Does he see what I see?

I knew it, I knew it, and nearly said so in my piece yesterday about A1 production in Brussels, and Audi’s emerging primacy. I sense old money at work: the one-time Auto Union allegiances emerging from the priest-holes of expedient deference to unyielding socialism, to join forces with the dynasty spun from the car that so tickled Mr Hitler’s fancy, and which everyone hoped would die a similar death.

Had it not been for the Yorkshire clockmaker’s son and REME Major, Ivan Hirst, Volkswagen would never have become the vast empire it is today. The old order could have continued making cars for the kind of people who never enquired the price: the same people who had at one time thrilled at the Auto Union racing cars designed by Ferdinand Porsche, whose son, Ferry, was to develop the company bearing his father’s revered name.

Porsche’s daughter, Louise, married a distinguished Viennese laywyer, Anton Piech, and their son - also a Ferdinand - eventually rose to the very pinnacle of the Volkswagen board, on which he remains in a supervisory capacity, to this day. What spies call a sleeper, you might say.

Anyway, where’s all this leading? In a press report today, it emerged that Porsche (owned almost entirely by the Piech family) has been acquiring more VW stock, to the extent that it is very close to the 30 per cent holding that would trigger a compulsory takeover under German law.

Stuff and nonsense, says Porsche, or words to that effect. Likewise it strongly denied press reports that it would take Audi (once Auto Union) to its bosom - no doubt scooping up Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti on the way - and leave the people’s car and its socially-priced stablemates to fend for themselves. And Audi man, Martin Winterkorn, will soon have Piech’s old job. How cosy: I do love a conspiracy.

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Ford Fairlane concept

Looks like I was wrong about Land Rover and Jaguar going ‘under the hammer’. I have managed to get hold of a copy of Ford’s ‘Secured Financing’ Powerpoint presentation made today to the Securities and Exchange Commission in America.

Buried deep among the detailed financial analysis, there is a short, plain-English briefing about Ford’s plans for Land Rover and Jaguar. The key phrase appears to be: ‘Reduced structure through consolidation’. That could mean one of two things: either that Jaguar and Land Rover will be forced to platform share, which is unlikely, given the product disparity; or that some plans are afoot to merge production facilities. It could mean a third thing, although even accountants would surely draw the line at referring to a flesh-and-blood workforce as a ’structure’, needing consolidation.

Meanwhile, I thought you might like to see a stretch-Landy, otherwise know as a Ford Fairlane, upon which Ford of America is pinning a number of hopes, none of which apparently relate to a reduction in global warming.

Cherysler Jeep?

The board of DaimlerChrysler is under increasing pressure to get shot of the ailing Chrysler division. According to industry sources, there are sound financial reasons to effect a de-merger, although company executives seem determined to restore Chrysler to profit.

It is generally accepted that Daimler and Chrysler are as culturally distinct as Lafite and lager, and that eight years on from the merger, the parties concerned are no closer than they were at the nuptials.

The problem is, what to do with Chrysler? It’s losing money, falling behind in the race for fuel-efficient cars, and faced with the need to trim costs by at least ,000 per vehicle. “No one would buy it,” an investment banker is reported to have said, although Renault and Volkswagen have both been suggested as possible future partners.

Despite the continuing denials by DaimlerChrysler that Chrysler is up for grabs - a good enough reason to believe the opposite - Chrysler’s pursuit of a partner with whom to develop small-car know-how has brought it face-to-face with China’s acquisitive Chery Automobile.

Given that Mr Chery already has his sights set on becoming the world’s fifth-largest car maker, what better way to leapfrog other young tigers than to acquire a major American brand? Moreover, Chrysler is the company that makes Jeeps, and not only is China a perfect market for 4×4s. it is also home to the world’s largest army, and we all know what armies buy.

Will Audi A1 production sprout up in Brussels?

