Shocking, right?

Assembly Republicans have apparently just caught wind of this, and decided to ... hold forums to talk about it.

Starting today in Elmira, young Republican assemblymen Rob Walker, R-Hicksville, Marc Molinaro, R-Red Hook, and Jack Quinn, R-Hamburg, will be hosting the forums, named RemaiNY.

Forums also will be held in the Capital District, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Watertown and New York City over the next two years.

According to the Census, 22 percent of all New Yorkers ages 20-34 moved out of the state between 1990 and 2000. And you thought youngsters were just leaving Long Island. Good to know we're not alone.

The forums are expected to discuss the lack of affordable housing, high property taxes, availability of quality jobs and overall high cost of living.

The goal is to stop the exodus by providing solutions to restore New York's promise for this generation, and generations to come, according to a press release from Assembly Republican Leader James Tedisco.

"It is my honor to be able to chair RemaiNY," Walker said in the release. "Throughout my own assembly district, I have met hundreds of young college-aged people and those who are entering the work force who are choosing to leave the state because the opportunities do not exist or the costs are too high. We must find solutions to broaden the appeal of staying in New York for our young professionals and find ways to improve finding jobs, raising families and addressing the high costs of our post-secondary education. I believe that this is the ultimate goal of this listening tour and I am eager to begin the numerous forums planned throughout the state."

So are we, Rob. So are we.

He ended up creating a nametag2.0, which is a pretty clever idea. Rohit has done several really innovative tactics for his book promotion, as did Rob Walker for his recent book, Buying In.  Attention is a precious commodity today and with dozens of books coming out seemingly every week in the marketing/culture/consumer trends category alone, authors have to work very hard, and very smart, to get any traction. 

But the law of diminishing returns are going to set in soon. The novelty of blog book tours and other web 2.0 tactics that seem so fresh right now won't next time around.  I'd like to see an author bring readers into the process earlier, not just after the book is printed and ready to ship.  Can a social network be created around a proposed book? How could the 'wisdom of crowds' help direct the creation of a book, and how could readers have a sense of ownership? Is that possible, or even desirable?  Perhaps a blog about the creation of the book - a sort of 'behind the scenes at the sausage factory - from writing to working with the publishers to the book tours.

I think we soon going to be talking about the promotion of books as much as the books themselves very soon.

-"Murketing" is the murykying of marketing

-"Buzzing" a new product or services gives a feeling of being on the forefront of something new; marketers love to use this

-Many marketing efforts are moving toward smaller but intense events that spread the more directly and pointedly about a product

-Perhaps the best case study of one of these intense marketing efforts to present a new product was the release of Red Bull; no one really new what Red Bull was at the time (energy drink? new age soda? what was "torine?")

-Many marketers (like the Red Bull case) are not  really saying what "the message" of the product is, they are allowing the public to decide  (yep, that could get murky...but meaningful!)

-Advertisers/Marketers are learning how to create desire in consumers unconsciously without directly telling them what to do/buy

-Allowing the public to "complete the marketing process" (Tony says: I love the idea of this used with integrity to market the library to our users)

-The Ramones have sold 100% (?!) more T-shirts than albums!

-"The 100's"--movement that is supposed to be rejecting brands but have in actuality created their own brand (California vibe...)

-Having an "indy brand" feel is a strong selling point

-Red Hat Society started as an informal gathering of women and now they are a company! Spread completely by word of mouth (and obvious visual)

-"Consumer Empowerment" is not about complaining about a product on a blog, it's about what you buy and don't buy. This is what drives product survival or improvement. (we vote with our dollars...still)

-Companies often "dupe" consumers by changing the product imaging (packaging) instead of actually improving and responding to need

-"Open Model Marketing"-allows consumers to fill-in-the-blanks in what the message of a product is

-Common advertising/marketing practice: trigger and emotional response in the consumer

-Branding is not only about supporting a logo buy also and image, characteristic (think: American Apparel)

-People make decsions on "short hand notions" whether it is who they vote for or what type of energy drink they grab (Red Bull, once again).

Yes, it applies across the board--whether in corporate America or a one-branch library. Reading, talking and thinking about marketing (murketing) stirs up how we present ourselves and ultimately how to make ourselves more relavent.

For more kicks check out the Murketing Blog.

Now the Caveman is just another dorky white dude that can't dance. What happened to this guy:

So cool he uses an old school wooden racket.

So, for me at least, there is narrative dissonance. I'm invested in the concept, through the commercials and even the TV show, that the Cavemen were cool dudes. Now, I'm not sure. Do I want to buy car insurance from guys who dance badly (like me?).

Let's go back to the original premise, as reported by Rob Walker in April of last year. Here's how the campaign concept was described by Steve Bassett, of the Martin Agency, who created the ads:

[T]hree well-dressed cavemen hang around their sleek, urban apartment. “Obviously, they’re with today’s technology,” he [Steve Bassett] says matter-of-factly, “so they’re on their laptops.” They see a Geico ad — and they’re insulted. The third spot was at a nice restaurant, where a Geico spokesman apologizes to two urbane and plainly appalled cavemen. Funny.

See, much different than the awkward, white-guy-at-a-wedding Caveman we see in the most recent ads. Geico's brand is very strong, so I don't imagine there will be a big impact from this narrative dissonance, but I hope we see a return to the cool Caveman we came to love.

Laura Miller, Salon, July 7, 2008

Perhaps the best key to the Barack Obama phenomenon (as opposed to Obama the man) is a book that never even mentions the Illinois senator: Rob Walker's "Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are." Observing the launch of Red Bull, an energy drink, Walker noted that instead of attempting to assert the brand's identity to a mass market, the manufacturer pursued a strategy of what he calls "murketing," sponsoring low-key events geared to distinct niches; ask any of these groups what Red Bull is and you're likely to hear a different answer. By refusing to define Red Bull, advertisers allowed each slice of its overall market to interpret the beverage for itself. Likewise, the "vagueness" that many flinty political junkies complain of in Obama permits all sorts of disparate people -- progressives, independents, intellectuals, young people, minority advocates, renegade Republicans -- to see the reflection of their own desires in the self-described "skinny kid with a funny name."

Obama the symbol possesses the enviable quality that Walker calls "projectability," and Obama himself has marveled that he often seems to be "a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views." He is, in short, a cutting-edge brand. But if he does win the general election, what then? A brand can't be president of the United States. Once in the Oval Office what beliefs, values and ideas would Obama bring to the job? Rather than look at calculated official pronouncements (a recent release cited William Shakespeare and Ernest Hemingway as the candidate's favorite authors) it's time to take a closer look at some of the formative books in his intellectual and political life to see if we can learn more about the man behind the movement.

