Thanks to a tipster, we’ve got our hands on another HUMMER H3T prop from the Transformers movie. They’ve been spotted a couple times in Arizona before, and now with more detail on the door logos. This was shot near Phoenix, Arizona. Nice spotting – thanks, Hyrum!
This past weekend, Team HUMMER was determined to keep their class leads in ‘Best in the Desert’ points race. Chad Hall took second place in the #4111 HUMMER H3 Alpha while brother Josh and father Rod took first in the #8111 HUMMER H2 SUT and #3111 H3 respectively.
The battle is never easy, and this year’s Silver State 300 was no different with Team HUMMER facing many challenges along the way. Josh and the H2 had to stop in one pit to repair a stabilizer link, and later hit one area that left the steering wheel in an unfamiliar position. “We had one flat and hit a ditch that cocked the steering wheel 180 degrees, but other than that, it was a fun, fast course for us - perfect for the H2,” Josh said after the race.
After one rough section, the #4111 H3 Alpha blew the front differential, and was forced to limp into the next pit. Some quick repairs got Chad back on the course, but the H3 was stuck in low range and unable to go over 70 mph, which sounds awfully high for low range! Quite impressive is the fact Chad was able to stick it out for 2nd place in his class.
The H3 driven by Team HUMMER patriarch Rod Hall and co-driver Mike Winkel had a clean race, and even got a chance to take in some scenery. “That was the most fun race I have had. Period. It was a fast course, but also technical through beautiful country I had not seen before,” said Winkel.
Next on the list for Team HUMMER is the most famous of all off-road races: The Baja 1000. More on Team HUMMER’s preparations for the November race to come.
We’ve gotten our hands on the very first HUMMER H3T commercial called “The Open” set to hit regular air next week. The spot shows different HUMMER enthusiast readying for various outdoor battles. Enjoy the clip – you’ll see it here first!
General Motors announced today that the company is putting the HUMMER brand up for sale along with a manufacturing plant in France. According to GM’s treasurer Walter Borst, the company hopes to distribute sales material on the two assets in October. The two assets combined are said to be worth between $2 billion and $4 billion.
“We believe that we can monetize certain assets without impacting the strategic direction of the company,” said Borst. “We’re making changes to compete and win in what we think is an industry
revolution.”
GM has not announced what they think each individual asset is worth at this time, and probably made the joint announcement to bolster ambiguity and encourage interested parties to inquire directly, rather than make a decision based on media coverage.
Although GM has made it clear they’d like to sell HUMMER soon, and now has put it up for sale, don’t rule out the possibility of a joint venture between another company and GM, where GM could retain a significant portion of the HUMMER brand.
The Dallas area HUMMER Vandal that was caught red handed last week has admitted to vandalizing four other HUMMER H2s over the last three months. 72 year old James Andrew Jeppe also admitted to being a member of the Sierra Club and Green Peace.
The police report released today gave some insight to Jeppe’s character and motivation. According to the report, investigators first met Jeppe at his house when they informed him they were conducting a criminal investigation about the vandalism at South Lake Carroll High School. He said he was familiar with the crime after a friend phoned him saying that a person that looked like Jeppe had been caught on video scratching a Hummer. Jeppe then agreed to go to the police station for further questioning.
After reading Jeppe’s Miranda rights, detectives showed him photos of the incident. Jeppe explained he “must have a twin.” But after being questioned about his vehicle matching the suspected vehicle, Jeppe confessed saying “I’ve been frustrated lately – I did – I went in there and I did that truck.” When asked how he did it, Jeppe said “I walked up and saw the Hummer there, and I read about kids at Southlake Carroll driving $50,000 Hummers…I just looked at the truck and I just gashed it.”
Jeppe then told investigators that this was the only time he ever did this, and was afraid that he would be tied to other cases if he came forward. Investigators then told him about an eyewitness and more surveillance video that could put him at the scene of other infractions, at which point Jeppe admitted to vandalizing 4 other HUMMERs over the last three months. When asked why, Jeppe said it was because of the people that drive Hummers. “They have a big carbon foot print and they use 4 times as much gas as the rest of us do and I don’t think it’s fair.”
