"Escaping" the truck formula

Chief engineer Keith Takesawa guided the creation of a comfortable. roomy SW that survives Ford's truck tests.

He dreamed of flying jet fighters, but for most of his 27-year tenure at Ford Motor Co., Keith Takasawa has been piloting trucks. His latest project-- chief engineer of 0204 (the Ford Escape subcompact sport-utility and its European cousin, the Ford Maverick/puts the 49-year-old engineer atthe center of a crucial joint-development project with Ford affiliate Mazda. The program required Takasawa to move to Hiroshima, Japan, for more than two years.

Prior to the Escape,Takasawa was a business director in the Large Car Vehicle Center, working on projects such as the reconstituted Thunderbird.

He also headed up the 1995 revamp of the Ford Explorer and Ranger that included a new powertrain, and served as program manager for the first-generation Windstar minivan. He began his Ford career in 1973 on heavy-duty truck brakes.

Q: What was Ford's major input in this project?

A: Mazda has no real knowledge of the U.S. truck market so we brought our light-truck experience, That helped in numerous ways, including marketing concepts and equipment There were 250 Ford engineering requirements that had to be met Among the things driven by the Ford requirements were the ability for trailer towing, adequate engine cooling and safety-related design. The vehicle had to pass our truck durability tests. We expect the Escape to get a 5-star rating in the pavemment crash tests.

Q: How did you size up the competition as you started the Escape program?

A: In the entry-level sportutility segment, some of the competitors were too car-like, like the Honda CR-V The Toyota RAV4 is a unique animal, its substantially smaller We wanted to be bigger than that, so we settled on a size like the CR-U Butthe CR-V doesn't perform well in mud and sand. The RAV4 does better there. We also looked atthe Jeep Cherokee, and then as they came out the Nissan Xterra and Suzuki Grand Vitara. We think we're breaking new ground with the Escape.

The front compartment has almost as much room as a Grand Cherokee. It also has a wider track by two inches, although the body width is not much different

Q: Since Ford and Mazda were both doing their own programs before the tIZ04 program started, why didn't you use one of the existing projects?

A: After the programs came together, we took one more hard look atthe joint platform stables. Butthe answer was that there were too many customer compromises with any of the existing platforms. With the Contour; rf you kept the chassis and floor pan, then the people package was very inferior To meet the durability requirements, you would have to rework the underbody structure and make changes to accept an independent rear suspension. And there were rear seat issues with the Contour

Mazda had similar problem areas, particularly in durability. The 626 platform had a bigger package area. We could have patched the platform to make it work, but then you would need to rework the structure far the rear suspension.

Q: What was your reaction when told that the Escape would be Ford's first production hybrid-electric vehicle?

A: My first reaction was noc one of terror I thought this is really neat, this is the best vehicle to do a hybrid on. We need bo be developing cleaner vehicles, and mainstream vehicles with the flexibility and capability of an SW is dead on. To make the biggest impac you need to make HEVs out of mainstream vehicles.

Dale Jewel