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Automotive News / August 16, 2017 American Motors Corp. didn't have enough money to subject the original Jeep Cherokee -- the first modern SUV -- to a traditional durability testing program ahead of its late 1983 launch. But Roy Lunn, the Cherokee's chief engineer, who died in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Aug. 5 at age 92, steered around the obstacle by securing credentials for the punishing Paris-Dakar Rally. Lunn's engineering team prepared two Cherokees for the event, not to compete but simply to run the brutal desert course and monitor how the Cherokee's "uni-frame" body would take the constant pounding over the bruising, potholed 6,200-mile course. Only the shock absorbers needed frequent replacement and both vehicles finished the rally in good condition. Lunn knew his groundbreaking design, which featured a steel ladder frame welded to a unitized body, was robust enough to take almost anything consumers were likely to subject the Cherokee to. Last year, just ahead of his induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame, Lunn told Automotive News the fuel shortages and price shocks of the 1970s influenced his thinking on the Cherokee's technical design. "I chose unitized [construction] because it is stronger pound for pound, and it is lightest for meeting fuel economy requirements," he said. The most fuel-efficient Jeep Cherokee, a two-wheel-drive model with a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and manual transmission, was EPA-rated at 24 mpg city and 33 mpg highway in 1985 -- figures that rivaled many family cars at the time. The Cherokee not only was a monster hit for American Motors, and later Chrysler -- more than 3 million were sold before production ended in 2001 -- but it also became the template for the modern SUV and continues to be copied by virtually all major global automakers. "What's amazing about Roy is he had a laser focus on what the issue or problem was and he put all of his energies and thoughts into making it right," said automotive journalist and author Martyn Schorr, who first met Lunn in the mid 1960s. The Cherokee's light weight, four-wheel drive, and high ride height but low floor for easy entry, offered rugged off-road capability but in a vehicle that felt and behaved more like a car. Earlier SUVs, such as the Ford Bronco and Land Rover Series 1 (later called Defender) and other competitors were body on frame, or truck-based. "The unibody was 400 pounds lighter than the competition," said Chris Theodore, who briefly worked with Lunn at AMC and later became Chrysler's vice president of platform engineering. "The other key to the Cherokee was the four-door model," Theodore told Automotive News. "Competitors quickly copied four doors when sales took off, but it took a long time for them to switch to unibody." The Cherokee was not the first time Lunn led a team that created a groundbreaking product. Nor would it be his last. Early years Roy C. Lunn was born in Richmond, England, in 1925 and earned degrees in mechanical and aeronautical engineering at KingstonTechnicalCollege. He served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War II, then began his automotive career at AC Cars as an engineer in 1946. Lunn moved to Aston Martin and worked on the DB2 grand touring car, and then took a turn at British automaker Jowett. He joined Ford Motor Co. in 1953. One of Lunn's early projects at Ford of Britain was a stylish compact called the Anglia 105E. The car was such a huge sales success that it set in motion Ford's climb in the 1960s to unseat the struggling British Motor Corp. as England's highest volume automaker. The Anglia's success was noticed in Dearborn, and Lunn was offered a management job in product development. From 1958-69 Lunn headed Ford's advanced vehicle department and advanced concept group. One of the cars Lunn's team worked on was the midengine Mustang I concept car, which debuted in 1962 and morphed into the Falcon-based Mustang in 1964. He also worked on concept trucks and the GT40, which was the culmination of Ford's total performance drive of the mid-to-late 1960s. From 1966-69 Ford won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, defeating Ferrari, a personal goal of longtime Chairman and CEO Henry Ford II. "The team that put together the Ford GT of today was inspired by the work of Roy and his team and we will be forever grateful for the work they started," Raj Nair, Ford's president of North America, said in a statement. "His legacy as the godfather of the original Ford GT40 was well known throughout the company, and he helped bring Ford a performance car that is just as legendary today as it was in the 1960s." With Ford's racing activities winding down, Lunn took a job as vice president of engineering at Kar-Kraft, a Detroit outfit that oversaw production of the thundering Boss 429 Mustang. In 1971, American Motors came calling and offered Lunn the post of technical director for Jeep -- then a niche brand of enthusiast-driven, off-road vehicles. Another project that Lunn was instrumental in creating, said Schorr, was the AMC Eagle wagon, the first modern American all-wheel-drive car and the precursor to today's awd crossovers. Lunn was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2016. Furniture designer Lunn joined AM General in 1985 as vice president of engineering to steer the HUMVEE military compliance program at the U.S. Department of Defense. Even after Lunn retired, he never stopped working, Schorr said. He designed and created furniture, built a wooden dingy and, at the time of his death, was mentoring engineering students at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Before Lunn quit driving in 2015, he regularly drove a bright-red, four-door Jeep Cherokee XJ. Said Schorr: "He just loved his Jeep and wouldn't give it up until he had to surrender his license." Schorr said Lunn suffered a stroke in late July and never regained consciousness. Related reading - https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/32038-ford’s-futuristic-gas-turbine-“big-red”/.