When asked if he was a member of any clubs, Jeppe said he was a member of the Sierra Club and Green Peace, and donates to both. The Sierra Club is America’s oldest and largest environmental organization, and Green Peace is an environmental organization that uses more fanatical approaches to their protesting.
After a few days of media coverage, the DFW HUMMER vandal that was caught red handed on surveillance cameras is out on $1000 bail after turning himself in to local authorities.
72 year old James Andrew Jeppe was identified by several tipsters on Thursday before surrendering Friday. The Fort Worth Star Telegram reports that Jeppe was charged with criminal mischief, and investigators say they suspect he committed the crimes because of “financial stress.” I don’t know many folks that would choose this path if they were in financial trouble, but we’ll wait to see if he has any comment.
Right now Jeppe has only been charged with the September 5th incident, but investigators are trying to see if any others are linked.
We’ve found a little clip to set your weekend off on a good note. Last night, GM VP of design Bob Lutz (the same VP that said global warning was a crock!) was on the Colbert Report. Lutz was brought on the program to talk about GM’s new electric vehicle, the Chevy Volt.
In typical Colbert fashion, the interview was less than serious and quite amusing. Nearing the end of the interview, Colbert even asked Lutz if he could “actually charge this thing by plugging it into the cigarette adapter in my HUMMER.” Lutz responded by saying, “Actually, if you ran the engine on the HUMMER, and you had it in the 115 A/C adapter, you probably could charge it off the HUMMER but you’d be using a pile of gasoline while doing it!”
“Amen, Brother – I can have my planet and eat it too,” said Colbert, concluding the interview. Enjoy the clip and happy weekend!
Source: Comedy Central, via Autoblog
The Ocala National Forrest in Florida is the latest recreation area to benefit from HUMMER’s Recreation Rescue program, which helps maintain off-road trails around the country. High temperatures, thunderstorms, and ‘hoards of bugs’ weren’t enough to keep the nearly 70 volunteers from performing basic trail maintenance and installing signage throughout the 81-mile trail.
“The volunteers were soaking wet much of the time, but they worked tirelessly and helped open up some trails at a time when many recreation sites are closing from lack of funding,” said Lori McCullough of Tread Lightly, HUMMER’s partner in the effort.
In addition to trail cleanup, many of the volunteers were on hand for the “Wheelers for the Wounded” event also in progress over the weekend. The group was founded by Jason Havlik and provides weekend excursions of off-roading and camping for wounded servicemen. “It’s an honor to help out Tread Lightly and HUMMER when called upon to do so,” said Havlik, who is returning to serve our country in Iraq later this year.
Both events had great participation largely in part to the HUMMER X Club which was present at both events. Last month, HUMMER Recreation Rescue assembled volunteers for a similar project in California.
Source: Autotown
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of a HUMMER vandal, and it won’t be the last, but this is the first time that we’ve seen crystal clear video evidence of the dirty deed (video below). We first would have expected to find some punk kid or a 20-something holier-than-thou hybrid driver behind the vandalism, but we would have been very wrong. The master-mind of this crime is a silver-haired geezer who carved two large Xs into the doors of a HUMMER H2 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Unfortunately, this guy still hasn’t been brought to justice pending identification.
UPDATE: Vandal Caught!strong>
General Motors, HUMMER’s parent company (at least for now), is turning 100 tomorrow. To celebrate, several online events will be held on Tuesday including an online chat with some of GM’s top brass. I’m guessing that any questions about HUMMER will be filtered through the moderators, but you never know. Here is a breakdown for the activities to be held on GMnext.com.
• At 8:30 a.m. EDT, GM will hold a Global Broadcast live from the Renaissance Center in Detroit. The webcast will feature technologies, products and GM leaders. This video will be available below LIVE on HummerGuy.net.
• From 10:30 a.m. EDT to 1:30 p.m. EDT, three GM leaders, including Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, will be taking questions in the GMnext.com chat room. The chats are open to everybody.
• At 1:30 p.m. EDT, join GMnext.com for the “Future of Transportation: The Next 100 Years” Roundtable, where industry experts will be having a candid discussion about what’s next in personal transportation. People viewing this webcast will also have the ability to submit questions to the panelists. To join in, register ahead of time on the Live Chat page.
Digg it