That's the title of an interesting article running on BusinessWeek Online today.

The article in a nutshell: "The company has done a better job of digesting its PeopleSoft acquisition—and holding on to customers—than expected."

Nice ink for Larry & Oracle Corp. Let's hope the same headline -- with a "BMW" in it -- will be appearing in the news a year from now.

This is in follow up to our popular crossover story (thanks for the many comments) the other day about the trials and tribulations of our friends on the BMW Sauber F1 team; also, apropos the shifting of some of our operation to Kiel this week (preceding post) for next week's German Sailing Grand Prix, to say nothing of the other logistical challenges our team has faced -- and will face before AC 32 is over.

Today we noticed a terrific story on Motorsport.com about the logisitics involved in shifting the BMW Sauber F1 team from one venue to another, which is especially tough when the races are on back-to-back weekends instead of the usual format of having an intervening weekend off. Check it out.


One of 12 (!) transporters required to move the BMW Sauber F1
team from one European race to the next. Photo courtesy
Motorsport.com.

Am always a little skeptical of any car that gets high ratings from auto-enthusiast magazines. Great car, but is it practical to own and operate? But when the auto-mags and the more consumer-oriented reviewers are singing the same song, you have to sit up and take notice. Hence our not having mentioned anything previously about the acclaimed 2006 BMW M5, until today's sterling review ("Editor's Choice") on c|net.


As much as we like the long-wheelbase 7 Series, perhaps Munich could
send an M5 for "testing" here in Valencia? Certainly would be easier to
park in VLC's narrow streets. ;)

Always interesting to keep abreast of goings-on in F1 in case there are learnings for the America's Cup -- whether to mimic, or avoid. Latest example....

Yesterday, BMW Sauber's vertical wings, called "twin towers" in honor of the buildings of the same name in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (home of BMW Sauber sponsor Petronas) were banned by the FIA. Charlie Whiting, FIA's Technical Delegate roughly equivalent to the AC's Ken McAlpine, made the announcement in an email to the F1 teams.

From Canada's TSN.ca website:


The towers, which are mounted on the nose cone part of the bodywork parallel to the front tires, made their debut on the F1.06 at the French Grand Prix. At the time, there were concerns that the fins might inhibit the driver's vision. But Jacques Villeneuve downplayed those concerns, saying the antennas on the car don't hamper his vision.

Still, the FIA has circulated a note to all the teams expressing their concern that such elements could impair the forward and/or lateral vision of the driver. They said that unless a team can prove such a device does not impair vision, no bodywork will be allowed on the forward nose section which rises higher than the top of the roll structure.

Cynics suggest that FIA made the move after reports that other teams were considering similar aerodynamic structures, thus leading to a forrest of towers on the starting grid. Back in the 1990's, FIA banned similar tower designs for safety reasons. However, many believed the move was made because F1 officials were worried that the towers looked ugly on television.


Or were they concerned that BMW Sauber have come up with something, while legal under the rules, would give them an "unfair" advantage (Ferrari didn't think of it first)?


Certainly unusual. BMW Sauber head Prof Dr Theissen was in
VLC for Act 10; did he spend some time with BMW ORACLE's
wingnuts?


KL's namesake Petronas Twin Towers,
two of the world's tallest structures.

In the "Know Your Partners" vein, a report in tomorrow's (Friday) International Herald Tribune:

FRANKFURT -- The luxury automaker BMW on Thursday chose its head of production, Norbert Reithofer, to succeed Helmut Panke, the chief executive who had directed the company's successful expansion into the United States while driving it to ever-higher profits.

Panke, who has reached the mandatory BMW retirement age of 60, will hand over the leadership to Reithofer, 50, on Sept. 1, BMW, formally Bayerische Motoren Werke, said.

Full story

The BMW 1-Series is a favorite of the team here in Valencia. Quick, stylish, compact and easy to park, it has proper legroom for four real adults (one need not have toothpicks for legs to sit in the back) and decent capacity in the boot/hatchback. So far the 1-Series has not been sold in the USA, though its introduction in 2008 if not before is widely rumoured.

Today we came across this post on the Autoblog, with a "spy photo" of a 1-Series sporting a distributor license/number place ("DST" on the left) driving in the Bay Area. And someone posted a comment saying they had recently seen a 1-Series in Ann Arbor (Michigan), where your Ed. happened to have grown up. "A-squared" as the locals call it is home not only of the University of Michigan -- where a number of BMW ORACLE team members matriculated, notably team meteorologist Chris Bedford (USA) and design team members Alon Finkelstein (RSA) and Brian Baker (USA) -- but also the USA's federal auto emissions testing laboratory. Hmmm....


On the Streets of San Francisco: a rare sighting of a 1-Series in the States.
Maybe Norbert Bajurin, our wheeler-dealer GGYC staff commodore, man-
aged to get his hands on a 1-Series and has traded up from his vintage Rolls?

Congrats to Larry and Oracle for a great performance of their own in
the recent quarter.

As someone who grew up in the Detroit area, it was a bit of a surprise to see the Detroit News extolling the virtues of BMW in yesterday's column by Anita and Paul Lienert. They conclude, "For the money, I still think the 750Li is the world's finest luxury/performance sedan."


Shameless promotion of our partners is easy when they get such great
ink -- especially in Detroit.

The remarkable world-record-holding hydrogen car, the BMW H2R, is on display in our public interactive area (the "BMW ORACLE Racing Experience") here at our team base in VLC. It gets a lot of interest and attention from passersby, and helps draw in the crowds.

When Prof. Dr. Raymond Freymann was here during Act 10, during one of our pre-race morning shows (for our VIP guests) I asked him about the future of hydrogen-powered cars. He said it was not a question of whether but when, the main issue now being to build up the fuel-delivery infrastructure -- hydrogen filling stations. Grinning, he said, in effect, "stay tuned."

So it was interesting to see an article pop up on one of our search engines this morning with this long but illuminating title, "BMW takes the next step to a hydrogen-powered automotive world by teaming with Total." The gist of the story:

BMW may be on the verge of launching a new range of petrol-electric models powered by new hybrid technology developed jointly with General Motors and DaimlerChrysler, but that hasn’t stopped the German car giant announcing a joint-venture fuel distribution network with petroleum producer Total to promote the next big step in alternative vehicle power: hydrogen.

BMW last week announced it has signed an agreement with Total to "co-operate closely in future in promoting hydrogen as a source of energy in road traffic".

As with the America's Cup, the name of the game is technology and innovation -- and making it work for the end user.

...to our sponsor/partners, supporters and suppliers without whom this campaign would not have been this well progressed, let alone possible. Cheers to all of our sponsor-partners!


The "Honor Roll" next to our Team Base's main entrance. Without their
"commitment to the commitment", and especially the early commitment
of Larry and BMW, likely we would have all been committed by now if
even here as a Challenger.

CFO Diana Puketapu (NZL) keeps the money flowing by day,
and kept the Moet flowing the night of the barbecue we
hosted for the other teams at the end of Act 10. Moet et
Chandon is a "super" Supplier if ever there was one. Photo
courtesy of Anna Salek, partner of data whiz Martin Dack
(AUS, design team).