"Well, I'll Still Be Handsome." Jalopnik Runs The "Raptor GTR" To The Endzone

When I wrote an article about the “Mosler Raptor GTR” last week, I certainly wasn’t expecting to start the proverbial tempest in the teapot… but that is exactly what happened. One week later, there have been threats of lawsuits, endless phone calls, multiple “do not forward” e-mails arriving from several players in the situation, and what amounted to an outright request that TTAC abandon its editorial integrity to serve the interests of one individual.

Now, thanks to Matt Hardigree, Ray Wert, and the staff at Jalopnik, we know (some of) the rest of the story…

This morning, Jalopnik posted an article entitled How This Crappy Music Video Set Fire To One Man’s Dream. While TTAC and Jalopnik aren’t above the occasional humorous spat, in this case we are going to give Ray and the crew full props.

When Mr. Wert and I spoke regarding this story on Friday, I had already received seven or eight e-mails instructing me to delete all the comments on the original RaptorGTR story, in the interest of “doing what’s right.” As long-time TTAC readers know, we don’t play that game. You’re free to delete and/or edit your own comments, and we ask that you treat each other with courtesy, but we aren’t going to censor what you say to make a third party happy. Nor did we.

After some discussion, Ray indicated to me that he was going to have Matt Hardigree cover the story — and cover it he has, complete with calls to all the major players. While one might suggest that Matt’s article is perhaps overly sympathetic to J. Todd Wagner, it is nonetheless interesting, balanced, and well-researched. Between that and the DuPont Registry article on the same topic, I’d imagine that potential marks customers for the RaptorGTR will find all the information they need.

The infamous, curiously munchkin-like Linux zealot Eric S. “Surprised By Wealth” Raymond once stated “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” It turns out that the motoring corner of the Internet has just a few too many eyeballs for the RaptorGTR story to go unchallenged. Thanks to all the TTAC readers who chimed in and shone the light.