2000_Black_RT10
Enthusiast
So I've been a CAD guy since the first day out of college 17 years ago, designing car parts, and then moved into consulting.. I lived in Windsor across the river from Detroit, hooked up with a firm to support Chrysler, in various groups, advanced vehicle engineering, large car chassis, etc.. and then I was placed in the Featherstone facility.. the building that is remotely placed on the other side of I-75 from the Auburn Hills complex. This little facilty was the home of the designers and engineers for the Viper and the Prowler. My neighbour in Windsor was near retirement, his name was Al, he tested Vipers for a living, he had a different Viper at home every week.
One day around 2000 I was told in the Viper group (as known before it was PVO / SRT) that we have a corrupt engine block model in CAD (for Gen3), nobody can fix it and for the last few months, they sent it out to the CAD companies / experts abroad, everywhere.. now having to reverse engineer the model to finish tooling to make the block. The data never got backed up because of an unfortunate accidental issue with IT. I asked for the corrupt CAD model of the block, let me tinker with it.. worked on it for 20 minutes.. then I sheepishly said "try loading this new CAD model I just saved..", the engine designer Ray was a great guy, his response was worth it, and he told Pete Gladysz about this problem being fixed! All I said in return.. is that would love is to get a Viper to play with. The next day I got the approval. The ironic part is that my neighbour spoke to Pete, and gave additional support telling Pete that I won't wreck it, no need to worry.. That's a big problem when people get Vipers at Chrysler, some can make it hard for others if they wreck them..
The day I got the Viper.. it was a Friday, I drove the Viper to the border and to the Canada Customs booth, a miserable lady officer told me - you can't drive that manufacturers car over here, where is your paper work?, you're going back to the US!! and turned me around.. What a disappointment.. I raced back to Auburn Hills, Al my neighbour was still in the office working afterhours.., so as I sit in his office he calls Pete on the phone and sorts out the proper paperwork on the spot and signs it off on behalf of Pete. I bring it back to Canada Customs, show my paperwork, and great success!
Anyway.. here's some pics of when I got the car back in 2000 when I lived in Windsor, heck I even enjoyed washing the car, I returned it full of gas and a coat of wax. They also gave me a Prowler to play with, that was cool too. Let alone the chance to work in the heart of design and engineering of these beasts was a treat in itself, something I'll remember for a long time.. Now I work full time at a company which supplied all of the GTS-R carbon fibre race car bodies.. it's crazy!
Mike
One day around 2000 I was told in the Viper group (as known before it was PVO / SRT) that we have a corrupt engine block model in CAD (for Gen3), nobody can fix it and for the last few months, they sent it out to the CAD companies / experts abroad, everywhere.. now having to reverse engineer the model to finish tooling to make the block. The data never got backed up because of an unfortunate accidental issue with IT. I asked for the corrupt CAD model of the block, let me tinker with it.. worked on it for 20 minutes.. then I sheepishly said "try loading this new CAD model I just saved..", the engine designer Ray was a great guy, his response was worth it, and he told Pete Gladysz about this problem being fixed! All I said in return.. is that would love is to get a Viper to play with. The next day I got the approval. The ironic part is that my neighbour spoke to Pete, and gave additional support telling Pete that I won't wreck it, no need to worry.. That's a big problem when people get Vipers at Chrysler, some can make it hard for others if they wreck them..
The day I got the Viper.. it was a Friday, I drove the Viper to the border and to the Canada Customs booth, a miserable lady officer told me - you can't drive that manufacturers car over here, where is your paper work?, you're going back to the US!! and turned me around.. What a disappointment.. I raced back to Auburn Hills, Al my neighbour was still in the office working afterhours.., so as I sit in his office he calls Pete on the phone and sorts out the proper paperwork on the spot and signs it off on behalf of Pete. I bring it back to Canada Customs, show my paperwork, and great success!
Anyway.. here's some pics of when I got the car back in 2000 when I lived in Windsor, heck I even enjoyed washing the car, I returned it full of gas and a coat of wax. They also gave me a Prowler to play with, that was cool too. Let alone the chance to work in the heart of design and engineering of these beasts was a treat in itself, something I'll remember for a long time.. Now I work full time at a company which supplied all of the GTS-R carbon fibre race car bodies.. it's crazy!
Mike
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