With such a demanding schedule, stock-car racing's brightest stars aren't put up in luxurious hotels. Instead, drivers turn their RVs into a slice of home that can be parked in a private area inside each race track-and they're nothing like the ordinary motor coaches you'd find in RV parks around the country.
Builds for some of the top stars in the sport-think Richard Petty, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Chase Elliot, and the Busch brothers range from $800,000 to $2 million in total for the crème de la crème of mobile living, according to Kasey Hess, director of motorsports at Marathon Motorcoaches. The man responsible for transforming drivers' requests from dreams into reality is Marathon's vice president of interior design and engineering, Alan Christianson, who says each of their motor coaches receive more than 1,000 hours of work before delivery.
Before you add in the elaborate interior details, a great motor coach starts with strong bones. Marathon's custom builds start with a Prevost chassis, which starts at around $700,000 for an empty bus with no interior. The Canadian coachmaker who supplies the chassis to Marathon prides itself on craftsmanship and reliability, claiming that every RV it builds can travel well over 1 million miles. Compared to the top-of-the-line Prevost, an enthusiast-level RV will run you closer to $100,000 (see sidebar).
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Henrietta Lacks - It's not surprising that Henrietta Lacks-whose
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