If Obama is elected, he'll be one of the most literary presidents in recent memory. Although his boyhood and youth in Hawaii and Indonesia were not especially bookish, Obama the reader blossomed as an undergraduate at Occidental College in California and, especially, during the two monkish years he spent finishing up his degree at Columbia University in New York. "I had tons of books," he told his biographer, David Mendell ("Obama: From Promise to Power"), about this time in his life. "I read everything. I think that was the period when I grew as much as I have ever grown intellectually. But it was a very internal growth." Even after he left New York to work as a community organizer in Chicago, Mendell reports, Obama lived so much like a retiring writer -- spending many hours holed up in a spartan apartment with volumes of "philosophy and literature" -- that some of his colleagues assumed he was gathering material for a novel.

A taste for serious fiction is rare in the American male these days, but Obama has it. According to several friends, he even tried his hand at writing short stories during those early years in Chicago, and he recalls priggishly scolding his half sister, Maya, while she was visiting him in New York, because she chose to watch TV instead of reading some novels he'd given her. Among the authors he favored during his years of intensive reading were Herman Melville, Toni Morrison and E.L. Doctorow (cited as his favorite before he switched to Shakespeare). He has also mentioned Philip Roth, whose struggles to shrug off the strictures of Jewish American community leaders must have resonated with the young activist.

The biracial Obama, invested with a sense of his African-American heritage by his idealistic white mother, but largely raised (by her parents) among whites, found himself questioning the social and political ideas of the educated blacks he met after moving to the U.S. mainland. His memoir, "Dreams From My Father," is framed as a quest, the story of a young man's journey toward an African-American identity that felt authentic and vital, yet didn't demand that he reject his white family and friends.

Read More Here

Walker's obsession is original and organic. It grew out of an essay that he first wrote for a book called Letter From New Orleans (read Google excerpts here), which is a kind of dispatch from N.O. covering 2000-2003, describing, in his words, "Celebratory gunfire, rich people, religion, the riddle of race relations in our time, robots, fine dining, drunkenness, urban decay, debutantes, the nature of identity, Gennifer Flowers, the song "St. James Infirmary," and mortality."

That essay was e-mailed to some people he knew; out of the comments and suggestions he received from that mailout came a second essay, which then blossomed into a third. The third essay turned into his Web site, which covers all things closely and not-so-closely related to the song. Walker's site includes a comprehensive sidebar that links to some versions of the songs - from Louis Armstrong to Cab Calloway, Kansas City Frank and his Footwarmers, and King Oliver.

So, Mr. Walker, a big thanks to you and the site, a superb study, and it's obvious that the search for new versions of the song and more info about it keeps your wheels churning. It's an inspiring exercise, this No Notes thing, so much so that I'm keeping my ears pealed to similar cultural phenoms like this.

This seems like a really bold departure for Converse which has relied on its tradition and heritage for it's marketing. They've also tied in rather aggressively with Target.

So, where does Converse fall in the Deeply Immersive Narrative Universe matrix? This will be an interesting period for Converse as they try multiple approaches. Target gives them mass, they will probably still hang on to a segment of the anti-corporate/punk rock/DIY/no leather crowd, and this new online short film initiative could appeal to a different group. I think creating a compelling story with those disparate elements will be a challenge.

Interestingly, none of those groups includes athletes, the brand's original core demographic. I think it's difficult to have multiple stories out there. Does the uber-cool kid that these movie shorts will appeal to want to wear the same brand that can be picked up at Target?  Do these movies take the brand too far away from its plain, simple roots? 

Converse is a great brand with tons of equity, this new online execution will be worth following to see if it connects with consumers or is dismissed as being too far away from the brand's DNA.

It says so many things to me:

I'm so rich, even my trash bags are Louis Vuitton.

Our consumer culture is just so much garbage.

Spending money on fancy labels is like throwing money away.

Just because it's trash, doesn't mean it has to be junk.

Whatever you do, don't let the neighbors know you have garbage in your house!

I'm sure there is a not insignificant portion of our society who would see a photo like that as aspirational. If you are LVMH, the owner's of the Vuitton brand, what do you do about this sort of thing? As a PR professional I always bristle at the "any publicity is good publicity" line. No one ever says, "any advertising is good advertising," and this is the perfect example of why brands want to control their marks, and why doing so is impossible.

Also yesterday, Rob Walker, posted on a recent Nike ad featuring Tiger Woods that ran in conjunction with the recent concluded U.S. Open. Walker explains that the ad was seen by some as risky; if Tiger lost the ad could have flopped (Woods won the tournament). But Walker saw it differently:

"But — what if Tiger wins? If he does, surely the coverage will be all about his awesome mental toughness and so on. Just like in the Nike ad! In fact, the ad would seem like part of the narrative of the tournament, almost like real-life Tiger was taking his cues from the inspiring marketing campaign."

Bingo! Nike created an ad that didn't just run alongside the tournament, it complemented the narrative of the tournament. That's the essence of the DINU concept. Now Nike his woven its brand, the Tiger Woods brand (and the difference between those two is, to borrow a Walkerism, murky) and the U.S. Open into one narrative for consumers. If you are invested in the U.S. Open, if you are invested in Tiger Woods then you are now invested in Nike. Here's the ad:

Now, maybe you're brand isn't Nike, and maybe your spokesperson isn't Tiger Woods and you may not be a sponsor of the U.S. Open, but the concept is still the same. Take the time to develop the back story, provide rich, vivid details and infuse your brand with emotion.

OnlineMarketerBlog is honored to be among such company. As a means of introduction, I would like to point out a few of the more exceptional posts in recent days:

• Rick from eyecube interviewed columnist and blogger Rob Walker about his new book, Buying In.
• Francis gives you a run-down of the news (with commentary) on the day's most important marketing stories.
• Paul explains Coke's vocal efforts in the UK.
• Jax discusses Volkswagen's user-generated survey.
• Rich covers a very interesting topic I've never read about: the plight of voice actors in video games.
• I normally "get" ads before most people, but this VW one confuses me (via David of Marketing Integrity).
• Nicola snagged some snaps of Banksy and other graffiti artists in England last week.
• SmartBrandBlog wrote a great post about the difference between a social media strategy and the campaign itself.
• Incremental marketing tweaks require that you keep overall goals in mind via Brady's Crew.

