By Kevin Gordon

02.19.2009

Number 10 Million

Ford’s Romeo, Michigan plant has produced their 10 Millionth Engine. The 10,000,000^th engine will power a new 2010 Mustang. The Romeo, Michigan plant primarily manufactures V-8 modular motors that power the Mustang and F-150. To put this milestone into perspective, if you took 10 Million 4.6 liter Mustang Engines and placed them in a line they would stretch over 3,700 miles, easily covering the United States. The combined weight of 10 Million cast iron 4.6s would be 2.5 Million U.S. tons. The combined horsepower output of all of the engines would be close to 2.5 Billion horsepower. The full Ford press release is available in the link below.

The engine made in this plant is an overhead camshaft V-8 that began to replace the Windsor small-block and 385 cubic inch big-block over many years in the mid-1990s. The “modular” motor got its name, not from its design or shared parts, but from the manufacturing technique where lines and tools could be quickly changed. One of the other lesser known facts about the modular engine is that a modified version of it powered 2005’s fastest production car, the Koenigsegg CCR. Underneath multiple Rotrex superchargers is a Ford 4-valve double overhead cam (DOHC) 4.7 liter V-8.  This motor produced over 800 horsepower and pushed the Koenigsegg to 241 miles per hour, breaking the previous record held by the McLaren F1.

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By Chris Haak

02.19.2009

Aside from jettisoning Saab, Hummer, Saturn, and 47,000 employees, GM announced that the company has disbanded its High Performance Vehicle Operations unit, which had previously been based at the company’s technical center in Warren, Michigan.  The employees previously assigned to the team have been redeployed elsewhere in the organization.

The former team had been responsible for such low-volume, gearhead-adored vehicles as the Cobalt SS, HHR SS, and the Cadillac V-series.  According to GM spokesman Vince Muniga, “all high performance products are on indefinite hold.”  It turns out that part of GM’s commitment to the US government to prove that it’s changing its ways (as in dramatically reducing its focus on trucks and focusing on “fuel efficient cars and crossovers”) over the next few years, it’s hard for GM to convince its new overlords in the Treasury Department that performance vehicles are good for the environment (they generally are not) and that developing them is a worthwhile use of taxpayer funds – and will help the company to survive (they probably are not). Continue Reading

By Kevin Gordon

02.18.2009

Late yesterday afternoon General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner held a news conference to discuss the viability plan that was submitted to the U.S. Treasury. The highlights have been noted by Blake M and Kevin M. Here I wanted to focus on some of the video coverage that has been available online.

First, Rick Wagoner’s press conference should be available to view at noon (EST) today. (Click read the rest of this entry below for additional videos)

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By Andy Bannister

02.18.2009

They breed optimists in Luton, the unremarkable English city which is home to the headquarters of Vauxhall, GM’s British division. Despite almost universal gloom about falling sales and slowing production, the company has just announced what is arguably its most extravagant car ever.

The Vauxhall VXR8 Bathurst S is a significantly souped-up version of the already fairly-extreme VXR8 saloon – the same Australian-made design which sells as a Holden in its native land and as the Pontiac G8 in the US.

The Bathurst name isn’t going to be familiar to many Brits but is a fitting homage to the race series held in New South Wales, using the Mount Panorama hill circuit.

The Corvette-sourced 6.2-litre V8 has been enhanced by a Walkinshaw Performance 122 Supercharger giving the car a staggering 552hp with 527lb ft of torque. This makes the big Aussie offered in the UK more powerful than the HSV-badged Holdens on sale in the design’s native Australia. Continue Reading

Reorganization Plan Calls For Saab To Become Independent By Year-End

By Kevin Miller

02.18.2009

Yesterday was the day that GM’s long-awaited restructuring plan made it to Washington, DC. It confirmed some things we had heard before as well as containing plenty of new information. Some facts that have been confirmed include the fact that unless Saturn is sold or spun-off, it will be phased out at the end of the current product lifecycle, which is in 2010-2011. Also, a decision to sell or phase-out Hummer will be made this quarter. These are major decisions, ones that affect uncounted retailers, suppliers, assemblers, and customers.

One of the big pieces of news surrounds Swedish carmaker Saab. A full member of the GM family since 2000 (GM first acquired half of the company in 1990), Saab has consistently underperformed in the market, though the fact that the automaker has only two vehicle nameplates for sale, which were introduced in 1998 and 2003, respectively, is largely thanks to GM’s stewardship of the brand (or lack thereof). In any case, the paragraph below, from GM’s Restructuring Plan, shows that Saab will be off of GM’s books as of December 31, 2009. Continue Reading

By Blake Muntzinger

02.17.2009

The deadline for restructuring their businesses was met this evening by both Chrysler and General Motors; General Motors laid out some fairly detailed plans, Chrysler not so much.

