I hate car racing; there’s just something about it that seems to bring out the worst in a society. In America, that means mullets, Coors Light, Southerners, rejoicing in gas consumption, hysteric nationalism, and bountiful harvests of Dominos, KFC, and the always delicious Taco Bell.

In Europe, that means, well…

Few scandals in recent years have provoked as much anger and dismay across Europe as the saga of Max Mosley, the overseer of grand prix motor racing who made tabloid news last weekend in a front-page exposé and accompanying Web video showing him in a sadomasochistic orgy with five supposed prostitutes in a London sex “dungeon.” But beyond the licentiousness of the episode, it was the suggestion of Nazi undertones in the role-playing during the session in a basement in London’s fashionable Chelsea district that led to demands for Mr. Mosley’s resignation as president of the Paris-based Federation Internationale de l’Automobile.

In a video the paper posted on the Internet but later removed, two of the women wore black-and-white striped robes in the style of prisoners’ uniforms. The video showed Mr. Mosley counting in German — “Eins! Zwei! Drei! Vier! Funf!” — as he used a leather strap to lash one of the women.

“She needs more of ze punishment!” he cried in German-accented English. One woman appeared to search his hair for lice while another called off items on an inspection list. Mr. Mosley, naked, was bound face-down and lashed more than 20 times.

Jesus Christ, Nazi sex orgies? Still, when Mosley submitted this mock-up of his new branding strategy for grand prix cars, it should have been a clue:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 3:59 am and is filed under jesus fucking christ, racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.