2003 Quarterback: The Soccer Mom of stiff kicks
The minivan. In the early ‘90s, this type of vehicle brought a new type of family motoring, one which Hugi Motors mostly overlooked. Despite the increasingly strong presence of minivans on American roads, the American company persisted with sedans and wagons, hoping to bank on variety and ease of parking.
This background only makes the existence of the Quarterback even more strange and whimsical. It all happened at the 2003 edition of the NAIAS, when the unannounced, unteased green minivan burst onto the scene wearing the Hugi badge. Much to the surprised of shocked bystanders, who couldn’t make heads or tails regarding the car’s entire conception…
Where to begin with the Quarterback? Perhaps the ungainly expression it wears design-wise. The outdated headlight units and extremely small, square-shaped grille lent the car an awkward first impression. The rear was slightly less offending, featuring one large stoplight strip, followed by two pairs of smaller strips on each side of the rear. One filled the role of additional stoplight and the other served as the rear indicators. Perhaps this section is the closest thing to the Quarterback’s image of American soccer minivan, aside from the “mad gainz” wheel arches, that is…
However, it was tough to see where Hugi’s design language fitted in the Quarterback. No angular front indicators, no coherency from front to rear… The overall design language was chock full of mishmash influences, none of which would sit well with conservative families. Their children would probably appreciate the juvenile simplicity of the Quarterback’s design, however. Its shark-wearing-dental-braces face is the stuff their drawings are made of, after all!
But the car’s ridiculously tiny rear wing and excessively wide wheel arches were only a warning shot of the insanity, awaiting those brave enough to peek into the Quarterback’s engine bay.
The most outlandish, norm-defying feature of the Quarterback; the all-aluminum, 2.9-litre turbocharged V10 engine with a redline of 8,700RPM and the horsepower rating of 340-horsepower. An engine which could’ve made the stuff of dreams for small sports car fans, but was instead thrown inside the ungainly body of a soccer mom minivan. Needless to say, the Quarterback’s maddening specs were dismissed by many as mere marketing fluff, and the engine producing them as a mere mock sculpture. Adding to this was Hugi’s self-imposed ban on turbocharging, and the company’s previous history of making non-turbocharged concept cars (i.e. the FRTX).
The car’s overall suspension setup was equally bold, going as far as using a multilink design for the rear suspension. And to top it all off, a spaceframe body constructed with aluminum panels, hardly anything suitable for family motoring. There was very little in the Quarterback which could predict Hugi’s future cars, and even less tying it to any future minivan design the company could be producing.
It was already tough enough to take the Quarterback seriously, from the basic-yet-exaggerated design to the futuristic sports car specs. But the final nail in this bright green coffin came from the ad produced for the car. An ad which does indeed prove this entire thing was made on a crazy whim, by people who weren’t exactly familiar with family advertising (or how to make advertising for that matter);
No, this was not made on April Fools’. Yes, it was presented alongside the car at NAIAS, next to products from the biggest car companies in the world. One notorious American car critic even brought up “special teams” regarding the innuendo-prone catchphrase of “Mom’s done being the reserve player”…
And also yes, this car was (presumably) capable of hitting 60mph in 5.5 seconds. A time which would make most muscle car owners tremble in fear of mommy kicking their backside on the I-95. Top speed was limited to a “mere” 250km/h, perhaps for the greater good of the 8 passengers the Quarterback could carry.
In reality, Hugi was not aware of this project at first. The Quarterback was created as an after-hours project by bored (and most likely drunk) members of the brand’s racing operations, mainly the younger members, inspired by the tuning craze sweeping the country. The car wasn’t intended to go public until a tuning convention in Detroit. But when spy photographers caught it during testing presuming the car to be a brand new MPV, Hugi had no choice but to bring the Quarterback out to light.
The company went as far as to later issue a public apology for misleading information! A bit of a ridiculous overreaction, but it just proves the Quarterback’s insanity was contagious. Never would the world see a Hugi concept quite as class-breaking as this, nor an ad quite as ridiculous. But in a way, the notion of a V10-powered, road-going minivan would definitely mean the end of mom’s reserve player run… Wouldn’t it?
Specs:
Author’s Note: Yes, for those who know, this is the same Quarterback which was entered into the Automation Design Competition! My first ever Automation competition car, as well as its ad which was my first attempt at doing such.
Why did I post this now, you ask? Well today, September 30th, marks a special occasion in my life. My day of birth! Also yes, I celebrated it by tearing apart my own ridiculous ugly creation in third person. If YouTubers can do it, why shouldn’t we Automation designer-mechanics? 
Besides, this car is a benchmark. A benchmark which hopefully, a few years later, will make me say “man I was a terrible player back then… but at least dat catchprashe was good for a laugh”. Maybe one day I might even design a good MPV, who knows?
I promise my next real-life birthday Automation celebration won’t be as disastrous-looking as this… For now many thanks to those following Hugi’s steps, and see you around on the road!