KEY POINTS:
The item last week about Ford New Zealand wanting to continue its sponsorship of rugby beyond the Rugby World Cup here in 2011 lured a few sports fans out of their cliche-induced slumber. We said Ford might like to remind NZ rugby chiefs of what another all-American icon, Casey Stengel, the former manager of the New York Yankees baseball team, had to say about big-time challenges: "If we're going to win (the World Series) we have to start thinking we are not as good as we think we are." Stengel fired off legendary quotes to sports writers back when gas was 30c a gallon, "politically correct" was a contradiction, and the only thing open on Sundays was church.
Sometimes, Stengel would slide sideways into a sentence, mangle it, and exit where he should have entered. Asked how the Yankees' three catchers were shaping up pre-season, Stengel said: "I got one who can catch but can't hit; I got one who can hit but can't catch; and I got another who can do neither." Another time, he told a reporter at training: "See that kid over there? He's 20 and in 10 years' time he'll be a superstar. That other kid over there? He's 20, too, and in 10 years' time he'll be 30."
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America's "Car Santa" is wrapping up the last of his presents to needy people in the Midwest. Terry Franz was a used car dealer in Kansas City when he started his Cars for Christmas charity 10 years ago. Franz gets people to donate their used cars. Mechanics volunteer to fix them up and local charities help Franz find deserving recipients. There's no shortage of those: Last year, his group gave away more than 200 cars. This year, the last of around the same number are already in Christmas stockings. "It's about how you can change somebody's life with something that simple," says Franz. He's no longer a used-car dealer: "I do better at giving them away than selling them, I guess."
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Skoda's new Superb features headlights that adapt to your environment. "Intercity" mode is close to the current dipped light, but "city" mode uses a wider, shorter light path to avoid dazzling oncoming cars and to illuminate adjoining footpaths. "Highway" lifts the lights to offer a longer reach. "Raining" offers wide and shorter light path, dipping the lights to avoid dazzling oncoming cars with too much wet road deflection. Each mode is speed-dependent. The Superb will be unveiled at the Geneva motor show in March.
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Norwegian car-maker Think Global has unveiled the production version of its City electric car for European markets and is working on a right-hand-drive version for Britain. The company says it is due to start selling the plug-in City within the next six months. It expects to produce between 7000 and 10,000 units at its plant in Aurskog by 2009. The three-door City runs on batteries supplied by US electric-car marque Tasla, has a top speed of 100km/h and a claimed range of between 90km and 180km, depending on charge. A full charge takes 10 hours.
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WE ARE THE WORLD Try as he could, a 66-year-old man in South Kitsap, Washington, couldn't undo the frozen wheelnut on his car. So, he loaded his shotgun with buckshot and fired at the wheel to try to loosen the nut. The only thing that became loose were the man's pants - when ambulance men cut them off to tend to ricochet wounds to his legs and stomach.
This column resumes on January 12. Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Drive safely. Remember the late motorsport champion Ashley Stichbury's advice: "Only when you have found your way out of a corner have you found your way into it."
alastair.sloane@nzherald.co.nz
