Recently, An Feng, who has no place to spend money, is very concerned about things.

To promote the GT model, Maserati can host a professional challenge with around five races, raising the top three prizes and attracting teams to participate. At the same time, increase the publicity of the event, and if the effect is good, there may be TV broadcasts. In addition, the share of the ticket fee is also good.

But the most fundamental reason is that An Feng likes it.

The performance of the dual-motor sports car is outstanding, and the lap can brush the record of 1 minute and 43 seconds, even if he drives the McLaren P1, the fastest time is 1 minute and 38 seconds, but the two are not the same level of positioning, the P1 is the top flagship supercar, and the Maserati GT is even lower.

An Feng felt that such an outstanding performance and environmentally friendly sports car needed to stand out in front of everyone.

In addition to the advertised models, there are also batteries from GP Energy.

Graphene batteries have completely made Tesla half the sky, and the most critical thing is naturally the battery, which can play a good role in brand promotion when the battery is used in other brands of models and performs equally well. Or GP Energy can also sponsor one or two in this event and show its face.

After Bruno learned of An Feng's idea, he asked: "With the influence of the Maserati brand, it is not difficult to form a team with enough racing cars, and there is no problem in choosing the venue, but the five-race race is a bit short, and how to calculate the competition rewards?" ”

An Feng said: "If you give the GP company a name, the reward for the top five points can reach 12 million. ”

Rich is invincible, Bruno has nothing to say: "If you can raise prize money, there will be no problem with the competition, such a high reward, plus the pure electric event, will attract the team to participate." It's just that the five stations are too short, and I'm afraid they can't arouse the public's interest. ”

"This is America." An Feng reminded him, "They all like to watch NASCAR cars spinning in circles in oval circles, which is different from Europe." ”

Bruno understood: "That's why. ”

"So man," An Feng said with a smile, "five races are enough." I'm mainly looking at how effective and attractive it is, and if it's good enough, next time I get sponsorship for the event and make it a world championship in Europe, Asia and North America, what do you think? ”

What else could Bruno do? You're so rich, what else can stop you from playing?

Bruno replied in the affirmative, saying that he would discuss the plan as soon as possible - in fact he also likes to use the event to promote the car, it is just a matter of funding. In addition to the prize money, the competition requires a lot of expenses. Of course, as long as An Feng is happy, many difficulties will not be an obstacle.

An Feng went back to share his thoughts with Joanna.

"You're saying you're going to race as a driver?" Joanna confirmed.

"Sure, don't you think it's cool?" An Feng said, grabbing her hand, "I know your concerns, but wasn't it good last time?" ”

An Feng is not a professional driver though. But it was really crazy on the track, especially the opening race at the speedway. Competing with a professional driver is also not a compromise. This is probably the same as Joanna likes equestrianism and ignores its dangers, Anfeng also has a sport that he is passionate about.

Joanna said, "Okay, but it's a professional race, and you're not a professional driver!" ”

An Feng smiled: "Of course, I will be careful." ”

……

Strictly speaking. This challenge is just a test of the pure electric car, to see how it performs on the field, and if it is very attractive, it can be expanded in the future to occupy the opportunity of electric racing. An Feng is not competitive. He doesn't think he's going to be able to compete with the pros, either.

He just participated for fun, and he was addicted to racing cars.

Therefore, he does not require the level of the contestants, if they are all top, every time he runs behind, what else is there to see? Anyway, there are a lot of relatives and friends, if you participate in the competition, the partners who won the opening last time will at least come to six or seven percent, right? If you fall too far behind, you can't play well.

An Feng participated with the mentality of playing soy sauce.

The technique can be amateur, but the process must be rigorous, and the participating teams must have not only the main drivers, but also the logistics, technical directors, engineers, technicians, team managers, etc. After thinking about it, An Feng contacted two drivers he knew, Duke and Howard, and told them about the matter.

Originally, An Feng wanted to invite them to join the event, but the two of them were not young, and it was okay to play once in a while, but if they wanted to engage in professional competitions, they couldn't keep up with their energy and physical strength. After discussing it on the phone, the idea of forming a team was discussed, with Duke as team manager and Howard as technical director.

They hit it off, and the name was decided: GP Team.

Obviously, the sponsor must be a GP company, spending tens of millions of dollars to play racing, which is just a drop in the bucket for a large enterprise with a revenue of 20 billion. GP Energy has a strong connection with cars, and there have always been plans to enter racing. Money is not an issue, now it is only necessary to consider the selection of team members.

Duke and Howard had a lot of ideas, and the details could be discussed throughout the day. An Feng is a layman in these details, so he let them talk, with their help, he also ended up idle, and now the purpose is to take the cash car, carry out modifications within the scope allowed by the organizer, and meet the event.

……

Preparations for the race were time-consuming, starting with the unveiling of the GT models at the Geneva Motor Show in March, followed by the announcement of the "MC Challenge" by Maserati, which featured GT models with huge prize money and invited teams to participate. After going through a complicated procedure, it will be May at the earliest.

Time is not in a hurry, and the team has not yet been formed! In order to win the title, the GP team must have more than one driver, at least one professional driver. Counting on An Feng? The big boss is Tulezi! Later it turned out that the rider was still on vacation while he was practicing.

A few days later, Mr. An met with Matthew in Los Angeles.

