ForemostCarGuy

NAIAS... Wish I was there

2012-01-09T08:48:00.001-08:00

I usually try to make it back to Michigan for the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS)but with being newly married and traveling somewhere almost every other weekend I'll be sitting this years out. Today was opening day and it looks like we've got some exciting new cars on the horizon for 2013. GM unveiled the much anticipated and much ballyhooed Cadillac ATS, and Ford showed up with their new bread and butter Fusion sedan, that looks an awful lot like it's stealing parts from Aston Martin. Dodge also introduced the new Dart, which looks like a major improvement, though not something I would care to own.

Here's hoping these will help get the "big 3" back on top.

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f63/naias-2013-cadillac-ats-108049

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f63/naias-2013-ford-fusion-108070/

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f63/naias-2013-dodge-dart-neon-future-108076/

I can't pronounce the name, but I want one!

2011-12-21T09:36:00.001-08:00

Behold the Donkervoort D8 GTO.

Have I ever mentioned I hate electrical work?

2011-12-19T16:54:00.000-08:00

Those of you who know me, know my beloved old 1996 Jeep Cherokee. While mechanically I've had very few problems with my Jeep, even including several trips across the country (from Pennsylvania to Nevada 6 times, with side trips to the Pacific coast, and several trips to the Atlantic coast), recently the age, and Northern love of piling salt on the roads during winter have started taking their toll.

Mysteriously a couple of months ago all my exterior lights quit working. After telling myself I was going to troubleshoot it myself I finally bit the bullet and decided to go to a shop. $405 later I had function headlights! But the gages no longer worked, and the turn signals were pretty iffy.

Going the simple route I decided to check fuses for a gauge fuse, and sure enough there was one fuse that provided protection to all the gauges. I pulled it, and it was NOT burned out. I replaced it anyway and viola! Gauges.

On to the blinker. Since they were intermittent, I thought it seemed like a blinker relay problem. New blinker at NAPA $20... blinkers! for about 5 miles, then intermittent again. Frustrated I go after the blinker fuse. Book says it's in slot 8. Pull perfectly fine fuse from slot 8, but notice that there are only contacts on one side of the terminal. Think to myself "that's odd, shop must have screwed that up when they worked on it" but just for fun, I pulled the fuse and tried the blinker... well... the blinker worked. On to plan B

Started pulling fuses with the blinker running until I touched one... did not pull the fuse, but the blinker stopped... wiggled it and blinker came on again. A Ha! Pulled the fuse and only the plastic portion came off in my hand. Off to the garage to get pliers and remove the rest of the fuse. Fuse out, and no blinkers... put the new fuse from slot 8 into slot 10... blinkers! reliably! Consult the owners manual to see what slot 10 is... "Empty".

So, on the day that my Jeep was built in 1995... I think some assembly worker just decided to have some extra fun when he wired up the fuse block.

Land of the Free

2011-12-14T06:30:00.001-08:00

So I saw this mentioned on HLN this morning

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/12/13/ntsb-wants-to-ban-mobile-phone-use-in-cars-across-the-country/

While I would welcome the opportunity to drive on roads not infested with texting, internet surfing "commuters", if taken by their word this would also preclude use of GPS systems, MP3 Players etc. While GPS *can* be a distraction, it can ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflso help you avoid distraction since you won't have to be consulting your printed or hand written directions and watching closely for road signs.

In the near future a "hand held" cell phone ban is going to take effect for commercial vehicle drivers, requiring us to use a bluetooth or other hands-free system. That seems like a far more logical route to take as far as keeping ones eyes on the road, and hands available to keep control of the vehicle.

While the traffic fatalities related to "distracted driving" are clearly unacceptable, it seems like there should be a more logical way to correct this situation. I will be interested to see what the outcome is as this moves forward.

Too much to do

2011-12-07T13:04:00.001-08:00

If anyone still reads this, I'm sorry to have not been more active recently. I moved in July 2010, and got married in July 2011 so I've been busy! The good news is I've started racing, and the home-life is starting to settle down (a little), so hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of things here.

If you want an update on the racing side of that, my brother was kind enough to do some write up over on his blog some time ago.
http://broketoe.blogspot.com/2010/09/race-cars-kids-marawage-and-other.html

Done a little since then that I will try to update on soon!

Time for some car content.

Behold!

2010-08-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

A new Morgan!

More here
http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car/10q3/2013_morgan_evagt-car_news

Amusing "safety" feature

2010-06-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

It seems my dad is/was considering adding a second Ferrari to his fleet. Since he already has a front engine V12 coupe, a mid-engine V8 spyder sounds like a good complement so he's been looking at some lightly used 360's. One in particular caught my attention, having a factory optioned fire extinguisher.

Now, full disclosure, I have a fire extinguisher mounted in my Porsche... But my Porsche is 37 years old, and judging by the amount of smoke that emanates from the engine bay after turning it off it seems that it could burst into flames at any moment (keeps me on my toes!). However the idea of a factory mounted fire extinguisher in a modern car is a bit concerning. Does Ferrari really expect their cars to burst into flames? Well, a quick google search seems to indicate this is a possibility.

However, I'm sure an owner would feel much better knowing he can confidently put out his engine fire with this

It's good to know that Ferrari holds their customers in such high regard as to give them a hand stitched top grade leather wrapped fire extinguisher. Owners can rest assured that they they will be cosseted in luxury even whilst dousing an engine fire.

