[suhaas307]

WHEN CAR MANUFACTURERS COLLABORATE

Car manufacturers have historically rivalled each other for top spots on the sales charts and have made several attempts to one-up each other when it comes to developing the latest and greatest technology for their cars.

Rivalries have often gotten bitter with many car makers choosing aggressive marketing strategies, much to the amusement of general consumers. (insert link to thread)

However, there have been rare occasions in the past and in the present, where rival car makers have chosen to collaborate with each other for the greater good, and in the process, developed products that have become legends in their own rights. Some of these examples, if not all, have now become collectibles and command significant premiums at auctions as well as in the used car market.

These collaborative ventures have helped forge strong relationships between these companies, and these unlikely ties remain deep-rooted even to this day.

While there are several examples of collaborative ventures between manufacturers, we shall get the ball rolling by detailing 5 of the most notable examples of products that were born out of these ungodly alliances, including the history behind their conception and the events that led to these collaborations.

Disclaimer:

- The purpose of this thread is to highlight only special collaborations where the intervention of one car manufacturer 'A' was necessary and instrumental in the development of a car for manufacturer 'B'. I have deliberately avoided mentioning platform-sharing and badge-engineered cars, as such examples are far too common and are not necessarily 'special'.

- We are aware that there are several other, similar alliances that were forged between car manufacturers, including those between Ferrari, Maserati, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, etc. For the moment, I have set the ball rolling with 5 examples of such alliances. Please offer your contributions to the list and help expand this thread!

- Photographs are sourced from Wikipedia.

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Mercedes Benz 500E



In the late '80s and early '90s, Mercedes Benz were neck-deep in the development and production of the then-new S Class. It was around this time that Mercedes Benz had to deal with an absolute curve-ball from one of their main rivals in the luxury-car segment - BMW - in the form of the E34 M5.

Mercedes then scrambled to put together a fast E-Class (W124) which was also under development along with the S-Class, and in doing so, realised that they were simply not equipped to do the job. Shoehorning the SL's naturally aspirated V8 into the W124 proved to be more than just a challenge, giving the company a fair-few headaches.

Realising that they had their hands full with the S-Class, and not having the wherewithal to develop a fast E, Mercedes skipped over a few streets and knocked on the doors of Porsche for assistance, and the rest is history!

Porsche was going through a crisis of their own at this time, failing to sell enough cars to put food on tables. Their facilities were underutilised and their factory was performing under capacity. So when Porsche was called upon by Mercedes and commissioned by them to not only engineer but also assemble the 500E, Porsche welcomed the alliance with open arms, as the arrangement benefitted Porsche as much as it did Mercedes!

Mercedes would first ship the parts proposed to go into the car, to Porsche's Rossle-Bau plant in Zuffenhausen where the Porsche technicians assembled the chassis and shipped it back to Mercedes' Sindelfingen plant, where Mercedes would have the cars painted. The freshly painted cars were then shipped back to Porsche's Rossle-Bau facility where the chassis would receive its drivetrain and suspension. This entire process took about 18 days per car.



The 500E was powered by the same naturally aspirated V8 that does duty in the R129 500 SL Roadster mated to a 4-speed slush-box. This propelled the car to 100 from 0 in just 5.5 seconds and a mechanically (gear-ratio) limited top speed of 250 km/h.

Production was not limited, but Porsche assembled approximately 10,500 cars during 1990-1995 on behalf of Mercedes, including a few facelifts during its production cycle. Porsche even made the last batch of 200-odd cars as “special request” variants.

These days, a well-kept 500E is extremely sought-after and commands significant premiums in the used car markets as well as at various auction houses.

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Lotus Carlton / Lotus Omega



Back in the early '90s, fast and powerful cars in the UK were reserved only for the elite members of society! But Vauxhall changed that, much to the dismay of the elite-class, when General Motors, the owners of Vauxhall and Opel, orchestrated a collaboration between Vauxhall and their recently acquired sports-car brand, Lotus!



This alliance gave birth to one of the most exciting saloon cars of its time - a car that was marketed to be faster than a Ferrari! This marketing was ultimately the Carlton's own undoing, as the government got involved and introduced policies to deliberately neuter the car / Vauxhall's marketing strategies.

Lotus had thoroughly reworked the Carlton by enhancing the capacity of its longitudinally mounted straight-six engine to 3.6 litres from 3.0 litres, and thereafter slapped on two Garrett T25 turbochargers for good measure. The ignition system was also overhauled from a distributor-wire setup to a three-coil wasted spark system. The engine was mated to a ZF derived 6-speed manual transmission that sends power to the rear-wheels via a limited slip differential.



These enhancements translated into significant power gains for the Lotus Carlton that now produced around 380 horsepower and 568 nm of peak torque which was good enough to propel the Carlton from 0 to 100 km/h in just above 5 seconds and to a top-whack of 180 mph, making it the fastest 4-door production sedan in the World - a record that it held for several years!

