From the cats at The Wizard Academy in Austin, TX.
check out this YouTube video especially for those with dreams of flight: The Dream of Flight
According to this week’s Monday Morning Memo by Roy Williams, the device will not be available in the United States.
It costs a little more than $125,000 and will be sold only in Europe.
Looks like it would be almost as much fun as driving five supercars.
Would you do it?
Eric on March 30th 2009 in Exotic Car Rental
Lest you think that only the union auto workers, retirees, and executives want to reach in to the kitty for some tax money, you may also get to subsidize such hard luck cases as Sergei Brin and Larry Page. They are the founders of Google and early investors in Tesla Motors.
According to an article in e-week, production of the all-electric Model S sedan prototype hinges on whether the Department of Energy will provide a 350 million dollar loan to kick start production.
(Photo by Josh Davis-Fort Worth, TX. All rights reserved. Used with permission.)
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, is a founder of Paypal, so you can see that Tesla executives are also the sort of hard luck cases seen in the early parts of Slumdog Millionaire.
How about you cats develop the electric car with your own money? Just a thought.
If the world can’t wait to be green and you’re so convinced that everyone will want a Model S for $49,000, why not produce it without putting the government on the hook? Certainly $350 million is pocket change for Brin and Page, and 350 million doesn’t amount to a sparrow fart in the cosmic scheme of current bailouts, but–on principle–I don’t like it.
Speaking of money, Fort Worth exotic car photographer Josh Davis sent me a few money shots of Friday’s 2000 Horsepower Tour held by DFW Drive Your Dream. Participants drove five supercars back-to-back in what must have been a fun day of motoring. So far as I know, no taxpayer money was used in staging the event. I wouldn’t turn down a ticket to a day of driving supercars, but driving the Audi R8 and Ferrari 360 top my list of desirable six figure rides.
Should you wish to enjoy a little top down high octane fun, visit http://www.dfwdriveyourdream.com and find out how you can drive a Ferrari 360, Lamborghini Gallardo, Audi R8, Dodge Viper, and Porsche 911 all in one day! It looks like a Bentley GTC was substituted for the 911 on Friday’s tour…
Post by SE friendly content writer Eric Anderson. Opinions expressed are soley his own. Eric’s recent writing prjects include content for a Wesley Chapel, FL mortgage broker website and a Dallas car storage website.
If you’re at all like me, you’ve probably wondered at the giant RVs that lumber down Texas highways. Why would anyone want to bring all that with them on vacation?
As a libertarian, I wonder, but if it makes RVers happy, more power to ‘em. It’s a semi-free country after all. America land of the somewhat free.
Anyway, I saw something on Gizmodo that made me laugh and honestly makes RVers–even those rolling in the mini-mansions towing Escalades–look like wannabees.
It’s called the Hotelicopter. Some enterprising folks purchased a Soviet made Mil V-12, a hugamongous prototype for a Soviet military helicopter that’s capable of delivering the population of a captive Republic to Siberia in one trip…
This 42 meter long beast has some pretty amazing specs. Since 2004, European entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe has been having the helicopter remodeled as a luxury hotel that takes you to your destination.
The Hotelicopter has 16 cabins and, of course, two suites when you absolutely must go first class.
Cabins will have flat screen TVs, room service, Internet access, and Wiis. Of course, the Hotelicopter has a fitness center, whirlpool, sauna, and a spa and salon.
Hotelicopter image from Hotelicopter.com
They even have a Japanese garden with a koi pond. I had a nice flight a few months back on Southwest, but I remember thinking how super it would have been if there were a koi pond in first class.
Image of DFW Elite Auto Rental 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo by Fort Worth exotic car photographer Josh Davis. Used with permission.
This level of service will doubtless attract a five star clientele with a sense of adventure–the same sort of folks that want to have a Lamborghini Gallardo rental fueled and waiting at DFW International when they arrive in Dallas.
Those with a desire for a land-based thrill should consider an exotic car driving experience.
The maiden voyage of the Hotelicopter won’t be until this summer. Facebook fans can friend the Hotelicopter to be kept up-to-date. Visit http://hotelicopter.com/
Visitors to DFW can check out a dream car driving experience from DFW Drive Your Dream that will put the at the controls of a Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari 360 Spyder, Audi R8, Dodge Viper and Porsche 911. Visitors to the NY/NJ metro can enjoy a dream car drive from the folks behind Vulcan Motor Club.
I may be out of step with the spirit of the times, but I applaud the entrepreneurs behing the Hotelicopter and wish them all the success in the world.