Budget cuts

2010-05-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

UK police are going green! And getting in better shape too it looks like.
Unfortunately for the bad guys, it's just in good fun... I'm guessing this means he can still call actual police cars if needed.

http://www.asylum.co.uk/2010/05/24/have-the-cuts-begun-already-hampshire-police-unveil-pedal-power/

Quite Fast

2010-04-30T04:49:00.000-07:00

Seems the Ferrari 599XX set a new record at the Ring recently... And this driver makes it look easy!

Blue Angel v. Blue Devil

2010-04-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

The Corvette ZR1 is clearly one of the fastest cars on the planet, so Motor Trend decided comparing it to other cars was all a bit too boring and pedestrian. So they somehow or another got the Navy to race an F18 against it.
Seems the Chevy is a bit outmatched, but still pretty entertaining.

The Blue Oval

2010-04-27T05:01:00.000-07:00

Automotive News reports that Ford generated $2 billion in quarterly profit for 2010. The big news? They're actually turning a profit on each car sold! I remember a few years back GM lost an average of $1,200 on each car sold. But that was ok, because they thought they could just make it up in volume.

The only bad news for Ford is that they have over $30 billion in debt versus GM and Chrysler that have virtually no remaining debt, and Toyota that has huge heaps of cash laying around. Still, many of their newest offerings seem to be solid contenders, they avoided the stigma of bankruptcy, and Toyota is in a tailspin. It will be interesting to watch.

Coachbuilding

2010-04-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

People who know me well know that I appreciate finely crafted, especially hand-made, stuff. There is so much more meaning to something when you consider a skilled craftsman or artist spent hours, days, weeks, or even months to create something unique.

Back in the days of Body-on-frame cars, before the advent of crash testing, and mass-produced "luxury" cars you bought your luxury car (from any of a great number of providers such as Cadillac, Rolls-Royce, etc) as a chassis and engine, then sent that off to a coachbuilder to have your bespoke body and interior fitted. This produced some of the most beautiful works of art ever created, and you could drive them!

For the most part, coachbuilding today is "dead". Only a few in-house specialists remain (such as Bentley's Mulliner) but the greats like Hooper, James Young, and Fleetwood are gone. So what's one to do if you want a modern car wrapped up in some gorgeous sheetmetal (or carbon fiber, or fiberglass or whatever)? Today I came across Delahaye USA, named after (but not related to) the legendary French marque seen only in museums, and A-list Concours. From the pictures their vehicles are absolutely stunning. It is also refreshing to see someone use an engine other than the ubiquitous GM small-block to power their creations. I'll take mine with the BMW-V12 please (or even better how about the twin-turbo Rolls-Royce V12 from the new Ghost?)

Insane

2010-04-15T11:35:00.001-07:00

This one pretty much speaks for itself.
Lotus Exige with 600+HP

http://www.hennesseyperformancestore.com/venomgt.html

2010-04-13T05:32:00.001-07:00

Quite some time since my last post here. What with getting ready to move, attending weddings and such I haven't found a whole lot of time to post.

In any event, There's been quite a bit of anticipation over this newest Bentley, and apparently this video is among the newest releases. The engine has always been the most fascinating part of a vehicle to me, so this is mesmerizing. And I haven't even seen the video with sound yet! Don't be surprised if I comment more soon.

of Toyota

2010-02-12T08:14:00.000-08:00

Even though I'm a long time and well known Toyota hater, I have to say I'm actually starting to feel sorry for them. First the unwanted acceleration in practically every car they make, then brakes in the Prius, and now I'm hearing about the Prius accelerating out of control when on cruise control (irony?)

The big question here is... are their cars really THAT bad, or is this just exponential loss of consumer confidence? Could it be that nearly every car they make is defective?

My theory is, as we all know, once you KNOW there is a problem it's quite easy to become extra picky about any other minor problem. Granted, a car accelerating when on cruise control is a pretty big problem, but why didn't we hear about this before the big recall? Same thing with the brakes. It seems people were happily driving along in their Prius with the funky brakes for years, but now that there's a big recall on accelerators people think "hmm, this doesn't seem right". Not that there's anything wrong with that. Consumers should be critical of their cars. For most people a car represents the second most expensive thing they own, so you should be happy with it!

It's hard to say what the long term result of this will be. For my part, I hope only that it helps level the playing field. The Japanese car industry can make mistakes just as well as the Americans or anyone else. Although, at the end of the day I expect the biggest benefit will be realized by Hyundai/Kia.

Forty-Eight

2010-01-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

Well this is supposed to be a car-blog, but I admit to having a certain fascination with 2-wheeled things that sound like Harleys... and have the scars on my leg to prove it... But anyway, I got an e-mail from Harley announcing their new Sportster. Not really sure where the "Forty Eight" name comes from but it looks pretty sweet! Pretty similar to my "Nightster" but a smaller tank, fatter front end, forward controls, different engine finish, and some trim differences.
Nice!

What is a "Luxury" car?

2010-01-20T11:37:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting topic that's open for feedback and debate. One of the forums I frequent, GMInsidenews.com is often abuzz with discussion on what Cadillac should do to be competitive and relevant. Also keeping in mind that there is still Buick which also claims to be "luxury". The question is, what is a luxury car?
At one end of the spectrum we have BMW which bases it's marketing on "fun to drive", and pretty much invented the popular concept of the "sports sedan" (Jaguar and probably others were doing it first, but it was BMW that really took the idea and ran with it). This section values communicative steering and a taut chassis. Typically this is paired with a performance oriented engine and RWD.