Both companies asked for a lot more money than the billions of dollars they asked for previously. GM asked for another $16.6 billion USD, saying market conditions had deteriorated even worse than forecasted a few months ago. Chrysler, much smaller than GM, asked for another $2 billion to supplement the $7 billion it said it needed at the end of 2008. If you’re keeping score, that brings the total amount requested by the two automakers to $39 billion. And, in the documents submitted by both companies, they stated that they may have to ask for more money later.

Further, the two auto manufacturers said that a bankruptcy reorganization for either company would cost a lot more than the money they are asking for currently since the government would have to provide financing in order for a reorganization to occur. If the federal government does nothing and provides no financing for either business continuance or bankruptcy reorganization, then GM and Chrysler would liquidate immediately via bankruptcy, which would result in massive job losses at the manufacturers, their supplier networks and their retail networks. Continue Reading

By James Wong

02.16.2009

For a long while now, people have had to live with compromises regarding their choice of gearbox. They either choose an all-out manual gearbox, one which may require a deft coordination of the hands and legs to shift gears, and, If one were to be stuck in traffic, that gearbox would be quite a physical workout as well.

Or, they would go for a torque-converter automatic, which smooths things out quite a bit, offering fuss-free motoring at the expense of fuel consumption and what some might call ‘driver feel’.

Another alternative, a semi-automatic clutch-less manual, which is commonly found in cars with a sportier outlook, like the F430 or the Gallardo, offers a manual gearbox but with a computer shifting the gears for you. Like in an F1 car, you control shifts via paddles behind the steering wheel. Sounds like the best of both worlds, but by and large their jerky nature while shifting puts off all but the most tolerant of drivers.

A continuously-variable transmission is a belt-driven gearbox, which dampens the responsiveness of the car to throttle inputs, but it’s a frugal and smooth gearbox – still, not quite suitable for sporty purposes. For a long time a solution has yet to be found – until the appearance of the dual-clutch gearbox in recent times.

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By Kevin Miller

02.16.2009

The first car I spent my own money on was a 1988 Mazda MX-6, a two-door version of Mazda’s 626 sedan. In 1988 Mazda introduced it’s third-generation 626 family, which included the two-door MX-6 coupe, a 5-door hatch, and the traditional four-door sedan. Even six years later, when I bought my used MX-6 in 1994, it seemed sleek, sporty and very modern.

Fast forward to 2009. After five generations of the 626, the name was changed to Mazda6, and its first generation, built from 2002 until 2008, was available in wagon, five-door, and sedan body styles. Now 2009 is the first model year of the second-generation Mazda6, which has been enlarged to compete head-to-head with the most popular vehicles in its segment, namely the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord. This time around, the Mazda6 is available only as a traditional four-door sedan in North America. Continue Reading

By Chris Haak

02.16.2009

With the economy in the US and globally showing no signs of improvement, and the new-vehicle market showing no signs of life, the cash situation at GM has become even more desperate, if that’s to be imagined.  The company that had previously not even uttered the word ‘bankruptcy’ except to say that it was out of the question and not an option is now making noise that in spite of all of the negatives that go along with declaring bankruptcy, it’s very much on the table unless the company gets more money from the US government, and quickly.

The Treasury Department believes that GM needs at least another $5 billion from the government in order to survive beyond the first quarter of 2009.  So far, the company has received $9.4 billion.  The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that the usual “people familiar with the situation” indicated that GM is going to present the government with two alternatives – that the government must either commit additional billions to keep the company afloat, or commit additional billions for debtor-in-possession financing because those funds (far more money would be required for that than has already been committed to keep the lights on thus far) would likely be unavailable from anywhere in the still credit-frozen and shell-shocked private sector. Continue Reading

By Chris Haak

02.13.2009

Chrysler’s much-ballyhooed joint ventures with Nissan, whereby Chrysler would produce a rebodied version of its Dodge Ram pickup in what would become the next-generation Nissan Titan, and Nissan would produce two small car models for Chrysler to be badged as Chryslers or Dodges has hit a snag.  That snag is the global financial meltdown and the way it is having a significant adverse impact on the global automotive industry.  OEMs and suppliers across the globe are encountering enormous struggles regardless of their country of origin and the countries in which they market their vehicles.

Last year, you may recall, the companies actually had two different joint venture announcements.  The first one, from January 2008 and which still appears to be in force today, is that Nissan would produce a rebadged version of its Versa subcompact in Mexico for sale in South America as a Chrysler or Dodge.  The second, more extensive joint venture announcement occurred in April 2008, where Nissan would build an “already designed” small car in Japan for Chrysler – supposedly not a rebadge, but a platform sharing venture.  Many assumed this car to be the production version of the Dodge Hornet small car, but that was never confirmed by either company.  Chrysler, in turn, would then build Nissan Titans that were the same as the Dodge Ram under the skin at its Saltillo, Mexico plant for Nissan.  Chrysler was to pay Nissan for the small cars that Nissan built, and Nissan was to pay Chrysler for the pickups that it built. Continue Reading