What Do You Think?
Motorsports in America grew up illicitly. 鈥淩ight of Way鈥?is a weekly opinion column from automotive journalist, recovering racer and guitarist Jim Resnick. But there鈥檚 an upside to the outlaw beginnings of American motorsports. Diversity. This lawlessness created drag racing. Moonshine running gave birth to oval track competition and NASCAR. As we roll into the second half of this decade, we should capitalize on the diversity we enjoy in our American motorsports and the progressing maturity of the sport in the public鈥檚 eyes. We should initiate a cross-functional, cross-sanctioning body Motorsports Triathlon. What real innovation has taken place in the staging and presentation of motorsports over the past 40 years, anyway? Not much. I鈥檓 not talking about the craft, the technology or even the processes of motorsports. Those all have developed at a furious rate. Hell, it鈥檚 not widely known, but even NASCAR teams were using real-time telemetry over 20 years ago, during practice and testing.
In 2018, Land Rover added dual 10-inch touchscreens for infotainment and vehicle functions dubbed Touch Pro Duo in addition to mild styling changes inside and out. In 2019, it added Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capability, and its advanced safety features grew a bit smarter, with functions such as stop-and-go capability in its adaptive cruise control. It also gained a plug-in hybrid model. The Range Rover Sport was conceived to appeal to buyers of less traditional 'utes鈥攊t shares the Range Rover tag, but its styling is considerably less constrained. The look is based on a concept, the Range Stormer, that came in two-door form to the 2004 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The Range Rover Sport first came to America as a 2006 model, slotted just beneath the tried and true Range Rover in the brand lineup, distinct from the LR3 and LR2 "family" Rovers. Outfitted with either a naturally-aspirated 4.4-liter V-8 engine (which had its roots at BMW, which sold Land Rover to Ford) or a supercharged 4.2-liter V-8 that was shared with the Jaguar XF and XJ for a time. Both versions offered a 6-speed automatic transmission and a sophisticated off-road-worthy suspension with standard all-wheel drive.
Undesirable shop conditions . Ford鈥檚 method of 5 dollar wage made workers motivated, punctual. This although should have been a costly affair turned out to be profitable step for the business. Dramatic evolution in production technology by Fords assembly line technique. The high efficiently of this system raised the importance of High worker turn over, high worker effort, and high worker quality. By 1910 two third of the fords workforce were either workmen or mechanics who were over rated as 鈥渉ighly skilled鈥?or 鈥渟killed鈥?this was because ford was not a manufacturing company rather assembling company. World War II gave birth to the idea of quality assurance. The first formal quality control programs in the world was instituted by the United States Defense department , in order to deal problems related to manufacturing of defense equipment as quality was the main consideration. Industry standards then became popular and reached the other parts of the world. They formed the basis for a set of quality assurance standards which was adopted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members .
But the likes of Audi, Aston Martin, Dacia, Kia, Jaguar, Land Rover, McLaren, SEAT, Skoda and SsangYong deserve credit for successfully reinventing their brands - and developing them into some of the very best marques in their respective marketplaces. Relatively or completely new mainstream firms such as DS, Infiniti, Lexus, MINI and Tesla need recognition, too - not least for investing untold billions trying to break through. Citroen, Honda, Peugeot, Renault and Volvo earn special thanks for producing cars blessed with mpg figures that are more real world than those from their rivals. Back in 鈥?8, petrol was for the motoring majority. Today鈥檚 so-called superminis have morphed into the best-value cars on sale today - largely because they鈥檙e bigger and massively more efficient than family hatchbacks of 鈥?8. An affordable, borderline premium 2017 SEAT or Skoda of today is as good as - or better than - an unaffordable BMW or Merc of 鈥?8. Volkswagen was my number one car company back then, and might be today were it not for its diesel debacle that鈥檚 maimed the brand and given the fuel a toxic reputation.
