First the good news... Ladies first! Holden to close...

Mary Barra, a talented 'car gal' from GM's ranks, steps up to lead giant automaker

Today, I see GM appointed a woman, Mary Barra to the top post.
I don't know Mary. I wish her all the very best.
When I worked in the Opel tech centre, Ruesselsheim, they had one female executive (Rita Forst).
The car park had a ladies only area...
Things are changing. A good thing.

Holden to stop making cars in Australia

Dec 11, 2013 AutoNews360 Car News

 

When I worked in GM Germany, I met a few Holden engineers. We used to meet in Wiesbaden on weekends. They were friendly and welcoming. So I was a little sad to see they may be laid off.

GM ships (Daewoo) Chevrolet vehicles to Australia, and some Opel's. So I expect these two GM subsidiaries will suppy all GM vehicles in the future.

Obviously, this will adversely affect Holden Design as well as manufacturing.

I, in the meantime am keeping fit and waiting patiently for my project to take off...

2014 will be my year!

Rita Forst to head Opel Engineering... Lotus in Detroit Show

I have just read that Nick Reilly head of GM worldwide, minus North America, has moved Hans Demant over to Intellectual property head under Tom Stephens.
Rita Forst is taking his place in Opel.
During my time in Ruesellsheim, Rita was head of Powertrain.
Rita beside a powertrain



Lotus had a small area in her domain, where they provided support for Opel on the Ecotec engine they helped design when a division of GM.
Rita was at that time the highest level female executive within GM Europe. Nothing has changed in that regard!
Hans Demant was based on the same floor as me. He had just been promoted at that time to head of Engineering.
At the time I was part of the North American team on a joint design project between Opel and Saturn.
Good luck to both of them in their new positions.
While I'm at it, good luck to all the Reusselsheim people. I enjoyed my time there.
Once again I will mention the ASLI auotomotive conference. I have contacted possible speakers on their behalf.
Talking of which, I see on the Lotus enthusiasts site, that Dany Bahar is in Detroit promoting Lotus at the Auto Show. Dany for those of you who don't know is the CEO of Group Lotus.
Lotus/Morgan stand at the Detroit Auto Show

The ASLI conference will coincide with the 2010 Kuala Lumpur Motor show. 3-12 December 2010
I have been approached to participate. It is presently my intention to use my slideshare presentation as a basis for discussion.

Motorsport University Malaysia

View more presentations from johnsean.

As I stated in my previous post, I have upped the virtual student count in my webpage to reflect those proposed by Limkokwing of ONE MILLION VIRTUAL students.
Limkokwing is one of the most successful private Universities in Malaysia, and as such is serving as my benchmark in this regard.

GM the ex Lotus owners retain their European asset. Chrysler dump 'Lotus' Electric car

I noticed today that GM have appointed a new top guy for OPEL... Nick Reilly, with another GM executive Bob Lutz also involved.
The Opel/Vauxhall support will come from Hans Demant.
I wish them all the best.
I enjoyed my time working for GM Europe. Hans Demant was head of Body Engineering at that time. I liased with Dieter Bratke (GM Opel) during this period. He was very knowledgeable, and in my case very helpful. In fact I found most of the people in the Opel tech centre went out of their way to move forward with our project (I was part of the 'American' contingent).
The project was a joint GM America/Europe effort to produce a car for the Saturn division.
Part of my job was to keep data flowing between the two entities,and ensure lines of communication remained open between the two sets of engineers.
I'm sure the new management team will have to ensure that both sides of the Atlantic remain on speaking terms...
Good Luck to them!
I have embedded a video of Hans Demant talking at the 2008 Geneva show.He is talking about powertrain developments. Rita Forst was in charge of Powertrain when I was there.
During this period Lotus still had a desk in the Opel Powertrain department. Obviously they had done a lot of work for GM when under it's ownership, and was still involved in constant improvement tasks.

Also today, the Detroit NEWS has an article on Chryslers (FIAT) new electric vehicle line up.The Lotus bodied Dodge circuit car appears to have been dumped... at least in the near future.
Here is a short quote:
But the first pure electric vehicle will not be the Dodge Circuit sports car. Rather it will be a commercial van from Fiat, due in late 2011 or 2012, according to a presentation by powertrain chief Paolo Ferrero last week as part of Chrysler's five-year business and product plan.