leo parente: today on"shakedown," mike spinelli, the creator of the "shakedown"concept, will reconnect with those racing roots by joiningme on this "shakedown" to discuss racing news. and speaking of connecting,i'm dialed into you guys watching "shakedown" on drive. so we will talk dtmchampionship. you commented that i ignored thegerman touring cars, even as the dtm season ended and the
championships were crowned. staying with the news, let'salso give you a heads-up for the world endurance championshipracing this weekend, their lastrace of the year. and of course, f1is racing, too. yeah, in an earlier show i saidit was f1 in turkey-- eh, istanbul-- india-- hey, it's all the sameto an ugly american, right? and i confuse everything withturkey, like i'm dressing up
for thanksgiving as "gangnamstyle" guy because, see, i confuse turkey with halloween. yeah, the jokes are onlygetting worse-- anyway, f1 in india. and speaking of red bull, theus government may be going after them and the other energydrinks for health reasons, like i'm-no-longer-breathing health reasons. but the new jersey governorwants you to drink the stuff
like there's no tomorrow,even if the health thing is kind of real. because rumor is that red bullis coming to save the new jersey grand prix with thatgreen caffeine called cash. yeah, cash gives everythinga boost-- wings-- whatever. so pound down a few of thosered bulls to help the new jersey grand prix.
and come race day, the crowd maybe missing a few hipsters. hey, but at least we'll havea grand prix to enjoy. so thanks, hipsters. why am i laughing? because for reasons completelyout of my control, mike spinelli is hereon "shakedown." mike spinelli: hey, leo. leo parente: mikey. mike spinelli: fantasticto see you.
leo parente: whereare we, mikey? mike spinelli: i don't know. are we in the deltasky lounge? like, what the hellhappened here? leo parente: i feel like i'mwaiting for the flight to turkey to go to the f1 race. mike spinelli: i know. no, this is great. this is the new drive set.
we've already used it for "roadtestament" this week. leo parente: oh. mike spinelli: a "roadtestament." leo parente: right. mike spinelli: yeah. leo parente: ok. mike spinelli: so thisis kind of cool. i mean, it's veryretro something. it's comfortable, too.
leo parente: this lookslike your high school shop class project. mike spinelli: i didthat on a lathe. leo parente: oh, i can'teven say that. so we're going to talk aboutthe racing news. and there's going to end upbeing maybe a theme through the whole thing. but let's start with worldendurance championship. mike spinelli: yes.
so last race, they'rein shanghai. audi's already wonthe championship. but toyota had a winout of fuji. mike spinelli: ok,wait a minute. now, toyota's running one car. leo parente: yes. mike spinelli: now catch me upon this because i actually haven't been following it. so toyota's running onecar against audi's 17.
leo parente: yes, somethingreally like that-- one-- two or three-- or 17. leo parente: no question. and it turns out, you'reprobably going to be better at this than i am. because i really haven'tstudied up as much. and what i like when we talkabout racing is that you've got the car perspective. but then you have this wholedifferent take on it than all
of these alleged racingexperts and stuff. mike spinelli: well,hopefully. yeah but i mean, the racingnerds are probably going to be frustrated with me. but we'll work it out. leo parente: so you're right. i mean, wec started asa manufacturer's championship only. then it seemed like they'vemorphed into, well, we better
acknowledge the drivers. and the audi drivers arecompeting for their last championship. i think mcnish and kristensenare like 16.5 points behind. but you're right. audi, the way they do theirpoints is almost like f1. so if you've got multiple carscoring multiple points, i think, then they'regoing to win. mike spinelli: it feelslike a hack.
leo parente: these guys neverintended to race. when i point to theseguys, i mean toyota. this was going to bea development year. then remember, audi-- peugeot bailed. mike spinelli: i rememberthis from le mans. ok. so now toyota has been fast. they finally won their racein their home country.
this is the last raceof the season-- i guess my questionis does wec even matter anymore in america? mike spinelli: [sucking in air] oh, man. you know, it's so weird. because right now with thealms grand am thing happening-- leo parente: --thing.
mike spinelli: right--exactly. i mean, they've never beenable to attract a full prototype class thingin america. and i think that's beena problem for us. because when there'soverlap we'll watch audi and we'll watch-- toyota's never been there. leo parente: not yet. mike spinelli: but youknow, it's audi.
