The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 103

BY PAUL GRESCOE i) V. 1. J-tf And introducing the president of Manic Automobiles a Japanese -educated expatriate Frenchman and judo expert who paints his brown shoes black when he has to wear a tuxedo. Beat that 4 VV 4 3 i Henry Steinberg's father had told him -Henry, don't invest any more of the family's money in manufacturing concerns. There'd been that terrible time with the snowmobile company they'd had to sell the year before.

Now here was this little Frenchman, Jacques About was his name, sitting in Henry Steinberg's law office in Montreal, trying to sell him the idea of bankrolling another manufacturing concern a company to build a brand-new car. A sports car. Steinberg had never driven a sports car in his life. And this sports car was supposed to be Canadian. Never mind building the thing, how could anybody get enough cash together to distribute and service the car across the country? Ridiculous.

Then Jacques About showed Henry Steinberg a color photograph of the car. My God. It was beautiful. And Jacques About was charming perhaps it was a bit snobbish to think so, but there was something so delightfully continental about him and for a man who was only five-foot-four and 32 years old, he was very self-assured. Oh well, father was in Florida anyway.

So the Manic GT the first modern car to be designed and built in Canada in any numbers began to happen. That was a year ago. Since then, investments and loans for $1,500,000 from two Quebec financial families (Jack Steinberg and Son and Placement Bombardier), a Quebec government pension fund, and the provincial and federal governments have allowed Les Automobiles Manic to open a factory with 150 employees in Granby, Que. Thirty-five prototype cars have been produced and sold in the last two years, and this month, the first standard Manic GTs are coming off a very slow assembly line five a day, 1,300 the first year. About says the company needs to sell only 1,032 a year to break even.

Jacques About (pronounced A-boo) has no blinding ambition to compete with Ford by trying to build another style of the popular Mustang although the Manic's chopped-off rear end could be mistaken for a Mustang's. "We want to be the Ferrari of Canada," he says, grabbing for a comparison and that one's not so far-fetched. The lines of the Manic's front end and profile are elegant enough to be mentioned in the same paragraph as the Italian Ferrari. However, it contrasts favorably to the Ferrari in two crucial areas: the Manic costs S3, 384, or less than the cheapest Ferrari, and it will have many more North American dealers. In an inspired bit of planning, About put the Manic on the French-built chassis of a boxy Renault, with transmissions, axles, wheels and other parts from four different Renault models.

Any special Manic-made part will be delivered anywhere in North America within a day. Manics are expected to be sold through Jacques About (left), Manic's president, taught Pierre Trudeau judo. With him is his production manager, Leo Broderick. The price tag on the Manic will be $3,384. most of the 600 Renault dealers in North America and serviced by Renault-franchised garages.

Despite its cannibalized French components, the Manic still has 67 per cent Canadian content. The body was designed by About and electronics expert Serge Soumille in fibreglass-reinforced plastic, and it makes the Manic look about as much like the Renault as a Mercedes-Benz looks like a Volkswagen. Chris Allan, motor racing writer for the Montreal Gazette, saw the new Manic recently and said: "They've tried to put together a smart little road car and they've done it." He doesn't like the scooped-out front deck, but he says "from the windshield back, it's excellently designed, very aerodynamic, very smooth. The dashboard layout is sexy as hell, full of gadgets, but they're all functional dials. The seats are very firm they give excellent lateral support to your hips and your legs; it's probably one of the best driving positions I've tried since the English Lotus.

What they've done in two years is incredible." The standard Manic has two bucket seats, a 65-hp. engine that can hit 105 m.p.h. (optional motors will take it up to 22.