Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Mark Ugrich

This pretty much sums it up.

and now because of auction houses like B-J, unaffordable to mere mortals.
Real racers would race a wheelbarrow full of rocks if that's what they had to race.
Government Motors probably can't, Fiat didn't, Ford got what they wanted and doesn't have to. Toyota stepped up.

[david ring]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

To me, the definition gets murky sometimes. In the 1980s, I drove a Plymouth that was made in Japan. I sold it and got a Honda that was made in Ohio. I now drive a Toyota that is made in Kentucky and has the highest domestic parts content of any car sold in the USA. On the other hand, Chrysler is an Italian company now. GM and Ford made a large part of their revenue in Europe. Buick is a big seller in China - sells four times as many cars in China as in the USA. Ford and GM build cars in Mexico and Canada, as well as the USA.

It gets confusing.

Please don't confuse me with the facts!

[Mark Ugrich]

The gas shortage back in the mid seventies opened the door for foreign car makers.I was a Subaru tech for a few years back then and I can tell you their cars were cheap and poorly constructed.However cheap and good fuel economy were excellent selling points.They did work at correcting the manufacturing deficiencies, but moreover they worked at changing the perception of their product just like Toyota and all the other foreign makers.It forever changed the way the American public buys automobiles and the vehicle choices we see today.I'd like to see more cars built along the lines of a Challenger, Mustang or Camaro, but I don't think the market would support it.

[X-TECH MAN]

I prefer home made and personally hand built cars (Hot Rods & Muscle cars) Yeah the basic building parts are mostly old worn out America stuff but when everything you get done or do yourself is basically an AMERICAN hand built car like your race cars. Blue printed to the max and built by your own hands. I dislike my 2010 Corvette. It is a piece of electronic junk with 11 (eleven&^%$$ computers in it.) My 35 Chev. coupe was better. It had a carb, A/C, power windows, OD automatic trans, NO friggin metric bolts !. It ALWAYS started, rode great, got 26 MPG with a roller cammed 350 Chev. engine and turned more heads that ANYTHING a rich kid could buy today. Keep your new cars. I don't want them except maybe for parts !

[Scott Loge]

Personally it doesn't bother me who there official vehicle comes from. I am glad they have one so our entry fees didn't increase and our payouts did not go down. I'll still get out in the garage and work on my 1974 duster the same!

[goinbroke2]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

Jag and Rover are now owned by Tata, an Indian company. Bentley has been part of Volkswagen since 1998. Volvo is owned by Geely Automobile of China.



So where does that leave Chrysler? The original home base is Michigan but the profits now go to Italy.

Jim

When Jack Nasser was running Ford he wanted a "Premium Auto Group", guess what he bought to fill it? Or in other words, who did tata buy jag and rover from? Dickhead nasser went on a spending spree and was buying everything he could and after buying various "premium" companies and dumping Billions with a B into them, Ford sold them off between 2006-2008 before the crunch hit for pennys on the dollar. Rover for example, I forget the numbers now but it was like they paid 100 million for it, dumped in a billion, then sold it for 50 million cause nobody was buying. It sucks but they did what they had to do.
Kudo's for Mulally for righting the ship and kudo's for Bill Ford for recognizing that he couldn't run Ford and swallowing his pride by bringing somebody who could in.

[D.Johns]

Originally Posted by goinbroke2

When Jack Nasser was running Ford he wanted a "Premium Auto Group", guess what he bought to fill it? Or in other words, who did tata buy jag and rover from? Dickhead nasser went on a spending spree and was buying everything he could and after buying various "premium" companies and dumping Billions with a B into them, Ford sold them off between 2006-2008 before the crunch hit for pennys on the dollar. Rover for example, I forget the numbers now but it was like they paid 100 million for it, dumped in a billion, then sold it for 50 million cause nobody was buying. It sucks but they did what they had to do.
Kudo's for Mulally for righting the ship and kudo's for Bill Ford for recognizing that he couldn't run Ford and swallowing his pride by bringing somebody who could in.

And whole lot more good links in the description box. I'd like to sit down with Mulally to pick his brain and also with Ford about how they decided he was the right guy for the job.

[jmcarter]

Originally Posted by D.Johns

And whole lot more good links in the description box. I'd like to sit down with Mulally to pick his brain and also with Ford about how they decided he was the right guy for the job.

Knew Mulally in his previous career, unbelievable leader with charisma, talent and dedication. I'm sure he was a rude surprise to any executive who didn't know his respective business plan and metrics to manage it. He's the kind of leader who inspires his team to their very best or they find the door. Nobody should ever doubt the power of a single dedicated leader and he illustrates that perfectly.

[D.Johns]

Originally Posted by jmcarter

Knew Mulally in his previous career, unbelievable leader with charisma, talent and dedication. I'm sure he was a rude surprise to any executive who didn't know his respective business plan and metrics to manage it. He's the kind of leader who inspires his team to their very best or they find the door. Nobody should ever doubt the power of a single dedicated leader and he illustrates that perfectly.

From the outside looking in, there seems to have been a major culture shift within FoMoCo. I would certainly like to be a team member there.

[GarysZ24]

Originally Posted by Alex Denysenko

TOYOTA??? I always thought that was one of those hamster haulers Kia soul or whatever?
they all look the same to me

I like Scotts car too...because it's against the norm However, Alex you had my tummy hurting for laughing so hard!!!!

Seriously though, I've been calling out the import lovers to Stock Eliminator for years, and I'm still waiting! If they (to borrow from Toyota's commercials for their pre-owned vehicles), are "the best new cars, make the best used cars", then they must be THE BEST RACE CARS TOO RIGHT? COME ON OUT AND PROVE IT TOYOTA & HONDA, the BIG THREE (FWD OR RWD), ARE WAITING....I WANT TO BE IN THE FIRST RACE IN THE FIRST ROUND AGAINST ONE OF THEM TOO!!!!

Maybe someone is putting one of them together for the Phoenix national/divisional races? If this is true, me and my fwd Janesville, Ws., (more American than any Tundra out on the road), Cavalier are ready and will be at "Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park" the weekend of the divisional, and I sure hope I get to race against one of them in round one. By the way, I'm still running the engine put together by Verle Stevens for stocker racing 18yrs ago....oh and most of my engines parts were OEM, which means the same parts that the UAW put in my car 28yrs ago, are still working great (as is Verle's excellent job of engine building)!!!! So much for that theory that back in the '80's and '90's the import guys built better quality cars than we Americans did....funny thing is I seldom see any of those so-called better built imports on the roads here in Phoenix, but I sure see a lot of the big Three's products fwd and rwd...go figure!!!