Creating a Car Company From Scratch

By Christopher A. Sawyer 

Ansar Ali. Ex-Ford, ex-Lotus, ex-Caterham and reluctant cheese magnate turned CEO of Zenos Cars.“I’m a mechanical engineer by first degree,” says, Zenos Cars CEO Ansar Ali “and a pretty bad one at that. So, like any engineer who realizes he’s not going to be a good one, I went and got an MBA. While I was in business school, I was recruited by Ford, and I joined the company in 1991, and had seven great years.” That’s when Ali became involved in the family business, something he calls a “cardinal mistake”. According to Ali, “My uncle had a very large cheese making business, and he asked me to join with a view of taking over. We made 10 tons of cheese per day, and this caused me to lose any desire I ever had to eat the stuff. After a couple of years, I decided this wasn’t for me.” 

Recruited by Lotus in early 2000, Ali was general manager of the U.K. and Europe, and thought he was joining the company at one of its high points when Managing Director Chris Knight suddenly put him charge of cleaning up after the M250 sports car program was canceled. “There was quite a lot of fallout with the dealers, customers and PR, and from 2000-2005 I went through three MDs, Chris Knight, Victor Kiam and Kim Olgaard-Nielsen. (Olgaard-Nielsen’s reign often was referred to by Lotus insiders with a Star Trek mindset as the “Wrath of KO-N.” He was not well liked.) 

It was at this point that Ali crossed paths with Mark Edwards, who would later help run the show at both Caterham and Zenos Cars. “He was sort of Chris Knight’s righthand man, and we got to know each other when Chris was putting together various cost-down, cash flow and other firefighting teams to stem the bleeding. Mark, a production engineer by degree, was pulled out of one of these task forces, and became Knight’s go-to troubleshooter. If there was a problem, he would parachute in.” Like Apple’s legendary CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs, Edwards is a binary, all black or white, manager who shakes things up by drilling down to the essentials. “We complement each other very well,” says the loquacious, always smiling Ali. 

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Derek Warwick In His Own Words

With a given name like Derek Stanley Arthur Warwick, you would have expected the man with this moniker to be a British banker or politician, not a racing driver. Like Chris Amon, who returned to sheep farming after his Formula One career ended, Warwick never won a grand prix. However, it wasn’t for lack of talent or trying.

Warwick rose from the backwaters of British stock car racing to drive for the Toleman, Renault, Brabham, Arrows, Lotus and Footwork F1 teams. However, he always seemed to join up after the glory years were over, just before major changes took place within the team that stunted its potential, or stayed with teams too long. It was the latter situation that saw him stay with Renault rather than sign with Williams-Honda, a move which opened the door for Nigel Mansell’s rise to stardom.

Many remember him as the man Ayrton Senna refused to race alongside at Lotus. Senna, at the time a future world champion, wanted the team built around him and attending to his needs. Warwick’s contract, which the Team Lotus principals ultimately refused to sign after aggressively courting the British star, called for equal status with Senna. The Brazilian, however, felt Lotus was incapable of fielding two number one drivers, and worked behind the scenes to have the agreement with Warwick nullified. Surprisingly, Warwick doesn’t hold a grudge and, as the video shows, he feels Senna was doing what he needed to in order to win. When he returned to Lotus years later, the team was a shadow of its former self.

This was not the first or the last major disappointment in Warwick’s racing career, the worst being the on-track death of his younger brother Paul in a Formula 3000 race. This tragedy galvanized Warwick, and led to a campaign to improve circuit safety. It also led to a memorable confrontation with then-Sauber Group C driver Michael Schumacher that ended with Warwick coming close to choking the young driver on the conference table in the Sauber motor home.

Warwick was successful in racing’s top ranks, however, driving for the Jaguar sport car team in 1986 and 1991, as well as Peugeot Talbot Sport in 1992. That was the year Warwick won at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. All is recounted in the video. It is a fascinating interview. — CAS

Jim Clark, 45 Years On

Colin Chapman and Jim Clark, Indy 1965This past Sunday, April 7, marked the 45^th anniversary of the death of two-time Formula One World Champion Jim Clark in a Formula 2 race at the Hockenheim in Germany. It was an inconsequential race that took the life of a driver with truly transcendent talent.

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