Author: UDMan

Well, yesterdays news conference at GM, in which there were reports that GM was finally going to sell Saab to the Dutch Sports Car maker Spyker, raised more questions than answers. No, there is no further word as to the fate of the once proud Swedish Brand. Yes, GM is still continuing to wind down its “Born from Jets” division. Oh, and by the way, Ed Whitacre is now going to accept the position of Chairman and CEO of General Motors on a more permanent basis. The news from GM, such as it were, fell short on expectations judging by the reaction of the media.

UPDATE: It looks like there will be an announcement on the sale of Saab to Spyker later this morning…. Stay Tuned!

However, according to our friends at Autoblog, there is some news about Saab that is quite remarkable. Buried within the production numbers that are released by the automakers, and reported in Crain’s Automotive News, there were some 2010 Saab 9-5 models produced. Even more eye opening, there were 49 Saab 9-4x Models produced for the week of January 23rd. For anyone following Saab’s product line, the upcoming 9-4x shares major components with the new Cadillac SRX, which itself is related to the Chevy Equinox. According to other sources, the SRX production was halted to produce these units. All this for a model that has yet to be introduced to the public, and was given up for dead, along with the rest of the brand.

So, is GM actually investing in product for a brand they are closing, or is there some other nefarious plot that the General has yet to unveil? Inquiring minds want to know.

Source: Autoblog, GM Inside News.

The 1966 Fitch Sprint graces the September 1965 Cover of Car and Driver

Connecticut is still a state in which there are many two-lane country roads that challenge driving enthusiasts. And this is just one of my thoughts I had on my way to pay a visit to one of the great driving legends in racing, John Cooper Fitch.

When I arrived at his historic 1767 home, located not far from the Historic Lime Rock Park Race Track, and sat in his parlor, we began our conversation with reflections of his earliest memories. The journey began with his stepfather, who worked for the Stutz Motorcar Company, and where he developed a love of the automobile. He was so fascinated by racing that after two years at Lehigh University he decided to go to England to witness the last race at Brooklands before the war.

It was at this time he joined the Army Air Corps, and flew a number of aircraft, from the A-20 Havoc to the P-51 Mustang. But his love of cars never withered, and after opening up an MG dealer in White Plains New York, and with the memories of Brooklands, he started racing at Bridgehampton Raceway with an MG TC. This lead to a racing career that spanned a decade with such illustrious makes as Cunningham, Jaguar, Allard, Porsche, and Sunbeam. His talent was recognized by the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Racing Team. He was there during the 1955 running of the 24 Heuers du Mans, when his co-driver, Pierre Levegh crashed, killing Levegh along with 80 spectators, causing Mercedes-Benz to withdraw from racing for more than 25 years.

Although he was tapped by Ed Cole to become a team that helped the Corvette win at Sebring, and compete at LeMans, it was the crash that affected him deeply. He became a proficient inventor, and developed safety systems for both race tracks, and highways. The Fitch Inertial Barrier System went on to become the staple on most interstates, along with the Fitch Compression Barrier, and the Fitch Displaceable Guardrail system. But most people know John Cooper Fitch by his involvement with the Chevy Corvair.

John Fitch with his new 1962 Fitch Sprint

In an attempt to duplicate the success of Porsche, John Fitch produced performance enhancements to the air cooled wonder, and called it the Fitch Sprint. He successfully increased the engine horsepower from 100 to 155, reworked the rear suspension, and introduced styling enhancements like functional wire mesh screen to protect the optional Lucas Flame Thrower headlamps.

Filed under the subheading of “Cars That Could Have Been” is the 2,000-pound two-seat Fitch Phoenix, with an Italian body produced by Intermeccanica. The car had a 175 horsepower flat six, and performance was as good (if not better) than the just introduced Porsche 911. Only the prototype was produced in 1966, and Fitch still owns it. The Phoenix was doomed to failure because of some new legislation passed by Congress that put up roadblock for small-scale automobile production.

John Fitch in front of his Lakeville Home, June 2009

It was a distinct pleasure to meet with Mr. Fitch, and to see the Fitch Phoenix prototype. It is too bad that the Corvair was doomed just before this remarkable car could flourish, and become the true competitor to the Porsche Dynasty we have today.

