pauleyman
DSM Wiseman
- 9,344
- 3,577
- Nov 19, 2011
-
oklahoma city,
Oklahoma
After having some discussion about the 1g talon convertible amongst our members I wanted to see who remembers the concepts at the factory? I hope I'm not remembering this incorrectly. We were not allowed to take pictures. I was at the 97 factory tour prior to the shootout. I'm sure somebody on this board was there. There were some concept cars on the floor and one of them was a 1g convertible. I thought it was the X2S concept car but after reviewing some online pics I don't know anymore. It was so long ago. Was anybody on here there for that tour?
As a little side history we had a lot of fun on the trip. On complete accident me and a few friends ran into a guy at an autozone in Normal. He was wearing a DSM jacket (really nice too) and we just assumed he was part of our group. He wasn't. He was the quality control guy at the end of the assembly line. Drove a porsche as it turns out. We introduced ourselves and hung out for the evening. I had to bail early but I'm told my buddies schooled his porsche all night long.
The following day was the plant tour. I remember most the PR session we had with a whole group of us. Up front was myself, Tom Stangl (vfaq.com) and Todd day (talon digest). This was pre-tcase recall. The PR guy was giving his speech (usually reserved for average people, school kids etc,). We proceeded to ask direct questions and he got nervous. He told us about installing a motor and transmission in less than 2 min (the audience visibly laughed) and it was NOT the reaction he usually got. At the end ouf the tour somebody from the PR group was giving away a bunch of DSM related stuff as DSM the company was already disbanding so the logo merchandise for DSM wasn't worth anything. It was like pirahna as I recall.
I don't think teh company guys knew what to think of us. We were also allowed into the plant store (DSM merchandise, tshirts etc). That wasn't usual for a plant tour but we were happy to be able to buy it.
Neat time in history. Not sure another plant tour like that ever happened again.
As a little side history we had a lot of fun on the trip. On complete accident me and a few friends ran into a guy at an autozone in Normal. He was wearing a DSM jacket (really nice too) and we just assumed he was part of our group. He wasn't. He was the quality control guy at the end of the assembly line. Drove a porsche as it turns out. We introduced ourselves and hung out for the evening. I had to bail early but I'm told my buddies schooled his porsche all night long.
The following day was the plant tour. I remember most the PR session we had with a whole group of us. Up front was myself, Tom Stangl (vfaq.com) and Todd day (talon digest). This was pre-tcase recall. The PR guy was giving his speech (usually reserved for average people, school kids etc,). We proceeded to ask direct questions and he got nervous. He told us about installing a motor and transmission in less than 2 min (the audience visibly laughed) and it was NOT the reaction he usually got. At the end ouf the tour somebody from the PR group was giving away a bunch of DSM related stuff as DSM the company was already disbanding so the logo merchandise for DSM wasn't worth anything. It was like pirahna as I recall.
I don't think teh company guys knew what to think of us. We were also allowed into the plant store (DSM merchandise, tshirts etc). That wasn't usual for a plant tour but we were happy to be able to buy it.
Neat time in history. Not sure another plant tour like that ever happened again.