530i wrote:
Proizvodili su se u Kragujevcu, sa oznakama i logotipima Innocentija i takvi išli za Italiju.
evo malo sam se potrudio
Na razvoju automobila Yugo Cabrio radili su g. Peter Muscat, g. Tony Ciminera VP Yugo America Inc, gospodin Toma Savic VP Zastava i gospodin Ljubiša Milenković šef projekta na Zastava Institutu.
Let me explain some of the history behind the Yugo Cabrio, that perhaps you and other Yugo enthusiasts might enjoy learning about.
When I was trying to find a firm in Detroit to design and engineer our Cabrio, I visited three of the best known firms that were building convertibles under contract for the major auto companies. I gave each of the companies a list of the features I wanted in our car as well as a new Yugo to study, and I asked them each to prepare a quote.
After a few weeks, each of the companies told me that they were ready after having studied the car and wanted me to attend a presentation on their evaluation of the car. I went to see each of them and they all said that they could not find a way to accomplish everything on my list because the car was too small or short. One company said that they could not have the top fold flat as I wished and it would have to stick up like on the VW convertible. Others said they could find a way to fold it flat, but I could not have a glass rear window. Another company said they would have to weld the trunk lid closed and all luggage would have to be put in from the rear seat area.
I could go on, but not one of the companies could deliver all the features I wanted. In desperation, I called a close friend who had recently been hired by Ford Motor Co. and had been transferred to Ford of Europe. I called him and asked him if he knew of any company that could deliver all of my product features in the Yugo. He said that I had obviously hit all of the specialist companies he could think of as well, but he said, "Let me ask around and I'll get back to you." A few days later he called and said, "I spoke to my boss and he said he has the answer and he's going to call you." I asked, "Who's your boss?” he said he's the President of Ford of Europe, Mr. Jim Capolongo, who had also been transferred from Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan." I was stunned and humbled that the President of Ford of Europe would call me, but sure enough I was honored when Mr. Capolongo called and told me all about Peter Muscat who had a firm called Jubbu that was doing some fantastic convertible work and that his Ford engineers in Detroit called Peter, "Mr. Convertible", for his ingenious convertible top designs.
That title of "Mr. Convertible" was indeed quite a compliment coming from Ford engineers, so I quickly called called Peter and like with the other firms, I gave him a Yugo and my list of desired features, which included a power top, that folded flat, with a glass, tinted and heated rear window, and no phony Targa bar like the V.W. had, etc. etc.
Peter said he'd study the car and get back to me. I waited a few weeks and I called to see if he could now send me a quote. He said that I should instead come out to Detroit to discuss it. I couldn't understand why I had to fly to Detroit when he could have easily mailed or faxed the quote to me. He said because instead of preparing a quote, it was better for me to see the car. I didn't understand what he meant because I didn't need to see the standard Yugo which I had loaned him. He said no, it was to see the finished prototype convertible! I couldn't believe that he had gone ahead and built the car! And in a few months no less!
So Mr. Bricklin and I and other company executives including Mr. Prior our President, flew to Detroit and we were stunned to see the finished prototype. It was parked in front of Peter's company and it looked great! You can see Mr. Bricklin trying out the power top in one of the photos. All the photos you sent me were of that exciting occasion.
Peter had decided to paint one half of the car with the upper trim black and the other half in the red body color for us to decide which version we liked best. You can see that in the photo with the trunk up. You of course know which design we chose. I personally liked the upper trim painted because it made the car not only look sportier but it also made the car look longer and lower because it also reduced the mass of the body color which also made the car look longer and lower. I decided however to change the black that Peter had used on the prototype to the Argent Silver we used on the lower trim for a more coordinated look with the lower half of the car.
