Apology
Last week, I wrote an article on the unusual last names of some athletes. I didn’t make the names up and they did come from legitimate news sources, but they did apparently offend some of our readers. For that, I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended or insulted by the article. With my last name, I have had to put up with jokes and jeers all my life and after 63 years it doesn’t even bother me anymore. I take full responsibility for the content and again I apologize to anyone who took offense.
snicewanger@yahoo.com
The Lincoln Indianapolis Show Car
In 1955, Gian Paolo Boano was a design engineer for the Carrozzeria Boana, an automobile coach building company in Grugliaco, Italy. The company was founded by Gian’s father, Felice Mario Boano in 1944 and specialized in designing sleek, aerodynamic, and elegant chassis for automobiles. Ferrari. Alfa Romero, Fiat, Chrysler, Packard, Hudson, and Simca were a few of the car makers that the Boana had created stylish car chassis for. Henry Ford II had recently gained control of the Ford Motor Company and wanted to make his mark on the company. Ford commissioned Boano to create a modern show vehicle to call attention to the new direction he planned for the company. Ford supplied Boano with a Lincoln chassis and undercarriage. Gian Paolo was given the job of designing it. He came up with a beautiful and futuristic concept. The car made its debut at the 1955 Turin International Motor Show where it was the talk of the exposition. Ford Motor Company brought it back to the United States where Henry II kept it. until 1958, when he presented it to his friend Errol Flynn. Flynn had it for just a short time — it was sold to help pay Flynn’s debts. Several private collectors had possession of it over the next decade. In the early 60s it was badly damaged in a fire. It was partially restored in the 1970s but was put in storage for over 20 years. In 1994 it was displayed at an event honoring the history of the Carrozzeria Boana in Rome as a restoration in progress. In 2001 it showed up fully restored at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and won a major design award. In 2005 it was displayed at the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance in Connecticut. It was again shown at Pebble Beach earlier this year. It is to be auctioned at the Art of the Automobile sale in New York on November 21. So if you love beautiful and unique cars and have a half a mill to spend…well…!
California Chrome and Some Sour Grapes?
You may have heard that this year’s top 3-year-old race horse, California Chrome, failed to take the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, after winning the first two races. He tied for fourth place in the 146th running of the event. Jockey Victor Espinoza tried to get Chrome into the winning gear in the final length but the horse just didn’t have it. It was discovered after the race that California Chrome had a bloody gash in his right forehoof. It didn’t cause permanent damage but it may have been enough to cost him the race. Co-owner Steve Coburn, who prides himself on being the John Wayne of the horse racing world went on a post-race rant, calling the owners of the top three finishing horses “cowards and cheaters” because they didn’t run their horses in all three of the Crown events.Tonalist, the winner, missed the Kentucky Derby because of an illness. Coburn said if a horse misses or doesn’t qualify for one or more of the Crown races he shouldn’t be permitted to race in any of them. Tonalists owner, Robert Evans, says he understands Coburn’s pain and disappointment. “I’ve been there. It’s no fun when you lose.” Evans thinks there should be more time between races. “They need to be spread farther apart to allow more time for the horses to rest,” says Evans. Coburn later apologized for his outburst.
