Italian Know How v US no how

[C M Smith <cmsmith@domain.elided>]

>By now everyone who is interested will know that the Italians blew >the
Americans out of the water on the Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand. >AmericaOne
was VERY lucky to win any races, no matter what the 5-4 >margin appears to
indicate. The Italians were just faster and     >smarter. The US team got
lucky, beating the Italians soundly only >once when, unaccountably, the
Italian afterguard went brain dead >on the first beat. Prada will challenge
New Zealand for the >America's Cup.

Well, I watched the whole series, including the round robins and i have to
disagree with you.  I don't think that AmericaOne was blown out of the water
at all.  Most of the races were quite close and could have gone either way.
Luck played a significant part in the Italians win as well.

>   America is falling behind... 

I prefer to believe that the rest of the world is catching up.  Europe and
most of the rest of the world were devistated by two world wars. Of the
major industrial powers, only the US did not have to fight on its own ground
and suffer the blows to its economic base.  We came out of WW2 economically
unscathed and had a big head start.  We are now at a bit of a disadvantage
as we did not modernize after WW2 the way Europe and Japan had to in order
to rebuild their industrial capacity.  Our steel industry suffers alot from
this.


even though an American coached the Italians, an American helped design
their boat, etc etc , the world is shrinking and the US is showing signs of
withdrawing from the competition. BTW, the Americans had several
"foreigners" on their teams as well, 
including a couple of New Zealanders, one a helmsman and another a 
strategist.... hmmmm.



Ferrari is on top of the Formula One circus with its constructor's title, 
narrowly missing the driver's title with Schumy hitting the wall at 
Silverstone. By comparison, CART is for kids. Formula One drivers clean up 
when they come to CART, the reverse doesn't happen except for one notable 
exception: Jacques Villeneuve proved he can really drive, if he gets a car 
that is strong enough.

>The clean air and crash regs have long since ceased to represent  >real
concern for the consumer...

Where is your evidence for this?  Not just hyoperbole.

and now 
represent substantial trade barriers, protecting the domestic auto 
industry. 

Again, where is your evidence for this claim?

>The SUV fiasco just underlines this obvious fact. A significant
>proportion of US built passenger vehicles (i.e. vehicles in fact  >used as
passenger vehicles, often with only one passenger,        >whatever official
category they fit in ) do not comply and do not >have to comply with the US
regulations applying to passenger CARS. 

This loophole, i.e. trucks vs cars, was closed recently and will now require
trucks and SUV's to meet Car standards for emissions and safety. 

>No one else in the world makes these ridiculous vehicles in
>significant numbers. Does anyone care to pick up this particular
>gauntlet? 

I guess my response is...so what?  They can do as they please.  Would you
ban the sale of SUV's?  If so you are no better than those you criticize.
In a free market people are free to buy stupid vehicles, or whatever.
Nobody puts a gun to their head and forces them to buy a SUV. Another reason
is that by world standards Americans generally have more disposeable income
and pay alot less for gas.

>It is excluded because FIAT chooses not to import it.  

DUH????? If FIAT CHOOSES where is the exclusion????  In FIAT's boardroom.


Jerry in Houston

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