Francois Castaing, French engineer, who helped turn Jeep from a small off-road brand to a big market player, has died at the age of 78.
Castaing made the Dodge Viper’s design, and he also helped push Jeep in that way. Castaing was born in Versailles, France, and went on to have a successful career that lasted more than 30 years. During that time, he worked for Amedee Gordini’s race team and then for Renault.
After his first race at Le Mans, where he won, he moved on to Formula 1. After Castaing joined American Motors, which was a partner of Renault in the United States, he made the smaller Jeep Cherokee.
This car became the basis of both AMC and Chrysler in the long run. In 1984, Castaing quit his job at American Motors. His work at Jeep was a big reason why the SUV market grew in the U.S. and around the world.
After Chrysler bought Jeep and AMC, Castaing was put in charge of making the LH-platform cars. Because of this, the time it took to make the product was cut in half, from 50 months with the old system to 39 months with his way. He then put the engineers at Chrysler into groups called “platform teams,” where everyone worked on one platform and saw it through to production.