A selection of excerpts from Andrew Hamilton
October 26th, 1971
[On the female models in attendance at the 1971 British Motor show]: Actually the busts and breasts superimposed on the chrome and gloss aren't very new. We had total nudity this year at the TVR stand and although it is probably thought appropriate now that we are so permissive, I doubt if that kind of stunt sold any more cars At a preview lunch before the show Lord Stokes, head of the British Leyland Motor Corporation said the British car industry "can now see the light at the end of the tunnel".
He didn't mention a dirty word called strikes We heard that in 1968, foreign imports accounted for 9 per cent of the British market. BLMC penetration then was 40 per cent. Now, according to his lordship, foreign imports into Britain have risen to 21 per cent and the BLMC share has increased to 41 per cent. He was claiming a lot of credit for that miserable-looking increase.
18th April 1972
Computer dating and mating is not so very new. But now a London firm have created an aid to motorists, a "Selectacar Service". A master file containing information and performance details of some 320 British, European and other models is encased in a computer. By feeding in a motorist's particular needs, a short-list of up to five models, which most closely meet this ideal, is produced. Car buying, or rather car selection, is a tricky business. Is the model you intend to buy your real soulmate? Somehow, I don't think a computer can really help. Like dating and mating, there are too many personal factors involved.
Thursday, February 1st 1979
Writing about Japanese cars creates an inevitable temptation to indulge in a mass of statistics. I will try and resist that as far as possible. But there's one statistical fact that I think emphasises the growing power of the East in the automotive market-places of the world; the two biggest Japanese producers Toyota and Nissan Datsun each employ less than 55,000 workers. Toyota is the third biggest car maker in the world and many of its smaller sized European competitors have forces which extend into six figures. An obedient work force, highly automated and computerised production plants and some very intelligent marketing strategies all have paid off handsomely for that far off land. There it seems the sun indeed will always be rising.
Wednesday, January 25, 1984
What was quite unthinkable a few years ago and quite possible a few months ago has happened. Ford is pulling its assembly plant out of Cork, breaking historical and sentimental links with the city and county. But powerful multinationals like Ford don't think too much about history and sentiment and anyway, didn't the first Henry Ford say that history was bunk! Did Henry Ford want a plant established in Cork because of his father's association with the place? Not so.The real motive was probably that a Ford factory in Cork would be another base within the British empire and, as such, a way of evading the high tariffs that protected British industry throughout the empire against foreign competition. He was either told or he divined that the Irish citizen could be more readily persuaded than the English to part with his heritage without kicking up a fuss.
Wednesday, January 18th, 2006
Dinner in a hay barn outside Detroit doesn't sound exclusive - but when Bob Lutz holds court it's the best ticket in town. Lutz, for the uninitiated, is a big voice at troubled General Motors these days. He has a commanding presence, being six foot something and at 74, after a lifetime in the motor industry on both sides of the world, he is showing no signs of retiring.
"Some of my parts are not moving so well, those cars over there are probably in better working order," he jokes, pointing to a clutch of vintage models in the hay barn. He makes an interesting eco point about when we were leaving real horse power behind at the turn of the 20th century. "Did you know that the car was seen then as environmentally right? The cities were coming down with vast amounts of horse shit in the streets. There was a health threat."
After dinner drinks are in a garage cum workshop where Bob lights up an enormous cigar where he showed off his car collection. There are about 25 old cars in his collection at the farm, including a 1952 Aston Martin DB2 Vantage.Afterwards then it's time to go and we are driven off from this fine collection and into the dark Michigan night.