Quote Of The Day: Maximum Respect Edition
October 29th, 2009 2:37 PM
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I haven’t done this in 30 years. Young whipper-snappers showed me a thing or two. Let’s see them do this when they’re 77
Maximum Bob Lutz concedes defeat to TTAC’s Jack Baruth with dignity and a little feistyness. Cadillac is estimating Lutz will finish “in the top five or six.”
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A win for Lutz, GM, and Caddy CTS-V. A win for the M3 guy, and a win for the Evo guy for having the balls to bring a car that's down 250HP, that's more than most of the cars on the road have. A lose for all the supposedly independent journos that drove a CTS-V, it just doesn't cut it. And at the end of the day, GM will point and laugh at you because for all the trash talk, they didn't have enough real world influence to bring a real whip.
@Cammy Corrigan Did anyone say or intend this event to sell more Malibus or Aveos? I don't think so. You are missing the point. There are plenty of buyers for BMW's, MB, Acura, Lexus, Jag etc who might consider a Caddy if performance is very important to them. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. Did it work, yes, because you are talking about it. I am talking about it. The whole site is talking about it. GM won at this event. Plain and simple.
@Steven02 No, YOU'RE missing the point. Can anyone not see that this whole event is a clear-cut case (nice alliteration) of "Great landing, wrong airport"? Yes, this event was well organised, yes, it was entertaining and yes, MB got a good lap time, but this event won't help GM out of the hole they are in now. If this event wasn't about selling Malibus and Aveos, then it should have been, because that's where the mass market is and that's where GM should be. When the November 2009 sales figures come out and GM's sales figures are circling the drain, what will be the reaction? "Yes, our sales figures are pathetic, but Bob Lutz got a good lap time with a world-class car which the majority of the United States can't afford!"
I'll be 59 in a few weeks, & live in a country where speed law enforcement is not something one needs to worry about as a practical matter. I get plenty of opportunity to push myself and whatever I may happen to be driving and stay in "practice", and I don't even have to pay for gas out of my own pocket, so I can go fast with impunity as often as the spirit moves me. I know I am not up to the same level of effort I was capable of 10 years ago, much less 20 years ago. (30 years doesn't count - too young, too stupid, too green & too uncontrolled) Mr. Lutz, whatever you may happen to think of him is 77 years old. Seventy-f*cking-SEVEN. When the very first Corvettes & T-Birds were rolling off the assembly line back in the 1950's, he was already the same age as the guy who "beat" him by a lousy 6 seconds (yes, even on this track!) in the M3. His driving impresses me as much as Dara Torres taking an Olympic Silver medal in swimming at 41, where she missed the Gold by only 1/100 sec. I know guys just into their early 70's that drool & can no longer even grip a steering wheel. Not only was Lutz good, at his age to come in anything better than a distant dead last he was exceptional.