Post written by Tampa English Tutor and freelance writer Eric Anderson. To have Eric write stories for your blog, vist PDQWebcopywriting.com.
Eric on March 27th 2009 in Exotic Car Rental
“I thought, ‘This here’s gonna beat the heck out of working,’” Lloyd Ruby told Motor Trend in a recent interview about his decision to enter the world of automobile racing. The Wichita Falls, TX native passed away Monday after a long and impressive career.
Often remembered as a talented driver who, through numerous twists of fate, never managed to win the Indy 500, Ruby was born on January 12, 1928. He got started in racing with motor scooters and motorcycles, and from there, he progressed to road-racing and sprint-car racing. He raced stock cars, Formula 1, and midget cars as well.
A participant in every Indy 500 race from 1960 to 1977, Ruby had seven victories, 88 top ten finishes, and captured third place in 1964. He came close to winning the famous race on several occasions, but he was always foiled by a mechanical failure or other stroke of bad luck.
However, despite never winning the Indy 500, Ruby has a distinguished career in racing. He raced in the USAC Championship Car series for nearly 20 years, winning the race seven times. He also racked up victories in United States Grand Prix, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the 24 Hours of Daytona.
Photos courtesy of Toy Collector and business consultant Ron Sturgeon.
Known for his steady hand and quick thinking behind the wheel, Ruby told Motor Trend that how you treat your car is an important part of racing.
“During the long races, you had to pace yourself and be good to the car,” he said. “If a driver was too tough on it, most often, they just didn’t finish.”
Over the course of his impressive career, many honors came to Rudy. In 2005, he received the Bruton Smith Legends Award at the Texas Motor Speedway. He also was inducted into the Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame last year. Ruby even has an overpass named after him.
One of the many good things about auto racing is its tendency to remember the great legends, both human and automotive. Museums like the DFW Elite Toy Museum with its collection of Indy cars and the Hall of Fame Museum at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ensure that great Indy cars will not be forgotten. And fans also remember the great drivers like Lloyd Ruby.
But Ruby will be remembered for more than just his distinguished racing career. Friends describe him as a Southern gentleman and a practical joker. Many recall his dry sense of humor and compassion for others. In the Motor Trend interview, Ruby said he would like to be remembered as himself.
“I enjoyed racing,” he said. “It’s been my whole life. I wouldn’t trade my life for anybody’s.”
Kate Miller-Wilson is a professional freelance writer living in the Twin Cities. Visit her website or email her for information about her freelance writing services.
Eric on March 25th 2009 in Exotic Car Rental
Adrenaline rush has different meanings to different people. But for most readers of this blog it probably doesn’t man getting a Prada half off. More likely, it means finding something fantastic on eBay motors or hooking up with a friend for an exotic car driving experience of full day of blasting around Texas Motor Speedway on a track day.
For me adrenaline rush means getting behind the wheel of a car that I have had serious desire to drive: the Audi R8. Not since the Ford GT and later the 600HP Viper were in the paddock at DFW’s premier exotic car sharing club–have I had such a desire to drive one car.
Here’s a hint as to why I’ve got serious auto envy:
Anyone else have a dream car that they have been seriously lusting to drive? For me, driving an R8 with a heavy foot would be the ultimate adrenaline rush!
This post by SE friendly content creator Eric Anderson. Eric’s recent projects include content for a Clearwater Mortgage broker’s website and an online vintage costume jewelry store.
Eric on March 22nd 2009 in Exotic Car Rental
According the Commerce Department, Americans spent less on travel and tourism for the first time since the September 11th attacks. Americans who are taking time off are staying closer to home. Kelly Evans, writing for the Wall Street Journal, observed that “For their part, Americans are sharply scaling back vacation plans, canceling trips outright or trading down to cheaper options.”
(Photo by pointnshoot on Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Only.)
Fortunately, Dallas-Fort Worth residents don’t need to leave town to find ways to stimulate the local economy and enjoy a mini-vacation. Turn off the cell phone, shut down the blackberry, and enjoy a DFW mini vacation with the boys:
(Drive Your Dream Tour photo taken by Josh Davis and used with permission.)
This article written by SE friendly content writer Eric Anderson. Eric’s recent writing projects include copy for a vintage costume jewelry website and a Dallas car storage website.
Eric on March 19th 2009 in Exotic Car Rental
In an age when a lot of us are concerned about the direction of the economy, it would be nice to get some free money. I’m not talking about the twenty that you found in a pair of jeans hanging in your closet.