Ten years ago I'd say Toyota. But today, leading brands of light trucks in China are generating high volume.

Fred, that's the right-hand headlamp panel insert, part no. 111MO51M. (Left-hand is 111MO52M). Note the Sheller-Globe "SG" logo. 6MF is the part number prefix for Mack grilles. For example, 6MF59301P2 (Mack Western Cruise-Liner grilledensor) and 6MF519P2 (F models and R700).

Up to 64 metric tons (141,096 pounds) for standard vehicles. http://www.metsateho.fi/wp-content/uploads/L1.3.-Svenson.pdf

Baltimore takes down Confederate statues in middle of night The Guardian and Associated Press / August 16, 2017 Confederate-era monuments have been taken down in the middle of the night in Baltimore. The memorials in the city include the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Mount Royal Avenue, the Confederate Women’s Monument on West University Parkway, the Roger B Taney Monument on Mount Vernon Place, and the Robert E Lee and Thomas J “Stonewall” Jackson Monument in the Wyman Park Dell. The Baltimore mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, announced the creation of a special commission to review all of Baltimore’s Confederate statues and historical assets in June 2015. Maryland, a slave-owning state [152+ years ago], remained in the union during the civil war, which was fought from 1861-65. But Rawlings-Blake’s commission noted that though 65,000 Marylanders fought for the north, 22,000 fought for the Confederacy. Other cities and states accelerated their plans to remove Confederate monuments following the violence in Virginia. Only two statues were taken down immediately, in Gainesville, Florida, where the Daughters of the Confederacy removed a statue of a Confederate soldier known as “Ole Joe”, and in Durham, North Carolina, where protesters used a rope to pull down a Confederate monument dedicated in 1924. Meanwhile in Birmingham, Alabama, the city used a wooden structure to cover up a Confederate monument in a downtown park on Tuesday night. Legislators passed a law earlier this year prohibiting the removal of structures including rebel memorials. So Birmingham mayor William Bell ordered the city’s 52-foot-tall Confederate obelisk covered with wooden panels. Leaders of a New York Episcopal diocese said they would remove two plaques honouring Lee from a church property in Brooklyn. Donald Trump defended Confederate statues in his wide-ranging remarks at Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday evening. “This week it’s Robert E Lee. I notice that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down,” Trump said. “I wonder, is it George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” Asked specifically whether Charlottesville’s Lee statue should come down, he said: “I would say that’s up to a local town, community or the federal government, depending on where it is located.” .

Many an MB tractor with a duplex and Thermodyne was lifted (massively) for the installation of huge flotation tires so as to become crop sprayers. They were far cheaper than the new custom equipment.

