The cars of Bob Lutz

Slide of Robert Anthony Lutz is one of the major figures in the history of the automotive industry. Born in Switzerland in 1932, he has been a fighter pilot, a vacuum cleaner salesman and a senior executive at all of the Big Three of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, as well as BMW. Here we take a look at the extraordinary career of “Maximum Bob” through some of the many cars he has been involved with, arranged in chronological order, followed by one he wishes he had been: Slide of Opel GT (1968) Although he became an American citizen in childhood, Lutz’s first important automotive post was in Germany, where he worked for Opel, which at the time was GM’s primary European brand. He has described Opel as “basically building boring cars for boring people” at the time, and met resistance within the company for creating a relatively sporty version of the Kadett. Making a case for the GT, which resembled the third-generation Chevrolet Corvette, was hard work too, but Opel was eventually persuaded to convert what had originally been a styling exercise into a production vehicle. Slide of Opel Rekord (1972) Lutz does not take credit for the look of the Rekord D, but he does claim to have more or less goaded designer Chuck Jordan (1927-2010) into making it appear the way it did. Lutz essentially gave a lecture on the difference between European and American design, and says that although Jordan did not appreciate being told how to do his job, he did take on board some of the comments. With the Rekord, according to Lutz, Jordan said he was determined to “out-Giugiaro Giugiaro”. Commenting on the result many years later, Lutz said, “That car was near perfect – it was a fantastic execution.” Slide of BMW 5 Series (1972) By the time the Opel Rekord went on sale, Lutz had moved on to BMW, which he says paid him far more money than GM was prepared to. He arrived too late to influence the design of the first 5 Series, but tells a story about why this was the first BMW with the ‘single-digit-plus-Series’ naming system. It was suggested to him by a sales manager, who “wasn’t a very imaginative or creative guy” but whose idea struck him as being a big improvement over what BMW had been using before. He shared it with his fellow executives, and BMW has used it ever since. Slide of BMW 2002 Turbo (1973) The turbocharged, high-performance model in the 02 range was developed at a time when, Lutz says, “performance was glorified; no autobahn speed was considered excessive”. It was introduced right at the start of a global oil crisis, when the emphasis suddenly moved to fuel economy, rendering the fast but thirsty 2002 Turbo pointless. “BMW took large amounts of heat, and my boss effectively threw me under the bus.” Despite that comment, Lutz has also said he “never quite” got fired from any car company, though “I admit to leaving two steps ahead of the sheriff a few times”. Slide of BMW 3 Series (1975) Lutz claims that when he saw a full-scale model of what was intended to be BMW’s first 3 Series, “it was a box”. He reports bringing in Paul Bracq to make it look better, and creating a design department with the help of a former colleague at Opel. Although he was by now making a lot of money, Lutz says he was uncomfortable with the working culture at BMW, and left to join Ford. Slide of Ford Sierra (1982) Lutz arrived at Ford after the development of the Fiesta, its first front-wheel drive car, which was followed up by the third-generation Escort. He hoped that the replacement for the larger Cortina and Taunus, eventually named Sierra, would also have front-wheel drive, and was disappointed that Ford said it could not afford to follow General Motors and Volkswagen along this path. He explains that the missed opportunity to make gains in top speed and fuel economy was balanced by the Sierra’s aerodynamic body, which he noticed attracted very different responses in different countries. “The Germans saw it as a modern-day reincarnation of aerodynamic cars of the late 1930s and embraced it immediately. The British looked at it and said, ‘What the hell is this?’” Slide of Merkur XR4Ti (1985) The XR4Ti was an Americanised version of the Sierra XR4i, with a turbocharged 2.3-liter Lima four-cylinder engine rather than the original 2.8-liter Cologne V6. Lutz, still in Europe at the time, thought it would be a good rival to other sporty European family cars sold in the US. Sales were disappointing, though, and both the XR4Ti and the Merkur brand were history by the end of the decade. Slide of Chrysler TC by Maserati (1989) The TC by Maserati was based on the front-wheel drive K platform which has been credited with keeping Chrysler in business during the 1980s. While most of the many vehicles derived from it helped the corporation financially, this one definitely didn’t. “It failed,” says Lutz, who had recently moved to