murphythebear.com

On a day when auto sales slid even further – to the surprise of few, January was as bad as the tail end of the past year – Murphy’s heard more bad nooz from within the sport. Given the sport is…wait for it…auto racing, that shouldn’t be any great huge surprise, should it?

No Bonuses in Braselton?

The Bear’s  been told that as of yesterday an enterprise in a small Northeastern Georgia town will have across-the-board pay cuts. That’s not good for a lot of Murphy’s friends in the biz, but perhaps it will avoid layoffs of the kind that hit other PMG units? Small consolation, too, that it’s not the kind of thing that has immediate impact on “the fan experience.” (Rumor alert! Continue at your own risk.)

ALMS Radio Web Farewell?

Here is something that does, though. Your favorite internet audio coverage will be gone in the 2009 season unless funding from Braselton is replaced from some other source. Perhaps Murphy’s will have to send what he’d budgeted for a forum hat to England to help out. Time to register your displeasure?  It’s said that the at-track-PA coverage by Mr. H. will be back – if the offer is accepted. As clarified in the note below, this item refers only to the service supported by the American Le Mans Series, and to nothing else. When Murphy wrote “no word” (in regard to the LMS and Le Mans) he meant - as usual - there is no rumor anywhere he has heard that has anything to do with any of the other services of Radio Show Limited. In fact the “business structure” for those other services is so different, the Bear’s been told, that to mention them together is very much a “chalk and cheese” thing. (Murphy thinks that’s so much more expressive than the boring “apples and oranges” of the colonies.)

(Notice the change in heading for this item? It seems the “commonly used lexicon” for “Radio Le Mans (RLM),” “Radio Le Mans Web,” “ALMS Radio” and the less-well-known “Radio Show Limited (RLS),” represent important distinctions. Murphy’s reference is to the on-the-web presentation of live races of the American Le Mans Series only, and not any of the services provided by the same company (RLS) to bring racing fans live coverage of the LMS and/or Le Mans itself. The ACO in particular is sensitive to how it’s name is used – it’s certainly been “used in vain,” in North America sometimes, but that’s a whole other issue, isn’t it?)

Television Trials

As for TV, the Bear loves those great overhead shots…they are particularly cool at the great road courses of the American Le Mans Series. Actually, the right word is “were.” Anyone out there into hot air ballooning who wants to substitute for the missing helicopter?

At least the television package is intact. Or is it? Murphy’s heard some concern. The Japanese manufacturer that upped its game in series participation may have taken some of that money out of other budgets.

Hot Porsche

The tire-sponsored Porsche GT2 is off the grid. The excuse, it seems, is AC (not Guillermo, the cool air kind). Murphy was thinking…a V10 under your chin can make the grid, while a boxer 6 six feet behind your butt can’t be cooled? As they say on the web…LOL.

Ferrari Follies

The Ferrari-team-of-a-different-name is closer. Not there. But closer.

The other Ferrari team will field one car (not a separate one for the oil guy). The Brazilian returns, the Finn does not. Murphy heard the second driver is a former Sebring winner and DTM driver. The oil guy’s partnership with the English constructor isn’t the most amicable at present.

Super Audi

The Audi Super Bowl ad didn’t make the “wow” list with most, but it was popular in the auto media. It  got a passing mention from a chiropractor group, who naturally liked the mayhem in the Pepsi Max (a diet cola for men) much more. The single run was one minute ($6,000,000). Production costs, which are usually just a fraction of run cost, were pretty high, though. A car chase scene cost moviemakers a quarter million dollars per ten seconds of screen time a decade ago, and is much more now, even with liberal use of computers. Hiring stars is never cheap, so the Bear figures that little bit of entertainment cost about $2,000,000 to make. To pay back that program is going to take lots of other placements on both television and web. Let’s say that’s another million or so (regular primetime ads are 1/20 the cost of a super bowl ad). Total? $10,000,000. Coincidentally (or not), with design, development, testing and Sebring already accounted for and driver contracts in place, the incremental cost of completing the ALMS season? Probably somewhere around $10 million. Did you like the ad that much? Murphy didn’t. Then again, he’s a bit of a sucker for cute doggies and big horsies.

The Empire Strikes Back

The Florida sports car series will now try to bury the Georgia one this year, using the Empire’s money. But will the stakeholders in the Empire’s other endeavors – like the taxicabs,  with their own struggles – stand for such frivolous expenditure?

 

Tags: Audi, Ferrari, Radio Le Mans, Super Bowl

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Paddock Poop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.