The other end of the spectrum, or so I'm told, is Lexus. I have never driven a Lexus but from what I hear the idea is to have the driver in total isolation from the world around. Apparently in this category and engine isn't expected to have any "getup" and FWD is perfectly acceptable.

Then of course you can get into "ultra-luxury" such as Rolls-Royce, Bentley, and Maybach. But I'm mostly concerned with the most general definition of a luxury car.

For me these are some things that I would expect in a "luxury" car. Unfortunately nobody really makes this short of Rolls-Royce.

1) Part of the definition of luxury is "excess": A Luxury car should have the finest materials, or at least materials that are far above "average". Expect high-grade "aniline" leathers, and real wood trim. Also, emphasis on "real" materials. For instance a door handle that looks chrome should be chrome plated metal, not plastic.

2)The interior should be nearly silent. Some pleasant exhaust noise etc is OK, but road noise and wind noise is totally unacceptable. At cruising speed (60-80mph) all passengers should be able to carry on a conversation at normal household levels.

3)Ride should be tuned for comfort. frost heaves, expansion joints, and rough pavement should not be noticed by the cars occupants. Anything short of a speed-bump or pothole should be completely smothered, and even those events should be barely noticed. With today's availability of active suspension systems a vehicle with this type of tuning should still be able to have acceptable handling. I don't expect a 5,000lb luxury car to handle like a Porsche, but I shouldn't have to slow down to take a turn on the interstate.

4) While I don't care to take a luxury car drag-racing, the engine should have adequate torque to accelerate the car effortlessly within the normal operating range. If I need to accelerate from 60 to 80mph to pass someone on the interstate it should happen without drama. This means no downshifts for "passing" acceleration. Back in "the day" Cadillac typically had the largest engines GM offered. These days, the most powerful Cadillac has a de-tuned Corvette engine. (In 1957 Cadillac had a 390c.i. engine while the Corvette had a 289)

While this is possible with a FWD platform (Cadillac installed a 500ci engine with FWD), as an engineer, I believe that RWD is preferred in almost any case, and especially with a high-torque engine.

What do you think?

Will they or wont they?

2010-01-13T05:43:00.001-08:00

Now another reversal on GM's claim that the G8 platform is dead in the US. Apparently now they are talking about making a civilian version of the Chevy Caprice police car, which is based on the Holden Commodore. This has flip-flopped so many times that no-one believes anything yet.

In other news, I'm getting ready to head off to the North American International Auto Show this weekend. Should be a good time, though I'm already disappointed in one of the main vehicles I wanted to see. The Cadillac XTS was supposed to be an amazing new design, but to me it looks like a cross of a Buick LaCrosse and a Chrysler Sebring with a Cadillac grill.

Another race car

2009-12-22T11:07:00.000-08:00

A little different interpretation of racing than what you see today. Best I can figure (reading the Google translated version of the webpage) it was created because Voisin won the previous year and the rules were changed to preclude something in his design that others didn't like.
I love random design exercises like this, and you really have to admire them for finding new and creative ways to reduce weight. I think even Colin Chapman would have been impressed with things like narrowing the rear end to eliminate the need for a differential, and having the water pump be propeller driven (this also to coax a bit more power out of the tiny engine).
Also note, that even for a race car this has a nicely detailed (albeit spartan)interior. Of course I read that it has never won a competitive event. It reminds me of the Frenchman's line in The Patriot: "If I die, I die well dressed".

http://translate.google.co.in/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpagesperso-orange.fr%2Fautomobiles-voisin%2FC_6.html&sl=fr&tl=en

Going Racing!

2009-12-21T06:54:00.000-08:00

Well at long last we have an honest-to-goodness race-car in the family now. My dad, brother and myself are eligible for SCCA regional licenses after our Bondurant experience this year, so now it's just a matter of getting on track and going for it.

Got a 1979 RX-7 prepared for the SCCA IT-7 class. Seems like a good, relatively economical place to start and get going. Of course we still have lots of details to figure out, but it's a step in the right direction!

McQueen

2009-12-18T07:54:00.000-08:00

I just got done reading this article. WOW!
It's very cool to read original reviews like this of what are now timeless classic cars, from someone who was a true enthusiast. Of course, he makes a few factual slips, like thinking that the 427 "Turbo-Jet" in the Corvette meant it was turbo-charged.
but I suppose we can forgive him for that. Such a great variety of cars too, from traditional sports cars (the "new" Porsche 911, Alfa), to luxury GT (Mercedes, Aston). Very complimentary reviews of all, but so no-nonsense, seat of the pants, gut feeling reviews from a legendary car guy. Even if I do find his movies pretty boring.

Read it all here
http://42ndblackwatch1881.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/sports-illustrated-vintage-1966-steve-mcqueen-reviews-the-hottest-new-gts/

Another McQueen photo gallery here
http://42ndblackwatch1881.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/steve-mcqueen-whatll-it-be-today-jaguar-xkss-or-ac-cobra/

Satisfied Buyers

2009-12-09T05:47:00.000-08:00

New JD Power Sales Satisfaction index shows that buyers this year were more satisfied with their new-car purchases than last year overall. Apparently when the salesmen are begging for business, and actually pay attention to the customers it's a good thing!

Top honors to Jaguar for luxury brands and Mercury for mass-market brands. Interesting as Jaguar has much lower sales compared to Cadillac, Lexus, and Mercedes (2-4 respectively), and Mercury never seems to be on the top of anyone's wish list. For Jaguar this is the 2nd year running with this honor. Guess they are doing some things right!

