INTERNAL COMMUNICATION - NJORD AUTOMOBILE AB
To: All Staff, Reimsboden Headquarters & Global Operations
From: The Office of the Chief Executive Officer
Date: June 18, 1975
IN MEMORIAM: Rasmus Hagerström (1896 - 1975)
It is with profound solemnity that Njord Automobile AB announces the passing of our company founder and former Chief Executive Officer Rasmus Hagerström. Rasmus passed away peacefully Saturday evening at the age of 79 following complications from pulmonary edema.
As our company operations continues to expand we must take a moment to pause and remember the man that started it all.
In 1943, when our corporation was founded from sister company Njord Maritime Solutions, Rasmus stepped up to the plate as head of the company with a dream that would change the industry forever: a family car that a customer can walk away from. Through his leadership that dream became a reality through the FB-396; a car that introduced state-of-the-art safety technology that is still used across the industry to this day.
From the very first car to the FB-414 Rasmus instituted a legacy of uncompromising safety, mechanical structural integrity, and robust utility. He believed that an automobile should not merely be a luxury for the few, but a dependable, protective sanctuary for the everyday family. It was his steadfast focus on building a resilient vehicle that laid the bedrock for the financial and industrial powerhouse Njord has become.
In honor of the man who founded and flourished the Njord Automobile family, the following protocols will be conducted in observance:
FLAGS AT HALF MAST
All flags at the Njord Company Headquarters, Reimsboden and Zellhof production facilities, and the Njord Vehicle Testing Facility will be placed at half mast for the remainder of the week.
MOMENT OF SILENCE
On Friday, 21 June at 11:00, a whistle will sound across all assembly lines. We ask all factory personnel, office staff, and management to observe a traditional three-minute moment of silence. Production machinery will be temporarily halted during this time.
BOOK SIGNING
A formal book of condolences will be placed in the main lobby of the Reimsboden headquarters starting tomorrow morning. All employees are welcome to sign it and share their memories. The book will subsequently be presented to the Hagerström family.
We extend our deepest sympathies to Rasmus’ family, friends, and colleagues whom stood by his side during our company’s earliest days.
Let us honor his memory by continuing to push the boundaries of what Njord Automobile represents in Hetvesian motoring; maintaining the dedicated and forward-thinking spirit Rasmus Hagerström championed until his final days.
Respectfully signed,
Caesar Bendel
Chief Executive Officer - NJORD AUTOMOBILE AB
1975 - Making Compromises
Many members of Njord Automobile had a pretty good idea of the values and direction Rasmus Hagerström established from the company's founding and his tenure; many of those values were attributed to the man and still practiced to this day. However, apart from a tiny handful of the most senior employees who had joined just as Hagerström was retiring in 1961, there was no-one left at the company beyond Caesar Bendel himself who knew Rasmus Hagerström the person.
The company had multiple events over a few weeks to practice remembrance of the old CEO, though with little to really remember most employees - especially the overworked factory technicians - used each event as an excuse to get a break without looking like a slacker to their overbearing production managers.
The grind did not stop at the factories, either. In the product development department CPO Esben Kristoffersen’s team were hard at work finalizing the pre-production prototype of the compact Njord which had been internally nicknamed “Project Karve.” COO David Lutz’s team of directors, supervisors, and manufacturing and industrial engineers were finishing up making the final tweaks to the Reimsboden vehicle and powertrain assembly plants for the ND Series facelift. Even with the workload for the Design and R&D departments starting to ramp down as Project Karve transitioned towards the manufacturing engineers, Head of R&D David Vaartjes was rarely found outside of the R&D facility.
Electronic Embers Taking Fire
When David Vaartjes began tinkering with the KOP 30MAX computers in Njord's design studio, he quickly became obsessed with the technology. Starting out with basic commands that would print a green "HELLO WORLD" on the cathode ray monitor screen, Vaartjes' programming grew more complex at a rapid rate. After permanently borrowing the computers from the design center and installing them in his R&D lab, he quickly found practical uses from his new work hobby.
One month he was processing huge amounts of strain-gauge data from water tunnel tests - something that used to take weeks now being done overnight. Soon after he was already developing a basic operating system that could issue commands automatically based on measured inputs from analogue sensors hooked into the computer.
Lead Powertrain Engineer Immanuel Pukki got word of some of the projects David was coming up with experimenting with computers. He was impressed and challenged David to see if he could use his programming to optimize engine fuel delivery.