However, Peter had decided to make a dozen additional improvements to the car that I had not even imagined. For example, he designed the side rear glass to lower automatically with the top avoiding the need to crawl into the back seat area to lower the window. In addition he used a unique cam effect that not only lowered the glass but it also moved outboard a bit so that we didn’t lose any width in the rear seat cushion, like most convertibles suffer from. He also designed a new windshield header which allowed for the first time the windshield to be bonded to the header which made the cowl stronger and eliminated the unsightly rubber molding, which looked dated. At the same time he eliminated the useless front door simulated vent window, which also made the car look longer and more modern and while he was at it, he changed all the glass to tinted, which was a new feature for any Zastava vehicle.
Another amazing innovation that he created was the new trunk lid, since the original hatch design could not be used in a convertible. His new design was a one piece composite lid that rose straight up on gas struts. That design allowed access to the trunk even if the car was parked close to a car behind. If you look at the V.W. convertible, you’ll note that they had a little trunk lid mounted very low and it was hinged at the top, so when opened, it extended back and made it difficult to access the trunk if there was a car behind. I tried using the VW trunk and it required you to get down almost on your knees to get into that little klix trunk. Peter’s vertical design, similar to that used on buses and aircraft luggage doors, allowed you to stand up and easily access the trunk. It was a unique and brilliant and easy to use design. As an aside, there was an additional safety benefit. If you were stopped on the side of the road to fix a flat tire for example, your emergency flashing taillights could now be seen sooner by approaching cars because the lights were now high in the air, giving an oncoming car more time to see your car stopped.
I should note that the construction of the trunk lid was also quite unique because Peter utilized a technique quite new at the time, called RTM, which stands for Resin Transfer Molding, which utilizes a negative pressure that sucks the fiberglass and resin tightly into the mold, which eliminated air bubbles and gave a beautiful steel like surface finish. Then the inner and outer halves were then bonded together.
He also made a unique semi-firm tonneau cover which was styled to look like a rigid cover because he disliked the typical soft vinyl covers that most convertibles had at the time. Since he had designed a new windshield header, he also took the opportunity to eliminate the two typical top latches usually found on convertibles, which could cause a serious head injury in a crash, so he hid the left and right latches underneath the new header trim and instead designed a single recessed latch handle in the center of the header behind the mirror. Note: Ford Motor Company introduced their all new Mustang in 2015 which copied Peter’s safer design, which was also more attractive and easier to use because it eliminated the need to reach across the car to reach the typical convertible right hand latch. Although it wasn't part of his job, he also decided to create a sporty seat design befitting a convertible. As you can see in the photos, he used red inserts in the seats which I liked better then the red stripes that Zastava later used in production. I should have fought for Peter’s design but we all were overwhelmed with other major projects to improve the Yugo, such as Bosch fuel injection, five speed transmission, air conditioning, alloy wheels, etc., etc. and the enormous task of getting the car ready to meet all U.S. Federal emission and safety standards, in addition to meeting Mr. Bricklin’s demand that the car be ready to go on sale in 12 months! We didn’t hit the 12 month mark, but we went on sale in 13 months which is considered a modern miracle since the little Yugo was not designed by Zastava and Fiat for such a task. It was designed to be a simple, cute and affordable little car that was not engineered to meet Western standards.
Peter also created a way to eliminate the need for expensive tooling which is one of the reasons that convertibles cost more money to manufacture than coupes. It was a brilliant idea, which was especially important for us since we wanted the Cabrio to be the lowest price convertible in America. How he managed to do it, is a story for another day. But it was a major technical breakthrough that Peter later used on other cars and is one of the many reasons that General Motors gave him a special award and trophy. This was a major innovation that was responsible for the whole auto industry from Mercedes to Suzuki and everyone in between, because the auto companies really love to save money and I might add, time.
He also eliminated the need for the Cabrio be built on a separate assembly line, which was typical for most companies. He found a way for Zastava to build it on the regular Yugo line by simply training the workers that normally install the headliner in the standard Yugo, to instead install the convertible top unit by lowering it down from the ceiling at that point in the assembly line whenever a Cabrio body reached their assembly station. This too was a money saving idea.
