Photo by John Thawley 
Peter M. De Lorenzo is a national columnist who founded Autoextremist.com, a highly-regarded website devoted to news, commentary and analysis of the auto industry. He is considered to be one of the most influential voices commenting on the business today.Karl Ludvigsen, the highly decorated author and historian and the man who has covered the automobile industry and motorsports for over 50 years, once wrote the definitive book on the history of Porsche entitled “Excellence Was Expected.” An impressive work that Karl has updated three times, it set the standard for every serious automotive book to come after it, and it remains one of my personal favorites. The title alone spoke volumes about Porsche the man and Porsche the company, and it summed up the essence of that automotive icon in three perfectly honed words.
Think about those words and what they mean for a moment. Excellence - the term that’s thrown around so casually in this modern era but is seemingly harder to achieve with each passing year - describes the raison d’etre of the Porsche that once was, a product of the single-minded vision of one brilliantly gifted engineer. Free of the cold corporate attitude and pure politics that define the company that exists today, Porsche back then defined the very essence of excellence. While Expected suggests that anything less was unacceptable and simply a waste of time, energy and effort. When I use riffs based on the title of Karl’s book, it’s only with the utmost respect to him and the subject I’m writing about.
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Little did our SCi Five Questions’ guest know he’s had a bullseye on his back since I first started thinking about this deal. And why not? He’s charismatic, motivated and knows how to run a race program. Doug Fehan is not only well liked within the racing community, he’s won the American Le Mans Series “From The Fans” award so many times, they might as well call it the Doug Fehan Award.
ALMS, ;)
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