Model S sighting, at Long Beach Grand Prix ("Roar on the Shore" pre-race Promotion)
Model S sighting at the pre race Indycar Long Beach Grand Prix, on Wednesday 4/17 ("Roar on the Shore").
Background:
ALMS & Indycar (along with Pirelli series) are racing at Long Beach. ALMS is known for a "Technology" racing series, where there is an emphasis on Innovation ("open architecture", as opposed to a more-or-less "closed architecture" Spec series of Indycar). This is where Auto Mfrs come into ALMS ("Development Platform") to do some "Real World" R&D..combining their STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) top-down "Book Knowledge" with some Auto Racing "crackheads" (addicts), who predominantly do Empiricism: "intuitive" guided trial-and-error (aka "Real World Knowledge).
As I'm typing this, I'm watching/recording the ALMS race at Sonoma (N. California, near Silicon Valley), where a General Motors rep said:
"we develop Technology on the race-track, so the Consumer Market cars can become bullet-proof"
So, at the Wednesday event, there is a heavy presence of ALMS cars (P1 & P2 prototypes, & the other "lesser" Sportscar classes). I'm taking pics of the Tequila Patron P1 (?) prototype:
More pics here:
2013 Indycar Long Beach GP 4/17 Wed - a set on Flickr
& suddenly notice a license-plate-less black sedan..it's a Model S!! I'm pretty sure someone at Tesla Motors (Auto Racing aware/cognizant) realized this Promotional Event for Long Beach GP (especially ALMS), would be a good opportunity to showcase "Cutting/Bleeding Edge Technology"...EV. Did Tesla Motors even "push" this over Social Media?? Is Tesla PR/Marketing even "alive", or are they just overwhelmed like their Model S customer-service?
The legendary Jim Hall (Masters Mechanical Engineering, Caltech), who invented Ground Effects for Motorsports..Formula 1, Indycar, ALMS, etc, was at the Long Beach GP at a promotional event/dinner, with Tony Kanaan (top Brazilian Indycar driver, driving for KV Racing Technology)
[ KV Racing Technology is owned by Kevin Kalkhoven, millionaire Silicon Valley Tech entrepreneur (former CEO Uniphase..fiber optics) & VC company owner. He & I are friends since Champcar 2006, who got me Media-Credentials for 2006 & this years 2013 race. BTW, the 2nd CEO of Tesla Motors (Ze'ev Drori, also Silicon Valley entrepreneur..founder of Monolithic Memories, Sportscar & Racing entusiast, who raced the Toyota Celebrity race at Long Beach GP) was a competitive bidder for bankrupt CART against Kalkhoven/Gentilozzi/Forsythe, who ended up getting the winning bid (to form Champcar)... ]
It's interesting how these wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneurs (who dabble in rich hobbies like Auto Racing & pricey SPortscars), including:
1) Elon Musk
owned a McLaren F1 road-car (1 million $$)
2) Martin Eberhard
desired to buy a electric sportscar, after his windfall sale of Nuvomedia (rocketbook E-reader) to (infamous) Dr Henry Yuen (Caltech PhD Mathematics) for 180 million..got destroyed as part of some "empire building" scheme..HY currently on FBI wanted list for Securities Fraud.
Martin ended up at Alan Cocconi's ACP (AC Propulsion), in attempt to buy the Tzero prototype (Li ion powered electric sportscar, crazy 0 - 60mph performance). No go, but they put Martin in touch with Elon Musk (who contacted ACP about a similar foray into "mass production of EVs"). That resulted in a 1hr appt at SpaceX, which ended up lasting all afternoon, & pledge of 40 million as 1st principal investment in Tesla Motors. Tesla Motors got its start..