I hope you enjoy these recent works from the WMBN. We are going to be expanding and strengthening our combined coverage, so watch for great things in the weeks to come.

As always, you can find the complete list of WMBN blogs in the right-hand column.

*Experimental metal one-man bands on The Times.

*The Wall Street Journal on Al Green's latest album: "Though he still has yet to hear an album by Mr. Thompson's group, the Roots, Mr. Green says he's thrilled about their collaboration and its results, including his first opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall, in June."

*Lily Allen comments on the topless photos of hear that have surfaced: "I wish digital cameras hadn't been invented."

*Bob Dylan is 67 today. Also, he has not updated his YouTube channel in a long time. Happy birthday, Bob.

*Video: Wale & Justice's "W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E." In case you didn't see it on a half dozen other, better blogs.

*Off topic: Nike SB Concepts Lobster Dunks are sneakers "inspired by the seafood heritage of New England." They are limited editions, and come in a wooden crate. Really? I think I need to learn more about sneakers.

*Off topic: In the New York Times' Consumed column, Rob Walker writes about the Flip video camera, the camera I drunkenly bought off Zappos a couple weeks ago. Also, I used it to record a really boring video of my brother and me planting a tree today.

The fact is, there have been unapologetic fanboy gamers ever since the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis first arrived on the scene, and gave us all a horse to back. Sega even helped the process along, publicly vowing that the Genesis could do whatever "Nintendon't."

Of course, the anonymity of the internet has since turned the opinionated fanboy into some sort of annoying vitriolic supernova. Seriously, read any Kotaku comments thread that's been up for an hour. It's enough to make you wonder how any sane person could claim to love one console/developer/game so passionately, and yet hate another so vehemently.

Rob Walker, a regular contributor to Slate, the New York Times Magazine and blogger behind the stellar Murketing, looks at the bonds we form with what we buy in his upcoming book, Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are. It might shed some light into what causes the fanboy condition... Check out Rob's interview with Rick over at eyecube (one of our new friends in the Wordpress Marketing Bloggers Network, in the blogroll at right). It's definitely worth a read.

The man who coined the term murketing has released a new book, Buying In. 

As a cynical hack, getting older by the day, there are one or two things he says that my traditionalist journalist brain is fighting hard to disagree with.

But, overall, there is plenty of food for thought in the Q&A and I might well write a bit more on how murketing might or might not work for newspapers in their battle for a long-term future.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Rob Walker. He's written for Slate; has his own blog, Murketing, which is a daily must read; writes a weekly column called Consumed for the New York Times Magazine; and his new book, Buying In, will be available June 3. Sure, Rob is ubiquitous, but that's not why I read him. I read him because he's crazy with the smarts, has his finger on the pulse of what people are buying and why, and presents his ideas in a clever, original way. I was fortunate enough to grab an advance copy of Buying In and devoured it over the weekend. Rob was kind enough to take time out from his busy schedule to answer a couple of questions. Hopefully this will give you an idea of the sorts of things Rob covers:

Rick Liebling: I love your term, 'murketing.' I think there is an equally murky side-effect of this sort of practice though - the inability to measure the success of the tactics. I'd argue Red Bull's unique can had as much to do with its success as a kiteboard or other extreme sport stunt. How do these brands measure what's working?

Rob Walker: I guess this gets at the eternal question of whether marketing is an art or a science. As you know, I'm not in the business, and so kind of ambivalent about that debate, but my outsider's view is as follows:

In the book I talk about the difference between rational thinking, and rationale thinking. The latter refers, basically, to decisions made for some borderline instinctual reason, and sort of rationalized, non-consciously, with a reason that sounds more rational. A lot of "metrics" that I read about in the trade press, for any medium, strike me as closer to rationales than anything else. One of the reasons I have a hard time following the debate is that any given marketer always seems to be able to come up with some kind of number that demonstrates how what he or she is proposing "works."

And since I take the position that non-conscious factors guide an awful lot more of our buying decisions than most of us care to admit, it has to follow that such things are very difficult to track and measure.

Finally, I take the influence of culture seriously, and since culture is always changing, that makes it very hard to do what marketers want to do, which is look at how Brand X succeeded because of a certain campaign, and simply recreate that campaign for Brand Y. Meanwhile, the brands are culturally different, and culture has changed in the interim, and so on.

But the upshot is that marketers, in my view, are going to continue to find rationales for more and more aggressive forms of what I'm calling murketing. They're not going to do it on the basis of empirical evidence that would convince a third party observer. They're going to do it because everybody else is doing it, and they're scared of missing out or they want to show that they "get it" or whatever.

RL: You site many academic/scientific studies that detail the hows and whys of consumer behaviour. I'm equally fascinated by instances when a product suddenly drops off the radar. An example is The Club car theft deterrent device. It seemed every car had them in the early-90s. Now, I can't remember seeing one in the last 10 years. The product isn't any less effective, so how does something like that happen?

RW: For years I've wanted to write a story about something like this, but the truth is I've never found the right convergence of a good case study, and someone willing to publish the story.

I don't know anything about the Club in particular, so I can't say much about what happened there. I actually use a Club, which I bought probably 15 years ago (and kept even during an eight-year stretch when I didn't own a car, because I correctly guessed I might have one again some day), at which point I stopped thinking about the auto theft device market.

RL: What's your take/where do you stand on the Duncan Watts - Malcolm Gladwell "Influentials" debate?

RW: I can't say I've followed that debate very closely so I can only address this in general terms. I do actually deal with it in the book, sort of, but of course when I wrote that material this debate hadn't yet begun, so it's not framed that way. Basically what I talk about isn't so much anything that, say, Gladwell wrote, but rather how people have interpreted what he wrote. The interpretation boils down to: "Hmm, a small group of people are responsible for making Hush Puppies a hit. Ergo, if we find those people, or people like them, and get them to like our widget, then our widget will be a hit."

I think what Gladwell had to say was a good deal more complicated than that, but this is how people want to interpret it -- and not just him but all the other people who have written over many years about the general idea of Influencers and Sneezers and Tastemakers and whatever.

So in the book I call this group Magic People -- shorthand that I assume indicates my skepticism about this theory. While I don't think Gladwell ever says "there is an elite class that influences everything the rest of us do," you can in fact find people who will say that, and I don't find it very convincing.

I've only read press accounts of Watts' work, as opposed to his actual papers, so I hesitate to offer an opinion there. From what I've read, many of his views seem reasonable, but when the accounts shift into "what it means for marketers" and so on, I just don't feel qualified to assess that side of it.