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Scania Group Press Release / August 16, 2017 DP World’s Flagship, Jebel Ali Port in Dubai is one of the largest container port worldwide. It has handled over 14 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) in 2016. DP World’s core business is all about handling containers, and the company has more than 36,500 employees worldwide. DP World uses RTG – rubber tyred gantry – powered by engines from Scania. An RTG is a mobile crane that moves containers to trucks or to storage pending further transport once they have been unloaded from the large cargo vessels. It can be compared to playing Tetris – the right container in the right place in order to facilitate the logistics flow and optimise further transport. The cranes are most often powered by diesel generators – gensets – which are needed for these operations. “The RTG goes from lifting extremely heavy loads to no load at all and back to the heavy lifting every minute, making reliable gensets a must,” says José Manuel, Crane Supervisor at DP World. With the new Scania powered gensets, the company can just keep going without worries. So far, they have operated 5,000 hours over eight months. That means they are running 24/7 with only short stops for service. “With Scania, we use one hundred percent of the RTGs power.” Since DP World itself works with flexible solutions and ensures that its cranes can adapt to the varying flow of loading and unloading as well as adapting to the movement of small tractors, the company foresees continued cooperation with Scania. “We have tailor-made this solution for DP World,” says Charan Joseph D’souza, Al Shirawi Enterprises, which for nearly 40 years has been the distributor for Scania trucks, buses and engines in Dubai. RTGs powered by Scania engines have performed faultlessly, which is positive as repairs are both time-consuming and costly. “Uptime is not an issue when we are using Scania engines,” says José Manuel. Cranes operated by non-Scania engines will now also receive Scania engines. .

Scania Group Press Release / August 15, 2017 Hiab’s HiVision crane brings technology normally reserved for video games to the timber industry. It’s an early morning start at the Lecab dealership in Karlstad, Värmland, where driver Mattias Johansson is just getting his day going. At first glance, Johansson’s R 730 looks like any other Scania timber truck – a V8 logo on the front, a crane in the back, bunks to secure the load – but closer inspection reveals that the truck is loaded with new technology. Departing from the dealership and heading east, Johansson, who works for Kjell & Aste Larsson transport in Molkom, turns from a main road close to the town of Skattkärr and heads south down a dirt road, the truck kicking up dust as it passes forest, farms and train tracks. While the routine seems so far quite normal, as soon as we arrive at the first loading point, it’s clear that Johansson’s truck isn’t like the rest. While most drivers would climb out to an external crane cab on the back of the truck, he instead slides over to his joystick-equipped passenger seat and slips on a virtual reality headset. In gaming the headset might take him to another world, but in Johansson’s case, it transports him to what amounts to a virtual crane cab, courtesy of a camera system mounted on the crane. The system gives him a panoramic view of the crane and its surroundings, and from a higher vantage point than a traditional crane cab would provide its operator. Viewed from the outside, the crane seems to be operating almost by magic as it loads the wood stacked by the side of the road onto the truck. Thirty minutes later, Johansson removes his headset and the job is finished. As the crane folds back up, he picks up a remote control, and the timber bunks, Com 90 from ExTe, secure themselves and the load. He’s done all of this without leaving the air-conditioned truck cab. In a business with tight margins, the use of such digital technology seems like it could be excessive, but Johansson insists that the crane and timber bunks save time, money, and weight compared to more traditional alternatives. “This crane is 25,000 to 30,000 Swedish kroner cheaper than a regular one because the crane cabin costs about that,” he explains. And the weight? “With this system we save 400 kilos, which means we can load 400 kilos more on our vehicle.” Alongside weight and cost savings, Johansson says the ExTe timber bunks save him time when loading and unloading, as he can secure the load with the press of a button. Johansson says it didn’t take him too long to learn operate the truck. “It took 5–6 weeks before I felt I got the hang of it,” he explains. Though he admits with a chuckle, “I’m learning new things every day.” .

We used to have a lot of weddings at Mack and involving new Mack trucks. The older Bulldog magazines often mentioned them. Note the license-built Mack C-50 city bus in the museum. That was the birth of decades of cooperation between Mack and Scania.