Martin was a sportscar enthusiast when he was my grad-school office-mate (driving '67 black Ford Mustang), I still remember how he took me & YC Pan (other office-mate) to his Apartment (with Carolyn in tow)..loaded with Books. (Martin was a great reader, which explains his Nuvomedia Rocketbook venture, then his Tesla Motors venture "hooked" into his other passion: Cars). He got speeding ticket in one "wild moment" outside U of Illinois, Carolyn mentioned something about Martin's "racy driving style" ("the man's a maniac behind the wheel"), so he's got the "racing blood". Martin did is '83 MS Electrical Eng thesis on Robotics, this was my focus when I entered the AARG (Advanced Automation Research Group..Big 3 Tech: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Robotics..the CORE Technology for "robot cars", aka AVN Autonomous Vehicle Navigation) at Coordinated Science Laboratory at UIUC. Which explains my foray into Offroad & Offroad Racing, i.e. Robotics people LIKE mechanical toys as par of the
"Boys, Toys, & their NOISE"
paradigm (much like most Tesla clients). There's ANOTHER (famous) MIT PhD Artificial Intelligence (same era as Martin & me), who used to drive a red Fire Engine to work, a pioneer in Supercomputing who had his own startup (later failed, due to circumstances beyond his control). Kinda like what happened to Martin at Tesla. This guy recovered nicely, & collaborated with Caltech Physics Nobelist R. Feynman, in Computing. Martin (his 2nd home) & I live near Caltech. That Alan Cocconi (see above, ACP) & Wally Rippel (Tesla hire) are famous Caltech Engineering alumni, who were involved with Development of EV1 prototype at Aerovironment (founded by legendary Caltech Aeronautics PhD Dr Paul Macready), after Hughes had problems executing a contract with General Motors.
I have an Indycar project going
[ "Technology Partnership", drawing Tech companies..21st century version of traditional Mfr "Big 3" involvement: Ford, General Motors, Dodge ]
..& I'll stop here. I may be a factor in getting Tesla Motors (& other startups/initiatives in Electric/Hybrid), some "Protective Umbrella". To lessen risk, as per the Formula 1 saying:
"In order to Push the Limits, sometimes YOU HAVE TO EXCEED THE LIMITS"
-- F1 "knife edge cars"
Model S sighting at the pre race Indycar Long Beach Grand Prix, on Wednesday 4/17 ("Roar on the Shore").
Background:
ALMS & Indycar (along with Pirelli series) are racing at Long Beach. ALMS is known for a "Technology" racing series, where there is an emphasis on Innovation ("open architecture", as opposed to a more-or-less "closed architecture" Spec series of Indycar). This is where Auto Mfrs come into ALMS ("Development Platform") to do some "Real World" R&D..combining their STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) top-down "Book Knowledge" with some Auto Racing "crackheads" (addicts), who predominantly do Empiricism: "intuitive" guided trial-and-error (aka "Real World Knowledge).
As I'm typing this, I'm watching/recording the ALMS race at Sonoma (N. California, near Silicon Valley), where a General Motors rep said:
"we develop Technology on the race-track, so the Consumer Market cars can become bullet-proof"
So, at the Wednesday event, there is a heavy presence of ALMS cars (P1 & P2 prototypes, & the other "lesser" Sportscar classes). I'm taking pics of the Tequila Patron P1 (?) prototype:
More pics here:
2013 Indycar Long Beach GP 4/17 Wed - a set on Flickr
& suddenly notice a license-plate-less black sedan..it's a Model S!! I'm pretty sure someone at Tesla Motors (Auto Racing aware/cognizant) realized this Promotional Event for Long Beach GP (especially ALMS), would be a good opportunity to showcase "Cutting/Bleeding Edge Technology"...EV. Did Tesla Motors even "push" this over Social Media?? Is Tesla PR/Marketing even "alive", or are they just overwhelmed like their Model S customer-service?
