Lucky Seven!

This past weekend at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in Monterey, California, Jaguar Land Rover revealed the US production version of its Project 7 sports car, based on the highly successful Jaguar F-type roadster.

The production version of the F-TYPE Project 7 is an all-aluminum, fully road-legal two-seater roadster with bespoke carbon-fiber aerodynamic aids and is the pinnacle of the F-TYPE range.

Jaguar's Design Director, Ian Callum and John Edwards, MD of Jaguar SVO with Project 7

Named to reflect seven Jaguar overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, F-TYPE Project 7 is inspired by the Jaguar D-Type which celebrates its 60^th anniversary this year. The F-TYPE Project 7 will come to market in the USA with a starting price of $165,000.

Project 7 on the Monterey Peninsula

Project 7 will be available in two standard color schemes – Glacier White, a metallic white which is the feature color for the model and Ultra Blue, a metallic take on French Racing Blue and the signature color of the Jaguar Land Rover SVO team.

British Racing Green, Ultimate Black and Caldera Red will also be available as optional upgrades.

Vale - Sir Nicholas Scheele

I am sad to be reporting the death of one of the greatest Chief Executives it was my good fortune to work with, Sir Nicholas Scheele. I served with Jaguar from 1977 until 1994, and Nick was Chairman between 1992 and 1999.

 

Sir Nicholas Scheele - PHOTO: Birmingham Post

We had many memorable meetings, and I admired him greatly for his humility, integrity and decency. He was one of those rare CEOs able to make difficult decisions, which would be accepted with candor and realism. He never raised his voice to make a point, his views simply resonated with everyone – workers and management alike.

He dragged Jaguar Cars back from extinction, and was always a man thoroughly committed to the task at hand. When Bill Ford asked him to return to Detroit and take over the reins of Ford Motor Company, it was Nick who inspired the “Back to Basics” approach to help Ford shed unprofitable businesses and lay the groundwork for what later became “The One Ford Policy” under later Chairman, Alan Mulally.

I enjoyed a close personal relationship with him and his wife Ros, meeting him several times after he retired in 2005. In January 1996, after I left Jaguar, we lost a close friend and colleague, David Boole, Jaguar’s Director of Public Relations. Within hours of news of his passing Nick called me personally in Australia to pass on the news.

Nick Scheele was one of the finest men to have been among us, and I grieve his passing with great sadness, but also appreciation for his skill, humanity and sincerity.

I reprint the valedictory and photo published in the Birmingham Post, as it best sums up some of Nick’s many other accomplishments outside the auto industry.

“Tributes have been paid to former Jaguar and Ford boss Sir Nick Scheele, who died on July 18.

Sir Nick, aged 70, was CEO of Jaguar Cars from 1992 until 1999 and later served as president and chief operating officer at Ford, retiring in 2005.

He has been hailed as the man responsible for saving Jaguar in the early 1990s when the Midland car-maker faced tough times and was racking-up heavy losses.

Sir Nick also raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to help children in Coventry and Warwickshire.

He launched the Coventry Kids Committee in 1993, when he was who was chairman and chief executive of Jaguar Cars, with the aim of raising £400,000 in three years to build a new NSPCC centre in Coventry.

By the time three years had elapsed Sir Nick had raised nearly £500,000 - allowing the NSPCC to build Boole House in the city centre.

He was knighted in 2001 for services to exports and was made chancellor of the University of Warwick in 2002.

Ford’s executive chairman Bill Ford said in a statement: “Not only did Nick help us overcome many challenges at the time, he mended relationships with our dealers, our suppliers and our employees, and set the stage for many of today’s leaders who are moving us forward.

“Nick Scheele was an outstanding leader whose global experience and passion for our products served Ford Motor Company at a critical time.”

He is survived by wife Ros children Paul, Hannah and Jim and five grandchildren.”

Sir Nicholas & Lady Scheele

Baby With Big Shoes!

Just ponder some facts for a moment;

·      * 3.9 million cars produced in just 18 years!