At the other end of the scale were Audi for luxury vehicles and Mitsubishi for mass market vehicles.

Full release
http://www.jdpower.com/autos/articles/2009-Sales-Satisfaction-Index-Study/page-2

Shuffle Shuffle

2009-12-04T07:17:00.000-08:00

Looks like GM Has shuffled some people around in the executive suite.
Looks like we at least get an engineer as the President of GM North America in Mark Reuss. His list of experience seems very well rounded for the position, with depth in both engineering and administration. I don't know too much about his reputation, but seems to be a solid choice.

Lutz "remains vice chairman and will act as advisor on design and global product development"

It's not very clear what that means, but at least he will still be on board. It looks as though he's been removed from direct management though.

I guess what we wait for now is a new CEO. Or maybe Whitacre will just crown himself?

Full article
http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/news/news_detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2009/Dec/1204_GM_Leader

Lutz gets a new job!

2009-12-04T05:27:00.001-08:00

After the shakeup recently with Fritz "resigning" there was a flurry of proposals and suggestions over who should be the next CEO. Lutz seems to be a popular favorite, but he just took over marketing not that long ago. This morning Automotive News reports that Lutz is going to be reassigned but doesn't say where, or how. Apparently there is an annoucement coming at 9am. Stay tuned.

Bloomberg News said Whitacre, who became interim CEO following Henderson's departure three days ago, is building a team until a replacement chief executive can be found.

The Wall Street Journal said Lutz will have a new role as younger managers are given “more prominent” positions.

Time for a new CEO

2009-12-03T11:24:00.000-08:00

The car world is abuzz with mention of GM CEO Fritz Henderson's "resignation". I think we all knew this time would come, but the timing is a little odd and very sudden. Of course this is really good news for GM, *IF* they get it right this time. I mentioned in a previous post that we need more car guys and less acountants running GM (http://foremostcarguy.blogspot.com/2009/06/enough-with-accountants-wheres-car-guys.html) and now is their opportunity. Someone with a car background, preferably an engineering background that really understands the product.

The easy-inside choice is Bob Lutz as a short term solution. However, he already tried to retire once, so I don't think he'll be around for the long haul. He could certainly do a lot to get them going in the right direction though.

Roger Penske would also be an interesting outside choice but again probably not someone who can fill that position for 10 years or so and get GM really going again.

Another interesting option would be the internet blogger and former Buick salesman "Buickman" who seems like a pretty good choice and a good mix of outside and inside. He already has a clear plan to return GM to the forefront of the automotive world.

There's a lot of talk that GM can't attract qualified people due to salary caps. The problem with this, is the "right" person shouldn't need a huge salary for this. Lee Iacocca was famous for his $1 salary, and lots of stock. If the company did well, so did he. If not, then he didn't gain anything. GM needs someone who will take this job out of passion for the product, company, and sheer challenge. If GM's next CEO is successful, GM changes its image, goes public, pays off government debt, then that CEO will be a legend in the business world. There will be nearly limitless opportunities for someone of that caliber who proves themself in one of the most public, difficult jobs around. For the "right" person I'd say this is an opportunity not a "job". Once GM is back into using black ink and a world leader then they can start talking about industry competitive salaries.

Of course, the other question is... where do I submit my resume? I'm a car guy, engineer, and working on my MBA AND at 24 I could stick around for a while.

Toyota finds a car guy?

2009-11-18T08:28:00.000-08:00

Reading the following article I realize the world has, in fact, turned upside down. Jaguar is at the top of JD Power for reliability, and Toyota is going to make interesting cars? Toyota practically invented the idea of "the car as an appliance", and through attempted competition with Toyota and other similar car companies, and a good dose of poor management GM ended up the company they are today.

This brings around one of my biggest points on cars. Very rarely will people avoid a car because it's too interesting. It's just that for a great majority of the population a car is just a way to move yourself and your stuff around. A mass market car company (like GM for instance) needs to pin down the principles of efficient and reliable transportation, and then add the interest factor. It seems they are (slowly) moving this direction but it's hard to tell.

Of course you can always exist as a niche brand by building something interesting and exciting that finds a unique role in the automotive world (for instance BMW and "sport sedans").

"Hans Greimel
Automotive News
November 16, 2009 - 12:01 am ET

TOKYO -- Akio Toyoda has appointed himself supreme automotive taste tester for Toyota Motor Corp., a kind of master chef overseeing ingredients that go into the automaker's vehicles. But what seasonings will he be pulling from the spice rack to zest up his cars?

Subscribe to Automotive News

His favorite buzz words: "fun to drive."

From a personal point of view, Toyoda the car guy clearly favors high-performance, responsive, sporty cars. Look no further than the Lexus IS-F sedan and LFA sports car, two of the new president's pet projects.

"Cars are not a mere means of mobility," Toyoda blogs under his pseudonym, Morizo, on the company's Japanese-language marketing Web site www.gazoo.com. "They respond to the driver's will; they turn, speed up, slow down. Naturally, there's a need for excitement."

The fuel-efficient, dependable cars that made Toyota famous don't tingle all his taste buds. Blogging about the plethora of environmentally friendly cars at last month's Tokyo Motor Show, Morizo complained: "It was all green. But I wonder how many inspired people to get excited."

He added: "Of course, eco-friendly cars are a prerequisite for the future, but there must be more than that."

One car that set Toyoda's heart revving was the latest Volkswagen Scirocco.

"I'm jealous!" he blogged in July after test driving one. Besides having "cool styling," Toyoda wrote, "It runs incredibly well, to the extent I can't believe it is a 2000cc engine."