RL: Buying In certainly confirmed some of my feelings regarding companies and consumers playing a complimentary role in the creation and meaning of a consumable brand like clothes or electronics. Where does something like the 501st Legion - Star Wars fans so dedicated and passionate that they eventually became part of the Star Wars canon -fit in? Do you think we'll see the ideas and work of brand-passionate consumers be embraced by properties such as film franchises, book series' or TV shows?

RW: Well it's pretty tricky, we are seeing more of that, but on the other hand we're also seeing some cold feet about that approach -- some cultural creators actually suing fans over fan-generated content. It's tricky because we're in a weird time with intellectual property laws and people are having a hard time figuring out where to draw the line.

Can you let your fans actually profit from a combination of their fandom and your intellectual property? That freaks out people who make a living off their intellectual property.

The 501st (which I've actually written about) isn't making money off what they do, they sort of converted into something like a civic organization. There's kind of a gray area of people making and selling costumes that I guess Lucasfilm tolerates on some level, although I think in some cases they've possibly gone after people. What makes it extra tricky on the legal front is, as I understand it, you can't just pick and choose on this stuff: If you let one entity profit off your marks, then you are in effect not defending your marks, and others can argue as much in court and they can profit off them too because you've left the precedent out there. And maybe those others are people/entities that for one reason or another you're not comfortable with, but you're stuck. (I'm not a lawyer so maybe I'm getting this wrong, but this is my layman's understanding.)

In the brand realm, the reality is that very few brands are ever going to inspire the kind of passion that Star Wars, Prince, or Harry Potter does. One interesting example is a brand called Mike, positioned as a sort of Nike tribute. I wrote about it in Consumed, and Nike wouldn't comment. Two years later, they sent the guy a cease and desist.

On the other hand, it was pretty interesting when that guy did the freelance iPod ad that sort of took off on line, and Apple just let it go. I guess he wasn't profiting, though.

RL: Old media like newspaper publishers, major record labels and broadcast television networks don't seem to be very good at murketing. They are also all struggling. Coincidence?

Hmmmm. Well I don't think the problems of those industries have a lot to do with their ability or inability to market (or murket) themselves, so much as they have to do with larger forces that have encouraged and enabled the murketing era. By this I mean the usual suspects: Technology, cultural fragmentation, and the like. Each of those industries also has its unique sets of problems. So, not a coincidence exactly, but related side effects of the same new reality -- for better or worse.

To find out more about Rob's book, Buying In, click here

I've decided that, at least for this week, I'm going to try to do an abstract or two a day -- only good stuff. It's obviously a poor substitute for a fully-staffed Brijit, but it's better than nothing, and it just feels like the right thing to do as try to find a home for the service while simultaneously closing it down. Here's one I wrote last night: "Can a Dead Brand Live Again?" by Rob Walker in the 18 May 2008 issue of the New York Times Magazine.

If anyone else wants to write an abstract of something great that they read, watched, or listened to on one of our 100-plus sources, please let me know. If there's enough interest, I'll put a process in place to include abstracts from the Brijit community. I think I can handle edits on about a dozen abstracts a day. Leave a comment here if you're in. Would love to have you. Tell your friends!

To be clear, though (and I don't even have the technology resources at the moment to change the text of the Brijit site to reflect this): WE ARE NOT PAYING FOR ABSTRACTS AT THIS TIME. Many in the comments have suggested that the site could thrive without the $5 fee -- we're about to find out, albeit on a small scale. I hope you won't let it dissuade you from writing.

Also, you may have noticed that you've stopped receiving your email digests from Brijit. Sorry about that -- we know it's a great product, and if we can figure out a way to come through on the other side, we'll be makign them a priority from a business development perspective. But we've spoken with our friends at SilverPop, our email newsletter provider, and given the situation, we both agreed that we needed to stop sending Brijit emails, at least for now.

 (That's PSFK impresario Piers Fawkes in the foreground).

Rob will be glad to know that his book was enthusiastically snatched up by those in attendance (thanks Random House!).

There are a lot of really terrific books out there that fall into a similar category to Buying In, and it seems that get-togethers like likemind are popular. Is there a 'salon'/book club that focuses on marketing/branding/advertising/PR/culture/etc. books? If so, I'd love to know about it.

Whenever I see or hear Rob's name, it instantly takes me back to 2003.  I was the Pabst Blue Ribbon Brand Manager at Pabst Brewing Company and had been working with Rob as he was writing a story for the NY Times Magazine about the increased popularity of Pabst Blue Ribbon.  I hadn't met Rob in person, but I talked on the phone with him several times and facilitated his interviews with my boss and some other people in the company.

Although I knew Rob's story was going to be extremely positive for the brand and he seemed to be a nice enough guy, serving as the primary media contact for Pabst was an extremely painful process.  Our upper management was fairly scared of what media coverage could bring.  They worried that the writer might say "something bad about us" or could divulge this "secret strategy" we apparently had.  All of this culminated as I ended up talking to the NYT Fact Checker on speaker phone as I sat in the CEO's office, and tried to balance the truth and what the CEO wanted me to say as furiously scribbled his directions on a legal pad.  I remember comparing the experience to "diffusing a bomb" after it was all over.

A couple months later, I was celebrating my 30th birthday in Vegas and I was pretty sure the story was in that Sunday's edition.  I stopped by the newsstand at Mandalay and picked up a paper.  Sure enough, Rob's piece titled, "The Marketing of No Marketing" was on page 42 (he calls it "Pabst Unsold").  Although it was a huge honor to have my brand and strategy documented in a publication like the NY Times Magazine, I was still really scared what the big shots would think of the final article.

Five years later, I was in New York for a conference and after a huge night out on the town with the guys from VICE Magazine, I met Rob at a coffee show in Tribecca.  I was really hungover, but it was fun to finally meet Rob and tell him about all the behind the scenes shit that went down for this story.

Fast forward to 2008.  I got book in the mail a couple weeks ago and I noticed it was written by Rob Walker and had some post-it notes bookmarking some pages.  I jumped to those pages and started to laugh.  Sure enough, it was the extended version of the NY Times story from five years ago.

Rob's new book, Buying In hits the shelves on June 3, 2008.  The entire book is a great read, but I'm kind of partial to Chapter 6, called Rebellion Unsold.

Walker's legislation could save motorists up to $500 million. For each gallon of gas sold, the state currently applies an 8 cent sales tax, 8 cent motor fuel tax and 16 cent petroleum business tax. That adds up to 32 cents and does not include the up to 4 cent tax that counties can apply at their discretion.

