French engineer Francois Castaing, along with product development ace Bob Lutz, design chief Tom Gale and several other key executives were part of a dream team of brash, scrappy leaders that turned Chrysler into America’s hottest car company in the 1990s.
Castaing was just 35 when he was dispatched to the U.S. in 1980 by Renault, the French automaker that had just bought American Motors Corp. His job: Run product engineering and development at AMC. Castaing, along with chief engineer Roy Lunn, created the industry-changing Jeep Cherokee in 1984, which kicked off the SUV boom that is still going strong.
Castaing, who retired at the young age of 52 in 1998, died Wednesday. He was 78.
Castaing’s early jobs in racing — he worked on engines for cars that ran the 24 Hours of Le Mans and then rose to become technical director of Renault’s racing division — colored his approach to product development in his Chrysler years. It was all about speed and efficiency.
He played a major role in the development of the big rig-styled Dodge Ram, and the Dodge Viper, Chrysler Cirrus, Dodge Stratus and Neon, and Chrysler’s minivans.
It was Castaing who developed the concept of platform teams, breaking down the silos between departments, such as engineering, purchasing and design.
“He was the foundation of our success. Francois believed in speed, simplicity, minimum bureaucracy, don’t over-analyze and go to hardware right away,” Lutz told Automotive News. “He had an interesting way of challenging people and getting the best out of them.”
Paul Wilbur, a product planner who worked with Castaing on the cab-forward LH cars — the Chrysler Concorde, Eagle Vision and Dodge Intrepid — that debuted in 1993, said the platform team approach changed everything. “The whole company was split from chimneys and silos into platform teams, and it was really revolutionary,” said Wilbur.
“I remember very vividly talking about line rates with manufacturing guys and color choices and how many colors we should have. These were discussions that typically product planning and marketing wouldn’t have … with manufacturing,” Wilbur said.
“Between Lutz, Gale and Castaing, Chrysler would not have been the same without one of the three. It took all three to make legendary greatness,” said Wilbur.
Another 1990s Chrysler executive, Bud Liebler, head of marketing and communications, said Castaing’s heavy French accent did not impede his ability to get things done.
“He was ambitious, hardworking, aggressive and strong. When he had something to say, he said it loud and clear. He didn’t care who was bothered by it,” Liebler said. “He caught Lee Iacocca’s eye pretty fast. Castaing was probably the main guy setting up the platform teams, a huge innovation for the industry.”
Castaing, along with many other executives, didn’t stick around for the DaimlerChrysler merger in 1998. After he retired, Castaing’s love of engineering and racing never waned. He raised around $30 million to rebuild the Detroit Science Center and served on numerous corporate boards as well as the board of FIRST, the high school robotics competition founded by inventor Dean Kamen.
He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2010.