By the way, Peter's changes to the structure of the Cabrio allowed it to pass all U.S. federal crash tests while for example, the all new 1985 Cadillac Coupe de Ville failed its first government crash test that year. Peter crashed 25 Yugo’s which included a number of front, side, rear, top, and offset crash tests, all of which were done at General Motors crash facility, as an accommodation to Peter because of all the work that he did for General Motors cars, such as Chevrolet, Pontiac and Oldsmobile.
After the first Cabrio's arrived in the U.S., the number one newspaper in the world, the New York Times, which normally printed each spring a special separate Convertible Buyers Guide. They decided to feature the Yugo Cabrio front and center on the first page because they considered it a brilliant design that made it possible for young people to afford a new convertible. All the other brands of convertibles including the more expensive and glamorous convertibles were buried elsewhere in the Guide.
The newspapers focus on the Cabrio's affordability was significant because that was the very issue I had originally suggested to our management, that we needed to offer a low cost convertible because all of the formerly affordable sporty convertibles in the U.S. had disappeared as imported roadsters such as the M.G., Triumph, Sprite, Midget and others were no longer available and thus young Americans were then forced to instead buy Japanese pickup trucks. As an example, I didn't believe that young klix would want to go out on a date in a truck! In short I felt that there was a huge marketing hole in the U.S. market and elsewhere in the world that would make a Yugo Cabrio attractive because of its low price and thanks to Peter, it would also have features that even higher priced convertibles wouldn't have.
Unfortunately, some people decided to start a war, and the rest is history.
But I was thankful that Fiat also loved the Cabrio and wanted it for their young buyers as well and thus their Innocenti version was born, which you provided a photo of. Unfortunately the embargo which was designed to force Yugoslavia to stop the war resulted in stopping Peter's Cabrio components from being shipped to Zastava, so even Fiat’s Italian version was brought to a halt.
It was indeed a pity that such a brilliant design had to be stillborn; but that's the story about how the Yugo Cabrio was created.
It was an exciting project for both myself and Peter Muscat. However that’s just the story about one model, the Cabrio. But multiply it hundredfold to imagine the work that all of us had to do to not only modify the basic Yugo, but all the other work that our people did in creating the Yugo of America organization across the U.S. to import and distribute the car.
A nationwide dealer network of hundreds of dealers had to be established, a spare parts depot had to be built, training was needed for the dealer’s mechanics, advertising agencies had to be found and advertising for both TV and print had to be created and begun, public relations also had to begin, and of course we needed to create a corporate headquarters in N.J. and begin the task of hiring and training employees. Shipping for example had to be arranged for RoRo vessels to transport the cars and spare parts. Brochures had to be created, auto shows displays had to be prepared and staffed. I could go on, but I think you can imagine the enormity of the task. For example, in order to meet Mr. Bricklin’s aggressive and almost impossible to achieve on-sale date that I mentioned earlier, all the top management had to begin our work day at six o’clock in the morning before the clerical staff arrived at nine o’clock and the phones began to ring like crazy.
But we did it and the sales of the little Yugo became the fastest growing import in history.
What you’re not aware of however was the work that we started on designing an all new modern Yugo with designs by either Pininfarina or Ital Design, with a revolutionary new engine and many other exciting changes, but the war brought all of it to a halt, which is a pity because the all new Yugo along with the Florida would have been a major turning point for Zastava with sales exploding all over the world, just for example the way that the Honda Civic in 1972 amazed the auto industry and put Honda on the world stage as a serious and now respected car company. The same could have happened with the all new Yugo.
Thanks for your interest and I hope I answered your questions. There’s a lot more to tell including the story about the design of the Y logo, the antenna, the headlights, the improvements Zastava made to improve the cooling, the Catapult seat, etc .etc. but that’s for another time.
Please feel free to distribute this to other Zastava and Yugo owners clubs.
Best regards,
Tony Ciminera
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