Monday, December 1, 2008

Twisted Darwinism: Survival of the Yes-Men, Copycat-ism, Engineering Mediocrity, and (Ultimate) Corporate Death


Now there's a Real Italian Motor -- Laverda V6!!!

"The leader of the [Laverda V6] design team, working in concert with long-time Laverda designer Luciano Zen and Massimo Laverda, himself no mean engineer, was one of the most respected names in automotive engineering, Ing Giulio Alfieri. Alfieri had worked for both Ferrari and Maserati in the past, designing the whole post-war series of Maserati racing and sports cars before the company was bought by Alessandro de Tomaso, with whom he found it impossible to get on.

"The result was that Alfieri left the firm his name had become synonymous with, and for a handful of years worked as a freelance engineering consultant before taking up his present position as managing director of the Lamborghini car company.

"I consider him [Alfieri] to be one of the three leading experts in the world on high-performance internal combustion engines,' says Massimo.

-- Classic Racer, Autumn 1983

N.B. Alfieri died on March 20th, 2002 in Modena Italy. In his late 70s at the time of his death, he had been ill for a month and was undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous brain tumor.

In a much earlier post, I provided vintage quotes showing that the engineering staff at Lambretta (legendary Italian scooter manufacturer) couldn't stand de Tomaso, either.

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