and then the-- leo parente: --and peugeot. mike spinelli: --nondiesels. well, peugeot also,but previously. but now the nondiesel. leo parente: oh, i seewhat you're saying. yeah, for example, like wewere at petit le mans. leo parente: and it was nota wec international race-- whatever it was last year--
had a big crowd. one of the gas enginetoyota rebellion-- not a lola-- not a lotus-- not a whatever-- came and walked the field. i mean, they won the race. l&p cars from alms weresecond and third. but it was reallynever a contest.
but a big crowd cameto see the cars. mike spinelli: yeah, exactly. well, kind of what i'm saying isthat we don't get the best of the technology thatthey're using here. leo parente: i don'tthink so either. mike spinelli: and i guess thereis that economic reason that you've talked abouton the show before. but it's hard to really get intoit when we're not getting the best of the racing.
leo parente: so sebring isnot going to be wec race. but audi has always used thatrace to kind of test their product and their techfor le mans. and they said they're comingback to the alms race in '13. mike spinelli: well,that's good. leo parente: --and rumoris toyota behind it. mike spinelli: oh. leo parente: so wouldyou go to sebring? well, i'm going to goto sebring, anyway.
mike spinelli: well,because sebring-- first of all, you're right. i mean, sebring is agreat place to see all of these guys. peugeot obviously didn'tgo last year. leo parente: theycame privately. mike spinelli: but theycame privately, right. leo parente: i think. right?
it's all been a-- mike spinelli: it's a blur. but sebring is a great place towatch a race just because of the physical issueswith racing there. i mean, it's not greattrack surface. it's kind of tough. sometimes the heat issort of affects the way cars are running. but other than that, it's afantastic race to watch
because of the interest in it. and the thing about racingat that level is the more interest there is in the raceby fans, the more interest there is obviously bymanufacturers and race teams. and then you get all that greatcompetition right there. and then it's a funrace to watch. leo parente: so maybe when weget later in the show, we're going to talk about circuitof americas again. but just as a reminder, wec iscoming to america at circuit
americas next year. so everything seemsto be going there. and again, it's likewhat do you watch? mike spinelli: well, i was goingto say the circuit of americas thing, i'm gladwe're going to talk about that in a bit. because i feel like that'sgoing to become-- to much to the chagrin of a lotof the other tracks in the country-- the focus ofamerican road racing.
leo parente: when we get to dtm,this is going to come up. mike spinelli: exactly. leo parente: there's probablya picture of a corvette we got next. and the only reason i'mmentioning this is this is the private [inaudible] team-- if i pronouncedit right. it's an ex-pratt and millercar from america le mans. of all the championshipsleft that are
undecided, gtem is left. these guys are in the lead. so here's a little americantechnology making a mark internationally. but it's a private team. that's about it. everything else has beenset-- good to go. i'm going to move on. let's talk dtm.
mike spinelli: cool. leo parente: this car is brandnew for this year. this car won the championship. mike spinelli: surprisingly. now here's the bigsurprise, right? leo parente: yeah. 20 years away, bmwshows up in dtm. mike spinelli: yep. leo parente: 20 years later intheir first year, they win the
mike spinelli: right. leo parente: a canadian-- bruno spengler-- mike spinelli: bruno spengler. leo parente: --who wasin the black car. mike spinelli: --who was inmercedes for how long--seven-- leo parente: oh, god,i don't know. mike spinelli: --sevenseasons? leo parente: i don't know.
mike spinelli: this ishis eighth season. leo parente: is that it? mike spinelli: i think so. leo parente: so he hoppedover to bmw-- won four races. mike spinelli: by theway, great driver-- never won-- leo parente: really? mike spinelli: i don't thinkhe won-- he's never won a
leo parente: i don'tknow this stuff. i have to look it up. mike spinelli: oh, ok. and then the hockenheimring-- well, you know we don't getto see these races. so we just catch them on-- youknow, part on youtube and maybe if we can steal itoff of the internets. gary paffett, right? the mercedes guy.