Scania Group Press Release / August 11, 2017 Robert and Ann-Kristin from Norway are passionate about each other – and passionate about Scania; so much so that they decided to get married at Scania Visitor Centre in Södertälje, Sweden. Some might say Rome or Paris is the most romantic place for a wedding. But neither of those cities was ever an option for Robert Steen and Ann-Kristin Tveterhagen when it came to planning their wedding venue. It was Scania that brought them together, so getting married in the museum at Scania’s visitor centre, located at Scania’s headquarters in Södertälje, was the logical choice. ”It was fantastic,” Robert said afterwards. “It was a combination of the things that matter the most to Ann-Kristin and me: the two of us, and Scania.” “Getting married at Scania started as a crazy idea,” he continued. “I asked Ann-Kristin if we should ask if we could get married at Scania. So we contacted Scania’s headquarters in Norway, who, in turn, contacted Scania in Sweden.” Robert more or less grew up with Scania, you could almost say in a Scania. In 1972 his father bought a Scania 110 truck and started a small transport company hauling timber in the region of Trøndelag in middle of Norway. “Instead of attending daycare like most other children, I spent my childhood days in the passenger seat next to my father,” he says. A special wedding cake Down the years, Robert’s interest in trucks, and especially in Scania, has continued. After his engineering studies he spent 14 years in the vehicle bodybuilding business. But he had always dreamed of a job at Scania, and fulfilled his goal in 2012. Today he is service manager within Scania Norway, heading the operations at Scania’s workshop in Trondheim. At a Christmas party in Scania’s Norwegian headquarters in 2014 another dream of his came true, when he met a life companion as passionate about Scania as he is: Ann-Kristin, who at that time was working as a temp at Scania in Oslo. And as it happened, she also had the same background, with a father who drove Scania. A slight problem for their relationship was that Ann-Kristin lived with her two children in Oslo, 500 kilometres from Trondheim, where Robert lives. “But we found ways to meet more and more regularly. As often as possible when we had a delivery to a customer in Trondheim, I went down to Oslo during the weekend to pick up the truck and drive it up to Trondheim myself,” he says smiling. Fast forward to Saturday 15 July 2017, when they finally said “I do” to each other. The staff at Scania’s visitors centre in Södertälje had spared no effort to make it a memorable day for the couple. Thanks to them, Robert and Ann-Kristin were able to make a grand entrance to the museum in a shining green 1927 vintage Scania Vabis Noblesse postal service bus. After the couple exchanged marriage vows in front of their guests, the festivities began, with dinner among the classic models in the Scania museum, which had been especially adorned for the occasion. “They had even prepared a special wedding cake for us, with miniatures of the first and the latest Scania model,” says a delighted Robert. “It’s just amazing what Scania did for us. We had a truly fantastic day, Ann-Kristin and I.” .

Heavy Duty Trucking / August 14, 2017 The Eaton Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies joint venture has added a new downsped overdrive model to its range of Eaton and Cummins SmartAdvantage Powertrains. The powertrain’s 1,550/1,850 lb.-ft. torque rating is compatible with rear axle ratings down to 2:47:1, enabling engine cruise speeds as low as 1,075 RPMs – lower than some direct drive transmissions. The model is designed to optimize performance and fuel economy in linehaul applications. Available through North American original equipment manufacturers in October 2017, the FAOM-18910S-EC3 offers more options for gradeability, improved downspeeding, and the potential for higher resale value, according to the company. “This new SmartAdvantage model is capable of the lowest cruise RPMs in the trucking industry for best in class downspeeding,” said Alex Stucky, product strategy manager, heavy-duty linehaul transmissions, Eaton Cummins Automated Transmission Technologies. “It’s our most downsped SmartAdvantage Powertrain, and it has been validated in field tests across a wide range of duty cycles. When paired with the 1,850 lb.-ft. rating, fleets can maximize fuel economy without sacrificing performance.” The SmartAdvantage Powertrain combines the X15 engine and Fuller Advantage Series automated 10-speed transmissions. It offers customers the choice of small-step overdrive or direct-drive gearing and improved fuel economy. Fleets running 2010 model year trucks can expect to see 20% better fuel economy with the current X15 SmartAdvantage Powertrain versus the 2010 ISX15 powertrain, according to the Eaton Cummins joint venture. .