Over the next few months David researched methods of incorporating electronically-controlled actuators into fuel delivery systems until he finally had a working concept. It was a single point twin-throttle unit with two fuel injectors mounted in front of the throttle body, each injector fitted with wiring that lead out of the intake and connected to a KOP 30MAX personal computer.
With help from Immanuel, the prototype computer-injection unit was fitted to a 4CCT engine along with sensors that measured throttle position, engine RPM, and oxygen levels post-combustion. All of the sensors were connected to a personal computer that sat away from the engine with programming that would read the input data, then output a varying electronic charge that changed fuel injection rates based on a premade fuel map.
Initial results from the experiment weren’t too promising. Power delivery hadn’t improved much over the baseline four-barrel carburetor, but the benefits weren’t lost on the engineers. Fuel delivery of the electronic injector was much more controllable than the carb, meaning better fuel optimizations could be made to improve emissions and fuel economy. Also noticed was that the engine ran considerably smoother when cold, not requiring a choke to start or keep idling.
The experiment was a success in proving that with size and cost optimizations to the computing module itself electronic controls had their place in the future of automobile design. From this point was a boom in researching technological advances within the R&D facility that applied computer controlled systems: including prototypes for antilock braking controllers, on-board vehicle diagnostics readers, and electronically-actuated driver protection devices.
'76 Njord ND-Series Facelift
The ND Series was facelifted for the 1976 model year, bringing a whole host of changes in response to the tightening safety and emissions regulations coming out in Hetvesia, Gasmea, and Fruinia. The engineers did an excellent job on this one by managing not only to meet the new regulations with minimal downgrades but also managed to make the car an overall more desirable package with the latest technological advances.
The biggest changes come with the powertrain. Gone is the two-barrel carburetor, in its place a four-barrel with a much leaner air-fuel tune for improved fuel economy and reduced emissions. Valve timing has also been greatly retarded and cylinder compression dropped slightly from 8.2:1 to 8:1. The two-way catalytic converter fitted to the exhaust utilizes a platinum-coated ceramic honeycomb to catalyze carbon monoxide (CO) molecules into less harmful carbon dioxide (CO2); it also reduces the amount of unburnt fuel expelled from the engine.
Fitting the catalytic converter would mean the engine was required to run on unleaded fuel instead of the 92 RON leaded previously used - which considering the rapidly rising availability of unleaded 91 RON across the Western nations meant this would be a non-issue. Many nations such as Hetvesia and Fruinia were already predicted to release policy outlawing the use of lead additives in fuel given political trends to reduce emissions and studies linking lead to acute toxicity when inhaled.
Despite the numerous emission control systems and leaning out of the engine the 4CCT-20B had a barely noticeable impact to power, going from a peak of 72 kW (98 hp) to 70 kW (95 hp) @ 5,000 RPM. Swapping the 4-speed to a 5-speed manual transmission also helped hide the tiny drop in power with 0-100 km/h (62 mph) capable in 11.6 seconds, 0.1 seconds slower than the pre-facelift model. The 3-speed automatic stayed as an optional extra for the ND-4202 and ND-5202, but performance suffered with comparisons between pre and post facelift models seeing as much as a 0.7 second increase in 0-100 km/h (62 mph).
For the 1974 model year Njord was required to install big, tacky rubber bumper guards on the front of all Gasmean domestic market ND Series cars in response to 5 mph bumper regulations. Thankfully the designers and engineers at Njord have come up with a better solution for the facelifted ND Series. Massive chrome bumpers front and rear with plastic cladding to protect from scratches, and a larger wraparound to accommodate angular impacts both front and rear. Fortunately for Njord, the massive steel bumpers actually complimented the stately styling very well, with even some employees thinking the new bumpers looked better than the old ones before the rubber guards. The new bumpers would be fitted to not just Gasmean market cars but Hetvesian and Fruinian domestics as well.
Njord’s new water tunnel was utilized to develop semi-clad plastic undertray fittings that reduced drag caused by the engine and gearbox. The new attachments made a massive impact despite the slightly less aerodynamic 5 mph impact bumpers disturbing exterior airflow, with the pre facelift ND-4202’s 0.427 Cd dropping to 0.373 Cd on the new model. Along with massive reductions in emissions fuel economy also improved; the ND-4202 now got 9.68 L / 100 km (24.3 mpg), a 0.46 L / 100 km (1 mpg) improvement.
On emissions, the previously mentioned optimizations were more than enough to get the ND-4202 and ND-5202 to pass WES 6 emissions standards; this was not the case for the ND-5204.