mike spinelli: --and brunospengler was a fantastic battle at hockenheimring. and really, honestly, like thisis above my pay grade at this point. because dtm-- again, we've talked about itbefore-- it's not here yet. and we don't get to see it. so to us in america, germancars are huge, right? they're enthusiasts fodderleft and right.
but we don't get to see themrace like you do in germany and the rest of europe. leo parente: sorry, idon't mean to tease. hold that thought because we allknow that the elephant in the room on that comment isgrand am was talking about bringing dtm to thecountry before the consolidation merger. we've got all the europeanbrands here. you know, bmw--
spengler didn't do it alone. he had to get thatmanufacturer's title-- dirk werner, andy priaulx,martin tomczyk-- did i pronounce it right-- augusto farfus, and our americanjoey hand, who went over there to race. and the big thing aboutthese dtm spec-- it's the new chassis. they all worked together todevelop all the technology.
everything is the same, exceptthey all have their own engine-- bespoke engine. and they have their differentdrivers and different crew and arrow body work. but all the technologyunderneath-- all the hand hankook tires-- that's all spec. and that propagated this whole--another announcement where dtm for 2014 teamedup with japan super gt--
the gt500 class-- and they're going to share 57pieces of technology from the chassis to the diffuser,splitter, wing-- all that arrow stuff-- transmission, suspension, ecu,and even the dtm size tires versus what they wererunning in japan-- all to make a unified typegt road racing type car. mike spinelli: you know,i think consolidation economically makesa lot of sense.
because ultimately, i don't knowwhether there is enough audience globally to makea case for all of these different incarnations ofthe same thing, right? leo parente: well, bmw is oneof the companies that's been running around the globe tryingto get unified spec because they want to buildbasically one car and race it around the globe. so japan super gt likes theidea of having the three german brands come over andcompete in their house.
i'm sure the japanese-- honda, toyota, nissan-- are not against racing in dtm. and dtm is lookingfor that, too. mike spinelli: sure. leo parente: so that'sone of the things. i mean, one of the stickingpoints was who was going to build the chassis. the german organization wantedto sell the chassis to japan.
japan finally said,no, no, no. we'll do it ourselves. and i think dome-- the race car chassiscarbon gurus-- are going to do itverses import. and the engine is the littlebit of the issue. because right now, 4-literv8 in dtm-- everyone has their own? leo parente: somethinglike that.
but super gt is going toa 2-liter turbo 4 with [inaudible] and allthat stuff. so that may kind ofmorph into it. but the bottom line is they'retrying to bring it together, so everyone can race everywhere,which gets me to your comment about what couldhappen in america. because the last time i spoketo the grand am people, the dtm thing was kind of on theback burner as they're merging and consolidating.
their plan was to take theyear-old cars and bring them over here and have theirown separate series. leo parente: now they're talkingabout new rules for the new gt class out of aco. these guys are runningaround the world pulling something together. so you had this idea. mike spinelli: well, i thinkthat-- you know, we were talking before.
we were going to bringup austin, right? so austin being the focus forformula one, i think what would be cool-- and i'veheard rumblings-- and by the way, this isn'tnecessarily rumors-- maybe it's wishful thinking onthe part of a lot of people in racing [inaudible]. leo parente: so we shouldbuild momentum for this. exactly. if we talk about it enough,maybe it'll happen.
leo parente: [chuckling] that's romney's plan. [chuckling] leo parente: i'm sorry. mike spinelli: [chuckling] but a mega event in austin atsome point where you bring dtm, you bring super gt,and you bring v8 supercars from australia. and you do a mega eventin america.
leo parente: and tothat point, we're kind of getting close. i mean, it has a lot of logicto what you said. alms and grand am are going torun a shared event at road america next year. they're not going to racein the same race-- two separate races-- butthey'll all be there. v8 supercars is comingto coda. we saw world touringcar at sonoma.
japan-- the super gts came over oneyear in california. and the crowd went nuts. so why not bring everyonetogether and make this super, super-- i'd rather see that than haveus build our own dtm series. mike spinelli: well, yeah. i mean, think of itas race-palooza. where you just--
you know, you bring-- you make-- because this is whatworks here. i mean, people bitch-- leo parente: [inaudible]. mike spinelli: --aboutthe american market. what works here is big megaevents where you get people trekking across the country tocome and go see and then camp out for five days.