The legislation has the support of the Long Island Assembly republicans and community groups like the Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau and Hicksville Chamber of Commerce.

"Time is running out before gas reaches $4 per gallon and families are forced to choose between fuel and other necessities such as food and mortgage payments," Walker said in a statement. "I will be working with all legislators in Albany during the upcoming week to fast track this legislation and get it passed as soon as possible for the people of New York."

John Arthur Brabham teve como seu projeto de graduação em engenharia mecânica um carro de corrida da categoria midget para o piloto Johnny Schonberg. Foi só quando este americano-australiano largou as corridas e que "Jack" decidiu tentar correr nos ovais de terra. Não demorou e Brabham já vencia corridas e ganhava destaque nas corridas locais de midgets. Foi nesta época que conheceu Ron Tauranac, um jovem engenheiro com vontade de trabalhar em corridas de carro.

Competindo na Nova Zelândia com um Cooper-Bristol, Jack ao volante, a dupla teve sucesso contra pilotos estrangeiros em 1955, e decidiram que valia a pena tentar na Inglaterra. Jack foi trabalhar na Cooper Car Company em Surbiton,Surrey, sem receber nada. Ao invés de salário, John Cooper deixou o jovem australiano construir um carro para competir na Formula 2. Vendo sua competência, a equipe o inscreveu também em provas de carros esporte.

Para o GP de Mônaco em 1957 Brabham inscreveu seu Cooper F2, equipado com um motor aumentado para 2.2 litros especialmente para essa prova. Mas depois de uma pancada nos treinos teve que emprestar um chassi de Rob Walker, no qual instalou seu motor; estava em terceiro quando, a 3 voltas do fim, seu motor abriu o bico. Conseguiu salvar um sexto lugar empurrando seu carro até a linha de chegada. Desenvolvendo o carro junto com Cooper, e agora com um motor maior, conseguiu suas primeiras vitórias na F1 em provas extra-oficiais, seguidas por vitórias nos GPs de Mônaco e Inglaterra, o que lhe deu a liderança no campeonato mundial, que viria a vencer.

Ele repetiu o feito em 1960, mas o domínio dos pequenos e ágeis Cooper terminou com as novas regras adotadas em 1961. Brabham e Tauranac pensaram em tentar eles mesmos e se juntaram para estabelecer a Motor Racing Developments Ltd. Jack começou a temporada de 1962 com uma Lotus e em julho finalmente o Brabham BT3 Formula 1estava pronto para estrear no GP da Alemanha. Enquanto a MRD estava ocupada construindo carros para toda sorte de campeonatos, não foi até 1964 que a nova marca conseguiu uma vitória na F1: Dan Gurney deu a primeira vitória num Mundial para Brabham, no GP da França disputado em Rouen naquele ano.

Jack Brabham teve de esperar até 1966 para vencer um GP ao volante de um carro com seu nome, já então usando um motor chamado Repco, feito na Austrália e baseado no Oldsmobile V8, bloco de alumínio. A combinação foi um grande sucesso e permitiu a Jack vencer seu terceiro título mundial de pilotos e o primeiro de construtores para a equipe.

Em 1967 a marca venceu de novo os dois títulos, mas com Denny Hulme como campeão desta vez. A chegada do motor Cosworth DFV em 1968 desbancou os Repco e para 69 Brabham juntou-se aos clientes Cosworth e venceu algumas provas.

Depois de concorrer ao título da temporada de 1970 Jack anunciou sua aposentadoria aos 44 anos de idade. Foi um retiro total pois também vendeu sua parte na companhia para Tauranac e retornou à Austrália. Ele só manteve sua parte na John Judd Engine Developments Ltd, originalmente conhecida como jack Brabham Conversions. Mais tarde Tauranac vendeu a equipe de F1 para Bernie Ecclestone e mais dois títulos de pilotos foram vencidos por Nelson Piquet, antes do time ser novamente vendido e depois fechar as portas em 1992.

Jack Brabham participou de 126 GPs, dos quais venceu 14, marcou 13 pole positions e 10 voltas mais rápidas. Também largou em cinco edições das 500 Milhas de Indianápolis. Não só foi tricampeão de Formula 1, como em 1966 foi honrado com a Ordem do Império Britânico por seus serviços ao esporte a motor, e em 1979, foi agraciado com o título de cavaleiro - Sir Jack Brabham. O nome Brabham permaneceu vivo no automobilismo com seus filhos Geoff, Gary e David fazendo carreira no esporte. Só David chegou à F1,em 1990, mas sem muito sucesso.

Jack Brabham wurde am 2. April 1926 in Hurstville in der Nähe von Sydney in Australien geboren. Sein erstes eigenes Projekt als diplomierter Ingenieur war ein Rennwagen der Midget-Klasse für Szene-Ass Johnny Schonberg. Erst als der in Australien lebende Amerikaner beschloss, seine Karriere an den Nagel zu hängen, fasste Brabham den Entschluss, sich selbst hinter das Lenkrad zu klemmen und sich auf diesen sandigen Ovalen zu versuchen. Es dauerte nicht lange bis er seine ersten Rennen gewann und Bekanntheit in der lokalen Midget-Szene erlangte. In dieser Zeit traf er auch Ron Tauranac, einen jungen Ingenieur, den es in den technisch anspruchsvolleren Rundstrecken-Sport hinzog.

Dss Duo schrieb für Jack einen importierten Cooper-Bristol zu Rennen in Neuseeland ein, wo stets ausländische Fahrer antraten. Als sich Jack erfolgreich gegen international Konkurrenz durchzusetzen vermochte, beschlossen sie, ihr Glück in England zu suchen. Dort angelangt, arbeitete Jack für die Cooper Car Company in Surbiton, Surrey. Bezahlung gab es keine, dafür gab John Cooper dem Australier die Möglichkeit, ein eigenes Auto aufzubauen, mit dem er in der Formel 2 antrat. Nachdem er seine Kompetenz unter Beweis gestellt hatte, beschloss das Team, ihn auch zu Sportwagenrennen zu schicken.