Toyoda's conclusion: "Morizo cannot afford to lose. I will tackle the challenge of creating a car with even more splendid flavor than the Scirocco."

Toyoda's quest to inject excitement, style and emotion into his company's lineup adds a new flavoring to the company's long-successful recipe of delivering sensible, reliable, affordable - though sometimes boring - automobiles. It may be a tough balancing act.

"For a lot of people, their first priority is not having a fun-to-drive car," says Chris Richter, an auto analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Tokyo. "It's simply getting from A to B."

Chieko Tsuneoka contributed to this report

Morizo on motoring

Here are some blog comments from Morizo, Akio Toyoda's online alter ego.

On the Volkswagen Scirocco: "The steering wheel doesn't look good, but once you swing it, it feels good. I also wondered if the A-pillar was too thick, but once I started driving, it didn't bother me."

On fun-to-drive cars: "In order to have cars that inspire dreams and admiration in everyone from children to adults, it is important to appeal to people's sensitivities through the 'flavor' of a car."

On his penchant for racing: "An escape from reality? A hobby? I, Morizo, know many things have been said about my racing. But I have simply loved cars since I was little."

On the value of driving at Nurburgring: "I want more people to understand that cars are forged in racing, and, at the same time, it's a wonderful environment to nurture people.""

Please keep them in your prayers

2009-11-16T07:47:00.000-08:00

While I was on the way to work this morning I heard a news report that there was a motorcycle fatality last night in Hanover township. I found out just a few minutes ago that it was the son of my old boss from when I was a co-op at Mack. I can't imagine the struggle the family is going through right now. Please keep them in your prayers.

Morning Call article,
http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/all-fatal-crash-111609-cn,0,5340704.story

Clarkson has done it again

2009-11-13T07:46:00.001-08:00

I'm an avid fan of Top Gear, and Jeremy Clarkson. That's not to say I agree with him. But I do agree with his mindset, and overall feelings on cars. I don't read his work, or watch his show seriously intent on deciding whether this car is one I want to buy, that's what test drives are for. But still, it's very entertaining, and I think he qualifies as a true "car guy". I was just reading this article by him, it's a bit old, but I think spot on.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/greatest_hits/article3289827.ece

Forza 3

2009-11-11T08:01:00.000-08:00

Just picked up Forza Motorsports 3 for Xbox 360 a few days ago. Really haven't had much time to mess with it, but so far it's a lot of fun, and of course very realistic (so much as it can be when your interface is a game controller). I'm not really a 'gamer' so no technical review here, but it is a lot of fun, and car details are amazing. Plus a good selection of cars is always nice.

Forza 3 Amazon

Profit!!

2009-11-03T05:59:00.000-08:00

A word not often associated with the American automotive industry these days, but apparently through something called "good management" and a little boost from cash for clunkers, Ford has actually made a profit! Keep in mind, Ford did not take "bailout" money, or government loans, nor did they endure bankruptcy. While GM and Chrysler are still trying to dig their way out of a huge hole, Ford is living the dream.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/02/news/companies/ford_results/index.htm?postversion=2009110211

Hilton Head! And a belated bit of pictures and such from York on Wheels

2009-10-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

Well tonight I'm off to Hilton Head Island for the concours and race. Unfortunately I miss the first bit of racing today, but should still be some good stuff tomorrow.
Will update next week!
http://www.hhiconcours.com/

Back in September my wonderful girlfriend decided to take me to a car show for my birthday, and we went to York on Wheels in York, PA. It was supposed to rain all weekend but ended up being an absolutely perfect day. Just a nice hometown style car-show with a baffling array of cars from a 1990 Buick Park Avenue (in maybe average condition, looked to be a daily driver) to a brand new Corvette ZR-1. A couple of Ferraris, Porsches and other exotics peppered throughout.

Recession? What Recession?

2009-10-22T04:59:00.000-07:00

Got a few interesting updates today.
Apparently the super rich (or perhaps just the companies that cater to the super-rich) aren't aware that there's a global "economic downturn" as my company's management is so fond of reminding us.

Lexus deemed it an excellent time to announce a limited run of 500 $375,000 supercars due out in 2011. Apparently it will feature a 4.8L V10 with around 560HP, and top out over 200mph. Unfortunately for any actual car enthusiasts, it only has an automatic transmission. Leave it to Lexus to make something that looks cool absolutely useless. (disclaimer: I'm not exactly fond of Lexus or any Toyota products.)

If that's not enough, Ferrari tuner (yes there are aftermarket tuners for Ferraris.)Novitec Rosso thought it would be a brilliant idea to put some superchargers on a 430 Scuderia for a total of 747HP boosting top speed a little over 20mph above the standard, run of the mill, pedestrian 430 Scuderia. No information on cost here, but the Scuderia will run you over $300,000 to start with, and they're only making 3 of these, so I expect it to have an equally rare price tag.

Then down a few stratospheres in price, but still equally unobtainable to most people (especially those of us in the US) is the Lotus Exige Stealth/Scura (depending on market. Scura is apparently Italian for "dark"). Again this is a very limited edition, at 35 units worldwide, and not available in the US. Lotus used a "rubberized" paint that is apparently much more durable than standard matte finishes. It features the same drivetrain as the common Exige (260HP 1.8L 4cyl, derived from a Toyota engine) but is about 22lb (10kg) lighter than the standard one.