no one's done that in racingto the extent that it's done in music. but it is something thatcould absolutely work. because race fansare everywhere. and they need to havea place to focus. leo parente: and do you thinkamericans would get comfortable with the ideaof accepting it's not an american series. it's imported greatness, likewatching world cup.
mike spinelli: well,don't forget, here, every car maker-- every brand has its following. i mean, you go to waterfest orh2o and look at the volkswagen nuts at ocean city orwherever they do it. and it's a giant event. it's giant. you know, bmw has eventslike that. leo parente: do youthink it would be
bigger than the f1 race? that's a good question. i wonder if it would be. i think it might be. leo parente: i thinkit'd be awesome. i mean, you bring thatkind of stuff over. and then, you know,because there is that ford versus holden-- ford versus gm battle thathappens here, too.
i know a lot of people who wouldget in their cars and road trip to austin ifthere was ever a big global event like that. leo parente: by the way, thenext picture-- is it what i think it is? mike spinelli: oh, whoops. so here is v8 supercars. here is a big coming together. the sidebar snark here is v8supercars had the gold coast
600 and a lot of importeddrivers-- a lot of not regular drivers. and a lot of them startedthe race. and apparently there's somemagic and mystery to doing the standing starts. and they had a big accident. and the series is saying nowthey may regulate that the guest drivers can't start therace because they don't know what to do.
oops. right. leo parente: but to thatpoint, do i need to see american racers in thecars when they come over to america? or do i want to see thestars of the series? i want to see the starsof the series. mike spinelli: i thinkyou got to see the stars of the series.
i mean, i think that's beenan overstatement-- mike spinelli: --that americanswon't watch anyone but americans. leo parente: i'm not evenwearing american clothes. i mean, nascar is a differentworld than this. there will be overlap. but i think that nascaris its own-- i mean, they need to increasetheir audience, too. because if they're not growing,they're shrinking.
i mean, that's theway they see it-- i mean, honestly-- in nascar. and they haven't beengrowing lately. and they need new audiences. so you know-- leo parente: you're thinking asthey change their car, you want to do a crossoverwith these guys? mike spinelli: i don't knowhow that might work.
but i think that there'ssomething there. leo parente: i would arguevehemently that one of the reasons nascar was looking atdtm and that chassis is to figure out is that the nextgeneration down the road of nascar to become more global. mike spinelli: it's possible. look-- leo parente: and i'm reallyreaching on that one. mike spinelli: i mean, justturn on the television.
every actor playing an americanis australian now. so i can see it crossingright over. it's not a problem. leo parente: so speaking ofcrossover, the next picture should be-- ok, so lotus-- always lotus. but if you look up on thewind screen, it says gx. so here's the reasonwhy this is here.
while alms and grand am aregoing to merge-- consolidate-- in 2014, alms announced thatthey're going to have carry over spec classes-- no change for '13. grand am announces a newclass for next year. is this the experimentalsmaller car class? leo parente: yeah, and i'mgoing to probably lose my grand am membership,but here we go. mike spinelli: uh-oh.
so yes, they announced a[inaudible] class for new technologies. but they just announced thereare going to be 13 cars eligible next year for this newclass they're launching next year, which means themeetings for figuring out the consolidation of classes in '14just got more complicated. but here's the punchline. in the press release, they'renot talking about new tech necessarily anymore.
they're talking about this is aclass for technology that's currently not involvedin rolex. mike spinelli: oh, sobriggs and stratton. leo parente: so suddenly, turbocharging is a big thing. mike spinelli: ok. but that's ok. mike spinelli: that soundscutting edge. leo parente: and mazda has thatskyactive turbo diesel that they want to race, whichmaybe was the genesis of this
whole thing. mike spinelli: this makea lot-- and by the way, genesis i think-- leo parente: that'sright. good. you did the joke. mike spinelli: very good. yeah, the hyundai genesisis in it, too. leo parente: so here are thecars that are suddenly on the gx new technology class--
lotus evora gx, which they'vebeen trying to get into grand am forever; porsche cayman;mazda, like i said with the skyactive diesel. i'm going to drift-- 13 models, 12 manufacturers,continuing with audi tt, bmw 1 series, chevy cruise-- mike spinelli: mm. ok leo parente: ford focus--four-door only--
hyundai genesis, subaru brz,scion frs, nissan 370 z or the ultima, and-- or the-- 370 z or the ultima. it's like-- leo parente: and the everracey volkswagen eos. mike spinelli: oh, the eos. leo parente: is thatthe convertible? mike spinelli: so thesorority car.
