Fresh off the plane at Lerance Airport, Mara’s Comrade Director for Engineering Fedor Piechov had taken the train north to Storia, and he was pleased to see ongoing construction work outside the train window on a second rail track - certainly part of the investment package they had brokered a few years earlier between the Archanan and Letaran governments. While the locomotive pulling his train was not yet the latest pride of Archana, the steam-powered Class P36, he understood that their entry into Letaran rail service was imminent.
The construction site for Mara’s assembly plant on the outskirts of Storia was not far from the Storia train station. Fedor got out of his taxi and met with Inna Horyova and Rodyn Gumprov for an inspection walk.
Inspection, Tax, Racing and Safety Discussion
Inna was the designated production engineer to be in charge of running the assembly plant - which at the moment meant overseeing its construction. Rodyn was the development engineer in charge of overseeing the Tovarysh / Companion model line and who also served as liasion to Mara’s Letaran contacts and was further tasked with keeping their ageing Cannonball prototypes in shape.
Inna took Fedor and Rodyn through a brief tour of the building - the exterior was now mostly finished, and construction workers were now busy setting up the interior. On their walk around, Fedor noticed the rail line extending to a big loading/unloading area. “That was not part of the original plans, wasn’t it?”
“No”, Inna answered. “But we discovered that Anhultz was building their own plant nearby which included a rail connection to the main network, and it was easy to negotiate a short extension from their end to ours. We skimped a bit on the final QA part in our plant - the efficiency gains from the ease of transportation from the harbour were too good to pass up.”
Fedor nodded, pleased with the initiative Inna had shown. While he would not have minded being asked beforehand, communications across the wide ocean were difficult, and as long as his subordinates were making decisions in-line with the overall goal, he was very much fine with it.
Fedor made a few comments on the state of the plant, and asked Rodyn: “How are our Cannonball prototypes?” While Fedor’s 3rd place in 1952 and another win by Rodyn in 1953 by a hair’s breadth did not manage to arrest the Companion’s sales slump in Letara, Fedor was nonetheless keen to keep up the performance.
Rodyn’s response was muted. “As you would expect from a now 7 year old car that has been through several years of a yearly race and not much else. Last year has been a bit of a miracle, to be honest, there are now several parts which are at or past their breaking point. I’ll put together a list of necessary tasks for refurbishment, and I think it’s worth looking them over before authorising spending for all of them as in the past years.”
“So, a rebuild… or else?”
“Essentially, yes.” Rodyn nodded.
“Send me the list”, was Fedor’s reply. “Anything else noteworthy about the local state of affairs?”
Rodyn and Inna exchanged amused glances and the latter answered. “I had the chance to catch some insight in the local press about some of the more… heated exchanges among lobbyists about future taxation of cars here in Letara. It is truly strange how their capitalist market economy can suddenly bring out the worst in people, and everyone going all-out in their selfish pursuit of their own interests.”
“I can give you a copy of the most recent magazine article on the sad state of Letaran government lobbyist affairs”, Rodyn added.
Fedor made a dismissive gesture. He didn’t tell the story, obviously, how Mara’s Comrade Executive Director Henri Nordhov had to pull quite a few strings himself right after the war to get Mara assigned to the task of building the first all-new post-war people’s car for Archana instead of other, less attractive production assignments. Or how they were able to finally put the contingent of HD6 aka Visim vans back into the hands of the Archanan government for at least some compensation, after they narrowly missed out to Kessel in Letara.
“Another thing of interest, several car companies have bonded together and started constructing a racetrack between Lerance and Lerance Airport, right around the Vizzuri plant.”
“So that’s where all the big dump trucks were heading as I left the airport building”, Fedor muttered. “So it looks like we’ll shift to circuit racing here?”
Rodyn nodded.
“Then it makes sense indeed to keep the Cannonball prototype maintenance to a minimum. Anything else I should be aware of?”
“There is one last thing”, Inna began. “And we might not like it.”
Fedor looked at her silently, waiting for her to continue.
“One thing that came out very strongly over the recent months is that the new Letaran government is now very much into safety, awareness campaign and all.”
“And? That’s why we suggested a speed limit, let physics do the job”, Fedor replied.
“Where things are heading apparently - and they are still not finalised - that they will mandate a very high level of base safety for every car to be sold on the market, way beyond what small cars can readily achieve, especially if they want the cars to be on the affordable side.”
Fedor is puzzled. “So they still are in an economic slump, people are struggling for money, but they also invest quite heavily into road construction and then pull out the rug under the affordable people’s car market? That’s not very prudent, is it?”
Rodyn chimes in. “It’s two different ministries. Transport and Health. And a recent change of government with ‘fresh ideas’, eager to change things for the sake of changing things.”
“So I guess that’s what you get for having a Democracy. How would our To… Companion fare?”
“Not well at all”, Rodyn answered. “It’s hard to know exactly since the final regulations are still up in the air, as Inna said. But we most probably have to reengineer quite a few things, even structurally, to meet the strictest proposal that’s been on the table very recently.”
“What are the chances of that proposal passing?”
Rodyn and Inna both shrugged. “We voiced our concerns, of course”, Rodyn explained. “As have several other car manufacturers in the budget segments. But you’ll never know in a democracy.”
“Shall we halt construction then for the time being, just in case?” asks Inna who still hasn’t fully decided whether she is going to like it in Letara or not, despite the more pleasant weather climate compared to her home country.
