Being an Autopian Member means you get to hear the best stories that David (that’s me), Jason, Matt, Mercedes, Thomas, and the rest of our contributors tell in the “privacy” of our site’s Slack chatroom. Recently you’ve read about some bizarre David Tracy-isms, Matt’s car-buying adventures, and our headline-creation process. This time, we tell a story about Ford’s official holiday party, which took place on December 13 at the Ford Experience Center in Dearborn, Michigan. In attendance was CEO Jim Farley and Executive Chairman Bill Ford. When the former stood at the head of the room to make a brief speech, he said something that left me amazed, a little bit shocked, and thoroughly grateful.
There I was, dressed to the nines, eating hors d’oeuvres, sipping from fancy glasses, hanging out with my friends Sandy and Cory from Munro and Associates, among other automotive media folks. I’d just finished a long day managing the website, and had arrived to the shindig a bit late in my $700 Chevrolet Tracker, its little 2.0-liter J10 inline-four screaming through a gaping hole in its exhaust. The Tracker was, by far, the crappiest car in the parking lot, which stood adjacent to the beautiful glass Experience Center, whose interior beamed elegantly in the night:
The building’s insides are genuinely gorgeous; in fact, the space apparently won an interior design award. Here’s a photo from Ghafari Associates, the architecture firm who apparently had a hand in putting the space together:
The night of the party, the lighting shined in blue, just like the Ford Mustang Mach-E shown above, and the atmosphere was also like that car: electric. Men were in suits, women wore dresses and also suits; great food decorated tables throughout the room; multiple bars were set up to splash liquid vivacity into glass vessels. Journalists talked about their favorite cars, businessmen talked abound sales, PR professionals talked about brands; it was an excellent night.
There came a point in the party when Ford’s CEO Jim Farley climbed the main stairwell, gathered the crowd’s attention, and discussed 2022. It had been a great year for Ford, though the CEO was quick to point out pain points that his company faced, and that he planned to mend.
He then thanked the media for attending the event, and briefly discussed how publications are key to keeping his company honest, so to speak — to making sure that, at the end of the day, the products are good, and the company is getting the credit or the criticism it deserves.
Then came the thing that blew my mind. Farley mentioned one or two websites, I can’t quite remember which, but what I can remember was The Autopian’s logo popping up on the projector next to Farley, and him saying something to the effect: “I’d like to mention The Autopian and David Tracy. They’ve put together a fun car website.” Folks turned around and looked at me, and I couldn’t help but smile.
What an awesome surprise! I had to tell my team:
I remain humbled and grateful for that moment. Obviously, Ford’s biggest west-coast dealership, Galpin, is involved in our operation, here, and that likely played some kind of role. But I like to think Farley wouldn’t have mentioned our site unless he actually digs it.
I walked around that party with an extra pep in my step, striking up conversations with everyone, clinking glasses, and jovially sharing car-stories with other media members, Ford employees, and of course, Cory and Sandy.
“women wore dresses and also suits”
Wouldn’t they have been a bit warm with all those layers?
Haha!
Subscribers get to chat w y’all on Slack? Do we have to ask to have our accounts added to the channel or something?
That’s awesome that the management at Ford is taking note of the great things you are doing here.
Side note, the architectural lighting design group (Illuminart) that worked on the Ford Experience Center design is a part of the company I work for. They were a sub-consultant to the Ghafari Team. Thanks for the praise of the space and particularly the lighting. They did amazing work on this and many other spaces in Detroit and beyond.
If you work there are you an “Illuminarti”?
I can’t believe I haven’t thought of calling them that yet.
Kinda like how Catcher in the Rye seemed like the best. book. ever. when I read it in high school, but when revisited as an adult, I found it fairly whiny. And then wondered if that was Salinger’s plan.
I view Zen as being mostly a philosophical discussion in the truest sense…it’s about provoking thought and discussion, without arriving anywhere in particular; just like how a lot of the Platonic dialogues don’t resolve themselves satisfactorily. Which seems ironic, given how much time Pirsig spends complaining about classical thought.
Thanks for the Farinia tip…I’m always appreciative when people tell me about books they’ve worn out due to re-reading, esp. these days where that commitment of time speaks to how seriously they view the undertaking. Like to Huibert’s point, that a OEM suspension engineering lead would find a book that usually appeared in the “new age” section of the bookstore so valuable would intrigue me if I’d never heard of it before.
If anyone else is also wondering what this well written, but out of context comment means – keep reading that soon the context for this will pop up 🙂
You know what else is cool? The good mood that prevails here at a near 100% level.