leo parente: so specs-- quote, rules are being developedto allow for the exploration of a wide varietyof alternative technologies and alternative fuels. and this could include turbocharging engines and blah, blah, blah. but they haven't finalizedthese specs. so is focus and cruise worldtouring car or conti spec. and by the way, thisis all going to
launch at daytona, 2013. leo parente: who wants to bethe guy in the dp going through the banking,coming up on a-- mike spinelli: --coming up ona ford focus four-door. leo parente: --orchevy cruise. mike spinelli: or a che-- [chuckling]. a matter of fact, youknow, we did a sponsorship deal with hertz.
and they rent cruises. i think i've got a race car. mike spinelli: there you go. leo parente: [sighing]. what do you think? mike spinelli: well, i don'twant to be too much of a dick, but, like, i think that-- i love-- first of all,i love the idea. like, viscerally, i justlove the idea of
more cars out there. leo parente: more race cars. mike spinelli: more race cars. leo parente: more typesof race cars. mike spinelli: more typesof race cars. and bringing a lesserclass into it. there are dp cars that are goingto be bearing down on these sort of-- i don't know what to expect.
and so they're touring spec oris it going to be more like-- leo parente: we don't know. and i'm sure they're notgoing to be slow-slow. but they're going to be slowerthan the gt cars. mike spinelli: i mean,the volkswagen eos? leo parente: well, goodluck with that, guys. mike spinelli: are theygoing to bring the top down like on the-- leo parente: wouldn'tthat be cool?
mike spinelli: wasit really like-- i mean, they actuallysaid eos? leo parente: it said eos. i swear to god. mike spinelli: i didn'trealize-- are they still making the eos? that's a-- leo parente: as race cars. they're going to weld it.
mike spinelli: probably. leo parente: so the gt cars ingrand am are about the speed of an alms porsche gtc. leo parente: they're not asfast as the alms gte cars. so these things will probablybe somewhere between a conti challenge speed and the gts. leo parente: so it'sjust more heads-up. and they're trying to bringmore manufacturers in. and if you didn't say it, youcertainly implied it.
and i agree. this was all about mazda lookingfor a place to race their skyactive diesel. and i'm all for the diesel. so that's cool. mike spinelli: i mean, thisfeels-- because mazda's a big sponsor of all thisstuff, right? leo parente: they havea lot of influence. anyway--
mike spinelli: no. but they've been talking aboutthat skyactive diesel as being a racing technology. their first press release aboutit was implying its racing potential. so i see this as them leadingand everybody else saying, well, what can we shoehorninto this? leo parente: well, grand am'ssaying what can we shoehorn into the class tohave a class?
leo parente: i don't know whythey didn't just run it in gt. but here we are. well, it gives nissananother in. it gives subaru andtoyota an in. leo parente: i can't--you know what? mike spinelli: i hadsome strange-- leo parente: i know you guyswill be commenting-- mike spinelli: but thosewill mostly be privateer cars, i'm guessing.
leo parente: some-- you know, like in gt3-- mike spinelli: i don't-- leo parente: it's a class goingaway, quite frankly, with the new rules by '15. i don't see everyone buildingprivate cars. leo parente: and i'm wonderingif grand am is smarter than we are. and there are manufacturerslooking to build things.
you know, the manufacturemeeting that alms grand am had in manhattan, the ford guywas there-- very vocal. and the toyota guys werethere-- very vocal. mike spinelli: ah. leo parente: so who knows? mike spinelli: well, i mean, iknow jost capito went from ford over to volkswagen now,so maybe the eos racing program is one ofjost's things. leo parente: who knows.
