Booted From Ford, Raj Nair Shows Up at Ford GT Builder Multimatic

by Steph Willems

Published: May 18th, 2018

booted from ford raj nair shows up at ford gt builder multimatic

Raj Nair, former executive vice-president of Ford Motor Company and head of its North American region, has joined the company that built his car.

Nair took delivery of a Ford GT — a vehicle he helped develop during his time as product development boss and chief technical officer — shortly before his sudden and murky February exit from the company. Well, he’s now president and CEO of Multimatic Motorsports, Canadian builder of the GT.

Road & Track broke the news on Friday, with Multimatic marketing vice-president Michael Guttilla telling the publication, “Raj brings extensive knowledge, perspective and skills in engineering, manufacturing, management and overall auto industry experience to Multimatic. These qualities will help Multimatic attain another level of performance for our customers.”

“The addition of Raj to our leadership team was about making a great company even better. His skill-set is perfectly aligned with Multimatic’s core competencies and purpose,” Guttilla added.

Nair was appointed to the top position on May 7th. It seems Nair himself spilled the beans before anyone else, announcing his new role in a post at FordGTForum.com.

The executive’s departure from Ford came after an internal investigation revealed “inappropriate behaviour” on the part former former exec. A tip sent to the company from a single employee sparked the investigation. Ford claimed Nair’s behaviour was “inconsistent with the company’s code of conduct,” though details of whatever sparked his ouster never surfaced.

Multimatic, based in Markham, Ontario, is neck-deep in motorsports. Besides its expertise in car design and track support, the company engineers endurance racing components like its DSSV spool-valve dampers. That’s in addition to its contract to build EcoBoost-powered Ford supercars.

Shortly after turning away a stampede of buyers for its limited-edition 2017-2018 Ford GT, Multimatic announced a two-year extension of GT production, with those left on the waiting list now first in line.

[Image: Ford Motor Company]

#Executives #FordGT #JobChanges #Multimatic #RajNair

Steph Willems

More by Steph Willems

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 6 comments

Raph on May 19, 2018

Out the way Raj so I can see that sweet Heritage GT!

Like Reply
JimBot on May 21, 2018

Garbage out, garbage in is that the saying? Sad!

Like Reply

Recent Comments

HotRod Not me personally, but yes - lower prices will dramatically increase the EV's appeal.
Slavuta "the price isn’t terrible by current EV standards, starting at $47,200"Not terrible for a new Toyota model. But for a Vietnamese no-name, this is terrible.
Slavuta This is catch22 for me. I would take RAV4 for the powertrain alone. And I wouldn't take it for the same thing. Engines have history of issues and transmission shifts like glass. So, the advantage over hard-working 1.5 is lost.My answer is simple - CX5. This is Japan built, excellent car which has only one shortage - the trunk space.
Slavuta "Toyota engineers have told us that they intentionally build their powertrains with longevity in mind"Engine is exactly the area where Toyota 4cyl engines had big issues even recently. There was no longevity of any kind. They didn't break, they just consumed so much oil that it was like fueling gasoline and feeding oil every time
Wjtinfwb Very fortunate so far; the fleet ranges from 2002 to 2023, the most expensive car to maintain we have is our 2020 Acura MDX. One significant issue was taken care of under warranty, otherwise, 6 oil changes at the Acura dealer at $89.95 for full-synthetic and a new set of Michelin Defenders and 4-wheel alignment for 1300. No complaints. a '16 Subaru Crosstrek and '16 Focus ST have each required a new battery, the Ford's was covered under warranty, Subaru's was just under $200. 2 sets of tires on the Focus, 1 set on the Subie. That's it. The Focus has 80k on it and gets synthetic ever 5k at about $90, the Crosstrek is almost identical except I'll run it to 7500 since it's not turbocharged. My '02 V10 Excursion gets one oil change a year, I do it myself for about $30 bucks with Synthetic oil and Motorcraft filter from Wal-Mart for less than $40 bucks. Otherwise it asks for nothing and never has. My new Bronco is still under warranty and has no issues. The local Ford dealer sucks so I do it myself. 6 qts. of full syn, a Motorcraft cartridge filter from Amazon. Total cost about $55 bucks. Takes me 45 minutes. All in I spend about $400/yr. maintaining cars not including tires. The Excursion will likely need some front end work this year, I've set aside a thousand bucks for that. A lot less expensive than when our fleet was smaller but all German.