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DMLR*Newsletter — GOLD Edition no.50
I. Drive-In.
 The places of our childhood are always fantastic, both real and dreamed places. The places of our childhood we always seem to love. This is a journey to those places... Do your safety belt up!
My father was born in a house very close to the factory of one of the most legendary special car, Maserati. I only could see he was a blue collar on a foundry where thousands of popular cars were built through the assembly line. But he was used to repeat he had been working at Maserati before leaving his birth place.
Thus the cars have been dwelling in my fantasy very soon, particularly the special or racing cars. And drawing racing cars was my first employment. Designing of cars was like driving them --lateral view or high standing view. Every car was usually hand-painted on paper and sticked on a thin cardboard, then all cut-refined. Finally, every car was ready to be driven, launched, stopped on the floor --including pure adrenaline.
As teenager I was able to replicate a brand new model just in time, long before the toys industry could launch the model of the same racing car, usually a few months later.
This was my favorite play indoor, because it allowed me to lead 15-20 cars at the same time and create very legendary racings inside a small room. An endurance racing could last for days and days until the end of the time... That was before the year 1970, over 40 years ago.
Today kids are going to dream special cars by leading them on interactive GranTurismo, that is a real driving simulator to run by PlayStation (eu.gran-turismo.com). So one can drive a Ford GT40... and many other classic racing cars through the favorite racetracks!
Since 1970 on I started living in the city of Maserati, the brand now owned by Fiat Group. Every day I drive my car forth and back along the way to work, that is running alongside the newly rebuilt Maserati factory --the Trident is just there up the tower. A hundred meters from the factory, very close to my father's birth house, a strange building site is active from some months...
[Breaking news] The site will host the 'Museum of Enzo Ferrari', the famous car-maker born in Modena. The 12,000,000-euro allotted work has been projected by Jan Kaplicky (www.future-systems.com), and is expected to finish January 2011...
Nothing happens by chance --wouldn't you think?
Not to say the rank of car dealers one can review while riding to East along the one-lane Via Emilia. Peugeot, Ford, Porsche, Audi, Jaguar, Ferrari, BMW... all queued with their captivating models on parade beside your cockpit and ready to distract you from the pits! This memory inspired me to open the Special Issue no.50 from a pair of lines about a city that is considered the Italian capital of racing cars and write a whole chapter on my personal dreaming cars stored in MoTown!
II. MoTown.
 WARNING! The automobiles herein are not intended for street use.
My best car models have been the kind of 1:43 scale. I did stock a wide range of quality die cast models, most of that made by Solido. My personal collection was composed by models coming usually from a stationer's shop --how much did they cost? Maybe 1200 lire each. From that (lost) historical equipment I would like to quote the most celebrated models. I'm saying they are important not only for me because they became classic racing cars. And a collector, reading this list of the biggest ten, could acknowledge their importance for a whole generation...
- a white Porsche Carrera 6
- a green Ferrari 330
- a red Ferrari LM250
- a blue Matra V12
- an orange McLaren Can-Am
- a white Chaparral Turbo
- a red-white Porsche 917K
- a yellow-green Ligier JS3
- a red AlfaRomeo 33-3
- a light blue Porsche 908
(My preference for Sports cars gives evidence!)
Plus a series of models to such splendid cars or prototypes as Lamborghini Miura, Ferrari P5, Sigma GrandPrix, Dino 246 GT, Lancia Stratos, all designed by the good society of Italian designers.
The best moment when you unpacked the model was completing the dreaming car, because you had to stick the graphics ('decal') along the crude body of the model. And put onto the right place the name of driver(s), the sponsoring brand, the tyre, oil or lubricant providers etc. This finishing job was very exciting and meant to get the car model race ready. The toys would have gone faster than ever those years...
Car models now? Miniatures on this page are from a range made by www.sparkmodel.com or www.ixomodels.com.
Let's market now the most classic brand of modeling. Much differently from the 1:43 static models of my childhood, the great modeling is based on the activity of making three-dimensional cars, typically on a smaller scale than the original. BBurago provides kits of assemblying for classic car models in a 1:18 scale (www.bburago.com).
For example, Ferrari Testarossa (Le Mans 1958) is available as detailed model in die-cast metal, steerable front wheels, spare wheel, visible engine, furnished interior, approximately 10" in lenght and weighing 20 ounces. Colored in red or yellow. Through such a model you enter the legend of the farthest speed in the world!
III. Le Mans.
 Sarthe, France. 24 hours of competition. Day and night. Les Hunaudières, a long long rectilinear stretch... Mulsanne another straight at... The Dunlop footbridge... Le Mans, what else?
A film shooted during the real racing in 1970. And starring Steve McQueen.
Hollywood star and motor sport fan, McQueen guessed something fearsome was going to happen that year. Maybe some newly projected cars have been getting too quick and risking to get off the ground?
Wait. We are talking about Le Mans, and I have no idea if the filmed product was worth the investment, they have told 10,000£ a day for shooting on the legendary circuit while the spectacular event was ongoing!
Wait again. We wanna talk about Le Mans and the legend it created from an endurance car competition. Fine, in the '70s there are three classified performances to measure along the 24 hours.