mike spinelli: i mean,jost is a great guy. leo parente: what do we got nextto close this thing up? oh. mike spinelli: oh,formula one. leo parente: to remind methey're going to india, here's force india. leo parente: so i don't knowwhat else to say about f1 other than i know we're goingto cover it on monday. and most the time,rather than--
mike spinelli: is thisrumor mill stuff? leo parente: well, no, no. but rather than predict what'sgoing on, it feels like it's better to watch the race. we know vettel's hot again. we know alonso still believeshe has a shot. and we know kimi's out theredoing kimi things-- or lewis hamilton-- leo parente: --doing lewishamilton things.
mike spinelli: louiehamiltonians. leo parente: there's kimi. i don't like the predictionthing, believe it or not, as much as i love to hearmyself talk. i'd rather watch the racing,digest what happened next. leo parente: you know, is vettelgoing to take this thing to the end? is alonso going to riseto the occasion? is kimi going to finallyget a win?
is the car good enoughto do that? and going back, if we can, tohamilton, you know, he's made his bed with mercedes. and that may notbe a bad thing. but he had a tough race-- was mechanical. he's voiced that he's going totry to make up with ron dennis before he goes. mike spinelli: well,that would be nice.
i'd like to see him performwell before he leaves. leo parente: butthere's another reason for showing this. and this is where-- leo parente: there we go. mike spinelli: --that'swhere my head is, too. leo parente: so 2014 is goingto be the new 1.6 liter v6. leo parente: reneau justlaunched their motor and announced it--
showed the specs. and people are talkingabout it. mercedes is now leaving mclarenas basically being a customer team. mclaren's not a customer team. that's not the waythey're built. leo parente: and of course, someperson from honda voiced an unofficial interest ofwanting honda to get back into the f1 business, maybe not asa team the way they ran down
that road, but as a supplieronce again. i'll get to this picturein a minute. and they've got like $6 billionin profit now to play with again. so obviously, everyone jumpedon the rumor train, saying, well, it's got to be mclarenhonda in the good old days. mike spinelli: of course. i mean, the interesting thingabout this is that honda's doing the 2-liter turbofor super gt.
so the obvious connection-- you're going to say, well-- leo parente: if theycan do that-- mike spinelli: if they can dothat, then why not go back with mclaren. and the thing that i think isdriving part of that is that i think a lot of us think that ifyou can only bring mclaren and honda back together, that itwould somehow bring aryton senna back.
mike spinelli: do youknow what i mean? like, it's kind of like thisscience fiction kind of stephen king "petcemetery" thing. i don't mean to be-- leo parente: wow. mike spinelli: youknow what i mean? like, i don't mean to be crass,because i wouldn't-- leo parente: they won't findthis on any other f1 analysis. but i think that a lot of thespeculation on this is that we
all wish that this were aplanetary convergence that could bring senna back. there might be legs here. but i think that we're talkingabout it a lot because of that connection. that's all i'm going to say. leo parente: and i can'tdisagree with you. mike spinelli: did isay "pet cemetery"? leo parente: yeah, you did.
mike spinelli: i apologizeprofusely for that. leo parente: no, no. that's fine. i've done thelet's-dig-up-race-car-driver's joke a long time before that. mike spinelli: all right. sorry. leo parente: so ithink there's-- it's a little insensitive.
but go ahead. leo parente: is it? i feel bad now saying it. but it's fine. leo parente: are the sennafamily on the phone already? i-- i they're on the phone. leo parente: and whatof alain prost? no.
my point is this. i think there's a lot a logicthat speaks to this. you know, honda-- everyone talks about gettingtheir mojo back. they're kicking ass in motogp. but the cars are-- eh. and they're doing morethings in racing and engineering again. and they've never reallylost that.
i mean, the engineering team canbring things to the board of directors-- so, maybe. everyone, like i said earlier,mclaren is not going to be weathered out without amanufacturer relationship, even though senner did thatgreat donington thing in a customer ford engine. and they had a peugeot momentwith these guys that was just a disaster. it's logic.
