Word: toronado
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...CITROEN 7CV This was the first successful front-wheel-drive car, a revolutionary feature adopted for an American auto in 1966 for the Oldsmobile Toronado and now standard on most cars...
...motorcycle near his home in the sedate suburb of Bloomfield Hills, where he keeps a fleet of old cars he likes to tinker with. His engineering feats have become part of the company lore. In his early career he designed the front-wheel-drive transmission on the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado, and in the 1970s he was the leader in one of GM's biggest breakthroughs: the catalytic converter, a revolutionary antipollution device. Stempel has been groomed well for the chairman's post, having served as head of several divisions: Chevrolet, Pontiac, GM's Adam Opel subsidiary in Europe...
...biggest challenge is to shake up a bureaucracy that has stifled innovation. On that count he is amply qualified. His communication skills have been recognized ever since he was first sent on the road in 1966 to persuade skittish dealers of the merits of the front-wheel-drive Toronado. Later he helped defuse a bitter environmental fight at a major new plant site. Associates say he has a photographic memory for both faces and statistics. While Stempel was general manager of Chevrolet in the early 1980s, he gave a detailed presentation of 17 different vehicles, ranging from the subcompact Chevette...
...sleeves, look under the hood and fix it himself. Coming of age in Bloomfield, N.J., in the early 1950s, Stempel toiled during the summer as a garage mechanic. After joining GM as an engineer in 1958, he designed a front-wheel-drive transmission for the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado. Stempel's success with the front-wheel drive, a radical departure that later became a standard feature, accelerated his movement up the corporate ladder...
...that is fitted sideways under the hood. That saves enough space to permit a surprisingly roomy interior in a relatively small car. Moreover, there is no transmission tunnel running back through the passenger cabin to cramp leg room. GM offers front-wheel drive on some Cadillac and large Oldsmobile Toronado models and is preparing a small front-wheel-drive car for the 1979 model year. Ford is importing the front-wheel-drive Fiesta from Europe, where it has proved highly successful with cost-conscious buyers...