Lotus also sprinkled its magic dust over the Carlton's chassis and suspension, tuning it appropriately to deal with the enhanced power and performance figures.

The Lotus Carlton wore an inflated price tag of GBP 48,000 which meant that supply almost always exceeded demand. It was consequently limited to just 950 units. However, the Lotus Carlton became extremely popular amongst car-thieves in the UK who would frequently target these cars. This meant that insurance premiums shot through the roof and owning such a car became unsustainable for the general public - the Carlton's target audience.

Today, well looked-after examples of the Lotus Carlton are highly sought after in the used car market and often get sold for huge premiums.

EDIT: Vauxhall / Opel and Lotus were owned by GM at the time of this collaboration. As such, they are not exactly rivals. However, this collaboration was too interesting to ignore / leave out for this thread.

[suhaas307]

Audi RS2 Avant



Fresh from their success at rally stages with their world-beating Quattro rally car, Audi were all set to enter the fast-road market with a spicy station-wagon. However, Audi at the time were strangers to the world of making fast road cars. In order to get the finer details just right, the upper management at Audi decided to contract Porsche to help them develop and produce a quick grocery-getter. And thus, the RS2 Avant was born.



Porsche, motivated by their dire financial situation and being provided with the opportunity to apply their expertise, had gotten comfortable with the idea of being commissioned by other manufacturers to develop and manufacture spices up versions of regular cars.

While the car is largely based on Audi's 80 Avant, powered by Audi's own 5-cylinder engine, and manufactured by Audi at their manufacturing facility, the unfinished rolling chassis and drivetrains of the 80 Avant were sent to Porsche's Rossle-Bau plant in Zuffenhausen, where Porsche fettled with the engine, suspension, brakes and added certain distinctive cosmetic touches that established Porsche's involvement in the project.

Incidentally, Porsche's Rossle-Bau plant in Zuffenhausen was the same facility where the Mercedes Benz 500E was also developed and assembled for production, and assembly of both these cars took place simultaneously right next to each other!

Porsche's secret sauce for the RS2 Avant 's 2.2 litre turbocharged 5-cylinder engine included uprated KKK turbochargers, a larger intercooler, higher-lift camshafts, high-flow fuel injectors, a tuned air-box, a less restrictive exhaust system and a re-calibrated Bosch ECU amongst other things.

As a result, power and torque figures were bumped up to 311 bhp and 410 nm of peak torque being sent through Audi's own Quattro AWD and a 6-speed manual gearbox, allowing the RS2 Avant to achieve 0-100 km/h times of 4.8 seconds. The RS2 Avant would go on to hit an electronically restricted top speed of 262 km/h. However, the headline figures were the acceleration times from 0-30 mph in just 1.5 seconds, which apparently was faster than the McLaren F1!


17" Porsche factory "Cup" wheels worn over Brembo-supplied Porsche (964) 911 brakes.

Mirrors from a Porsche (993) 911:



A closer look at the front facia will reveal that the RS2 Avant wears Porsche styled bumpers that include indicators and cooling ducts knicked from a Porsche (964) 911.


The factory RS2 emblem/badge that establishes Audi's venture with Porsche (just in case anyone assumes that an enthusiastic Audi owner raided a Porsche service centre for parts).

As one would expect, the RS2 Avant was limited to 2200 units in production and bumped up to approximately 2900 units in order to cater to unrelenting demand. Only 180 of these units were made in RHD configuration for the British, South African and New Zealand markets.

Being a limited production car born out of a special collaboration, the RS2 Avant now commands huge premiums in the used car market. Auctioned examples were sold for well over $100,000 and the values only keep rising!

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Mercedes McLaren SLR



Grand Touring super sports cars have always been popular amongst the well-heeled and enthusiasts alike. So when Mercedes Benz unveiled their Vision SLR concept at the North American International Auto Show, everyone queued up for a closer look.

Mercedes noticed the interest that the concept generated and garnered, and decided to join hands with their Formula 1 partner, McLaren, to develop and produce the SLR.

While Mercedes styled the car drawing inspiration from Formula 1 race cars, McLaren worked on the electronics, chassis and several other components. Mercedes then supplied their hand-built supercharged V8 engine developed by their performance division, AMG, along with a 5-speed automatic transmission.

McLaren worked extensively on the packaging of the engine as well as the electronics, aero and other bits so that the whole car works well as a cohesive package.

Carbon fibre reinforced plastic was extensively used for the bodywork to keep the weight down. Despite this, the car weighed in at a chonky 1800 kilograms (wet).



The 5.4 litre supercharged V8 developed by AMG, produces an eye-watering (for its day) 620 horsepower which propels the SLR to 100 km/h from standstill in a scarcely believable 3.4 seconds, and to a top speed of 333 km/h.