Faulty spotlight fuse prompts recall of nearly 6,000 Kenworth, Peterbilt trucks Matt Cole, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / August 15, 2017 Nearly 6,000 Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks equipped with optional spotlights are being recalled due to a potential circuitry problem that could cause a fire, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration documents. Paccar is recalling approximately 5,731 trucks because the optional spotlight circuit on the affected trucks “may not be adequately protected in the event of a short,” increasing the risk of fire at the fuse block. Affected trucks include: 2013-2017 Kenworth T680 and T880 models manufactured between Jan. 25, 2012, and Nov. 10, 2016 2013-2016 Peterbilt 567 and 79 models manufactured between July 13, 2012, and Dec. 14, 2016 Paccar says the cause of the problem is currently unknown, and multiple fires have occurred that appear to have originated in the spotlight circuit. NHTSA says Paccar will notify owners beginning Aug. 31, and will change the polyfuse switch in the spotlight circuit to a standard fuse, free of charge, to fix the problem. Affected truck owners can contact Paccar customer service with Paccar recall numbers 17KWC and 717-B. NHTSA’s recall number is 17V-471.

Extremely well said. It seems that all the groups today want to achieve their agenda's objectives in full, which of course is impossible. There can only be compromise, a middle ground of sorts. (As Mick Jagger said, "You can't always get what you want".) And so many people feel entitled. Our generation never felt that way, rather, we were only entitled to the fruits of an honest day's hard work.

No, I have not.

The headlamp panels all had 6MF prefix numbers on the back. Yours might be 6MF532M. For a standard MH with bright finish grille trim (not plain finish for UPS), the 6 sections are: 6MF530M - upper right 6MF531M - upper left 6MF532M - lower right 6MF533M - lower left 6MF534m - center upper 6MF535M - center lower The Mack part numbering system, simply the world's best.

C’mon guys, lighten up a bit. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You all pecked my curiosity so I took a look. According to the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs: (https://www.va.gov/oaa/pocketcard/m-vietnam.asp) During the Vietnam War........August 4, 1964 - January 27, 1973 Total who served in all Armed Forces: 8,744,000 Deployed to Southeast Asia: 3,403,000 Served in Vietnam: 2,700,000 --------------------------------- Other sources say: (https://www.uswings.com/about-us-wings/vietnam-war-facts/) 9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam......August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975. 2,709,918 Americans served in uniform in Vietnam (Excludes CIA). --------------------------------- I agree, the attempted genocide against the American Indian by England, France, Spain and finally the United States was/is a disgrace.

When you called Watt's Mack and asked for a 31QS542P1 left-hand door, what did they say? I recall York Corrugating was still producing them thru the 1990s.

Oliver Stone on Charlottesville: "Deep State" Is "Bigger Problem" Than Trump Hollywood Reporter / August 15, 2017 The director spoke about the U.S. political system during a master class at the Sarajevo Film Festival. Oliver Stone has said in response to the Charlottesville riots that the problem is not President Donald Trump, but "the system" in America. "You are all trying to get to Trump every day, but there is a bigger problem," Stone said when asked what he thought of President Trump's initial failure to call out white supremacists in his response to the Charlottesville events. "There is a system [in America], and that system existed before Trump," Stone said. "Putin said this is the fourth [U.S.] president where nothing has changed. There is a deep state, a military industrial security state. ... It is the system that has to be challenged. [Trump] is part of that system." Stone reiterated: "It is the system that has to be challenged. That takes work and is never as exciting as talking about some lunatic president." Visibly more comfortable taking questions on Snowden, a dramatization of the story of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, than talking about current events, Stone added that the situation in the U.S. today was scarily close to the kind of world George Orwell wrote about in his futuristic novel 1984. "1984 is here. We are there. The only thing they have not yet done is to erase history … there are still people who remember things," he said. "One week it is terrorism [that dominates the headlines], the next week Putin and the next Korea." It was, Stone said, "just like Hate Week in 1984, where the name of the country and the face of the leader changes halfway through a rally. They are doing it now and getting away with it." .

I aim to please.