The raised ride height, factory roof rack, knobby all-terrain tires and heavy 4WD system made getting the ND-5204 very difficult to pass emissions regulations. The company planned to introduce an automatic transmission option with the facelift, however the parasitic losses from the torque converter were too much for passing WES 6 and thus had to be abandoned; this still left the problem that the manual ND-5204 still didn’t pass.
With few options left, the engineers decided to downgrade the ND-5204’s tires from knobby all-terrains to a less aggressive hard rubber tire which reduced rolling resistance at the cost of off-road traction. Njord’s engineers weren’t happy with the compromise, but it it had to be done to squeeze the ND-5204 past the WES 6 standards: passing HC by 54.8%, CO by 38.3%, and NOx by 1.6%. Telling themselves that salesmen would refit all-terrains once sold to the dealers helped keep the engineers sleeping at night.
Lastly were minor improvements to creature comforts. The rack and pinion steering has gained a engine-driven hydraulic pump to assist in steering at low speeds. The addition did reduce road feel, though considering the ND Series was anything but a sports car the compromise was worth it for the added ease of parking. The reduced wind noise from the aforementioned semi-clad undertray also made the interior much quieter when driving at highway speeds.
The same trims from the pre-facelift ND Series are still offered for the facelift. Colors are the same as well with two new options, Elfenben and Kunglig Plommonlila.
The ND-4202 can be had with a 5-speed standard for $15,299 MSRP or a 3-speed automatic for $15,699 MSRP. Colors shown are Elfenben (left) and Stuga Gron (right).
The ND-5202 can be had with a 5-speed standard for $15,599 MSRP or a 3-speed automatic for $15,999 MSRP. Colors shown are Kunglig Plommonlila (left) and Askvader (right).
The ND-5204 is only available with a 5-speed standard with a 4WD transfer case for $15,699 MSRP. Colors shown are Torr Mossa (left) and Blabar (right).
Jensen Newman - Njord’s Chief Marketing Officer - walked through the front door of Tiso’s Barber Shop at the corner of Sturegatan and Eksholmsvagen in downtown Reimsboden. Entering the building there was barely any relief from the hot noon sun outside.
“Bella lì, Jensen! Welcome, welcome!” It was Jensen’s barber, an older man who had immigrated to Hetvesia long ago, though you wouldn’t be able to tell from his thick Northern Fruinian accent.
“We’re a bit behind at the moment. Will likely be about 20 minutes or so,” said the Fruinian barber.
“That works,” replied Jensen. As he walked towards the front waiting area he jutted, “Though if that’s what you call a cut you might need an hour.”
“Wait, what?” blurted the Fruinian’s customer.
“Watch your mouth there, Jensen. Your next in this chair,” snarked the barber.
As the barber continued with the customer’s haircut Jensen sat down in a bright red armchair in the front waiting area and picked up a magazine.
It was a copy of Real Shift, a car magazine with a sexy wedge-shaped supercar on the front cover. Flipping through the magazine Jensen looked at ads for performance car parts, read reviews on the latest luxury sedans from Hetvesia’s luxury automakers, and took note of an article that showcased a scenic road he could ride on later. Eventually while his eyes were still browsing the magazine he became preoccupied with his thoughts about work.
Njord still had just under a year before Project Karve was scheduled to be revealed to the public. It was going to be one of the biggest, most expensive campaigns the company had planned yet, and it needed to be carefully planned to ensure hype around the car would be controlled lest risk getting swamped in preorders that the company could not fulfill. Jensen thought about the budget already spent over the last few months in preparation for the first even scheduled in 6 months - a multi-million dollar reveal at the Zeilwies University of Applied Sciences - when flipping the next page he got a glimpse of a very familiar car.
It was Njord’s car. Project Karve. Somehow a spy photographer got an image of the car and had it published in Real Shift.
Jensen broke into a cold sweat that became even colder when he began reading the text associated with the shot. The magazine suspected that Njord was going to launch a high-performance sports car based on the appearance, and predicted that it would come with a powerful straight six.
This was not good. Jensen knew Project Karve was anything but a sports car. It had the same basic inline 4 as the ND series and was in no way designed to be a sports car. But to have the press advertising the car as such - and this early - could mean losing sales on the current ND-Series as customers anticipate the new car. And all the funding that has already been spent on the planned marketing campaign had effectively been wasted. And when customers and reviewers get their hands on the car and expectations are not met… then what?
Jensen gulped. “Fuck.”
