Over the past two decades, John Heinricy has probably done more to enhance the performance image of General Motors than any other single individual. From the perspective of a petrol-head, Heinricy has for many years held what is probably the coolest job at GM as the director of the Performance division and top-dog test driver. We found out today that Heinricy is retiring after 38 years as an engineer and test driver for GM. In his off time, Heinricy has raced a wide variety of cars at many different levels and captured 11 SCCA national titles. Much of his best known work has been at the wheel of the last several generations of Corvettes along with the Cadillac CTS, but this year he got the most attention for his exploits in the new CTS-V. Specifically, he became the first driver to record a sub-eight minute lap time at the Nurburgring in a production four-door sedan with the new Cadillac CTS-V. When we attended the first track preview of the CTS-V a few months ago, Heinricy was on hand with the record setting car to talk about the big lap. You can check out video of Heinricy's chat and the record lap after the jump.
Over the last three decades, there's been a common thread making Mercedes designs instantly recognizable and a lot of credit for that belongs to MBZ design boss Peter Pfeiffer. After forty years at Mercedes-Benz, and thirty years overseeing design, Pfeiffer is headed for retirement within the next 12 months. It was under Pfeiffer's pen that Mercedes turned out some of its most important cars. Vehicles like the 190, the W126 S-Class, original E-Class, and more recent work like the R, M, and G-class non-cars, to name a few. Gorden Wagener, president of Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design in North America is a name being bandied about as Pfeiffer's replacement, and Mercedes will be making an official announcement soon. After such a long stint under the same chief, it will be interesting to see whether Mercedes design changes, and if so, how those changes will be received by the public.
GM is making better, more attractive vehicles, yet after losing nearly $40 billion in 2007 (most of which was an accounting adjustment, mind you), the Detroit automaker still has a lot of work to do to become profitable again here in the States. Even though GM shed 34,000 jobs in 2006, the company still has 46,000 retirement-eligible workers on the books. Those workers still make $28 or more an hour, and have some of the best benefits money can buy.
To get high-paying workers out and less expensive replacements in, here's what GM is offering in its newest round of buyouts. Retirement-eligible general labor folks are being offered $45,000 lump sum payouts and $62,500 are up for grabs for skilled tradesmen. Those who choose the buyout option can take a single lump sum payment, or elect to put all the money in a tax-free 401k. Non retirement-ready workers, meanwhile, can receive between $70k and $140k to walk away form the line. UAW chief Ron Gettelfinger estimates that 20,000 out of 74,000 remaining workers will take a package, and the General would likely love it if union Ron were right. Since the cash-saving VEBA contained in the latest union contract won't take effect until 2010, cutting labor costs is GM's best bet for making money in the U.S., aside from developing more attractive vehicles.
Talk about airing your family's dirty laundry in public. Michael Schumacher has made a public statement to his kid brother Ralf, urging him to consider taking a sabbatical from F1.
The news comes hot on the heels of a less-than-spectacular test Ralf undertook for Force India, the team formerly known as Spyker, which has two of the remaining seats open on the F1 grid for next season. Team owner Vijay Mallya and Schumi Jr. formed close links when the Indian tycoon's Kingfisher Airlines was sponsoring Ralf's Toyota, and the German driver was strongly linked to a potential drive for the new team. Unfortunately for Ralf, the test didn't go so well, prompting him to admit that the session could very well be his last drive in F1.
His considerably more successful brother, meanwhile, urged him to consider taking a sabbatical from Formula One, pointing out that, following his own retirement, it wasn't hard for him to come back for the recent test sessions for Ferrari, in which he posted top lap times. Michael was quick to point out, however, that he himself had no intention of returning to the race seat.
Back in late February we reported on Chrysler's early retirement and separation program that the automaker hoped would help it shed 13,000 jobs over the next three years. The company was planning on saying goodbye to about 5,700 hourly (read: union) workers this year, of which around 1,000 would be from Canada. That means Chrysler hoped at least 4,700 of its hourly workers in the U.S. would take the buyout offer that offered a lump sum of up to $100,000 to workers willing to leave.
The Detroit Free Press is reporting that in fact around 6,400 hourly workers in the U.S. have said they're interested in taking the buyout, nearly 40% more than Chrysler planned. While the purchase of Chrysler by Cerberus Capital Management was seen as a good thing for the automaker going forward, the larger than expected response to its buyout offer suggests that many of Chrysler's hourly workers believe the writing's still on the wall. Analysts speculate that rather than stick around and drag down the company, these workers feel their retirement benefits will be more secure if they leave now to help the company and ensure its future.
Not expecting such high demand, Chrysler has also reportedly slowed down the buyout process to a halt. Only now have a number of workers departed who expressed interest in leaving the company when the program was announced in late February. It's like that some of those hoping to leave this year will be denied the buyout offer, which is something Ford was forced to do when too many salaried workers accepted its buyout offer.
Steve Saleen has announced his official retirement from Saleen, Inc., the company he founded 23 years ago that has grown into one of the best specialty vehicle manufacturers in the world. Apparently Steve is happy with the team he's assembled to manage the business in his place, and will be stepping back while maintaining a role as "corporate spokesperson and ambassador for the brand." We bet that job will come with a corner office, too.
Since he's still a major shareholder in the company, Saleen will have influence over product design, branding, marketing and other activities related to the biz, but there will certainly be a few more rounds of golf sneaked in between those boardroom meetings going forward.