Beim Grand Prix von Monaco startete Jack in seinem Cooper Formel 2-Auto, mit einem Motor, der extra für dieses Rennen auf 2,2 Liter aufgebohrt worden war. Nach einem Trainingsunfall musste er jedoch ein Chassis von Rob Walker leihen, baute aber seinen eigenen Motor ein. Drei Runden vor Rennende lag er an dritter Position, doch sein Motor gab den Geist auf. Jack konnte aber den sechsten Platz retten indem er das Auto über die Ziellinie schob. Brabham und Cooper entwickelten das Auto und den Motor gemeinsam weiter und der Australier gewann 1959 sein erstes Formel 1-Rennen bei einer nicht zur WM zählenden Veranstaltung. Danach folgten Siege beim britischen Grand Prix und beim Grand Prix von Monaco und schliesslich der Gewinn der Weltmeisterschaft.

Er wiederholte dieses Kunststück 1960, aber die Tage der kleinen und agilen Cooper-Autos waren gezählt nachdem für 1961 neue technische Regeln eingeführt wurden. Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac beschlossen, dass sie gut und gerne auch alleine arbeiten könnten und gründeten ihre eigene Firma: Motor Racing Developments Ltd. Jack startete zunächst mit einem Lotus in die Saison 1962 und im Juli, beim Grand prix von Deutschland, sass er erstmals in seinem eigenen Auto, dem Brabham BT3. Während MRD Brabham-Autos für alle möglichen Meisterschaften baute dauerte es bis 1964, bis der Konstrukteur sein erstes Formel 1–Rennen gewann. Dan Gurney siegte beim Grand prix von Frankreich in Rouen.

Jack Brabham selbst musste bis April 1966 warten, bis er selbst ein Rennen in seinem eigenen Auto gewann. Damals fuhr er einen in Australien durch Repco aufgebauten Oldsmobile V8-Alu-Motor. Diese Kombination war so erfolgreich, dass Jack seinen dritten Weltmeistertitel als Fahrer gewann und den ersten als Konstrukteur.

1967 gewann Brabham den zweiten Konstrukteurstitel und Dennis Hulme den des Fahrerweltmeisters. Das Debut des Cosworth DVF-Motors 1968 bedeutete aber harte Konkurrenz, die Repco V8 waren nicht mehr konkurrenzfähig. Brabham wurde daher 1969 auch Kunde von Cosworth und gewann weiter Rennen. Nachdem er den grössten Teil der Saison um den Titel mitgekämpft hatte, kündigte Jack Ende 1970 im Alter von 44 Jahren seinen Rückzug aus dem Sport an.

Jack Brabham zog sich komplett aus der Formel 1 zurück, beendete nicht nur seine Karriere als Fahrer sondern verkaufte auch seine Anteile an der Firma an Tauronac und ging zurück nach Australien. Er behielt aber seine Anteile an John Judd Engine Developments Ltd., das ursprünglich als Jack Brabham Conversions bekannt war. Später verkaufte Tauronac das Team an Bernie Ecclestone und Brabham gewann zwei weitere Titel mit Nelson Piquet bevor das Team verkauft wurde und von der Bildfläche verschwand.

Jack Brabham fuhr 126 Grand Prix Rennen, von denen er 14 gewann. Er stand 13 mal auf der Pole und fuhr 10 schnellste Rennrunden. Zudem startete er fünf mal bei den 500 Meilen von Indianapolis. Er war nicht nur drei mal Weltmeister, 1966 wurde er für seine verdienste im Rennsport als «Officer of the Order of the British Empire» geehrt und 1979 zum Ritter geschlagen. Der Name Brabham blieb dem Rennsport aber erhalten, denn seine drei Söhne Geoff, Gary und David wurden ebenfalls erfolgreiche Rennfahrer. David gab 1990 sogar sein Debut in der Formel 1.

John Arthur Brabham tuvo como su proyecto de graduación en ingeniería mecánica un coche de carreras de la categoría midget para el piloto Johny Schonberg. Fue solo cuando este americano-australiano dejó las carreras que "jack" decidió intentar correr en los circuitos ovales de tierra. En poco tiempo Brabham ya ganaba carreras y ganaba importancia en las carreras locales de midgets. Fue en esta época que conoció a Ron Tauranac, un joven ingeniero con ganas de trabajar en carreras de coches.

Compitiendo en Nueva Zelanda con un Cooper-Bristol, Jack al volante, la pareja tuvo éxito contra pilotos extranjeros en 1955, y decidieron que valía la pena intentar en Inglaterra. Jack fue a trabajar en Cooper Car Company en Surbiton, Surrey, sin recibir nada a cambio. En lugar del salario, John Cooper dejó al joven australiano construir un coche para competir en la Formula 2. Viendo su competencia, el equipo lo inscribió también en pruebas de coches deportivos.

En el GP de Mónaco de 1957 Brabham se incribió con su Cooper F2, equipado con un motor aumentado para 2.2 litros especialmente para esa prueba. Pero después de un golpe en los entrenamientos libres tuvo que pedir prestado un chasis de Rob Walker, en el cual instaló su motor: estaba en tercer lugar cuando, a tres vueltas del final, su motor rompió. Consiguió salvar un sexto lugar empujando su coche hasta la línea de meta. Desarrollando el coche junto con Cooper, y ahora con un motor mayor, consiguió sus primeras victorias en la F1 en pruebas extraoficiales, seguidas por victorias en los GPs de Mónaco e inglaterra, lo que le dio el liderato en el campeonato mundial que acabaría venciendo.

Repitió este hecho en 1960, pero el dominio de los pequeños y ágiles Cooper terminó con sus nuevas reglas adoptadas en 1961. Brabham y Tauranac pensaron en intentar ellos mismos juntarse y establecer la Motor Racing Developments Ltd. Jack comenzó la temporada de 1962 con un Lotus y en julio finalmente el Brabham BT3 Fórmula 1 estaba listo para debutar en el GP de Alemania. Mientras MRD estaba ocupada construyendo coches para toda serie de campeonatos, no fue hasta 1964 que la nueva marca consiguió una victoria en la F1: Dan Gurney dio la primera victoria en un mundial para Brabham, en el GP de Francia disputado en Rouen aquel año.

Jack Brabham tuvo que esperar hasta 1966 para vencer un GP al volante de un coche con su nombre, ya entonces usando un motor llamado Repco, hecho en Australia y basado en el Oldsmobile V8, bloque de aluminio. La combinación fue un gran éxito y permitió a Jack vencer su tercer título mundial de pilotos y el primero de constructores para el equipo.

En 1967 la marca venció de nuevo los dos títulos, pero con Denny Hulme como campeón. La llegada del motor Coswrth DFV en 1968 desbancó los Repco y en 1969 Brabham se juntó a los clientes Cosworth y venció algunas pruebas.

