford's most loyal customers do with their beloved vehicles.

He believes that another big government handout will temporarily boost car sales by 15%.

He apparently does not care that this moronic "cash for clunkers" plan will greatly harm millions who cannot or do not want to purchase a new car.

He apparently does not care that hundreds of millions of borrowed dollars will be shipped to Ford's competitors in Asia.

Bill Ford is 180 degrees out-of-phase with the interests of America's automotive hobbyists, its automotive aftermarket, and the grassroots motorsports community. To the power hungry greens, he's the proverbial "useful idiot." He's dividing the automotive community and providing those who want to damage automotive liberty a plethora of "bulletin board" quote material for the haters of automotive liberty.

Bill Ford embarrasses the Ford community virtually every time he opens his pampered, overpaid, underinformed mouth. He does not have our best interests at heart.

Perhaps its time for historic Ford enthusiasts to "vote" against him with their pocketbooks . . . .

AUTOMOTIVE X PRIZE: WHERE IS TEAM HP2P?

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The Progressive Automotive X Prize list of accepted teams apparently does not include the controversial Team Hp2p

Doug Pelmear's secretive 1987 Mustang was a long-shot, "little-guy" hope for the competition for vehicles achieving 100mpge (miles per gallon equivalent) with carbon emissions of less than 200g/mi. Skeptics viciously derrided the effort as impossible.

Truth With Speedzzter withheld judgment.

But if the posted list is accurate, it would seem that the dream of X Prize glory for Team Hp2p is over.

[W]ill Team Hp2g become a soon-forgotten historical curiosity along the lines of those who designed and built the 1948 Tucker Torpedo, or Henry “Smokey” Yunick (who patented but failed to sell his “Hot Vapor Cycle Engine” (HVCE)), or innumerable others who mistakenly thought they had invented “the next big thing” in automobility?

Is that mysterious 1987 Mustang notchback the automotive equivalent to "cold fusion?"

“LIL’ BILLY LONGS FOR A HUGE AMERICAN GAS TAX”

[Get the latest “Truth With Speedzzter” here]

We’ve come to expect an outbreak of crackpottery on “Earth Day.”

And FoMoCo scion William Clay Ford, Jr. (Lil’ Billy) almost never fails to disappoint.

So when Autoblog Green reports that Lil’ Billy is apparently campaigning for a return of $4.00+/gallon gasoline in the U.S.A., courtesy of a massive spike in the federal gas tax, our expectations for Earth Day insanity are exceeded.

Lil’ Billy is apparently intent on squandering what little good will Ford has left with American consumers.

While Chrysler and General Motors are saddled with the “Scarlet B” (as in "bailout"), which seems to have generated a backlash among some consumers, Ford has emerged as the exclusive choice for those who still want to “Buy American.” Ford is also somewhat alone among the Detroit 3 in the capacity of its captive financing arm enabling more buyers to obtain vehicle loans.

And as fuel prices moderate from the hysteria and speculator-driven, pre-recession peaks, a slim hope for economic recovery and increased Ford sales is emerging.

Still, FoMoCo’s cash burn, the looming prospects for collapse of Chrysler and GM, and huge uncertainties about Obamanomics mean that Ford’s survival is not assured.

A prudent Ford leader would concentrate on continuing to stabilize Ford’s business model and improving the competitiveness, quality, and value of Ford’s products.

Yet FoMoCo’s bumbling Executive Chairman has decided to alienate a good percentage of Ford’s potential customer base by campaigning for a regressive tax increase that even Barack Obama has the good sense not to openly advocate.

(Most certainly, last weeks’ erroneous U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finding of “endangerment” under the Clean Air Act for carbon dioxide, and the “fast track”** push by the Democrats for the huge stealth tax increase euphemistically known as “cap and trade” will amount to even more of a constraint on energy use than a mere tax at the pump – but the Obamaians are counting on the American voters not to notice, until it’s too late)

Instead of focusing on improving the fuel efficiency of vehicles customers might actually want to buy (i.e. an EcoBoost electric hybrid V8 (not V6) Mustang, E85 capability across Ford’s non-diesel lines, lighter weight diesel pickups and SUVs, credible V8-optional sports sedans, an EcoBoost/mild hybrid Focus) and then letting the not-so-free market decide, Lil’ Billy wants a return to the very conditions that killed the market for new vehicles!

Perhaps a “gas tax” isn’t much of a big deal when you’re a filthy rich trust fund baby and environmental dilettante who mostly failed at running the family business. But for millions of Americans, jacking up fuel taxes would mean the death of the American dream.

It would compromise safety.

It would deny full participation to scores of auto enthusiasts who have struggled to obtain one last sliver of supercar excitement before they die (or the liberal greens and their Democratic sycophants completely outlaw most of our vehicular liberties in worship of the false “climate god”).

It would further force migration from smaller communities in the heartland to increasingly crowded urban centers.

It would help impoverish small-town America and drive up prices on virtually every consumer and business good or service sold.

It would gut what’s left of grassroots motorsports for at least a generation.

It would destroy America’s farms and ranches.

It would squeeze small businesses and entrepreneurs.

It would lead to the extinction of our beloved Ford Mustang in any recognizable form.

It would subsidize even greater expansions of the federal government.

Yes, Lil' Billy, it would be as brilliant and effective as some of the moves made by the Detroit Lions football club.

(Perhaps the NFL ought to tax losing, so that the Ford Family can get a better taste of punishment through taxation.

. . . Or better yet, why not just tax the hot and “dangerous” gasses escaping from Lil’ Billy’s apparently empty head . . . . )


**

House lawmakers drew their battle lines in the debate Tuesday [April 21, 2009] over a massive climate bill, opening hearings on a sweeping proposal to curb carbon emissions and restructure the nation's energy industries.

House Democrats lauded the draft plan, saying the time had come to address climate change and praising a fast-track schedule set by the plan's authors, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman, California Democrat, and Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat.