The 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV is an all-electric reimagining of one of the most iconic, bad-ass off-road machines of the last century. While the Hummer brand now lives under the GMC umbrella, its unmistakable design and remarkable off-road capabilities are faithfully upheld in EV form. In fact, the latter will arguably be even more impressive thanks to the SUV’s advanced technology, incredible power output, and innovative features, including four-wheel steering, enabling the much ballyhooed crab mode.
The most interesting aspect of the reinvented Hummer is its Ultium battery tech, which provides quick charging times and a massive battery pack that provides an estimated range of 300-plus miles. Inside the cabin, it is visually identical to its pickup-truck counterpart, with a mix of high-tech content and removable roof panels that create an open-air experience.
Buick’s “Flint Flyers” Skylark & GRAN SPORT History
From GM’s ’53 Motorama Skylark Dream Car to the ’87 Turbocharged GNX
David Dunbar Buick’s automobile company in one form or another has survived since 1898. However, to understand Buicks second fifty-year-span from 1953 through 2003 which is the subject matter of this book, one must first delve into Buick’s first fifty-year-span.
William C. “Billy” Durant helped re-found the Buick Motor Company in 1904 and began its racing program in 1905 with famous drivers Barney Oldfield, “Wild” Bob Burman and Louis Chevrolet. Billy Durant founded General Motors on September 16, 1908 with the Buick Motor Co. at its core and Buick’s U.S. Patented Over-Head-Valve engine as its financial juggernaut.
Buick Motor Co. executives Walter P. Chrysler, Charles W. Nash and Walter L. Marr’s FLINT FLYER aeroplane flew high above Flint, Michigan in September 1910 and Buick soon became #1 in the World. The Buick Motor Co. was at the forefront of GM’s new Proving Ground in 1926 and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1929 just as the Great Depression crushed the United States. Buick’s powerful automobiles became the darlings of Hollywood during the 1930’s and the workhorses of World War II in the 1940’s.
In 1953 Buick’s management and its employees all fully expected its second fifty-year-span would be better than its previous fifty-year heritage epitomized in 1907 by William C. Durant’s When better automotive history is made, Buick will make it! Buick Motor Division and GM Styling created the 1953 Buick Skylark Dream car for its mid-century celebration with its brand new “Nailhead” V-8 engine.
Buick produced almost three-million Skylarks from 1953 through 1990 however only 115,163 (3.89%) were actual 1965-1972 “Gran Sport” Muscle Cars. From 1978 through 1987 Buick produced almost 2 million Regals yet only 8,369 (0.43%) were Grand Nationals.
Every Muscle Car devotee knows something about the Chevelle “SS-396”, Pontiac “GTO” and Olds “442” and the 1965 Malibu-SS clan knows all about the 200 highly prized Malibu-SS Z-16 396-in3 375-HP Police Specials. Virtually no one knows about Buick’s 1966 Gran Sport Ultra-High Compression two-hundred Police Specials inspired by Chevrolet’s Z-16 Chevelles.
Only twelve Buick “Pilot” RPO-L78 Promotional Drag-racing Gran Sports of the planned 200 were produced by Buick Engineering in 1966 and one very special FLINT FLYER has survived with its original powertrain and very rare metallic racing brakes… This is its story finally told!
The Mid-Michigan Section of SAE International presented the Harlow H. Curtice Hometown Memorial Trophy at Back to the Bricks® celebration in Flint, Michigan.The award was presented to Ken Kasyer’s Flint Flyer Buick, one that Harlow Curtice would likely have enjoyed driving.
Listen to Ken and others in this WNEM TV5 clip “Mid-Michigan Buick owners talk about what make their car special”
The Mid-Michigan Section of SAE International will again present the Harlow H. Curtice Hometown Memorial Trophy at Back to the Bricks® celebration in Flint, Michigan.The award will be presented to either the Buick or Chevrolet that Harlow Curtice would most likely enjoy driving. The winning car for the Harlow H. Curtice Hometown Memorial Trophy will be selected from the cars on display at Back to the Bricks® by a team of engineers representing the Mid-Michigan Section of SAE. The award will be presented to the winning car owner at the Saginaw Street Central Lot during the afternoon programs.
Harlow Curtice
Harlow H. Curtice, a long time Flint resident and civic supporter, retired as General Motors 11th President on August 31, 1958. Curtice (nicknamed “Red” for his shock of red hair), is generally remembered fondly — a real achievement for an executive in a field known for its extraordinarily competitive nature. Even in the controversial book “On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors,” which chronicles John Z. DeLorean’s time with GM, Curtice is described as, “warm, flamboyant, exciting,” and as “a man whose mere presence would command attention and stop conversations when he walked into a room” Harlow Curtice became General Manager of Buick in 1934 and was named Executive Vice President of General Motors in September 1949. It was in this position that he approved the 1953 Buick V-8 engine and the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette for production in Flint. Curtice was elected President of GM on February 3, 1953. During his tenure as President, Curtice championed V-8 engines, including the Buick “Nail-head” and the Chevrolet “Small Block.”
In keeping with the vision of Harlow Curtice, the vehicle selected for this Award will feature a combination of the classic design features of the production car with upgrades that enhance the vehicle as do concept cars produced by auto manufacturers.
To enter your car for Award selection please text a photo and contact information to (810) 265-8365. For more information, contact Bernard Santavy by email SAEMidMichSec@cs.com.
In 1981, SAE International (formerly known as Society of Automotive Engineers) developed and managed the first Formula SAE® (FSAE®) student competition with assistance of Ron Matthews, Professor at University of Texas. SAE International operated the only Formula SAE competition for 17 years before its partnership with IMeche (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) in England where the brand “Formula Student” was developed. Since its inception, Formula SAE has expanded and includes many spin-off events. In the North America there are three competitions managed by SAE International one in Michigan, California and Ontario, Canada. Internationally, the expansion of Formula SAE/Formula Student brand has exploded to over 20 competitions currently hosted by engineering societies or private business.
The Formula SAE competitions challenge teams of university undergraduate and graduate students to conceive, design, fabricate, develop and compete with small, formula style vehicles. The competition is an engineering education competition that requires performance demonstration of vehicles in a series of events, both off track and on track against the clock. Each competition gives teams the chance to demonstrate their creativity and engineering skills in comparison to teams from other universities around the world.
Teams are to assume that they work for an engineering firm that is designing, fabricating, testing and demonstrating a prototype vehicle. The vehicle should have high performance and be sufficiently durable to successfully complete all the event at the Formula SAE competitions. Each student team design will be judged and evaluated again other competing designs in a series of Static and Dynamic events to determine the vehicle that best meets the design goals and profitably built and marketed.
Formula SAE promotes careers and excellence in engineering as it encompasses all aspects of the automotive industry including research, design, manufacturing, testing, developing, marketing, management and finances.
In 2006, Dartmouth College (partnered with SAE International) created the fuel alternative event Formula Hybrid using Formula SAE cars with gasoline-electric hybrid power plants.
In 2013, Formula SAE saw the implementation of battery electric class to the portfolio already containing internal combustion gasoline.
We observe “National Engineers Week” with a banquet and technical program featuring presentations by students from Central Michigan University, Kettering University, Saginaw Valley State University, and The Kettering University AutoDrive Challenge Team. The students are members of SAE Collegiate Chapter project teams which compete in the SAE Collegiate Design Series http://students.sae.org/cds/ The design series has grown from a national competition to an international competition featuring students from Asia, Europe, North and South America. During this year’s banquet, the teams present will compete for the annual “SAE Collegiate Cup” presented by the Mid-Michigan Section. This event’s competition will be judged based upon the quality of the oral presentation of the team’s “Design Series” project.
During this unusual year the Leadership Team of the Mid-Michigan Section, SAE will run our Student Night competition a little differently. Following SAE International guide lines, the event will be virtual using the Zoom platform. Student teams will create a 15 minute video outlining their Collegiate Design Series program. These videos will be evaluated by a judging team consisting of Mid-Michigan SAE Governing Board members before the Collegiate Cup is awarded. Additionally, because of time constrains, the judging will take place in two phases.
Phase 1 will be conducted during the week of February 14 – 20, 2021. Phase 1 will select the top three (3) video presentations.
Phase 2: The top three will be shown during our Student Appreciation Night Zoom meeting. The full Mid-Michigan Section membership will be invited and after each video a short question and answer period will follow.
Following the February 25th event ALL submitted videos will be displayed on the Mid-Michigan video pageSAE MidMichigan website for SAE member and public viewing.
Please join us as we observe “National Engineers Week” with a banquet and technical program featuring presentations by students from Central Michigan University, Kettering University, Saginaw Valley State University, and The University of Michigan – Flint.
The students are members of SAE Collegiate Chapter project teams which compete in the SAE Collegiate Design Series http://students.sae.org/cds/ The design series has grown from a national competition to an international competition featuring students from Asia, Europe, North and South America.
During this year’s banquet, the teams present will compete for the annual “SAE Collegiate Cup” presented by the Mid-Michigan Section. This event’s competition will be judged based upon the quality of the oral presentation of the team’s “Design Series” project.
Special Guest Speaker David Bakos has been Executive Director, Global Aftersales Engineering & Service Operations at General Motors since February 2015. Prior to this Dave was Executive Director,Sales and Marketing for GM Customer Care and Aftersales. Dave began his career in 1979 as a Cooperative Student with Pontiac Motor Division. He earned a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.
When: Tuesday, February 23 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EST Virtual (online) event
SAE members and guests will have the opportunity to hear a presentation from key members of the Nissan Team surrounding the development of the 2021 Nissan Rogue.
When Nissan began designing the 2021 Rogue, its best-selling model in the industry’s largest segment, the company focused on delivering functionality, flexibility, technology, and safety aimed at simply making life easier.
The all-new Rogue has the most standard safety technologies in its class, and is the latest Nissan model to feature Nissan Safety Shield 360®, ProPILOT Assist with Navi-link, and an all-new Vehicle Motion Control system.
In addition to the technology and engineering of the all-new Rogue, Nissan’s manufacturing and engineering teams used the latest technologies to bring it to life. Nissan used enhanced applications of advanced manufacturing technology such as virtual reality and collaborative robots to build the vehicle.
Click here to view the February Supercharger for additional details on the Nissan Rogue.
Important Note: You must register in advance to receive a personalized link.
Speaker: Denise Johnson, Group President Caterpillar Inc.
A FREE Zoom Webinar
When: Tuesday, February 2, 2021 6:00 pm EST
Agenda: 6:00 pm – 6:30 pm Presentation – Denise Johnson 6:30 pm – 7:00 pm – Hosted by Caterpillar – open for Live Q&A
Speaker Biography:
Denise C. Johnson is group president of Caterpillar Inc.
Denise C. Johnson is group president of Caterpillar Inc., responsible for the $10 Billion resources industries portfolio that supports customers using machinery and technology in mining, construction, and quarry and aggregates applications, including many of Caterpillar’s most iconic products.
She is a member of the National Mining Association, National Association of Manufacturers, Mosaic board of directors and is a member of the MIT Leaders for Global Operations governing board. She also is part of the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA.)
Topic:
Autonomy is about automating every movement, pulling out waste, making it more repeatable, like a factory. Our customers are seeing a step change in safety with autonomy and upwards of 30% improvement in productivity. We’ll talk about how our customers have been able to deliver those results using Caterpillar Command for Hauling. We will explore the history of Caterpillar autonomy journey, highlight demonstrated results from our customers and talk about the mine of the future where we believe that someday the complete mining process could be automated — from drilling and digging, to loading, hauling, processing and transporting mined materials. We envision an operation where most of the equipment could be autonomous, which will result in the safest, most efficient mine sites in the world.
A link to the Zoom meeting will be provided upon registration.
PDH Credit:
SAE Chicago Section will provide a certificate for 1 PDH hour to attendees from SAE and qualifying organizations (IEEE/ASME). PDH credit may be requested via the registration process or by sending and email to ms013@email.sae.org.
Learn more about these upcoming events onChicagoSAE.org/events: January 31 – SAE Chicago Membership Promotion Deadline February 18 – Virtual Collegiate Design Competition March 30 – ClearFlame Engine Technologies Webinar
A Detroit Section Event available to Mid-Michigan members
Wednesday, November 11 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. ET
(Complimentary FREE virtual event)
Mobility is a fast-changing, high-growth industry, with a plethora of avenues for self-starter learning. As a talent development specialist, HR leader, or mobility professional, you may be left asking the question, “What mobility path is the best?”. This session will further define training opportunities that are available and have proved effective for those interested in mobility careers. Details https://www.sae-detroit.org/event-details/?id=323
