Why did Wolfgang Reitzle quit Ford?

Gustav · 5th April 2004, 19:00

Why did he quit Ford's PAG? He is now in the refrigerator business

Anyone knows?

http://www.linde.com/en/p0028/p0037/p0038/p0038.jsp

Reitzle owned the (in his own words) "dream car" -the E39 M5- and an 850 CSi before he was ousted by the BMW board after the Rover debacle. As well as this:

Wolfgang Reitzle, by the way, had a custom 850 built by Individual with an interior he designed; it was powered by a supercharged V12 engineered by none other than BMW Motorsport's engine maestro Paul Rosche. With a wide grin, Reitzle confessed to this reporter that the car was, "really very, very fast." But, according to folklore, once, after a meeting, BMW's Number-Two Boss showed off the car to some curious industry colleagues. He closed the hood, slipped behind the wheel--and it refused to start.

Check out the article here:

http://www.bmwcca.org/Roundel/1999/0899oth.htm

zzzzMD · 5th April 2004, 19:41

This news is over a month old. I was getting my hopes up about BMW's old "Errol Flynn" sending Panke to the s**t can so BMW can get back on track.

M! · 5th April 2004, 20:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gustav

Why did he quit Ford's PAG? He is now in the refrigerator business

the world spins around in circles...
bmw in the late 50's had that isetta (which i have one now...) which was modelled after refrigerators...

Millie Miglia · 6th April 2004, 02:42

I think Reitzle is one of the best top 'Car guys' in the business, Ford was foolish to let him go. Remember that he was responsible for the E39 M5 reaching production, BMW wasn't sure it would build the E39 M5.

Millie

floris · 6th April 2004, 14:06

I read an article here in Germany about him and he stated that one of the reasons is that he did not see a chance for himself to become the "top dog" at Ford and he wanted to be just that. He is Chairman & CEO of Linde, so I guess he found what he was looking for in his career.

And, as Linde also makes forklifts, he's not entirely removed from wheeled vehicles :-)

MEnthusiast · 6th April 2004, 14:11

IMHO BMW needs more "car guys" and less "consultants".

Millie Miglia · 6th April 2004, 14:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by MEnthusiast

IMHO BMW needs more "car guys" and less "consultants".

I'm with you there. "Car guys" are the people who made BMW what it is today. Reitzle is one of those great car guys. Wish BMW would put aside the Rover fiasco (lets face it, even god himself wouldn't be able to save that company, sad to say) and rehire him.

Millie