Hi All:
___I E-Mailed Mark last night just to say hi and find out how things were going. I missed him and his girl friend at the Hybrid Group Meet and became even more concerned after reading this thread. There were no real issues except that he had to work last Sunday unfortunately
___He passed on to me a few details that he said I could share in regards to the interview. Although it sounded both clean and positive from his perspective during the phone interview, it was twisted afterwards.
___With that, he asked that I post to the group most of his reply. Here it is in its entirety minus the personal information …
Quote:
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Originally Posted by GreenAndBlue, July, 2005
In my haste to get my name in a newspaper (and as it turned out, my picture), I was negligent in making sure that what the reporter had to work with was favorable to our cause. Thus, I'm not participating in the online community any longer - I've caused enough damage, thank you. My foolish desire for attention, fame, whatever you want to call it - *caused* this mess. It's a lesson that will be well learned, as the story was picked up by several newsgroups, and is now searchable on Usenet for eternity.
His solicitation on GH asked for people who considered 'performance' *in addition to* (not *instead of*) greater FE. Since I thought I could use that and slant it as a 'selling point' vs. the historical lack of 'performance' in hybrids, I volunteered my contact info to him, and he wound up calling me within 30 min time (must have been close to deadline for him, as I see I'm the only one he contacted). We had an intelligent and amiable 20-30min conversation, with follow-up emails for clarification, but that certainly doesn't carry over to the article.
Instead of coming across as knowledgeable and helpful, I'm made to look like someone who's blissfully ignorant.
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___Although we all know what the press can do to an interview and what this guy did here, it may have embarrassed Mark to the point that he doesn’t want to post here at GH or anywhere else for that matter, ever again! This is a huge loss for all of us given his above board - Honda technical knowledge in particular. Anyone that knows the explicit differences between the b16a, K24, and J30 (not just cylinder volume either) deserves our attention and believe me, that was only the tip of the ice berg as to the depths of his knowledge in regards to Honda ICE’s. To add to the above, his commute can best be described as “Total - Hell”. He was heading towards hypermileage in another 10 or so tanks even with what I would call an “Everest” type challenge each and every day. I can only hope he continues to both post into the various threads here at GH were his contributions are needed as well as add future tanks to the RHMDB as time moves on.
___Mark, if there is anything I can do, just let me know as I am only a phone call away.
___Good Luck
___Wayne R. Gerdes
___
Waynegerdes@earthlink.net