A Cargolux Boeing 747-400 freighter, on a flight from Barcelona to Luxembourg, was cleared to land on Luxembourg’s runway 24 in low visibility due to fog when one of the tires of the giant plane impacted the roof of a van parked on the runway at 12:53 Local time. The airplane landed safely, the driver of the van escaped with just a shock, the van received substantial damage, the airplane suffered damage to the tire.

Preliminary results of the investigations into the incident were released on Saturday stating that the van had been cleared to enter the runway to perform maintenance work. At that time the Cargolux jetliner had not yet begun its approach.

Lead Image Source: Boeing…. Story from the Aviation Herald.

Well it looks like GM will be holding a surprise Press Conference this morning at 11:30 Eastern Standard Time. The internet is buzzing with anticipation that there will be an announcement that a savior has rescued Saab, in the form of a quirky Dutch Supercar Builder named Spyker. Is this really in the best interest of Saab?

2009 has been a spectacularly bad year for most automotive companies, with two major bankruptcies, a host of discontinued brands, and the emergence of both the Korean and Chinese, taking an ever increasing share of the worlds marketplace. Remember, the Chinese have eclipsed the United States as the worlds largest car market. In this environment there is really no place for quirky brands, especially if they are owned by big companies. Ford jettisoned most of their Premiere Group, consisting of Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, as well as Volvo. Volvo is the only brand still clinging to Ford, but not for much longer. Saab on the other hand was never properly managed under GM since they took over the brand in the early 90’s. It has been one long succession of missteps, ignorance, and arrogance that has led to the brand virtually withering on the vine.

GM Chairman Ed Whitacre called the Press Conference

Saab declared (a form of) Bankruptcy last February, and has been a walking corpse ever since. It did manage to cover most of its debt, and exited from bankruptcy in August, with a white knight waiting to take it away, the Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg. With the hope of a large infusion of cash from both GM and the Swedish Government, everything looked set for the marriage of the two Swedish beauties. Unfortunately, the marriage was called off at the very last minute late in the year, and details as to why remain sketchy.

Koenigsegg CCGT. Image coutesy Ultimatecarpage.com.

Then, at the beginning of December, GM decided to sell some Saab technology, as well as the tooling for the 9-3 and 9-5 models to the Chinese firm BIAC. Press reports state that no one was concerned, including the then courting Koenigsegg, because BAIC had an agreement with Koenigsegg to become a minority partner in the firm. Selling off the production lines and technology of soon to be obsolete models is really nothing new (witness the previous generation of the Chrysler Sebring line sold to the Russian Car Company GAZ), but with no future models in the immediate future for Saab, you have to wonder why GM found in necessary to sell it.

Now here comes Spyker. This struggling Dutch Company, responsible for some rather stryking (spelling intentional) sports cars, borrowing Audi power, and incorporating retro details, hasn’t made a dime since its founding in 1999. The only possible reason for the Spyker deal is the $566 million dollar loan guarantee from the Swedish Government, since this will give the firm access to some much needed capital. As a condition of the loan, reports have stated that any connection with a Russian Businessman would be terminated.

The stillborn Saab Aero Concept.

So what is your reaction to this deal of deals. Will it save Saab, or will it still be in the intensive cars facility slowly waiting to eventually die? Express your thoughts below.

What many regard as the ultimate Saab, the original Saab 99 Turbo.

The Chevrolet division of GM was undergoing a monumental change during the Regan era, engineering new game changing vehicles to meet the Government imposed fuel efficiency, safety, and pollution control mandates. By 1982, Chevrolet replaced some of their best models in terms of reliability and longevity, with some of their worst products ever. The rear wheel drive Chevrolet Nova was replaced with the front wheel drive Citation. The second generation Camaro, introduced in the spring of 1970, turned into the third generation Camaro, with a 4 Cylinder Engine as standard equipment. The Chevrolet Monza, a derivative of the unloved Vega, was put to pasture with the introduction of the Cavalier. OK, so the last example was actually an improvement, but you catch my drift. Other models were also scheduled for replacement like the Corvette, and the Malibu. However, one car held on for an astonishing 11 years, becoming the best seller for the division for 1979 and 1980, and that was the Chevy Chevette.

