Page 63 - Mar2023
P. 63
New Book about Import er Max Hoffman,
t he Man Who Brought t he Sport s Car t o
America, has been Published
You have to wonder what took so long. Automotive
Mo t o r s po r t journalist Myles Kornblatt has finally brought the story
News f r o m of the man they called the Import Wizard to the public
Her e a n d in his book entitled, Million Dollar Middleman, The
story of the man who fueled America's love affair with
a c r o s s t h e Europe's finest auto marques.
Po n d
The recently released book outlines the history of
America's discovery of European car models, primarily
sports cars and luxury sedans, after World War II,.
Volkswagen, with its lowly Beetle, had softened up the
American market for a low cost, effecient and very
unAmerican like automobile. This led the way for
Curious Where Traffic is t he Worst ? Now We Know. other foreign countries to look for a piece of the
action. Max Hoffman, from the stronghold he built in
(Nashville hasn't made Top 10 yet , however.)
Manhattan, was the impressario that made it happen.
Inrix reports that London, has once again, Hoffman represented Jaguar, Porsche, Mercedes, Fiat,
topped the list of major cities around the Lancia, BMW, up until 1975, its sole importer and
world for traffic congestion. The data shows distributor, and others. Check t his out
that the average speed for driving in
While we're t alking Ireland
This is a story not only about selling cars, but about
downtown London is 10 mph, while the
pushing for the development of new vehicles, lawsuits
average Londoner lost !56 hours to
from suppliers, threats of hits from the mob, and
congestion in traffic.
much more. Max was bigger than life and as Kornblatt
But then, there is Chicago. The windy City describes him, ?Sometimes the hero, sometimes the
jumped up four places on the international villain, but more often than not, Max Hoffman was the
list to come just behind London in 2022. If unseen puppet master behind some of today?s best
you live in the Chicago area, you will spend classics. ?
155 hours a year in traffic jams, up an
Available on Amazon for $50 including shipping and
astonishing 49% since 2021. Drivers in
from other vendors at $36.50, this is a big, meaty,
Chicago report that their average downtown
deep dive that anyone interested in cars would love to
speed in the city is 11 mph, only one hour
find on his or her shelf.
better than it is in London. My kind of
driving town, Chicago isn't.
Paris is third on the traffic sucks awards list,
followed by Boston and New York in places
four and five. If you try to drive in
Beantown you'd have noticed the
difference of time wasted in traffic from
2021, as the average driver experienced a
72% increase on time spent sitting, with 134
hours thrown away in traffic jams. Get out
of the car and head for an Irish pub.
63
