Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we have reports from Auto Extremist, Racer, and Hemmings.
A very different take on Mary Barra's ascension to the GM throne.
Dan Akerson, the "Accidental Tourist" of a CEO who had no business being anywhere near the CEO's office at General Motors to begin with, is finally taking his leave from the company. But the brief flurry of tolling church bells around the city banging out the cadence of "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead" from the Wizard of Oz suddenly grew silent when the ramifications of what "Captain Queeg" had wrought on his way out of the company came into focus.
A look at the changes that occurred in F1 over the last few days.
Today's announcements of rule changes to be introduced next season will fundamentally change the look of the 2014 season, but what do they mean for F1? Edd Straw considers.
Hell yea.
These days, car ads are created by agencies to target a very specific age and income demographic, run before focus groups to test their appeal and then presented to an army of legal interns before being rubber-stamped for your approval. The net result, generally, is ads that speak more to logic or emotion than to a passion for driving. In the not-too-distant past, however, Mazda hawked its rotary-engine-powered-compact, the RX-3SP, with flaming footprints, a gleefully counter-steering driver and (in one particular ad) a Norman-Batesian warning to prospective buyers not to let mother know of their purchase intentions.
A Different Take On GM's New CEO