Mid 1963
Blake : well. let’s start this meeting. talking about our expansion to the US. it’s a step in the right direction. we are selling quite the number there. which is good. but…
Grudsen : let me guess, you’re not satisfied?
Shew : well to be frank, we actually have a sales goal for the US. and we did meet it. but secretly hoped it would have been a breakthrough. but i guess we are just putting up our expectations too high
Hamston : i say it’s nobody’s fault. if you can say anyone is at fault at all. we are just not familiar with the market over there. the roads. what people demands. we only have surveys and predictions when i was designing the car. and now we have hard data and feedback from the consumers. i overestimated the roads over there. i knew they are building a massive highway network. but there’s still a lot of less developed roads. our car was not comfortable enough at speed. plus, we only had minimal experience making a high speed car, i made a mistake in the suspension geometry that led to some instability at high speed. it was fixed, but it was too late. we lost our chance at making that big debut.
Blake : Hamston there you go again. stop blaming yourself. look at the sales number. it’s a success! it may not a big breakthrough. but you did it with only prediction and minimal information at the time. it’s an amazing result
Shew : i agree. you and your skills are basically what half of this company is based on. no need to be so humble, you can lift your chins up a bit.
Grudsen : anyway. that’s enough cheering Hamston up. what do we do next? here’s some info i have gathered since we expanded there. the economy seems to be growing ever so slightly faster every year, and i haven’t found a good reason to think that it will stop soon. so the budget car market is going to be shrinking and our strategy of going the cheap car route won’t hold for much longer. also i found another part of the reason why our car didn’t gain as much market
Drops a review magazine on the table
Grudsen : this. the Senator. i thought we europe were the ones pushing new tech, and they refine old tech. that’s why some of us get the unreliable labeling. because we’re producing unproven tech. and yet, what is this? they’re using the same new V6 technology as us, also the same Overhead Cam just like us.
Hamston : oh wow. this completely catches me off guard. we’re not on the bleeding edge anymore. sigh i have to do some decisions. our V6 is new. but if this is the case, we have to re-evaluate if it’s beneficial to just push an even newer tech, or just refine this existing one.
Blake : that will have to be decided after we decide with what approach we want to go with next. i see it we have to go upmarket. that would leave only 2 options in general. sports car, but american style or big luxurious and heavy slab of metal.
Hamston : of which, both approach, we have no experience in. but Grudsen, you did say that fuel is not much of a concern right? if i can go disregard fuel economy, i think i can push our V6 to make upwards of 200hp possibly. but going luxury… i don’t know. is pushing such a big car with such weak brakes and engine really what these people wanted?
Grudsen : apparently so. the senator. expensive, 3 speed automatic. it’s just a point and drive machine to float above the road. people don’t drive like we do over here. they go fast, but steady, but also in comfort if possible.
Blake : so we’re split? looking at what we have. a sports car seems to be more sensible to make. but we’re hesitant if that’s what people want. but the luxury cars are hard to make, but is what people want. i don’t think we can come to a conclusion today. i want you all to go and collect more info we could use on the next meeting next week. for today, meeting is finished
i fukkin did it again
)
