Jac Nasser Is Car Crazy

摘要

Jacques Nasser's green eyes get that sheet-metal glint as he flogs a prototype of the next-generation Mustang Cobra through the curves on Ford's ride-and-handling test track. "It was about time we put IRS [independent rear suspension] in a Mustang, don't you think?" twangs Nasser in his Australian drawl. "Feel the difference?" We power around several more laps, tires screeching, V-8 rumbling, Nasser's hands (and grin) steady, the speedometer tipped over to 90 miles per hour. People who know the 50-year-old Nasser, Ford's automotive operations president and heir apparent to CEO Alex Trotman, would say that 90 miles per hour sounds unusually slow. Jac, as he's called, moves fast and often: He's worked at Ford for 30 years, but has spent fewer than six of them in Detroit.