DETROIT — Members of the industry, family and friends from across the country and overseas gathered here Thursday evening for the 2022 Automotive Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony. The Dearborn, Mich., museum and exhibition center, opened in 1939 and honors accomplishments of pioneers in the industry each year. In addition to the inductions, these industry leaders were given the following awards:
- Industry Leader of the Year Award: Jim Farley, Ford CEO
- Mobility Innovator Award: Amnon Shashua, Mobileye founder
- Industry Influencer: Randy Parker, Hyundai Motor America senior vice president, national sales
- Industry Influencer: Shilpan Amin, General Motors International president
- Industry Influencer: Sherry House, Lucid Motors CFO
- Industry Influencer: Ann Wilson, Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association senior vice president of government affairs
- Industry Influencer: Linda Zhang, Ford F-150 Lightning chief engineer
Here are the 2022 Hall of Fame inductees:
St. James didn’t just break the glass ceiling for women in racing, she drove through it at more than 200 mph. St. James, the first woman to drive that fast on a race track, in 1992 became the first woman to win the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award. In addition to Indy and CART racing, she has class wins at the 24 Hours of Daytona, and she has raced at LeMans and Sebring. St. James founded Women In The Winner’s Circle Foundation, which helps women get started in motorsports.
For Black motorists, traveling by car safely and with dignity was no easy feat in the era where racial segregation was the law in many states. The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, written and published by the Greens, who were husband and wife, listed restaurants, hotels, filling stations and other businesses where Black customers were welcome. The book, sold at Esso gas stations and by mail order, contained city and state listings for these businesses, and was published until 1966. The first edition contained these words: “With the introduction of this travel guide, it has been our idea to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties and embarrassments, and to make his trips more enjoyable.”
Driven by the twin goals of building a better high-performance road car than rival Ferrari and to make more money than his tractor manufacturing business was pulling in, Ferruccio Lamborghini entered the automobile business in 1963 and promptly changed the world of high-performance luxury GT cars forever. The 1963 350GT sported a 3.5-liter quad-cam V-12 that produced an astonishing 370 hp. That blew away Ferrari’s 296-hp 250 GTO. In the 1970s, the Countach became the object of fascination for fans all over the world.
His work changed not only the way Toyota builds cars but the way almost every automaker assembles its vehicles. Ohno pioneered the Toyota Production System, which gave birth to lean manufacturing throughout the automotive world. He was all about reducing waste and matching production to demand. His work has reverberated outside the auto industry. One example: just-in-time manufacturing, a system that has parts arrive on the factory floor as they are needed.
The roots of one of China’s largest and most successful global suppliers, Wanxiang Group Corp., trace back to Guanqiu and six peasants who saw an opportunity when Chinese government policy changed and allowed private businesses. They started manufacturing agricultural machinery in the 1960s. That business grew into Wanxiang Group Corp., the first Chinese supplier to sell components to North American automakers. The company today operates in 22 countries. In a 2015 interview, Guanqiu spoke of how he became successful: “I don’t think I’m in possession of any special secrets. The universal principle is to set a goal, then to work diligently and patiently towards it. I never thought of giving up, not once, because I believe that I have to do the work to benefit myself, instead of looking at it as doing it for someone else. Each time we have new employee training sessions, I always tell them the same thing — work hard for yourself, not for me.”