The SLR also spawned several variants like the Roadster, and even some special and extremely limited models like the "722", the 722GT, and the "Stirling Moss" which is a SLR sans windscreen and roof - a tribute to British racing driver Stirling Moss.







A total of 2157 cars were produced during its production run between 2003 and 2010. The SLR retailed at over $300,000, with the special editions commanding even larger premium.

After the SLR was discontinued, McLaren commenced a special program in 2011 inviting a select number of SLR owners to further enhance their prized possessions, with modifications that would tighten up the car's bodywork. Mclaren also offered customisations specified to the owner's tastes. A similar program was introduced by McLaren again in 2021 called MSO (McLaren Special Operations) which allowed a select number of owners to further tweak and enhance their cars to their specifications for a fee exceeding GBP 120,000.

Values of the regular SLR, if you could even call it that, have more or less remained the same, while the special edition 722 and Stirling Moss variants can be found on sale for well north of 1 million USD.

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BMW M1



In the mid-1970s, BMW had developed an itch to compete in motorsports and show its arch rivals, Porsche, a clean pair of heels. The motorsport disciple in question was Group-5 racing, which meant BMW were expected to make 400 road-going versions to meet homologation requirements of Group-5 Motorsport.

The Chief of BMW's racing program, Jochen Neerpasch, stressed that the race-car proposed for such motorsport had to be mid-engined, if they harboured any thoughts of being competitive, especially against the likes of Porsche.

Since BMW was not equipped to develop and manufacture 400 examples of a mid-engined sports car capable of competing in motorsport, they commissioned Lamborghini to do the needful.

Lamborghini received a large advance from BMW towards the project, and immediately began work on developing the tubular steel space-frame chassis and the all-important tooling for the project. However, shortly after this, Lamborghini found themselves at the brink of bankruptcy as their financial position had severely deteriorated. A long drawn legal battle ensued between Lamborghini, BMW and other third party stakeholders, and it was later discovered that the money BMW had advanced to Lamborghini for the M1 project was immediately funnelled into Lamborghini's own side project, the LM-002 military-spec vehicle.

Before formal administration proceedings commenced, it is widely believed that BMW executives stormed the offices of Lamborghini and took away large bundles of critical documents, blueprints, drawings, etc. as well as the necessary tooling for assembly of the M1, and began assembling the car themselves.

However, the delays in producing the M1 and subsequent changes to the rules of Group-5 racing meant that BMW were forced to use the M1 for Group-4 motorsport only.

Since the M1 was at risk of becoming a still-born project, certain individuals who had previously worked with Lamborghini and had founded a company called Italengineering (located about 10 km from Lamborghini's facilities), offered to complete the project for BMW.



The fibreglass bodyshell was styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro and handmade by Italian outfit TIR (Trattamento Italiano Resina), located in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The chassis was completed by a firm based in Modena called Marchesi, and was then shipped to Italdesign in Turin where the bodywork and interiors were to be completed.

The WIP cars were then delivered to German specialist Baur, where the all important finishing touches were applied by hand. The finished products were then shipped to BMW in Munich where final inspections took place before deliveries.





BMW's M division developed and supplied the 3.5 litre naturally aspirated twin-cam straight-six engine. This engine received several motorsport-derived goodies including individual throttle bodies, a Magneti-Marelli ignition system and mechanical fuel injection. The engine was mated to a ZF derived 5-speed manual transmission supplemented by a 40% locking differential, sending about 275 horsepower to the rear wheels and propelling the M1 to 265 km/h.





Only 453 BMW M1s were ever produced, of which 53 took part in motorsport, making the M1 one of the rarest and most sought after BMWs in existence. Values of well looked after M1s have skyrocketed over the years, and some were sold for over $700,000!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

Great thread. Just one thing. Louts was owned by General Motors in 1990 - 92 when the Lotus Carlton came along. General Motors also owned Vauxhall & Opel. So they were not exactly rivals.

The Lotus Carlton along with the Sierra Cosworth remains close to my heart. Giant killers both of them. I'm quite a fan of the M1 as well - among the few BMWs that I like.

[landcruiser123]

Ford and GM have been collaborating on automatic transmissions (primarily for trucks and cars sold in the US) since the mid-2000s IIRC.

They've made multiple 6, 8, and 9 speed transverse mounted automatic transmissions for cars and unibody SUVs.

They also make 6, 9, and 10 speed longitudinally mounted automatic transmissions for the trucks and muscle cars.


Most Americans often referred to these transmissions as collaborations between cats and dogs (both companies are fierce in-town rivals).

[Jeroen]

Thanks for sharing. Excellent write up.

There have been platform co operations as well. One springs to mind. Initially the VW Sharan shared its platform with the Ford Galaxy (and Seat Alhambra)

When looking at engines there is quite a bit of mixing and maxing of course. E.g. the engine of my Mini has been developed and made by Peugeot.

Aston Martin and Mercedes AMG. Toyota BMW etc.

Jeroen