·      * 7 cars enter the Liege-Brescia-Liege Rally in 1957 and won, all finished!

·      * A circumnavigation of the world completing 32,000km in 99 days!

What is it? The Fiat ‘Bambino’ or more accurately the Cinquecento!

After the end of WW2 there was a rush to introduce small, practical, economy cars and in 1949 FIAT produced a small, two-seater with a 500cc engine which was sold all over Europe.

In 1957 FIAT followed this success with the ‘Bambino’ or rather, “The New 500” which was extremely spartan, featuring just two bucket seats and an upholstered rear bench, with a rear-mounted 500cc engine.

It was this car which established a BIG reputation, and the abovementioned facts to its credit. Production ended in 1975, but clearly it left a big impact on successive FIAT managements. 

Fiat Trepiuno Concept 2004

In 2004, Sergio Marchione was appointed CEO of FIAT, and the company showed the Trepiuno concept in Geneva, a car which shared underpinnings with the Ford Ka!

So in 2007, fifty years after the launch of the ‘New’ 500, FIAT introduced the car we see today wearing the famous Cinquecento badge.

The latest 500 has big shoes to fill, but it has been an unqualified success, and is credited with helping Marchionne bring FIAT back into profit less than two years after he took the helm.

After my recent Grand Tour through France and Italy I was unsurprised to see loads of 500s in Italy, but I was amazed to see literally hundreds of 500s in the French towns and cities I drove through.

The car is a smash hit in Paris across a broad range of demographics, because regardless of their age or social status the French love its styling, its cache, dynamics and its performance.

Back home I had to see for myself what this car is all about, and Gold Coast Fiat-Alfa Romeo obliged with a 1.2 litre ‘Pop’ model, optioned with snazzy alloys and Yokohama low-profile tyres.

Fiat-Chrysler Australia offers only three versions Down Under, the Pop, the Sport and the Lounge. There’s lots of optional colors and trims, but I think the interior treatments are a big part of the car’s success.

My test car featured the 1.2L petrol engine, producing 51kW, and the only transmission available is a 5-speed Dualogic twin-clutch type. The engine will rev to just above 5500, and maximum torque 102Nm is produced at 3000.
Okay, it’s a small car with a small engine, how does it drive?

This is a big surprise, the 500 sprints away from traffic lights with impressive verve, which probably says more about the programming of the twin-clutch’s transmission software than raw engine power.

The Dualogic seems to suffer from the usual twin-clutch issues, it’s lumpy at low road /engine speeds, lacks smoothness in delicate maneuvers (like parking and reversing), and upshifts are a tad awkward.

However, you can drive it manually and that makes the experience a lot more fun!

The test car’s low profile tyres and wider alloy wheels make for a slightly lumpy low speed ride and the secondary ride shows some deterioration, but the impact this combo has on handling is spectacular.
It’s like driving a Mini, the car turns in well, it’s steering feedback is positive and you never get the wrong signals from its position on the road.

The dash is just one binnacle (much like the original 500 and 600 models), but the design, aesthetics and clarity is refreshing. There’s a combined speedo/tacho which takes some getting used to, but once you’re on the road it’s easy to read. The fuel and temperature gauges are LEDs, and there’s also a readout for the day/date and exterior temperature. All this in one instrument!

Front seats are fine, and I was surprised at how much room there is in the rear. Fiat’s press kit made a lot of noise about all the tweaks the designers made to every element of the rear cabin. Hollowed out front seatbacks, sculpted side panels, bench and backrest angles, and very good headroom from a moulded roof lining.

Mind you, I don’t think this is a car you’d plan to take on a long road trip, but as a city car it’s ideal. Fiat says urban fuel economy is around 6.3 L/100km, and the combined figure is 5.3 L/100km. Seriously though, I think lots of city driving, with aircon and using the automatic gearbox would push it much closer to 7L/100km.

For my money, I’d prefer the Lounge model. A Pearl White metallic with the red sunroof looks molto stylish, and the interior trims are very chic.