His company seems to be doing well these days. The S7 in all its iterations is one of the most brutally fast vehicles in the world, and the company's many Mustangs are some of the best on the market (of which there are many). The Saleen Parnelli Jones Edition Mustang is our favorite Mustang on sale today, and the Heritage Edition promises to be nice a follow up. The company also has a nice business helping the OEMs build cars, having played a major part in the Ford GT's development and production. Word is Saleen will have new announcements about OEM partnerships in the near future, as well. Steve, however, may get to skip that press conference.
You can read Saleen's official press release after the jump, and we've included some of our fave Saleen galleries below.
This afternoon the Chrysler Group and the UAW released a statement revealing details of the early retirement and separation programs that will help the automaker reach its goal of shedding 13,000 jobs. Two-thousand jobs being eliminated are salaried positions, and we brought you details on those early retirement and buyout packages last week. Today's announcement affects the 11,000 hourly workers who the Chrysler Group hopes will choose to leave the company on a voluntary basis.
There are two plans available to hourly workers, which include an Incentive Program for Retirement (IPR) and an Enhanced Voluntary Termination of Employment Program (VTEP). The IPR allows hourly workers with 30 or more years of service with the company to accept early retirement in exchance for a lump sum of $70,000. It is presumed these retirees would keep all the benefits that are granted to a normal retiree. The VTEP, however, is available to any hourly employee with at least one year of credited service with the company. In exchance for leaving the company, the Chrysler Group is offering a lump sum payment of $100,000.
Any employees eligible for these programs were notified of their options via a letter today .
This afternoon Chrysler revealed more details on one part of its plan to extensively reduce its workforce by 13,000 workers between now and 2009. The details today concern the 2,000 salaried workers that will be leaving the company. Chrysler hopes it can entice at least 1,000 of those salaried workers to leave by June 30th of this year.
There are two deals on the table, one for those workers age 53 to 61 and the other for those 62 and older. At least 10 years of employment with the company is required to be eligible for either group. The yungins are being offered what's called the Separation Incentive Program, which is basically an early retirement package that waives any retirement benefit reductions that would have been incurred under normal circumstances. It appears those eligible for this group will also get 100% of their health care plan's medical credits. For those 62 and up that meet the requirements, there's the Special Early Retirement package that offers three months salary and either a $20,000 car voucher "grossed up for taxes" (I believe that means it's $20,000 after taxes) or a $20,000 contribution to their Retirment Health Account. This group would also receive 100% of their health care plan's medical credits.
Neither of these plans affect the many union workers under Chrysler Group employ. Details of those attrition offers are still being finalized.
The motorsport press rumor mill is grinding away at full speed on a juicy bit of gossip and speculation that Michael Schumacher is being groomed to take over as head of Scuderia Ferrari. After his retirement, Schumacher took on a role as a special advisor to Ferrari chief Jean Todt. It was supposed to be a low-key, backstage kind of position that would let the seven-time world champion continue to impart his experience to the team, but it apparently hasn't been as hands-off as they made it out to be: Schumacher has reportedly made more visits to Maranello and sat in on more key meetings in the past few months since his retirement than he did during the entire 2006 season.
An unnamed source inside Ferrari was quoted as saying that Schumacher's current level of involvement points to only one conclusion: that he's preparing to step in as team leader -- and it would make sense. A lot of F1 pundits said that it would be entirely likely for Schumacher to head up a team after retiring from active racing, but how could he leave Ferrari for another team? Ferrari today is the house that Michael built. He brought in the key staff, revamped the way the team works and turned it into a winning tour de force. Jean Todt has been looking to step away from directly managing the team since being promoted to overall head of Ferrari, but hasn't been able to up to this point. He's needed a capable successor.
Of course, Schumacher's representatives have denied it up and down, but it's hard to avoid the logical conclusion when all the pieces fit.
The crown prince of Dubai has already pledged to give ex-F1 racer Michael Schumacher his own man-made island called "The World", so what other man-made gift can top that as a retirement present? The Ferrari Clienti, a group of folks who buy and race classic and late model Ferrari competition cars, doesn't count any crown princes among its members, but it did manage to scrape up enough coin to commission for Schumacher his very own custom built Harley Davidson. The appropriately colored motor bike was given to Schumacher at a Clienti event at Monza and will join the 7-time World Champion's bike collection that spans multiple continents and already includes a few Harleys. We're not very well versed in two-wheel culture, so lacking any concrete info we can't tell you much more about the bike, though any readers who can shed more light on the custom creation are welcome to in the comments.
Over the past two decades, John Heinricy has probably done more to enhance the performance image of General Motors than any other single individual. From the perspective of a petrol-head, Heinricy has for many years held what is probably the coolest job at GM as the director of the Performance division and top-dog test driver. We found out today that Heinricy is retiring after 38 years as an engineer and test driver for GM. In his off time, Heinricy has raced a wide variety of cars at many different levels and captured 11 SCCA national titles. Much of his best known work has been at the wheel of the last several generations of Corvettes along with the Cadillac CTS, but this year he got the most attention for his exploits in the new CTS-V. Specifically, he became the first driver to record a sub-eight minute lap time at the Nurburgring in a production four-door sedan with the new Cadillac CTS-V. When we attended the first track preview of the CTS-V a few months ago, Heinricy was on hand with the record setting car to talk about the big lap. You can check out video of Heinricy's chat and the record lap after the jump.
GM is making better, more attractive vehicles, yet after losing nearly $40 billion in 2007 (most of which was an 
Steve Saleen has announced his official retirement from Saleen, Inc., the company he founded 23 years ago that has grown into one of the best specialty vehicle manufacturers in the world. Apparently Steve is happy with the team he's assembled to manage the business in his place, and will be stepping back while maintaining a role as "corporate spokesperson and ambassador for the brand." We bet that job will come with a corner office, too. 
This afternoon Chrysler revealed more details on one part of 
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