I am talking about found money, though. There is a pair of legitimate sites that were recently written about in the Wall Street Journal: missing money.com and unclaimed.org.
When a company cannot locate you to repay a deposit on utility service, mortgage insurance premium refund, or a dividend, they eventually must give the asset to the government in case you ever reappear to claim it.
Finding missing money is as simple as typing in your name for the states that you have lived in and searching for your previous addresses.
If you happen to discover that your long lost aunt left you a six-figure sum, why not celebrate by renting a Lamborghini Gallardo in Dallas?
Better yet, why not drive the dream cars that you desire by becoming a member of DFW’s premier exotic car sharing club?
In tight economic times, when a few dollars more or less does make a difference, why not take a minute and see if you are owed some found money:
Resources:
Wall Street Journal Personal Finance Story
This post written by SE friendly content creators from PDQ Web Copywriting. Recent writing projects include copy for a Wesley Chapel FL mortgage broker and copy for a vintage costume jewelry website.
Eric on March 15th 2009 in Exotic Car Rental
It is easy to be distressed when the papers are full of news about plant closings, foreclosures, and stock market losses. The economy in 2009 is not what it was two or three years ago. The housing crisis, tight credit, and uncertainty about the direction that the politicians in Washington will take all have made many small business owners reluctant to expand and hire.
Nearly every American knows someone out of work or looking for work.
CNN reported this morning on one California woman’s clever approach to getting her husband hired. She purchased the domain (http://www.myhusbandneedsajob.com) and posted his resume and their story. The CNN publicity will likely get her husband, Mike Stearns, a job offer or two.
I hope so and I applaud her for doing something different. Getting career counseling, having a resume professionally created, and mailing it out in response to adds are great first steps in this economy. But they won’t be enough to get hired for the vast majority of people who do them.
This traditional job searching technique only puts the resume in a stack of many others to be considered. Networking in person and online, developing relationships and trust are important keys to tapping the hidden job market — the market of decision makers that know they have a need but have not invited the world to apply.
Where do you think the chances are better to get hired? When you are proactively soliciting a business owner who you have a good reason to know has a need for those with your skill set? Or when you are responding to an advertisement and adding your resume to a pile that will be culled by an HR person and only a few resumes will reach the decision maker.
Mrs. Stearns’ approach may have been unorthodox, but her success selling CNN on publicizing her job search method certainly will get Mr. Stearns’ resume a look see by lots of people. I hope one of them will hire him and I applaud her initiative and cleverness.
Her program to find her husband a job reminds me that the first step to doing something better is to do it differently.
One of my favorite business books, The Max Strategy, is a parable that teaches the same lesson.
Small business owners facing this economy will need to do things differently if they are to thrive in an economy where customers are difficult to find.
Fort Worth entrepreneur Ron Sturgeon is offering small business owners an opportunity to tap the accumulated knowledge of peers in their industry to solve their most difficult challenges. These peer benchmarking review groups will be industry specific and will include only one members from a geographic area.
“Many entrepreneurs belong to CEO round tables and other peer mentoring groups and those are all excellent,” says Sturgeon. “However, they are rarely composed of members of the same industry and so much of what is learned does not apply to the business that the attendee is running,” said Sturgeon.
Sturgeon attributes much of his success in the auto salvage industry to membership in an industry specific peer benchmarking review group. “Over the ten years our group of salvage yard owners met no one dropped out,” said Sturgeon. They stayed because of the benefit they received from the ideas exchanged among owners of similar businesses facing similar issues.
If you are ready to do something different as an owner of a small business, you may wish to join a peer benchmarking review group. Ron Sturgeon will be facilitating such groups for a number of types of small businesses in the coming months.
In the meantime, bravo Mrs. Stearns and good luck Mike!
This article written by freelance SEO web writer Eric Anderson. Eric’s recent content writing projects have included content for a vintage designer jewelry website and a Tampa, FL mortgage broker website.
Eric on March 14th 2009 in Exotic Car Rental
When we think of electric cars, we usually picture something cute, small, and let’s face it, underpowered. Smart Cars and other electric vehicles are really neat in terms of the technology that goes into them, and there’s no denying that they’re great for the planet. Yet, they won’t be likely to satisfy most exotic car fans in the near future.
That’s where Neil Young and the Progressive Automotive X Prize come in. Young and partner Jonathan Goodwin, a mechanic from Wichita, Kansas, are working to convert a 1959 Lincoln Continental to electric power.
