ON THE TABLE

September 7, 2011

 Sergio Marchionne. He was formally elected chairman of Chrysler Group's board of directors yesterday. News? Not really, no. There was no question that he was going to be Supreme Leader of Chrysler-Fiat or Fiat-Chrysler or whatever it's called. You know, that Italian car company out in Auburn Hills that wraps itself in the flag at the drop of a hat. How different will Sergio with complete control be from the former Sergio? He won't. At least not that much. He'll just be More. Let's just put it this way, if he were a radio station his call letters would be WSRG, for More Sergio, All The Time.

Ford. The automaker is dead serious about getting the word out about its upcoming, all-new, high-performance Focus ST. To that end exclusive video and photography of the car will be shared first on the Focus Facebook page www.facebook.com/fordfocus. Videos will give global Focus enthusiasts insights into the project from key members of the development team, as well as previously unseen vehicle footage ahead of next year’s launch. In this sample video you can see Jost Capito, Director of Global Performance Vehicles and Motorsport Business Development, discuss how Focus ST suspension development occurs on numerous road surfaces that mimic driving conditions of various countries around the world at the Lommel test facility.

Saab. The Swedish automaker has filed for protection from its creditors in a Swedish district court. In a statement, Victor Muller, CEO of both Saab and Swedish Automobile, said: "We have concluded that a voluntary reorganization process will provide us with the necessary time, protection and stabilization of the business, allowing salary payments to be made, short-term funding to be obtained and an orderly restart of production to be prepared." Could this get any more excruciating? BREAKING NEWS (9/8/11): The Swedish Court petitioned by Saab has rejected the request. Bankruptcy seems inevitable at this point. - PMD

(Ford)
Even though Nissan will have a a lock on New York City taxi business beginning in 2013, there are plenty of taxis that need replacing right now, and Ford has moved in to capture some of that business. The Ford Transit Connect Taxis are making their debut on the streets of New York with 400 of them having been ordered to date, with more expected. Transit Connect Taxi orders are picking up in other areas of the country as well, with Chicago, Tampa, Fla., and California embracing the functional Ford.

(Jaguar)
Adrian Hallmark, Global Brand Director, Jaguar cars, calls the new Jaguar C-X16 concept "... our compelling vision for a 21^st century Jaguar sports car. It embodies the established Jaguar strengths of sensual design, animal-like agility and inspirational performance and combines these with attributes that set us on a course to create sustainable sports cars of the future.” The Jaguar C-X16 adheres to the traditional front-engined, rear-wheel drive Jaguar layout but juices it with a prototype supercharged all-alloy 3.0-liter V6 producing 375HP (280kW) and 332lb-ft of torque. Added to that is an electric motor available to the driver at the push of a steering-wheel boost button which produces up to 94HP and 173lb–ft of torque. An eight-speed gearbox mounted in a lightweight aluminum chassis with 50-50 weight distribution allows the C-X16 to sprint to 62 mph (100 kmh) in 4.4 seconds, according to Jaguar. The Jaguar C-X16 concept will make its formal debut at the Frankfurt auto show next week. We like it okay, at least from the pictures, but we were expecting something... well, more.

(Illustrations courtesy of Eric Schumaker)
Editor-in-Chief's Note: Eric Schumaker, currently a designer at Honda after a previous stint at Chrysler, sent along these gouache renderings done for the Mustang 2+2 by his late father, George. It's always interesting to hear the stories from this business, and we thought our readers would enjoy what Eric had to say about his dad and the Mustang fastback. Read Eric's thoughts below. - PMD

"I thought you would be interested to hear about my father, George Schumaker, who just passed away. He was a designer on the '64 Mustang. He styled the 2+2 roofline. Yes, he actually did, and I have pictures of his sketchwork from the program. Thought you might like to see them and publish them. They have never made it into the public view. The actual original sketches were donated to the Petersen museum some years back but for some reason have never been shown. The pictures are of the two surviving guache renderings. They are pretty tattered. They survived a leaky Dearborn basement flood... The originals are about 14" long each. They were cut out from their original illustration boards, and before I donated them to the Petersen I set them on some canson paper and photographed them.

Notice the Cougar name on the tan rendering. One of the sketches had what looks to be the year 1962 penciled on the back. I just looked up the pages in the book by Holls and Lamm " A Century of Automotive Style" where the story of the Mustang is told. They had interviewed my dad and his version of the story is pretty clear. With regard to the coupe, my dad never really understood who did the original sketch. It showed up on a piece of paper from Joe Oros.

Anyway, when it came time to do the 2+2 fastback, he was assigned to do the design. I remember him briefly discussing it when I was a kid, and he said they went up on the middle of the roof in order to get a smoother looking line from side view. I seem to recall him mentioning the Volvo P1800 as a similar design solution. Anyway, he remembered making a cardboard model of the side vents which showed up on the production car and are often credited with selling the design to Iacocca. The story about Iacocca getting in a car with the roof mocked up with the vents seems to be true. He sat in the car with his cigar and the smoke whisked away in the vent. I recall that the model had a small electric fan to suck out the smoke. They knew their customer!

My dad was a rather direct, honest, quiet guy. He never bragged, or exaggerated his involvement in designs. He is one of the zillions of designers who made great design... and some real average stuff... but always did it with enthusiasm. He worked on the Pinto wagon, and would explain the little victory of getting some pump in the rear quarter belt line to add some sex.

He started at Ford out of Art Center in 1957 or '58 and retired in the mid 90's. He worked on T-birds in the 60's - did the front and rear of the '66 of which he liked the Aston Martin looking front bumper as he put it, but didn't like the way the wide tail lights fit into the rear end sheet metal of the carry-over deck lid. He worked on the Mustang, managed the 67/68 Mustang, some Lincoln interiors as I recall. And then the 70's hit. Styling in the 60's was glamour. Lots of good times. I remember what must have been a pivotal day probably in 1970. I was maybe 7. The family was sitting around the kitchen table for dinner and my dad was unusually quiet and clearly tense. Finally he blurted out 'They want us to put Goddam I-75 guard rails on the fronts and rears of cars for bumpers!' I think that was pretty much the end of styling in Detroit before the Dark Ages of the 70's and then the rebirth of Design in the 80's.

Please feel free to publish the sketches. Give my father quiet credit. As I said, he didn't brag, but he always wanted objective truth. He didn't care for the 'car salesman' side of car design. My father really enjoyed your work and really enjoyed your clarity and honesty! As does my stepmother, Nevenka Schumaker, who was also a very accomplished designer at Ford. You often say what many in the trenches feel." - Eric Schumaker