Billy, Westport developed a natural gas technology called HPDI (high pressure direct injection) with which power loss is virtually eliminated.

Based on my university history studies, the civil war wasn't just about slavery. The southern aristocracy felt that Washington had grown distant. A "disconnect" had formed between the aristocracy of the north and south (recall it was the aristocracy of 1776 that formed the country). Firmly believing their views were no longer being weighed, the southern states seceded. Now let's bear in mind, from 1776 to 1861, we're only talking 85 years since the country was formed. Anyway, as Paul would say, it was another time and place, with different attitudes. I myself take issue with people today who apply year 2017 standards to events that occurred in distant history, and make attempts to cleanse history (ie. vandals destroying a statue of Robert E. Lee). One can't help but wonder if the vandals now plan to destroy every statue of slave owners Patrick Henry ("Give me liberty or give me death"), Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and Andrew Jackson? And then, they need to get all those history books rewritten in the public schools. * Had Virginia not split apart, it would easily be the largest state on the east coast.

Is the U.S. in a state of anarchy? How are so many people now above the rule of law? Why are the Durham police not present arresting these blatant vandals ??? I try to respect all views, but people have no right to destroy public statues. There was a war, and from it we have statues of respected individuals from both sides. It's history........get over it. .

Fiat Chrysler has Chinese suitors Larry Vellequette, Automotive News Europe / August 14, 2017 DETROIT — For more than two years, FCA has been FSBO -- that's For Sale By Owner — with no serious offers. Not anymore. Representatives of a well-known Chinese automaker made at least one offer this month to buy Fiat Chrysler Automobiles at a small premium over its market value, Automotive News Europe sister publication Automotive News has learned. The offer was rejected for not being enough, a source said. Meanwhile, other sources independently identified executives from other large Chinese automakers conducting their own due diligence on a potential purchase of FCA, including meeting last week with representatives of U.S. retail groups about a potential acquisition. A source said FCA executives have traveled to China to meet with Great Wall Motor. And Chinese delegations were seen last week at FCA's headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Chinese companies are under government pressure to expand outside China by acquiring foreign companies. FCA may be a perfect target, given that CEO Sergio Marchionne has focused on streamlining the automaker's operations to make it enticing to a buyer, making bold moves such as exiting small cars and sedans and revamping the company's manufacturing footprint. It's unclear which Chinese automaker or automakers are pursuing FCA. Different sources have pointed to involvement by different ones -- Dongfeng Motor, Great Wall, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group or FCA's current joint venture partner in China, Guangzhou Automobile Group. But it is also unclear which company or companies are likely to follow through or succeed. FCA isn't talking, nor are any of the four Chinese automakers. But if a sale proceeds, the quintessentially American Jeep brand -- once owned by the Germans and most recently by the Italians/Dutch -- may soon be owned by the Chinese. According to one source, any sale likely would involve FCA's highly profitable Jeep and Ram brands, as well as Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat, but would exclude Maserati and Alfa Romeo. Those two brands would be spun off, as was Ferrari, to maximize returns for Exor, the holding company controlled by the Agnelli family, which owns a controlling interest in FCA, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Why, after two years on the block, is FCA apparently drawing interest from at least one potential Chinese buyer now? The answer: FCA's global network and product -- specifically Jeep and Ram -- fit the requirements the Chinese government has set for attractive acquisitions. Quality gap Chinese automakers have openly dreamed of cracking lucrative North America for a decade, spending millions to display their vehicles at high-profile U.S. auto shows. Early efforts showed that Chinese automakers had a long way to go before they were ready to compete here. But in more recent years -- through knowledge and expertise gained via joint ventures with the world's largest and most successful automakers -- Chinese companies have closed the quality gap. And the automakers feel like they finally have closed that gap enough to start selling their products in the U.S., said Michael Dunne, president of Dunne Automotive, a Hong Kong investment advisory company and an expert on the Chinese auto