Chrysler railroad cars at allpar

Allpar has covered Chrysler’s little-known foray into railroad cars in a special feature this week. The company’s contributions, made at a time when Carl Breer was still running the research labs, appear to have been influenced by Airflow research, and to have become a part of mainstream railroad car design. Read more.

Another Chrysler re-org in Mexico?

According to a source in Mexico, Bruno Cattori will be rejoining Chrysler de Mexico after leaving the company around ten years ago to become Mercedes’ leader for the country. He had worked his way up in service, marketing, and engineering. Cattori appears to have been brought in at the personal request of Fred Diaz, who the source said had brought many positive changes.

There is still reportedly a “black market” for company cars, allegedly with a small group controlling their sale and making a large profit by buying them cheaply from employees and then selling them to the public, rather than having all the fleet sent to auction.

Carroll Shelby dies at 89

Carroll Hall Shelby, credited with the Shelby Cobra and numerous powered-up adaptions of Ford and Dodge cars, died last night at the age of 89 after being hospitalized for pneumonia. After starting out as a chicken farmer and part-time auto racer, he became a full time racer in the 1950s. The AC Cobra, which debuted in 1962, used a Ford V8 engine, providing far more power than most cars of its kind; he also sold small Ford V8s to Rootes in 1964 for their LeMans Sunbeam Tigers, though the engines all failed at the race.

When Lee Iacocca went to Chrysler, he carried his relationship with Shelby with him, resulting in numerous “hot-rodded” cars powered by various 2.2 liter engines. He later returned to working with Ford, particularly on Mustangs. He said late in life that only a few of the projects he tried turned a profit, though it was enough to keep Shelby America operating. Shelby was reportedly involved in the creation of the Viper as well, and test drove one of the originals from 0-100-0 despite having recently had heart surgery. He also drove the Viper at the 1991 Indy 500.

See: Omni GLHS, Shelby Charger, California Shelby Rampage, Shelby Dodge brochures, Shelby Dakota, Shelby Dodge Can Am cars, Shelby CSX, Dodge Daytona

RRStar: Dart still 2 weeks off

Intrepid editor Alex Gary of the Rockford Register Star reported a missing link from the “Dart starts production” story: the fact that the next two weeks or so hold nothing but more test cars. In his story, Gary wrote that Chrysler spokesman Jodi Tinson put the first shipment of Darts to dealers at “a couple weeks” away. Given early reviews, plant workers are highly optimistic of the car’s prospects, according to his article [read the original]. Thanks, Don Hommes.