According to a story circulated today by Reuters, Audi is to build its new A1 compact in the VAG Brussels factory that is to lose Golf production next year because of falling sales. According to Reuter’s informant, identified simply as ‘a source familiar with the matter’, production will begin in 2009 at the rate of 100,000 units a year. If this is true, Audi will have got its partner out of a scrape: the last thing Volkswagen needs at the moment is a damaging confrontation with an angry and potentially militant workforce.

Now that Audi boss, Martin Winterkorn, has been confirmed for the big seat on the Volkswagen-Audi board, I suspect there will soon be other examples of Ingoldstat’s emerging primacy.

Rumoured to resemble the R-D6 concept, will Jaguar's new XF survive the Dearborn shuffle?

It is reported today that, in an effort to drag itself away from the brink of bankruptcy, Ford is putting together a re-financing package that should create a cash and credit input of some 38 billion dollars. Assets to be leveraged for the secured portion of various loan packages totalling 15 billion dollars are said to include Ford Motor Credit Co. and Volvo. No mention has been made of Jaguar, Land Rover or Aston Martin.

That sounds to me as if the three British companies do not figure in the long-term plans of Ford’s new CEO, Alan Mulally. I wonder if Jaguar will be given a chance to launch its new S-Type replacement, the XF, which was announced today, before the company goes under the hammer?

The Fedden car, as drawn by Gordon Wilkins

A few years ago, I wrote a lengthy piece for Classic & Sportscar magazine about the Fedden car, under the title ‘Britain’s forgotten Beetle’.

The car’s designer, Sir Roy Fedden, was at one time Technical Director of the Bristol Aeroplane Company. On leaving the company after a dispute with the board, in 1942 he joined the Ministry of Aircraft Production to assist Sir Stafford Cripps in this particular branch of the war effort.

Whilst at the Ministry, Fedden begged, borrowed, and came close to stealing, the essential materials to construct a prototype, radial-engined, rear-drive car. This was at a time when research and development work in the motor industry seldom received official sanction.

Helped by Alex Moulton, Gordon Wilkins, Peter Ware and others, Fedden, against many and varied odds, managed to construct a road-going car. Unfortunately the car crashed and injured one of the passengers, and Fedden eventually consigned his damaged prototype to a shed at the Cranfield College (as it was then), where he had become one of its founders.

According to Peter Ware, whom I interviewed in 1999, the damaged Fedden car was still in the shed until the latter was demolished by the contractors building the Nissan Technical Centre, which opened at Cranfield in 1991.

As a consequence of the demolition of its long-term home, Fedden’s car vanished without trace, although it seems unlikely that it was destroyed.

Can anyone provide me with a clue as to the present whereabouts of the Fedden, or confirm, once and for all, that it was destroyed, along with its historic shed?

Would your tyres stand up to scrutiny?

Have you bought any Goodyear tyres lately? If so, you might want to check out where and when they were made. Goodyear workers on strike in America have just released this TV ad to warn car owners of what the union believes is the risk of buying tyres made by replacement workers - what the striking miners of the 1970s would have called ’scabs’.

Regardless of the merit of the workers’ grievences, the closing footage of the ad brings home with chilling effect the perils of a faulty tyre - and is a long way removed from the mild inconvenience of a puncture.  Given that police seem intent on using motorists as a soft target, perhaps they should do something useful for a change and concentrate on random tyre checks, not with the purpose of gaining convictions but as a public service; after all, when was the last time you gave your tyres a thorough check?

Local Volvo drivers continue to circulate the roundabout despite having run out of petrol

Apparently highway engineers in Coventry have given the Magic Roundabout a new spin. They have built a roundabout from which no legal exit is possible as each road leading off is signposted ‘No Left Turn’. This has greatly perplexed local drivers, many of whom have been reported missing by their anxious families. On the other hand, a local tyre company is said to be delighted with a recent upturn in trade, albeit for only two tyres at a time. Young Volvo passengers are being offerred counselling for what is described as Mulberry Bush Syndrome.