Apparently, there’ll be an all new car in 2016, which won’t be shared with Ford, but the lessons FIAT has learned in the marketplace with this car foreshadows another Italian classic.

A Difficult Beauty

Some friends of mine have recently been discussing the unusual Citroen SM, created during the brief period when Automobiles Citroen owned the Italian carmaker Maserati.

Trust the French, and Citroen in particular, to create a car that was both beautiful, and frustrating. I once had the pleasure of a short drive, and I vividly remember its outstanding acceleration and ride. The handling was something else, because the Citroen engineers hadn't quite managed to tame the vicious torque-steer before it was launched on an unsuspecting public.

This car, a 1974 model, was photographed at an impromptu car show in Paris and I really think of the SM as a classic design (by in-house designer Robert Opron), although less than 13,000 cars were ever produced.

As for the frustrating element, that would be the servicing of the engine. The Maserati V6 was inclined, so to adjust the tappets on the right hand bank, the car had to be jacked up, the right front wheel removed, then a panel on the inner guard had to be removed, to allow (very limited) access to the tappet cover, and thus the tappets. That was just one of the many eccentric mechanical aspects of the SM.

However, probably the most important component was the Citroen-designed DIRAVI power-assisted steering. It was both complex and effective, and the concept became a basic design later copied by many other manufacturers.

In 1974 Citroen went into Bankruptcy and was acquired by Peugeot, which ended production of the SM in 1975. Despite being swallowed up by Peugeot we shouldn't forget Citroen's many contributions of technical excellence and innovation which the company contributed to the automotible industry.

Photo: Jerome Mage

Citroen was the brainchild of industrialist, Andre-Gustav

Citroen and began making cars in 1919.


Andre's vision of innovation and leading-edge design was imbued in all of its successive chief engineers and their staffs. It was definately a company you could describe as being 'out there'!

Citroen works on the Quai de Javel

The beautiful DS series (knicknamed the 'Goddess') was launched in 1955 and was designed by an Italian sculptor and a leading French aerodynamicist. It was this car which inspired the styling of the Citroen SM.

I remember a wonderful experience in 1976, after returning a Citroen CX to the PR staff in Paris. I said: "The indicators do not self-cancel, is that normal?"

The cute PR girl said: "Yes, of course! Why should they? It's a Citroen!"

Grounded Celebrities

During my time with Bentley Motors North America I was fortunate to meet a number of film stars, sporting heroes and well-known celebrities, but three stand out as being totally-grounded people - easy to talk to, pleasant to be with and generally, no-BS sort of people.

I very much admired James Garner, who sadly passed away on July 19, just one month shy of his 58th wedding anniversary from a massive heart attack. He was 86.

We went along to a photo shoot at Riverside Raceway Willow Springs in 2002, and Jim was great fun to be with. He laughed, joked, and told some great stories.

Unfortunately the promo campaign we had in mind never eventuated, but I saved one photo showing the star of the movie 'Grand Prix' and a Bentley Continental T coupe.

Next on my list of straight shooters is Kim Cattrall. We had an arrangement for her to act as an ambassador for Bentley Motors over two summers, and she would drive a Bentley GT out to her house in the Hamptons on weekends. I know that this exercise sold cars!

She also attended a number of media events with us. She is smart, beautiful, easy-going and a very elegant lady.

During a trip to the UK the Bentley Motors London-based chauffeur, Tom, fell completely in love with Kim as he wheeled her around town, and she was happy to have photos taken with him for his scrapbook. Then she grabbed his peaked cap and posed as a chauffeur. Don't worry though, she is a really good driver!

Also notable for commonsense, astute business acumen, and of course great beauty, is Cindy Crawford, who we photographed at Bentley Beverly Hills when she took delivery of her black Continental GT coupe.

She and her husband Rande Gerber are a fun couple and they make a great team. When you call their house one or other will answer the phone - no maids or flunkies to intercept their calls!