I. The longest distance to cover --i.e. this is the absolut winner
II. The best result as for the consume of fuel
III. The best performance index, a complex computing of distance / consume / weight of cars.
The complexity of tough regulations gives you the idea of the great importance of this long-distance racing for a car brand wanting to affirm its excellence in studying motor vehicles to drive on the ordinary routes, and having the purpose to provide people with cars assuring wide margin of efficiency. Winning Le Mans? That's a marketing medium as no other in the automotive field!
 Best links, modern and classic, to the legend of Le Mans 24 Hourrace:
- www.lemansclassic.com
- www.lemans.org
- www.lemanslive.com
- www.radiolemans.org
The early '70s at Le Mans gave us some of the fastest and most distinctive cars of ever... Now, the dominant question in 1970/71 could appear more fashionable than technical: "long-tail or short-tail?" What about tail, maybe Mary Quant had gone on until Le Mans? No, but in fact the aerodynamics of the cars assume a basic relevance to gain competitive advantage. Moreover very stylish vestment have been going to customize the racing cars, including 1971 Porsche 917 painted pink and designed as pig-cuts --Schwanz, Schinken, Wamme, Lende, Kotlett, Schulter, Rüssel... Let's say an 'Art Car'!
Breaking News!!! At Le Mans this year three diesel-fueled Audi finished first, second and third. The winning car broke the record for the furthest distance travelled set back in 1971... (As Herr Piech knows very well.)
IV. Racing Team.
My car is black, more precisely black-ink painted like the guide to Fiat Brava gives full details of. His black-ink color remembers me a lot of ink flown from my pens when I was drawing dreamcars for my kid's pleasure.
Somewhere I'm sketching today only if the Magnificent and the Marvellous solicit me to show some cars on paper with us inside in a real life's moment...
Immediately I outline a car that absolutely seem the profile of a racing car of early '70s. They don't know it's a long-time attitude I can never lose for an insane instinct of the former car designer who's in me.
Last year, the major of two children has written for me a short phrase without a purpose. It only says: You have driven bravissimo!
It's a great compliment from so a little boy. I know he's really sincere because he knows I'm very good when I learn him to navigate and lead me until his school. Left, right, straight up... We are getting on very well while I'm driving.
I would like to explain him that my car is going old, so I have to treat it kindly and run not too fast to save fuel and tyres. As a couple we are ready for classic endurance racing since every day is a wild road...(¹)
Our fuel consuming ranges from 11.3 litres to 6.6 litres per 100 km., based on the type of routes we are covering. An everage consume for a combined route should be around 8.0 litres per 100 km. Today that distance is costing 11 euro left to the pump.
As for the CO2 exhaust emissions, the car releases almost 200g/km (max. value). And this value actually sounds like the real limit of the car. But each car goes classic, sooner or later. So I had better double the horsepower, adopt forged pistons plus sports suspensions & exhausts, enhance the I.C.E., revamp the image with vinyl stickers and custom made paint, upgrade the silhouette with style competition wheels and rear wings... They call all this work tracking out an old car!
The result of a complete body restoration is something like the amazing car reproduced here (right)...
 To put interest into your children, and explain with real examples the project of a zero-emission vehicle, I have found very important as gift a Racers Lego box, suitable to children aged 6-10. It contains the Lego pieces to build in a few minutes a model shaped like a sportscar on a 1:55 scale. It allows a simple way of deconstructing the car to show them what it works inside the vehicle-system. The toy's name is Blue Bullet (www.lego.com). The colors are light blue and orange just like... Now read on the special no.50's surplus material. It's a Monster issue!
(¹)How to meet our racing team? From Bologna airport...
- Take the direction to highway toward Milano
- Take exit Via Emilia (ss. 9) toward Modena --be aware of the bad surface of the road!
- Get into the right lane and stay straight --Ferrari and Maserati test-cars could come close to you
- Just entered Modena, after the car dealers district, go to the right on Via Caduti sul Lavoro (sic!)
- Get into the second left way named Via Indipendenza, then Via Divisione Acqui --the final mile has got several chicanes on the straightaway to slow the cars down
- Maserati headquarters are located on the right. For the next opening Museo Ferrari go 200m straight ahead
- My car is usually on the way just thereabouts...
V. Direct Marketing.
The DIRECT MARKETING glossary is available on DMLR in a 3-document edition (PDF) you can browse here or easily download onto your desktop.
It consists of 19 pages as a whole, 311 paragraphs/terms, 236 Kb, 7450 words, 44772 types!
Select and print the three parts of the glossary in English from PDF::Menu.
Sure the Internet has been changing the traditional snail-mail and telephone based direct marketing. And yet the Internet marketing is a consequence of the old direct marketing techniques. Many terms you'll find inside the DM glossary are suiting for the e-mail marketing too.
Visit www.gprdirect.com, racewear emporium specialized in historic items.
VI. Linked
Resources.
 Breaking News!
In the Shell Eco-Marathon Polytech' Nantes managed to travel 4896km on one litre of fuel --May, 2010.
The same as driving from the northern tip of Norway to the southern tip of Italy! (Source: MotorSport Magazine)
VII. You&Quiz
ANSWER TO YOU&QUIZ ON DMLR*NEWS GOLD No.49: the CORPORATE LOGO is... usually represented by emblems or signs, many of which have become as familiar and powerful as brand names. Leading logos include Royal Dutch Shell's clam shell and Mercedes' three-pointed star in a circle.
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