And last but not least, what would the world be without some new $8,000 watches designed by car designers and CNC crafted from aluminum?
http://www.industrialnorth.co.uk/

More info, 2011 Caprice

2009-10-06T09:22:00.000-07:00

Just discovered a relative gold-mine of information on this car. It does appear that there are no current plans for a civilian version, which is unfortunate, but at least used public auction vehicles should come available in a few years.
Doesn't look as good as the G8, but should perform the same..
http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f70/breaking-chevrolet-caprice-cop-car-84762/

2011 Police Caprice

2009-10-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

Looks like another GM flip-flop, now they will be producing a Commodore based Caprice for police use. Don't see any indication of a civilian version, but at least we might be able to pick one up at the public auction in a few years.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=158468?mktcat=enabler&AID=10364102&PID=3193616&kw=N&synpartner=edmunds&mktid=cj260233

Another sad day in the life of a car guy

2009-10-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

I see today that Roger Penske has canceled his plans to take over the Saturn brand. While the only Saturn I have cared about was the Sky, Saturn represented a unique interpretation on American cars. Something that would be a good top quality vehicle at a minimal price. Of course that was the theory not necessarily the execution, but when it was announced that Penske was taking over the brand I had high hopes that he would bring some new enthusiasm to the brand. Penske of course being one of very few remaining "car guys" in the automotive industry. While I'm sure there's more to it than most of us understand, I don't see why he didn't look into picking up an idle GM, Ford or Chrysler plant and producing his own vehicles. More capital up front I know, but it shouldn't be as hard to accomplish as what GM is already trying to do. Start from scratch, except you already have a dealer network and decent reputation.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/30/news/companies/penske_saturn/index.htm?postversion=2009093019

Big Bentley

2009-09-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

Great News!
And no it's not about the Dacia Sandero.

For those that can afford the new Bentley Mulsanne, it is a relief to know that it will retain the "classic" Bentley V8. 752 lb-ft of torque will help motivate it along with alacrity. You'll have to make do with only 505HP, but a car especially of this size and weight responds much better to vast amounts of low RPM torque than HP anyway. I've experienced older variants of this engine in a 1990 Turbo R, and a 2005 Arnage R, the latter of which has "only" 616lb-ft of torque and still feels plenty quick for a 6,000lb luxury car. Especially passing power on the highway.

For more pictures and information see
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10355196-48.html

Ask Away

2009-09-23T04:50:00.000-07:00

Well I was planning to come up with some interesting topics to talk about here, and still do from time to time, but my free-time being what it is, I thought we might get a bit more interesting discussion if readers suggest a car related topic I could look into and discuss. Could include specific engineering questions, general car questions, or questions of what's going on in the industry. Post a comment to the most recent blog entry, or e-mail me at brandon.shriver@gmail.com.

Pontiac

2009-09-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

It was a sad day for American car enthusiasts when GM announced that they would be killing off Pontiac. Ironically shortly after the announcement independent polls indicated that Pontiac had the most favorable image of any GM company.
In typical GM fashion, they had just started a revolution with some world beating product (G8 GXP anyone?) and then discontinued it. Wouldn't a Firebird have been better than a Camaro (if we could only have one)?

Well it's a long shot, but why not fight a bit to keep GM's best brand? Someone had the good sense to set up a "Save Pontiac" site, and includes a proposition and some text for a letter to Congress. Hey, the worst that can happen is it goes nowhere, or flops, and you end up right where we are today anyway but at least we tried! Check out
http://www.savingpontiac.org/

2009-09-08T04:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a video taken along our route. On route 66 outside Oatman, AZ. Only 2 problems were the Lincoln Town Car and that I wasn't driving. But it was fun anyway

Return to Reality

2009-08-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

Well I just experienced roughly the best 10 days of my life last week. My dad, brother, and I took off to Monterey California for the Historic races. This is always one of the highlights of my year, and this year was no different. Porsche was the featured brand, and was well represented throughout the race groups. One highlight was seeing the "Fabulous Hudson Hornet" on the track.

From there we went on to Hoover Dam and stayed overnight in Las Vegas dropping by the Harley-Davidson cafe, and stayed at the Luxor pyramid (won't be doing that again! but that's a different topic). Hoover Dam is such an incredible display of engineering and construction ability.

Then we got to "the good part". From Las Vegas we took 95South then went through Bullhead City headed towards Oatman, Az. What we didn't realized from google maps is that most of the road into Oatman from the direction we took was unpaved. While it didn't turn out to be a problem at all it was a bit disconcerting to be driving a Town-Car down a dirt road. It was well worth the trip though, because the road LEAVING Oatman is part of Old 66... and is so curvy that apparently people used to hire local drivers to navigate it because they were afraid to drive it themselves. Again the Town Car wasn't quite ideal for this, but a fun road is a fun road!

Once the Route66/Oatman detour was complete we headed up to the Grand Canyon, first time there for any of us. Words and pictures simply can't express how amazing that is. Such an amazing display of God's handiwork. We only had a few hours there, and I think you could spend several weeks and still not fully appreciate it.

Finally we headed to the Phoenix area to get down to business. Bondurant Driving School. We had signed up for the 4 day Grand Prix course at Monterey last year and have been in anticipation ever since. It exceeded expectations in almost every way. The instructors were VERY helpful and knowledgeable, the other students were friendly and respectful. Of course any chance to drive Corvettes and open wheel race cars over 100mph all out on a road course is going to be fun, but it was the true sense of learning. After 5 years in engineering school learning about vehicle dynamics, it was nice to feel how it all comes together and apply the theory. Learn how to find the best line, trail braking, rev matching. Learning each piece one at a time and then feeling it all come together out on the track. The only thing that was a bit of a dissapointment is we never got any timed laps. From an instructional standpoint it would have been interesting to have a "before and after" lap time comparison.