A new product launch of BDA was held locally. After the order volume of high-end products continued to rise, the low-end press conference also won applause. On the other hand, the way is also being paved for cooperative sales channels in foreign countries, and the Hart family in the United Kingdom is communicating with the government and preparing to give the green light to enter Europe.

The press conference was very grand, and celebrities from all walks of life cheered on the scene, and the popularity was hot. As a member of the board of directors, An Feng also chatted with some big customers and made a few big orders. After the press conference, sit with Matthew when you have time. Have a cup of tea, a snack, and a casual chat.

"How's she now, okay?" An Feng asked.

Matthew said: "It's not bad, the due date is in April, and it's been really busy lately. ”

An Feng has a deep experience: "The east and west coasts fly in two places. Jet lag torments people, so let's use holographic communication in the future. ”

"Holographic communication is convenient, but it's not suitable for all environments," Matthew said. ”

"Yes." An Feng nodded, like the press conference that just ended, it is impossible to achieve holographic communication, "It seems that you have to consider supersonic flight." ”

An Feng was joking, but Matthew said: "It's not unrealistic that you mentioned this, recently Aerion launched an extended-range version of the supersonic business jet SBJ." It has increased its range to 11,000 kilometers from the original maximum speed of Mach 1.6, which is very impressive. ”

An Feng was surprised: "Supersonic airliner? If you can fly so fast, don't you have to use a turbojet engine? How can you avoid a fighter-like noise? ”

Matthew shook his head: "You are wrong about this, it does not use a turbojet engine, but a turbofan engine like a passenger aircraft, which is the JT8D-219 specially improved by Pratt & Whitney, which is widely used in the Boeing 737 passenger body." Improved. It is capable of breaking the sound barrier for long flights. ”

An Feng saw it: "In this way, it flew from New York to Los Angeles. It's only 2.2 hours, which is twice as fast as ordinary civil aviation. ”

"Theoretically, yes, but like most countries, the United States does not allow supersonic flights, at most subsonic cruises." Matthew said.

"Isn't this a chicken rib?" An Feng was puzzled.

Matthew explained: "I'm just talking about U.S. airspace, but it's not a public area. It takes a lot of time to cross the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic. ”

"That's right." An Feng nodded.

"Fast, time-saving and stylish, are you interested?" Matthew asked.

"You're a salesman?" An Feng said with a smile.

"If you want to say that, you can do that, because the shareholders of the company and I are friends." Matthew also smiled, "He recommended it to me." But I spend most of my time in the U.S. and only occasionally fly to Europe. But you, young people, are not allowed to walk around the world? It's only three hours from New York to London. ”

"How much does it cost? For how long? An Feng asked, "It's too long, I can't wait." ”

"About 90 million US dollars, VVIP will give you the first order, get it in a year and a half, and you can enjoy the Ferrari in the air in the future."

"It's not cheap." An Feng said.

"Save half the time for your trip, go to London into three hours, go to China in only six hours, the earth has become smaller, do you think it's worth it? I think the few planes you bought are all above 70 million, right? Sell one of them, isn't it good to replace it with a faster one? ”

Matthew asked him to sell the plane, and it wasn't necessarily a bad idea to change it to a faster one.

At present, he has two intercontinental business jets, the Global 8000 is the most frequently used, the reason is naturally comfortable and long-range, and the Gulfstream G650ER is reduced because of the arrival of the Global 8000, and occasionally the flight within the United States is also the principle of proximity, too lazy to use it.

If you sell the Gulfstream second-hand, it seems to be a good choice to pay a little more out of pocket and change to a supersonic plane to catch the trend. It's definitely not used in normal times, but with the expansion of the consortium strategy, if there is anything to hurry up with in the future, supersonic aircraft are also good......

In this way, An Feng's reason convinced himself.

He asked Matthew for contact information, made an appointment, and traveled to the aircraft manufacturing base in Nevada to meet Aerion's supersonic aircraft. As in the photo, in order to overcome the speed of sonic flight, it is a long and slender shape, much longer than the Global 8000, but very narrow and small.

It can accommodate up to 12 passengers, the standard is 8 passengers, and if you want to experience supersound, the fewer passengers the better. An Feng and the account manager experienced the SBJ version, and the extended range version is currently only a test prototype and has not been opened, but the SBJ model is also enough to experience supersound.

There are countless people in the world who have flown in planes, but very few have been able to experience supersonic flight - this kind of thing seems to be only seen in fighter jets. The current commercial airliner has achieved this, and when it broke through the sound barrier, An Feng was completely shocked.

One word: fierce.

At maximum thrust, the speed reaches 1800 km/h, Mach 1.7 (high-altitude algorithm)! The speed is more than twice that of an ordinary civil airliner. An Feng felt the wonderful sound falling behind him...... After experiencing it firsthand, he thought it was a good toy and decided to buy it.

He ordered the 8-seater version, which was divided into two parts, the front with four separate luxury seats, and the back with two seats together, and a counter on one side to hang an LCD TV, and a refrigerator in the cabinet to hold some drinks and beer.

The interior is simple, and the cabin is not wide, as Matthew described it as "the Ferrari of the plane", it pursues speed and naturally does not take comfort at the same time. But the journey is much shorter, and for passengers, there is no need to seek a short pleasure - because the end has already been reached. (To be continued......)