That’s gonna be a memory that sticks! While you guys all obviously do this “for the people”, it’s nice when someone who (for better or worse) is a well respected leader of the industry you cover recognizes the work you put in.
When the team is feeling blue for getting an automatic wagon instead of a manual ( lmao ), just remember that feeling and keep moving forward.
Getting recognized is the shit! I may bitch ALOT about EVs on here and new cars looking like eggs….but this site rocks!
That is excellent!! Positive recognition from one’s industry can be very affirming, especially when there’s an element of “Wait, so-and-so is aware of my work??”.
Maybe you guys can gift-box an Autopian grille badge and send it to him. 🙂
I think the team has a good approach: there’s something here for just about everyone who’s interested in wheeled transport.
On a completely unrelated note…
MY GRILLE BADGE ARRIVED AND IT IS FANTASTIC! 😀
I agree about the grille badge: “Parking Enthusiasts Club”, indeed 😀
Similarly to what others have said, I feel proud to support a site like this, which is positive, affirming, entertaining and educational – all direct influences of its founders and staff. Good work Everyone and congrats on the well deserved recognition.
I’ts always fun when sincere people sincerely have no idea how amazing they are. That pretty much describes every one of you at The Autopian (well, except for JT, but that’s because he has funny hair ~:-).
That’s pretty amazing – did you get any comments / jealous looks from the rest of the crowd later in the evening? Did any beautiful women/men try to take advantage of you? Seriously though, what you’re building here is amazing and we appreciate the blood sweat and tears that have to be involved.
I believe you will continue to succeed as long as you do two primary things: pursue what you love and respect your audience.
All y’all at the Autopian have put together a things that surprises and delights me most days because I never quite know what’s coming. Will it be thoughtful inputs and flights of fancy from designers, a deep engineering dive, a hallucinatory trip through Jason’s wildest imaginations, David frankensteining operational vehicles from dead piles of ferrous oxide, Mercedes geeking out about RVs and unreliable German cars, or even just a solidly written car review? As a community we take our passions about cars seriously without taking ourselves too seriously – and yes, there is a difference.
I’m glad The Autopian is getting notice from the car world at large.
DT you probably stuck in his mind driving a Chevy to a big Ford event. At least it was a shitty Chevy making sll the Fords look good.
I did a similar Faux Pas bringing a Pepsi to my original interview with Coke.
From now on people do Coke er I mran drink Coke.
“do they still put coke in the coca-cola?”
“no sir”
“okay I’ll have a root beer”
i hate being that person but, while possible, it’s very unlikely that actual protectors were used to display the visual media. they have their place and can be the right tools, but chances are very great that’s an led wall. the space doesn’t appear to lend itself to throw distances needed and while mirror bouncing or ultra-short throw projector lenses are possible, ford’s paying a company to set up led walls these days.
(okay, so i don’t really hate being that person. it usually takes much skill and/ or experience to be that pedantic).
I’m impressed.
Well, at least you’re self-aware. That said, In person to person interactions like this, something more along the lines of – “Wow, that’s really cool!, I’m kind of psyched to be a tiny little part of this” is generally more appreciated. If you feel you -have- to be pedantic, throw the nice part in before the correction.
fair. my ‘expertise’ only goes so far though. i read all these mostly-intelligent and interesting comments from smart folks so when the infrequent opportunity arises for me, i feel the need to comment. that being said, long live the autopian.
Others have said it better across the posts, but what makes your accomplishment so cool is that this website very clearly comes across as the product of human beings pursuing excellence with passion and commitment. What could be more meaningful?
To tie it better to the subject matter at hand, it’s what Robert Pirsig wrote about in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, that quality as a thing is readily discerned and appreciated by all who seek it – from dorks like me to the cool community assembled here to the CEO of Ford!
1,000,000 point for the Robert Persig reference. I’ve read that book at least three times and get more out of it every time. I’ve espoused the idea that quality is an event throughout my professional life because of that book. It’s one of the best ever written.
Oh, so this was the comment Jack was answering to, but it got mixed up in the main thread. Was driving me crazy trying to guess the context!
First read Zen And The Art around age 10 and loved it. But it hasn’t held up for me: by my late 20s it felt a bit self-indulgent and too introspective without resolution. And, maybe, like he was trying for a post-60s On The Road.
If you like counter-culture stuff, I’d recommend Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me by Richard Fariñia. Not car related, but in the last almost half-century I’ve read two copies to pieces-and my 3rd is showing wear.
*Not trashing Zen&: people enjoy what they like-just like cars*
Totally on point. ZatAoMM is one of my favorite books. I think it’s time for a re-read. Thanks for the prompt!