Después de competir al título de la temporada de 1970 Jack anunció su retirada a los 44 años de edad. Fue un retiro total pues también vendió su parte en la compañía para Tauranac y volvió a Australia. El solo mantuvo su parte en John Judd Engine Developments Ltd, originalmente conocida como Jack Brabham Conversions. Más tarde Tauranac vendió el equipo de F1 a Bernie Ecclestone y otros dos títulos de pilotos fueron vencidos por Nelson Piquet, antes del equipo ser vendido nuevamente y después de cerrar las puertas en 1992.

Jack Brabham participó de 126 GPs, de los cuales venció 14, marcó 13 ples y 10 vueltas rápidas. También salió en cinco ediciones de las 500 millas de Indianápolis. No solo fue tricampeón de Fórmula 1, como en 1966 fue honrado con la Orden del Imperio Británico por sus servicios al deporte de motor, y en 1979, fue agraciado con el título de caballero - Sir Jack Brabham. El nombre de Brabham permaneció vivo en el automovilismo con sus hijos Geoff, Gary y David haciendo carrera en el deporte. Solo David llegó a la F1, en 1990, pero sin mucho éxito.

Rob Walker, Letters from New Orleans (Garrett County Press, 2005).
Shortly before January 1, 2000, Walker and his girlfriend moved to New Orleans, where they had not lived before. They stayed three years, during which Walker wrote about his new city in fourteen letters to family friends, gathered here. Walker says in an introductory note that he never thought they’d be published in this way, “[b]ut here they are.” Walker’s New Orleans is not the city most tourists visit – do not pick this book up to plan a weekend visit, but do pick it up. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, reading these pieces is coming home from a relative’s funeral to look at snapshots from the last family reunion. (The 2005 edition, which I read, was published before Katrina. A 2006 edition includes additional material.)

The publisher offers an excerpt. Google Books has excerpts, reviews, and more.
In 2000, Walker wrote this diary for Slate, later included in the book. Walker’s blog links to several interviews and reviews. Flak Magazine’s interview is worthy reading. And see these reviews from Colleen Mondor (Chin Music Press), Kate Sekules (The New York Times), Rick, Aj, and Quiet Bubble. If you’ve read all that and still want more, devote yourself to No Notes, a blog by Walker which, in his words, is a partial spinoff of the book. All sorts of good stuff is there. You can also check out MLK BLVD, an “open source” photo/journalism blog by Walker and others.

Buy this book at Amazon.com.

13 de fevereiro - Sendo hoje o aniversário da morte Maurice Trintignant, a imagem acima é mais que justa como homenagem ao primeiro francês a vencer um GP de Formula 1. Era justamente neste evento, onde foi tirada a foto acima, que Trintignant conquistou esta vitória histórica: O GP de Mônaco de 1955. Fangio e Moss quebraram e Ascari teve seu bizarro acidente, despencando com seu Lancia na bacia do porto de Mônaco. Apesar de ter largado do 9º lugar, Trintignant demonstrou habilidade e cuidados com o equipamento e acabou triunfando sobre astros da época e carros considerados imbatíveis.

13/2/1922, nasce Mike Oliver em Farnborough na Inglaterra.

Junto com o sócio Rodney Clarke, Oliver era Fundador da marca Connaught, inicialmente construindo esportivos, depois carros de Formula 2 e nos anos 1954 a 55 preparava-se a estréia na Formula 1. Ele era chefe de equipe e engenheiro chefe da Connaught no GP de Syracusa de 1955, quando seu piloto Tony Brooks conquistou a primeira vitória de um carro inglês contra a hegemonia dos italianos e alemães. Mas o sonho durou pouco, em 1957 a Connaught ficou sem recursos e teve que fechar a fábrica. Mike Oliver, ex-piloto da força aérea britânica, achou emprego com o fabricante de caças Folland e tornou-se piloto de testes no desenvolvimento de um caça de treinamento, usado inclusive pela Red Arrows, famosa esquadrilha inglesa.

13/2/1922, nasce Wilhelm Heeks em Moorlage na Alemanha.

As duas únicas participações de Willi Heeks em Grandes Prêmios aconteceram em 1952, pilotando uma AFM-BMW no GP da Alemanha, e em 1953, desta vez ao volante de um Veritas Meteor, também no Nürburgring.

Nasceu: 13 de fevereiro de 1922 em Moorlage na Alemanha.
Faleceu: 13 de agosto de 1996 em Bocholt na Alemanha aos 74 anos.

13/2/1948, nasce Jim Crawford em Dunfermline na Escócia.

Jim Crawford, ex-piloto de testes da Lotus que teve a sua estréia na F1 em um modelo 72 em 1975, morre no dia 6 de agosto de 1992 aos 44 anos em conseqüência a um problema de saúde. O inglês provavelmente foi o último piloto que conseguiu tal façanha começando como mecânico. Curiosamente sempre teve sucesso nos EUA, sendo piloto de ponta na Formula Atlantic, na Can-Am e na Fórmula Indy, na qual ainda estava na ativa quando faleceu. Nas 500 milhas de Indianápolis seu melhor resultado foi um 6º lugar em 1988.

Nasceu: 13 de fevereiro de 1948 em Dunfermline na Escócia.
Faleceu: 6 de agosto de 2002 em Tierra Verde, EUA, aos 54 anos.

13/2/1976, morre Paul Russo.

Piloto de sucesso nas categorias midget e IndyCar, os dados sobre Russo geram à primeira vista confusão nas estatísticas da Formula 1, já que seus resultados não parecem coerentes com os pontos marcados. Seu melhor resultado, por exemplo, foi o 2º lugar nas Indy 500 de 1955 como 2º piloto no carro de Tony Bettenhausen. A Indy 500 era na época uma etapa do Mundial de F1 e as regras permitiam troca de pilotos, mas os pontos adquiridos com o resultado eram divididos pelo numero de pilotos compartilhando o mesmo carro. Enquanto o seu melhor resultado correndo solo, o 4º lugar na edição de 1957, lhe rendeu a devida pontuação na integra. Russo faleceu em 1976 visitando as 500 Milhas de Daytona.

Nasceu: 10 de abril de 1914 em Kenosha nos EUA.
Faleceu: 13 de fevereiro de 1976 em Daytona nos EUA.

13/2/2005, morre Maurice Trintignant.