Anyway, Tuesday was back to work for me. It was sad to have such a great week finally come to an end, but then 10 days is a long time to be away from home, it's good to be back.... but now I'm really itching to get the 911 on a track!

2009-08-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

Well just a few more minutes to go and I'm off to Monterey, Pebble Beach, and then Bondurant. Should be quite an exciting week!

Monterey!

2009-08-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

Well I'm starting to get excited as Vintage Race Season is about to come into full swing for me. The Monterey Historics (and surrounding events) are just 2 weekends away (http://www.montereyhistoric.com/). I will be going for the 5th time this year, always a spectacular event, to anyone who hasn't gone, and can find a way to go, I highly recommend it. My dad, brother and myself are all going, and have planned out a 10 day super-vacation. Getting into Monterey on Friday evening, and then we planned Bondurant 4 day racing school the following weekend (http://www.bondurant.com/). After investigating a bit more, we decided to drive between the two and take the opportunity to go by Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon, as well as finding some windy backroads. Of course the rental car we have schedules is a Grand Marquis so the backroads won't be quite as good as they could be in a proper sports car or motorcycle, but should be fun nonetheless.
Then we have Lime Rock vintage festival coming up, followed by Watkins Glen vintage grand prix, and I plan to attend both of those as well. Also highly recommended, though not quite Monterey caliber.
Look for pictures and more in the upcoming weeks!

Enough with the accountants, where's the car guys??

2009-06-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

I have yet to figure out what the fascination is with having accountants run car companies. While accounting is obviously necessary to efficiently operate a business, the top executive should be someone who understands, and is passionate about, the product.
Look at the cars GM has come out with in the past few years, think of the "really good" ones... almost all were championed by Bob Lutz, who from wikipedia

...is also known as a collector of classic automobiles and military jets. Among other aircraft, he owns and pilots a Aero Vodochody L-39, an advanced Czechoslovakian jet fighter trainer. Further, he maintains a collection of motorcycles that include a Suzuki Hayabusa, a BMW K1200RS, a BMW K1200S, a BMW R1100S, and a BMW K-1.

Contrast this with Fritz Henderson, where the most interesting information I can find is that he was a pitcher for the Wolverines.
Again from Wikipedia

While at General Motors, Lutz championed the import of the Holden Monaro to the United States as the Pontiac GTO. Other cars such as the Cadillac Sixteen Concept; Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice; Pontiac G8; Chevrolet Malibu; Cadillac CTS; Buick Enclave; Cadillac Converj Concept; Cadillac CTS Coupe Concept; Chevrolet Camaro Concept; Chevrolet Camaro (production version); Chevy Beat, Groove and Trax Concept Studies; and 2010 Buick Lacrosse, Chevrolet Equinox, and Cadillac SRX are said to be Lutz initiatives.

That's 10 great, competition beating, cars/suvs all highly rated by the automotive press. The G8 is consistently reviewed against $60,000 BMW's not other $30,000 sedans, the Solstice/Sky have outsold the Mazda Miata every year they've been for sale, the Camaro has sold over 5,000 units in one month with no incentives. The GTO, while a sales failure was a great car, and proved that global platform architecture was feasible.

Henderson? Well I can't find any reference to him being involved in the design or production of any cars...

So who gets promoted, and who retires? Of course Lutz may not have had any interest in the CEO job.. maybe he really is ready to retire and move on, and enjoy those classic cars and jets. But he's not the only "car guy" in the world, and I'll bet not the only one with an MBA, and a good business sense.

The Demise of Detroit

2009-05-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

A co-worker and I were recently talking about this, and he thought I should post it here. People often talk about what's wrong with the "big 3" or as they are now known the "Detroit 3", and how their poor quality and boring products are to blame for their downfall. Obviously making bad products will lead to problems, but what was the root cause of those products?

The United States tends to be a very individualistic society, and for years the American carmakers flourished by making beautiful and interesting cars. Look at classics like the 57 Chevy. This wasn't exotic, or rare, but an average "every-man's" car, yet it still had styling that we look back to today. But what Detroit didn't realize is that there were millions of car-buyers who didn't care about style or performance, all they wanted was an appliance of sorts to get them to work, or the grocery store or wherever. The cheaper and more reliably you could do this the better. Sure enough, along came the post-war Japanese car industry, with the new low-cost fuel efficient econo-box.

Detroit then realized that their market share was at stake and scrambled to bring out cookie-cutter cars, using common platforms and "brand engineering". But American automotive engineers tend to be "car guys" and engineering a bland appliance is much less interesting than creating a rolling piece of art, so the products were never very good. I imagine the same psychology affected the assembly workers as well, performance improves when you're building a product you can be proud of.

In the last few years we've seen a resurgence of good American design, but one has to think it's too little too late. Chrysler now is entering bankruptcy, all signs point to GM going the same direction. I expect the post-bankrupt versions of both these companies will be vastly different than what we're used to. For better, or worse.

The Big 3

2009-03-31T14:59:00.000-07:00

I was shocked yesterday morning to find that GM CEO Rick Wagoner had resigned, and reading further finding out that it was due to pressure from "the administration". (http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/30/news/companies/gm_bailout/index.htm)
I try to avoid political commentary in this blog, but since when does the government get to decide who the CEO of a publicly traded corporation is? Isn't that the stockholders'/board of directors' job?
In the case of AIG where the federal government has given them huge sums of money (10x what they have LOANED GM for the record) perhaps they have a right to decide who manages the company. But first off GM requested loans which it intends to repay, and secondly just a few weeks ago we were told that 8,000 "earmarks" were ok because it was "only" $7.7bn. I'm surprised congress even noticed the $17bn GM borrowed.