The legendary Jim Hall (Masters Mechanical Engineering, Caltech), who invented Ground Effects for Motorsports..Formula 1, Indycar, ALMS, etc, was at the Long Beach GP at a promotional event/dinner, with Tony Kanaan (top Brazilian Indycar driver, driving for KV Racing Technology)
[ KV Racing Technology is owned by Kevin Kalkhoven, millionaire Silicon Valley Tech entrepreneur (former CEO Uniphase..fiber optics) & VC company owner. He & I are friends since Champcar 2006, who got me Media-Credentials for 2006 & this years 2013 race. BTW, the 2nd CEO of Tesla Motors (Ze'ev Drori, also Silicon Valley entrepreneur..founder of Monolithic Memories, Sportscar & Racing entusiast, who raced the Toyota Celebrity race at Long Beach GP) was a competitive bidder for bankrupt CART against Kalkhoven/Gentilozzi/Forsythe, who ended up getting the winning bid (to form Champcar)... ]
It's interesting how these wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneurs (who dabble in rich hobbies like Auto Racing & pricey SPortscars), including:
1) Elon Musk
owned a McLaren F1 road-car (1 million $$)
2) Martin Eberhard
desired to buy a electric sportscar, after his windfall sale of Nuvomedia (rocketbook E-reader) to (infamous) Dr Henry Yuen (Caltech PhD Mathematics) for 180 million..got destroyed as part of some "empire building" scheme..HY currently on FBI wanted list for Securities Fraud.
Martin ended up at Alan Cocconi's ACP (AC Propulsion), in attempt to buy the Tzero prototype (Li ion powered electric sportscar, crazy 0 - 60mph performance). No go, but they put Martin in touch with Elon Musk (who contacted ACP about a similar foray into "mass production of EVs"). That resulted in a 1hr appt at SpaceX, which ended up lasting all afternoon, & pledge of 40 million as 1st principal investment in Tesla Motors. Tesla Motors got its start..
Martin was a sportscar enthusiast when he was my grad-school office-mate (driving '67 black Ford Mustang), I still remember how he took me & YC Pan (other office-mate) to his Apartment (with Carolyn in tow)..loaded with Books. (Martin was a great reader, which explains his Nuvomedia Rocketbook venture, then his Tesla Motors venture "hooked" into his other passion: Cars). He got speeding ticket in one "wild moment" outside U of Illinois, Carolyn mentioned something about Martin's "racy driving style" ("the man's a maniac behind the wheel"), so he's got the "racing blood". Martin did is '83 MS Electrical Eng thesis on Robotics, this was my focus when I entered the AARG (Advanced Automation Research Group..Big 3 Tech: Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Robotics..the CORE Technology for "robot cars", aka AVN Autonomous Vehicle Navigation) at Coordinated Science Laboratory at UIUC. Which explains my foray into Offroad & Offroad Racing, i.e. Robotics people LIKE mechanical toys as par of the
"Boys, Toys, & their NOISE"
paradigm (much like most Tesla clients). There's ANOTHER (famous) MIT PhD Artificial Intelligence (same era as Martin & me), who used to drive a red Fire Engine to work, a pioneer in Supercomputing who had his own startup (later failed, due to circumstances beyond his control). Kinda like what happened to Martin at Tesla. This guy recovered nicely, & collaborated with Caltech Physics Nobelist R. Feynman, in Computing. Martin (his 2nd home) & I live near Caltech. That Alan Cocconi (see above, ACP) & Wally Rippel (Tesla hire) are famous Caltech Engineering alumni, who were involved with Development of EV1 prototype at Aerovironment (founded by legendary Caltech Aeronautics PhD Dr Paul Macready), after Hughes had problems executing a contract with General Motors.
I have an Indycar project going
[ "Technology Partnership", drawing Tech companies..21st century version of traditional Mfr "Big 3" involvement: Ford, General Motors, Dodge ]
..& I'll stop here. I may be a factor in getting Tesla Motors (& other startups/initiatives in Electric/Hybrid), some "Protective Umbrella". To lessen risk, as per the Formula 1 saying:
"In order to Push the Limits, sometimes YOU HAVE TO EXCEED THE LIMITS"
-- F1 "knife edge cars"