Automania
'96 AUTO UPDATE NUMBER TWO
by Bob Hagin
I guess that I might be considered an eclectic car guy - an
enthusiast who is interested in all phases of the auto world. My
interest spans the wheeled world from Formula One racing to the latest
goings-on in the corporate board rooms of the world's auto makers. And
since I subscribe to numerous buff magazines as well as being on the
receiving end of innumerable automotive press releases, I find that my
cup runneth over approximately every six or seven weeks. These are
capsulations of those events that garnered my attention:
LOTUS SOLD AGAIN - If the embattled Lotus had a theme song, it would
certainly be "Secondhand Rose" from the movie "Funny Girl." Once the
venerated builder and purveyor of pure British sports and racing cars,
poor Lotus has been sold for the third time in four years. You might
remember that its owner at the beginning of the Current Era was our own
General Motors, who found that it was a losing proposition and passed it
on in '93 to the resurrected Bugatti group of Italy. It became a profit-
maker under Bugatti ownership but the other members of the Bugatti
lineup went broke and Lotus was recently sold to Daewoo, the Korean
automaker. Daewoo would like to get a toe-hold in the U.S. - but can't.
The problem isn't financial so much as personnel - or perhaps we should
make that personal. For a number of reasons, the company can't find a
high-powered American chief executive that is willing to work under the
autocratic rule of the home company. Colin Chapman, founder and guiding
genius behind Lotus until his death several years ago, must be turning
over in his grave.
GENERAL MOTORS SUES VOLKSWAGEN - Sometimes lawsuits between big
corporations are amicable affairs designed to straighten out legal
technicalities but such is not the case with General Motors and
Volkswagen. In a Detroit court, the General accuses VW board chairman
Ferdinand Piech of conspiring with a GM defector, ex-vice president
Ignacio Lopez, to steal a truckload of top-secret GM plans and documents
when he jumped ship in '93. GM lawyers go on to state that a phalanx of
VW employees then committed the information to computerized memory after
which the originals were destroyed. Needless to say, the folks over at
Volkswagen are upset and claim that the American suit is aimed at
influencing a German government investigation of the matter. At stake
are judgments that may run to billions of dollars and even a few jail
sentences.
NASCAR GOES TO MARKET - If you don't think that the National
Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) is a big-time operation, check
out these "official" sponsors that the Daytona-based motorsports
marketing corporation has recently lined up: Raybestos is the official
brake producer; True Value is the official hardware store; Cintas, a
leader in the manufacture of clothes for industry, is the official
uniform supplier; Lowes is the official home improvement warehouse;
Opryland USA is an official "designated stop." NASCAR has its own
Mastercard, internet site and has just opened the first of a string of
NASCAR-only "theme" merchandise stores. And to think it all started in
the late '40s with a bunch of ex-rumrunners racing each other in
Southern cow pastures. Only in America!
JAGUAR FINALLY REPLACES ITS XKE - When I first saw the swoopy Jaguar
XK 120 in 1949, I thought it was the ultimate sports car. It followed
the time-honored tradition which held that a true sports car subjugated
carrying capacity to performance. The big twin-cam six-cylinder engine
occupied a third of car and propelled its driver and single passenger at
unheard-of speeds. Practicality took the form of space for two small
overnight bags. The 120 was followed by the 140 and then the 150 but
the next XK model was simply designated the "E Type." It's envelope body
was a stunner when it was introduced at the annual auto show in Geneva,
Switzerland in 1961. But the XK concept was abandoned and decades of
overweight and unreliable Jaguar sedans followed. But at the latest
Geneva show, Jaguar showed up with another XK model, called simply the
XK8. The "eight" part denotes that the engine is a V8, possibly in
deference to the fact that Ford is now the parent company of both Jaguar
and Aston Martin. The XK8 doesn't take my breath away like that XK 120
did in '49 (I was only 16 at the time) but it isn't bad.
There were other happenings, of course: Malcom Bricklin is back in
business, this time with electric-powered bicycles. The remaining
unfinished Laforza SUVs are being finished after an eight-year delay.
The electric car "mandate" in California has been set aside by the
government and gasoline has won again.
And if we wait just another six or seven weeks, I'm sure that
another half-dozen automotive "happenings" will surface.
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