and mclaren, would they takea flyer on a company like hyundai-- who hasno experience-- as a factory deal? leo parente: would they goshopping more germans? i mean, is volkswagenout here? mike spinelli: oh, you just-- leo parente: --oneof those brands? mike spinelli: you justsegued into the next-- well, i just want to say--
leo parente: so to finish mypoint, it feels like honda has way too much logic to fit themclaren model of hitting the ground running andperforming well. however, volkswagen is thiselephant in the room. and they have allsorts of brands. i would ask you first-- to set you up-- mike spinelli: [groaning] leo parente: should volkswagen,the parent brand,
be the brand? or should audi stoptrying to-- finish kicking butt in le mansracing and finally move up? or is there another volkswagenbrand that you say is f1 worthy? mike spinelli: wow,interesting. all right. so i just want to say onething about honda. honda has a lot of things thatthey've done on the bench that
they don't ever show. so i think that-- leo parente: they've builtwhole f1 cars. that we've never seen. leo parente: just to do thetechnical exercise. mike spinelli: right-- justfor the brain exercise of building it. so honda's not against doingthat kind of stuff. leo parente: so notlike my scripts.
mike spinelli: [laughing] but anyway, so backto volkswagen. so a lot of people speculatedthat volkswagen was saying that it was coming to f1. leo parente: and thenthey're saying no. mike spinelli: and now they'rebacking it off, and they're saying no. first thing is that volkswagencan make a hell of a 2-liter. leo parente: or 1.6.
mike spinelli: theoretically,1.6 back to-- leo parente: or v6or whatever. mike spinelli: or whatever. yeah. but in terms of brands racing,i mean, my theory-- and it may be justcompletely off-- is that everybody's talkingabout porsche coming to formula one. there's talk about them hiringall these ex-f1 people.
leo parente: but i think that'sto turn up their le mans program. mike spinelli: bentley. leo parente: bentley. mike spinelli: bentley'sthe formula one brand. leo parente: oh, god. now i didn't eventhink of this. you go first and i'll-- mike spinelli: so if thevolkswagen group were to make
a big push towards formula--and this is how i see it-- bentley formula one. leo parente: why? mike spinelli: becauseupscale brand-- because they do you want thatkind of yachting formula one. leo parente: yeah, it'skind of foo-foo. mike spinelli: you know, sort ofbreitling watch-- you know, sort of-- you knowwhat i mean? and not to disparageformula one.
leo parente: except for thecrowds at monza and the red bulls all over the park. mike spinelli: well,there's that. leo parente: you're right. there's the vips andthen there's the-- and i think bentley's brandcould use the extra boost from formula one in that realm. then you never have totake porsche out of sports car racing.
porsche basically ownssports car racing-- goes into lp prototype1 class. so that's its thing. leo parente: and wheredoes audi go? mike spinelli: audi goes-- leo parente: they stay there,fighting porsche? mike spinelli: i thinkaudi stays. because another thing thatvolkswagen likes to do is pit its brands against each otherinternally for internal
competition. so audi and porsche goagainst each other. leo parente: so the only problemi got with what you just said-- leo parente: --is bentley showedthat gt3 big sedan thing that just looked like anair craft carrier with a wing. mike spinelli: amuse-bouche,who i say. leo parente: very good. mike spinelli: it's a littletaste of [inaudible].
and it's got a w12 engine? mike spinelli: mm-hm. leo parente: how do youreconcile bentley with a 1.6-liter v6, ordoes it matter? mike spinelli: i think that atthat point, it's volkswagen group engine-- bentley constructor. leo parente: so like jaguar dida long time ago-- really running a ford motorin it and--
mike spinelli: but thenit's a volkswagen. i don't know. i mean, it's not airtight. but i really feel thebentley brand in f1. leo parente: so that's theending question, i guess, to hang on the f1 thing. while you watch the race, whichbrands do you think should partner up with mclaren,so we can dig up the body of ayrton senna andgo racing again?
male speaker: [laughing] mike spinelli: jesus. i thought i was in trouble. leo parente: i did. just donate to his charity. come on. i got nothing. what else? mike spinelli: and then whatare the volkswagen brands--
where are they going to bepositioned in racing? i think you're right. those are-- i hope you like thosequestions. mike spinelli: i wish volkswagenwas going to really do a rally effort. leo parente: they are mike spinelli: mmm. leo parente: wrc.
mike spinelli: i'm a littlenervous about it. leo parente: whendid that happen? leo parente: they'rehiring people. mike spinelli: i knowthey're hiring. i'll believe it when i see it. leo parente: are you confusingit with mini? [music]
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