THE KING OF SWEDEN (the Grapevine, 1999)

I tell BZ about an e-mail I had received from the chief designer of Infinity, the Hungarian guy, Vic Elisher. Later in life, Elisher became an engineer on a physics project that won a Nobel Prize.

“You know, the prime engineer on the Infinity car became a systems engineer for the particle accelerators and atom smashers in Berkeley,” I say as BZ raises an eyebrow. “He may not set the land speed record, but he was instrumental in allowing some physicist or another to claim the Nobel Prize.”

“It’s a long way from the salts of Bonneville to the King of Sweden,” BZ says, and then adds, “except, of course, in fine American Literature like Day of the Drag Racer. And in machines named Infinity, apparently…”

Tags: Bonneville. Nobel Prize, bz, infinity, vic elisher