So far, Young has invested about $120,000 in converting the car, and he expects the project to cost about $250,000 total. The team tested the vehicle last spring.
“She was awesome,” Young told the Associated Press. “Her acceleration was incredible, she moved with hardly a sound; it was so quiet we could hear the wind through the tags of other cars.”
The Progressive Automotive X Prize, which Young and Goodwin plan to enter, is a race to develop a production-ready automobile capable of getting at least 100 miles per gallon. More than 60 teams will participate in the cross-country race, which will take place this year and in 2010.
Neil Young photo by Robert Scoble and licensed under Creative Commons attribution only.
Goodwin and Young call the car the “Linc Volt.” At two and a half tons, it’s not a lightweight vehicle, but it is fully electric. Goodwin hopes to use the same technology to convert the type of vehicles Americans love to drive.
LincVolt photo by Thomas Kriese and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Only license.
“If you take that same technology,” he told The Wichita Eagle, “and you stream it down into something that’s more modern, or a large SUV, the capabilities are a guarantee there.”
There’s no denying that we love to drive cars that are powerful. There are few people who wouldn’t jump at the chance to drive a Lamborghini or get behind the wheel of a Bentley. If Neil Young and the X Prize have anything to do with it, we won’t have to sacrifice power to achieve good fuel economy.
Audi photo by Josh Davis of Josh Davis Photography in Fort Worth, TX. All rights reserved.
In the meantime, a lot of people are switching to exotic car sharing clubs, rather than shelling out the money to buy an exotic vehicle. Exotic car clubs give members access to an entire garage of exotic vehicles, and they can still drive a fuel-efficient car for their daily commute. Until automakers produce an electric car that’s fun to drive, car clubs are a good option.
Young told the Associated Press that creating an electric car and participating in the X Prize is part of his personal mission.
“You know, I thought long ago you could change the world by writing songs,” he said. “But you can’t change the world by writing songs. Oh, you can inspire a few people, get some of them to change their thinking about something. But you can’t change the world by writing songs. But we could change it with this car.”
Kate Miller-Wilson is a professional freelance web content writer living in the Twin Cities. Visit her website or email her for information about her freelance writing services.
Eric on March 12th 2009 in Lamborghini, Makes
We hear a lot about cars with great fuel efficiency, but those cars are often small and underpowered, hardly inspiring to fans of exotic vehicles. However, if the Progressive Automotive X Prize has anything to do with it, the fuel-efficient vehicles of the future will have performance capability in line with today’s impressive standards.
Photo licensed under Creative Commons attribution only. Photo by Loiclemeur. See more of his car photos on Flickr.
According to the official website, the Progressive Automotive X Prize is a $10 Million race designed “to inspire a new generation of viable, super-efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change.”
The race will consist of more than 60 different teams, representing 10 countries around the world. The contestants will race cross-country this year and in 2010. The goal of the race is to find a vehicle that appeals to consumers, meets strict emissions standards, and gets at least 100 miles per gallon.
“A race like this is an excellent way to inspire innovation without sacrificing performance,” says small business consultant Ron Sturgeon. “Competition can really foster creativity.”
The competition is also open to modified existing vehicles, not just new designs. Jonathan Goodwin, a Wichita, KS native who has a national reputation for green vehicle modifications, is planning to participate in the X Prize competition. His team is called “Goodwin Young” and plans to race a modified car owned by music legend Neil Young.
“What I’m interested in is being able to push the technology,” Goodwin told The Wichita Eagle.
Goodwin has been working on a modified 1959 Lincoln Continental owned by Neil Young. The vehicle is called the “Lincoln Volt” and is 19 and a half feet long and two and a half tons.
“We’re not talking about concept cars,” X Prize Foundation chairman and chief executive Peter Diamandis told The Wichita Eagle. “We’re talking about real cars that can be brought to market in the near term that consumers will want to buy.”
With the automotive market in a tailspin, finding a car consumers would like to buy could be tricky. On the other hand, contests like this could make it possible to drive your dream car without worrying about the impact on the environment.
Another option for more earth-friendly exotic car driving is joining an exotic car sharing club. Members have access to an entire garage of exotic cars, but they share the vehicles. Exotic car enthusiasts can drive fuel-efficient vehicles during the week and drive exotic cars on the weekend.
Kate Miller-Wilson is a professional freelance writer living in the Twin Cities. Visit her website or email her for information about her freelance writing services.
Eric on March 11th 2009 in Exotic Car Rental