New GM is the horribly uncreative name for a company that was just given a free get-out-of-crushing-debt free card. It’s also not very “new” with the vast majority of it’s controlling executives still in charge.
This week’s BangShift.com Top 11 list will fix that. We’re going to give you the dream team. This group is not hindered by stuff like death, reality, or common sense. Nope, this is the ultimate line-up of guys we’d like to see steering the company. Tell us who we forgot, or who we should throw off the island.
The Top 11 Guys We’d Put in Charge of New GM
Engineering
11) Zora Arkus-Duntov: The author of the famous performance memo to the GM brass in the mid-1950s, he is still regarded as one of the brightest minds to ever work for a major manufacturer. At the time of his employment, GM was the world standard. He used that clout to develop all manner of on- and off-road performance products.
10) Mark Donohue: The gifted engineer and racer Donohue would be a perfect fit with Duntov. Their analytical approach and zest for competiton would result in lofty performance goals being set and beaten for their projects.
9) Smokey Yunick: To make sure we don’t get paralysis by analysis in the engineering department we’re going to bring in one of the greatest empirical thinkers in American racing history. He’d have no problem kicking both those guys in the ass to get things moving.
8) Harry Miller: Thought of as one of the most creative thinkers and designers in the history of auto racing, Miller would be our special projects guy. He’d have a smallish budget but would be free to create and innvate to his heart’s content.
Marketing
7) Lee Iacocca: Probably the greatest automotive salesmen that ever lived, he will champion our marketing effort. Nothing more to add there. He’s done it all.
6) Jim Wangers: Yes, the man reportedly has an ego the size of a small house, but he’s earned it. Wangers was a creative tour de force during Pontiac’s rise to the top of the muscle car wars in the early 1960s and would be just the guy to be lighting fires again.
5) William C. Durant: The man who created GM was known as a hustler, salesman, and business genius. He’d come on board like a cannonball and match up with chest thumpers like Iacocca and Wangers without blinking.
4) Bob Lutz: This is one that we think New GM got right. Is Lutz perfect? Hell no. The guy is 77 years old and even though he loves cars and seems to be fighting for the right ones to survive, he’s not exactly in the same demographic as the typical buyer. Lutz will be able to stand up to the media as they try to smash chairs over his head in the coming months as GM tries to get its mojo back.
Styling
3) Larry Shinoda: Lots of different ways to go on this one, but Shinoda’s work on the Corvette and Mustang totally sum up the spirit of what needs to be happenig with this company.
2) Harley Earl: Budget? Whatever he needs. Earl will have full control and free reign on designing all upcoming models.
Executive Leadership
1) George Patton: No BS, no secrets, no chance of squeaking by on the bare minimum. He makes Lutz look like a shrinking violet. Someone needs to grab this thing by the balls, inspire the people who want to be there and scare the ones that don’t bad enough that they quit. This is a struggle for life, not a tea party.