In any event, it is what it is, and I certainly hope GM turns itself around. Personally, I believe it was a good time for Mr. Wagoner to go anyway but it should have been GM's choice not the government's. With the retirement of Bob Lutz and resignation of Wagoner it will be interesting to see how GM handles the upcoming months. Hopefully "Fritz" is up to the job.

On a related note, apparently it's a great time to go buy a new American car. CNN was kind enough to put together a list of undervalued "good" American cars
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/autos/0903/gallery.american_car_deals/index.html
Also released today they'll pay for the car for you (with their negative money apparently) if you lose your job. Or if you get negative equity in the car.
Sounds like a good deal for the consumer, but a big risk on the part of GM, and others offering similar incentives.

Pulling a Porsche

2009-03-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

I was reading today about one of my favorite automotive anomalies. Once small niche market subsidiary of Volkswagen, Porsche, takes control of their former parent company by dramatically buying over 50% of the company. I've often thought of this as a benchmark of success for a small company when they can grow enough to actually take over a much larger entity. Today's news (http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090325/ANE02/303259967/-1&campaign_id) is that Porsche is doing some creative refinancing and may increase their VW stake to 75%.
Of course almost every vehicle Porsche produces is a home-run, and they have a very high profit per vehicle due to the structure of their options list. VW on the other hand has produced a variety of market flops (at least here in the US) such as the Phaeton and Toureg.

Unfortunately the American based car companies have no such miraculous news to share. Recently I've noticed the automotive press has downgraded the former "Big 3" to the "Detroit 3", an accurate description since only GM remains in the top 3 automotive producers worldwide. GM announced some weeks ago that they were going to discontinue the "performance" division, fortuitously (for Ford) about the same time that Ford announced the return of the SHO Taurus. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I haven't had much experience with the GM "performance division" cars, but have heard mostly positive things about them, and many of them brought some glitz to otherwise boring cars like the Cobalt.

One home-run that I am fairly familiar with is the Pontiac G8GT. For ~$30,000 you can have a V8 rear drive large sedan that performs well, and is quite comfortable. Pity that GM chose not to offer the regular GT with a manual transmission, I would seriously consider buying one if that were available. The biggest drawback to the GT is the somewhat ungainly automatic transmission, which compared to the best-in-industry Jaguar automatic seems like it's stuck in a vat of molasses. Of course you can pay about $10,000 more and get the GXP version with a manual, and an extra 60HP, better suspension and brakes etc, however I really feel that the regular GT is adequate in all those areas. Of course this car is made in Australia, so it's not as red-white-and-blue as some of us would like to see, but at least it's coming from an American company. Yet another "bust" in the myth that the Americans can't make good cars.

About the Author

2009-03-19T17:49:00.001-07:00

Since I jumped the gun and made my first post without having a proper introduction, I decided I should go ahead and do this now, albeit late.

I've always been a car nut. I graduated from Kettering University (formerly General Motors Institute) in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with an Automotive concentration. Currently I'm in continuing education pursuing an MBA and M.S. Engineering Management.

Going to college in Flint, Mi I got to be pretty in tune with the automotive industry, and along with my general enthusiasm for the industry, vintage racing, restoration and shows I try to stay on top of things as much as reasonable. Usually attending 2-3 vintage races a year, and several shows.

Since 2004 I have worked in Automotive testing and manufacturing, primarily in the heavy truck industry with some testing experience in military vehicles as well. I like this because it gives me a little bit of distance from the mainstream automotive industry but I'm still a part of the industry.

In this blog I will be commenting on specific events as well as the industry in general on occasion going into some technical depth and providing to the best of my ability objective well informed commentary. I do my best to be technically and historically accurate, so in the event you spot a mistake, or a question feel free to let me know! I hope you enjoy!

Amelia Island Concours

2009-03-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

Spent last weekend in Amelia Island, Florida for the Amelia Island Concours (http://www.ameliaconcours.org/). This was my second time at the show, and as expected it was fantastic from the display area of new cars with everything from the new Hyundai Genesis to a Bugatti Veyron, as well as more unique cars like the Spyker and Iconic.

For me the highlight of the show was a one of a kind Avions Voisin. Moviegoers and Clive Cussler readers will recognize this as the brand featured in Clive Cussler's Sahara, and the movie of the same name. Avoins Voisin is famous for its use of the unique "sleeve valve" engine, however most of these were inline 6. The car at the show was one of only two V12 engines ever produced in this configuration, and all in all this car was the only one of it's kind produced, and was just finished 2 days prior to the show. Unfortunately I didn't think to ask what year the car was made or other interesting details. This fit into a nice category of cars that I knew of, but had never seen before. Behold!

Another interesting highlight of the show was a 1915 Rolls-Royce, supposedly the only one produced that year, thanks to WWI and a "war only" mandate by the English government. This particular car was ordered by Mrs. DuPont, and it is said her request was honored by the King due to her companies role in supplying gunpowder.

Naturally there was a nice selection of seldom seen great classics like Dusenberg, Auburn, Packard, Delahaye etc. All in all, a wonderful weekend, perfect weather, and great cars. A good primer while I'm waiting for vintage race season to start up!