Roaring aside, car was no beast

Halfway through Dan Neil’s piece on his driving a “Formula One” race car [“Bright Lights, Big Engines,” April 1], readers find that he actually drove a heavily modified race car. Certain unmodified street cars (Dodge Viper, Chevrolet Corvette Z06) could achieve about the same performance.

The ultralight weight of and lack of sound-deadening on Neil’s car surely made for a thrilling experience, but the paper misled its readers by promoting the article during the week and with the headlines and photo captions on the story itself.

Or was the piece an April Fool joke on us all?

STEVEN PARKER

La Quinta