Irmão mais novo de Louis Trintignant, piloto oficial da Bugatti na época antes da 2ª Guerra Mundial, Maurice Trintignant Maurice Trintignant foi considerado um herói nacional pelos conterrâneos. Era um piloto bastante versátil, competindo pela Gordini e depois Ferrari, vencendo as 24 Horas de Le Mans de 1954 Le Mans com o companheiro Froilan Gonzalez. Naquele mesmo ano ele ainda estreou na Formula 1 e levando a bandeirada em 1º lugar em Mônaco em 1955 o tornou o primeiro piloto francês a vencer um Grand Prix valido para o Mundial de F1. Mas o restante de sua carreira na F1 foi bastante movimentada, passou por várias equipes, entre elas Bugatti, Vanwall, novamente Ferrari em 1957, BRM, a equipe particular de Rob Walker com a qual venceu pela 2ª vez em Mônaco, a Scuderia Centro Sud e por final foi parar mais uma vez – mas bem breve – com Rob Walker após o acidente de Stirling Moss em 1962. Depois de se retirar das pistas, Maurice Trintignant assumiu o comando da vinícola da família perto da sua cidade natal de Vergèze na região Languedoc-Roussillon, onde produziu com sucesso um vinho denominado "Le Petoulet" e foi eleito prefeito do município por um período.

Nasceu: 30 de outubro de 1917 em Sainte-Cécile-Les-Vignes, França.
Faleceu: 13 de fevereiro de 2005 em Nîmes na França aos 87 anos.

13 de fevereiro - Siendo hoy el aniversario de la muerte de Maurice Tintignant, la imagen de arriba es más que justa como homenaje al primer francés en vencer un GP de Formula 1. Era justamente en ese evento, donde fue sacada la foto, en que Trintignant conquistó esa victoria histórica: El GP de Mónaco de 1955. Fangio y Moss rompieron y Ascari tuvo su bizarro accidente, saltando con su Lancia en el puerto de Mónaco. A pesar de haber salido del 9º lugar, demostró habilidad y cuidados con su equipo y acabó triunfando sobre astros de la época y coches considerados imbatibles.

13/2/1922, nace Mike Oliver en Farnborough, Inglaterra.

Junto con su socio Rodney Clarke, Oliver era fundador de la marca Connaught, inicialmente construyendo deportivos, después coches de Fórmula 2 y en los años 1954 a 55 preparaba el debtu en la Formula 1. Era jefe de equipo y ingeniero jefe de Connaught en el GP de Syracusa de 1955, cuando su piloto Tony Brooks conquistó la primera victoria de un coche inglés contra la hegemonía de los italianos y alemanes. Pero el sueño duró poco, en 1957 Connaught se quedó sin recursos y tuvo que cerrar la fábrica. Mike Oliver, ex-piloto de la fuerza aérea británica, enocntró empleo con la fabricante de cazas Folland y se convirtió en pilot de test en el desarrollo de un caza de entrenamiento, usado incluso por Red Arrows, famosa escuadrilla inglesa.

13/2/1922, nace Wilhelm Heeks en Moorlage, Alemania.

Las dos únicas participaciones de Willi Heeks en Grandes Premios ocurrieron en 1952, pilotando un AFM-BMW en el GP de Alemania, y en 1953, de esta vez al volante de un Veritas Meteor, también en Nürburgring.

Nació: 13 de febrero de 1922 en Moorlage, Alemania
Falleció: 13 de agosto de 1996 en Bocholt, Alemania a los 74 años.

13/2/1948, nace Jim Crawford en Dunfermline, Escocia.

Jim Crawford, ex-piloto de pruebas de Lotus que tuvo su debut en F1 en un modelo 72 en 1975, muere el día 6 de agosto de 1992 a los 44 años a consecuencia de un problema de salud. El inglés provablemente fue el último piloto que consiguió tal hazaña comenzando como mecánico. Curiosamente siempre tuvo éxito en EUA, siendo piloto de punta en la Formula Atlantic, en la Can-Am y en la Formula Indy, en la cual todavía estaba en activo cuando falleció. En las 500 millas de Indianápolis su mejor resultado fue un 6º lugar en 1988.

Nació: 13 de febrero de 1948 en Dunfermline, Escocia.
Falleció: 6 de agosto de 2002 en Tierra Verde, EUA, a los 54 años.

13/2/1976, muere Paul Russo.

Piloto de éxito en las categorías midget e IndyCar, los datos sobre Russo generan a primera vista confusión en las estadísticas de la Formula 1, ya que sus resultados no parecen coherentes con los puntos marcados. Su mejor resultado, por ejemplo, fue el 2º lugar en las Indy 500 DE 1955 como 2º piloto en el coche de Tony Bettenhausen. La Indy 500 eran en la época una etapa del Mundial de F1, y las reglas permitían cambio de pilotos, pero los puntos adquiridos con el resultado eran divididos por el número de pilotos compartiendo el mismo coche. En cuanto su mejor resultado corriendo solo, el 4º lugar en la edición de 1957, le rindió la devida puntuación de forma íntegra. Russo falleción en 1976 visitando las 500 Millas de Daytona.

Nació: 10 de abril de 1914 en Kenosha, EUA.
Falleció: 13 de febrero de 1976 en Daytona, EUA.

13/2/2005, muere Maurice Trintignant.

Hermano más joven de Lous Trintignant, piloto oficial de Bugatti en la época antes de la 2º Guerra Mundial, Maurice era un piloto bastante versatil, compitiendo con Gordini y después Ferrari y venciendo las 24 horas de Le Mans de 1954 con el compañero Froilan Gonzalez. En aquel mismo año todavía debutó en la Formula 1 y consiguiendo el primer lugar en Mónaco en 1955 se convirtió en el primer piloto francés en vencer un GP válido par el Mundial de F1. Pero el resto de su carrera en F1 fue bastante movida, pasó por varios equipos, entre ellos Bugatti, Vanwall, nuevamente Ferrari en 1957, BRM, el equipo particular de Rob Walker con el cual venció por 2ª vez en Mónaco, la Scuderia Centro Sud y por fin fue a parar una vez más - pero bien breve - con Rob Walker después del accidente de Striling Moss en 1962. Después de retirarse de las pistas, Maurice Trintignant asumió el comando de la vinícola de su familia cerca de su ciudad natal de Vergeze en la región Languedoc-Roussillon, donde produjo con éxito un vino denominado "Le Petoulet" y fue electo perfecto por el municipio durante un tiempo.

Nació: 30 de octubre de 1917 en Sainte-Cécile-Les-Vignes, Francia.
Falleció: 13 de febrero de 2005 en Nimes, Francia a los 87 años.