The Phantom Retires!

  My long time good friend, The Phantom called me to tell me last night he's going to retire from GM after FORTY-SEVEN years!  He's what I would describe one of the last car nuts and non bean counters at GM.  The Phantom started to work for GM in the Chevrolet division, updating the aging Corvair design.  That's correct, The Phantom's history with GM goes all the way back to the Corvair.  With a Master's degree in mechanical engineering from MIT, The Phantom moved on to the Corvette division and became close friends with the one and only Zora Duntov, the father of the Corvette. 
  An over achiever, The Phantom caught the eye of John DeLorean at the Pontiac division and to his credit, although he has always downplayed it, we have the impetus behind the famous Ram Air 400 cid engines of the GTO and according to him, many sleepless nights over the development of the Endura Bumper on the '67 GTO.  In those years, according to the Phantom, you rarely spent more than a year and half with one division and good engineers were in high demand. 
  John was a visionary, but when it came to styling, no one could touch the great Harley Earl.  "Harley passed away soon after I got with GM but stories are still told in the board room to this day about Harley.  Harley would come into meetings and say, boys this is the way we're going to do it and he held such respect, that's the way the car was styled.  In those days cars were works of art and to h*** with aerodynanics.  They were styling statements and that's why I've always loved Hummers.  They are styling statements, like it or not and forget aerodyanics, and wind tunnel testing.  I think Harley would have loved the Hummer, although he would have had more chrome on it!  I won't even delve into stories about his love for fins and chrome.  Main stream bean counters at GM were confused about how to market the Hummer as a vehicle capable of going anywhere like no other and market it also as a styling statement."

  His final car division years were with Cadillac before moving up to GM's headquarters and overseeing engineering.  "That's when I fell in love with the Hummer," The Phantom tells me.  "Martin Walsh was one of the sharpest men at GM and he did a lot for Hummer," continued the Phantom.  In a large corporation things are always political, but with the bankruptcy and the movement towards hybrids and all electrics, things have changed dramatically at GM.
  In the 80s, The Phantom moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan because he found a home with an eight car garage.  The Phantom falls in love with his cars and keeps them.  What is his everyday driver?  A Burgundy 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS with over 100,000 miles on it and looks just like the day it came off the showroom floor.  What other cars does he have in that eight car garage in Ann Arbor? 
A 1963 red split window Corvette (bought his first year with GM that he and his wife of 47 years honeymooned to Miami in), a 1970 Olds Toronado with a warmed over Olds 425 cid engine, a 1969 GTO judge with the Ram Air IV engine (it has 1800 miles on it), a white 1959 Cadillac Eldorado (he loves the fins), a 2009 Z06 Corvette, a 1940 La Salle four door, and of course his beloved 2008 Hummer H2.
The Phantom tells me that except for the GTO Judge, and the La Salle he drives them all regularly and keeps track of maintenance on his computer.
  What are his favorites?  The Impala SS, the Corvette Z06 and the Hummer, according to the Phantom.  The Phantom said that the run up in fuel prices hurt the Hummer, but it was marketed and advertised so poorly in was doomed.  He tells me, did you ever see an ad of a Hummer going through a forest, a creek, or some mud.  No of course not because the lawyers nixed those worried about company liability.  He said that in his opinion, GM really doesn't want to sell Hummer now because they don't want the competition, they want it to disappear.  The big problem with Hummer H3, and especially the H2 was because of their high cost, they rarely got in the hands of the real offroaders who could appreciate what it was capable of.   Now with used models as prices are coming down, people are finally realizing how overbuilt they are and what they are capable of.