industry. They also are under pressure from the government to expand beyond China, Dunne said. A government directive dubbed China Outbound pushes Chinese businesses to acquire international assets from their industries and operate them "to make their mark," much as Zhejiang Geely has done since acquiring Volvo in 2010. Bloomberg reported last week that Chinese companies plan to spend $1.5 trillion acquiring overseas companies over the next decade -- a 70 percent increase from current levels. "Right now, Chinese automakers enjoy the full support of the leadership in Beijing to go and make it happen," Dunne said. "That's something brand new, and it's really picked up since 2015." Along with Volvo, Dunne pointed to Italian tire maker Pirelli and German robotics giant Kuka as Chinese acquisitions supported by the China Outbound policy. Interest has been growing for some time. In May 2016, FCA hosted a high-level delegation from China at its North American headquarters, which included Hu Chunhua, a member of the Communist Party's Politburo and secretary of the party's Guangdong Provincial Committee. Also in attendance were Cui Tiankai, China's ambassador to the U.S., and Zhang Fangyou, chairman of Guangzhou Automobile Group. "The interest is real, no question," Dunne said. "The complications are on the political side: What would this mean for a Chinese company to acquire an American automaker, no matter where its corporate headquarters is based?" Turnkey operation For a Chinese automaker that dreams of making a splash in North America, Europe and Latin America, FCA presents as close to a turnkey operation as exists. Globally, FCA has 162 manufacturing operations -- assembly, component, stamping and machining plants -- and another 87 r&d centers. In North America, FCA has a network of about 2,600 U.S. dealerships, as well as extensive distribution networks in Canada and Mexico. And unlike other, larger publicly owned automakers with similar global footprints, Marchionne and his bosses at Exor have made one thing clear: Write a big enough check, and the keys to FCA are yours. When it became apparent in late 2015 that FCA's attempts to merge with General Motors had been rejected and any effort to tie up with Volkswagen was shut down because of that automaker's then-blooming diesel emissions scandal, Marchionne began focusing attention inward, looking at why his company had not been more attractive to potential partners. In early 2016, he began implementing radical changes to make FCA more appealing, especially to an Asian automaker, but also to Volkswagen. First, FCA shocked the industry by ending production of its compact and midsize sedans in the U.S., the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200. The cars had been among the first fruits of bankrupt Chrysler's 2009 marriage to Fiat S.p.A., but both had disappointing sales. At the same time, Marchionne expanded development for his two cash cows, Jeep and Ram. He retooled plants from unibody construction back to body-on-frame to expand production of the Ram 1500 and Jeep Wrangler, and he announced that, after years of consumer clamoring, Jeep would again build a pickup and would soon build big luxury Jeeps to compete with Land Rover. Product development plans laid out in 2014 -- to vastly expand the Chrysler lineup, for example -- were scrapped. FCA's North American product line would go where the money was: pickups, SUVs and the minivan. Stretch goals The transformation, which will be largely complete by 2018, will mean FCA showrooms will resemble those of a decade ago when gasoline prices spiked: full of SUVs, crossovers, minivans and pickups and devoid of anything smaller or more fuel-efficient. The transformation has helped FCA's quarterly financials, and Marchionne says the automaker is on track to achieve in 2018 what had been widely considered pie-in-the-sky goals laid out in 2014. FCA has also looked hard at shedding holdings not directly related to automaking as a way to free trapped value for shareholders. That could include separation from parts maker Magneti Marelli, casting specialist Teksid and automation provider Comau. On a conference call with analysts last month, Marchionne laid out the strategy. "In order to be fair to our shareholders, we need to make sure that we deliver as much value out of this venture as we can," he said. The prospect of selling FCA to a Chinese automaker has been on Marchionne's mind for awhile. In August 2015, months after he began his quest to merge or partner with another global automaker with his "Confessions of a Capital Junkie" presentation, and while he was launching his soon-to-be-rebuffed bid to merge with GM, the FCA CEO told Automotive News that he had closely studied potential tie-ups with numerous Asian automakers. His conclusion: None of the Asian automakers was looking for partners. He was asked: Anyone in Asia? "I don't think Asia is partner-able," he said. "No, you can be acquired by the Asians. I think China will buy you."