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On a Thursday evening in February 1980, Minnie Yarbrough and her son, Lee Roy, were watching television in the little house on Plymouth Road in Jacksonville, Florida, when Lee Roy said, “Mother, I hate to do this to you.”

“What do you mean?” Minnie said to her son. And Lee Roy showed her what he meant. He reached around her neck, and with both hands, he began to strangle her. A nephew heard his aunt’s screams, rushed into the room, and tried to pull Lee Roy away but couldn’t. So he grabbed a full jelly jar from the kitchen and clocked Lee Roy over the head. Even so, Lee Roy had enough left in him to fight the first police officer who arrived a few minutes later.

That night, Lee Roy Yarbrough, at 41, became the first and thus far only Daytona 500 winner to be charged with first-degree attempted murder for trying to kill his 65-year-old mother, plus assault on a police officer, both felonies.

Many thought it was the beginning of the end for the only racer to be unanimously voted Driver of the Year, bracketed between Mark Donohue and Al Unser. But Lee Roy Yarbrough had been slipping into a dark place for nearly a decade, though few outside NASCAR knew it.

In February, Daytona International Speedway held a big celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500, with all 24 living winners of the race showing up. Very little was said about Lee Roy Yarbrough, who had positively dominated the track, and the sport, in 1969. Next February, when the anniversary of his win arrives—not only at the Daytona 500 but in the Sportsman race there the day before and later that July in the Firecracker 400—fans who remember Yarbrough shouldn’t expect much of a formal mention of him then, either.

No one at NASCAR likes sad stories, and they don’t come much sadder than this one.

But when he was on top, no driver was considered more fearless or more focused. “Lee Roy had just one speed—wide open,” says Richard Petty. “He didn’t figure nothin’, didn’t plan nothin’, just ran flat-out lap after lap. And if he could get by with it, he was up front. If he didn’t, he was in the pits. He put everything into that one strategy—full speed ahead.”

Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/08q4/something_just_wasn_t_right-sport

In our of the BMW 135i coupe, we suggested there really aren’t many other cars that compare—it’s in a class of one. There’s not even much in BMW’s history to point at, and don’t even bring up the 318ti, better remembered as an underpowered styling exercise than a legitimate attempt at a feasible “smaller” car. We more approve of BMW’s approach to the 135i: Take a car we really like, the 335i, make it lighter and cheaper, and don’t futz with the good stuff. Lighter means faster, and—to put it into pubescent supercar-poster perspective—the 135i sprints to 60 mph as quickly as a Ferrari Testarossa.

Although the 135i’s size, power, and price are a unique combination, there are other comfortable, capable sports coupes for those who need only two seats. Every car here will whisk you around in style, swaddling you in expensive-smelling leather, embarrassing you not while you build the equity required to assume the crushing lease attached to a Porsche 911.

Levels of power and speed vary greatly among the cars gathered here, but no one can accuse anything on this list of being poky. Indeed, many of these cars are as involving as the fourth season of

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and in our eyes, driving experience ultimately determines a car’s competitors. For seven different twists on entry-luxury automotive nirvana, read on.

Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/08q1/competitors_in_the_crosshairs_2008_bmw_135i-feature

Nissan 370Z vs. BMW 135i, Mazda RX-8 R3, and Pontiac …