From car to company, the Shromet Radiant.
The 1973 oil crisis was a disaster financially for most, but a goldmine for Mexaco, a Mexican oil company, who’s sales exploded as the United States government was forced to search anywhere and everywhere for new sources of oil. Marcello Garcia Sr, CEO of Mexaco at the time, thought that this success would only hold so long as the middle eastern’s oil embargo held on the US, and thus, looked to expand into other sources of revenue. His search led him to a small American automotive startup, who had only produced around 3000 cars at the time. He had Mexaco invest heavily into the company, purchasing a 40% stake in Shromet LTD. Garcia began exerting influence over the company, pressuring Marc Shromet to develop a car more suited for the mass market, and develop it as quickly as possible, setting a 3 year deadline for Marc Shromet and his team of engineers. With little experience developing a car that cheap in such a short period of time, Shromet engineers copied the design of a proven mass market car, the ACA 300, flat out copying major components such as suspension design, longitudinal front wheel drive layout, and aluminum heads for the 1.6L engine. In the end, the goal was met, and the end result was the 1979 Shromet Radiant.