So why am I writing about a car that was ancient when it was introduced in 1976, and with such ergonomic missteps as misaligned steering columns, a cramped interior with miserable workmanship, and wheezing power-trains that couldn’t get out of their own way? Well, you see, I’m not. These cars were dreadful, except for one, and that’s where this story begins. It was the dark ages for performance cars, and deep within the bowels of Chevrolet’s Product Promotion Engineering Division (aka the Bow Tie Brigade), a performance oriented Chevette was created. It was relatively simple, as all the parts they needed were readily available, and bolted right into place. And it would have been astonishing if it went into production.

The secret to the enhanced Chevette is the transplant of the relatively new 60-degree V6 that was available on the S-10 pickup, and was also offered in the new 1982 F-body (Camaro, Trans Am). Two different transmissions were tried, including the Warnet Super T10 manual four speed from the Corvette, as well as a 700R4 Turbohydramatic. They stuck with the Chevette rear end, but could have swapped an S-10 unit to handle the power. A cowl induction hood, and a set of Gotti 14 inch Alloys were the only clues that this was anything but an ordinary Chevette.

When Hot Rod Magazine did a feature on this fire breathing Chevette, it was equipped with the automatic. The car weighed 2260 pounds, and it would do 15-second quarter mile times consistently. The real eye opener to the test crew was the fact that this car performed better than the new Z/28, Trans Am, or the Turbo Buick Regal, yet had more cargo room. The Corvette also gave up a set of front seats for the engineering study, providing a comfortable driving experience, while getting almost 23 MPG in combined track/city/highway driving. The transplant only added 140 pounds, which is really nothing compared to today’s porkier cars. Projected price of the V-6 Chevette? Around $6,500.

So why wasn’t the V-6 Chevette produced? The Chevette was in its seventh year of production, and GM was loath to spend any additional funds on a car with limited profit potential. The Corporate Average Fuel Economy Mandate also came into play, since the base 4 and the available Diesel would make up for the more profitable V-8’s within the Chevrolet stable. And then there is the fact that this little car offered more performance than the Z/28, and close to the current (1982) Corvette, more than likely killed any chance for production.

The Question is this: Would you have bought one? Leave your comments below.

Image Source: www.dieselchevette.com; July 1982 Edition of Hot Rod Magazine.

During the 70’s quite a few vehicles of questionable taste were produced, and I thought I would introduce you to one of the most bizarre and obscure trends during the Disco Era, the Neo Classic. These are cars that were made to look like “Classic” cars, but they included features with questionable taste, haphazard build quality, and outrageous price tags. First up, say hello to the Dunham Coach Caballista.

The Dunham Motor Coach Company was the brainchild of Les Dunham who was deep into the custom car scene in the 50’s and 60’s. His breakthrough car, if you could call it a breakthrough, came in 1973 when he put the body styled like a 70’s era Cadillac Eldorado on a chassis of a Chevrolet Corvette. Thus, the Corvorado (Corvette + Eldorado) was born, and it was used in James Bond film, “Live And Let Die”. Because of the publicity of the film, at least 6 more of these styling exercises were produced.

However, in 1977 Dunham started another project called the Caballista, in which he used the Corvette again as his canvas. The neo-classic design was successful and 50 cars were built right up until 1982. Out of these 50 Caballistas, only 5 were convertibles. They were all built in Boonton New Jersey, with a starting price was over $60,000.

Let’s just say the design was unique. Love it or hate it, the design was meant for a different era. These types of vehicles were a phenomenon during the late 70’s in which they were showcased in “Blaxploitation” films like “Shaft”, rolling up in front of over the top discotheques like Studio 54, and were the pimp-tastic rides of the day. Think of them as the spiritual ancestor to the Escalade and Bentley of today. If you manage to find one today there are willing buyers waiting to purchase them. To coin a phrase from the movie “Live and Let Die”, these were rolling “Juke Boxes” taken from the flashy styling of the Wurlitzer record players that were the mainstay of any diner, pool hall, or bowling alley back in the day.

What else is there to say, the car speaks for itself. Is it a great design? No, but it is polarizing. Is it cutting edge? Not at all even when it was produced. Is it going to be a classic? No, but it is a collectible. The big question is this; Would you like to see more of these Neo-Classic posts in the future? Let me know with your comments below.

Image Source: www.madle.org. To learn all about Les Dunham and his work, check out Madle.org for more amazing images.