{"id":18283,"date":"2018-08-09T07:00:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=18283"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:24:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:24:48","slug":"catapulting-creativity-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2018\/08\/catapulting-creativity-part-3.html","title":{"rendered":"Catapulting Creativity – Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the qualities of an \u201centhusiast\u2019s car\u201d is authenticity. From hard core track bits like the Viper ACR\u2019s brake ducts and X-wing to the hollowed-out Air-Catcher headlamp that sucks air into the air intake of the SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat, the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and the 1320, when engineers and designers can tag team a problem to come up with a functional, elegant solution, it almost always stems from their own experiences on the track. So much of that car\u2019s authenticity is directly correlated with the authenticity of the men and women building it.<\/p>\n

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With the type of work Jeff Gale has put in on performance vehicles, both one-off concepts and production cars, it\u2019s not exactly a shocker that he has a background in racing. It started innocently enough, as do most addictions. A little taste, a simple autocross, was all it took. Long story short, the track events became more involved, the cars became quicker, and, well…<\/p>\n

\u201cSo racing started to consume your life?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh god yeah, totally!” Jeff replied. “So it was what can you do to modify a past or save enough money to buy a suspension or coilovers or an exhaust or a cam or something, you know, to make the car go faster?\u201d<\/p>\n

He was working at GM at the time while auto-crossing his winter beater, a red 1990 Honda CR-X Si. As fate would have it, one of Jeff\u2019s autocross buddies introduced him to his roommate, none other than Ralph Gilles. Ralph told them about all the track events coming up and soon the sickness had spread to include road racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAutocross is fun. It teaches you how to be smooth, how to get on and off power. But a road course, that\u2019s the ultimate. You can go as fast as you want and really learn about your abilities and car control.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A 5-speed 2.4L 1997 Chevy Cavalier Z24 was his daily driver, canvas and racecar. \u201cDon\u2019t laugh!\u201d, he tells me, as I laugh. Jeff had done enough to it, though, that people often would ask him what kind of car it was! Not many folks were modding Cavs with springs, big wheels and exhaust, and de-badging kept it clean.<\/p>\n

After a season of tracking the Z24, Jeff bought a dedicated track car. Much to his dad\u2019s chagrin, Jeff\u2019s weapon of choice was another imported Honda, but those old Civics made for relatively cheap thrills on the track.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI really got into the track events pretty enthusiastically and wound up building a car for it. I bought a 1994 Civic hatchback. I knew I was going to swap the motor over to a twin cam motor, and in the end, wound up with a car that had everything to a fully adjustable suspension. Adjustable tow, camber, front and rear; I was able to set the ride height via the lightweight coilovers, they were valved for track use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Add that to race tires on lightweight wheels and bigger brakes and everything on the car made it either \u201chandle better, go faster, or stop more quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Frank the Tank so aptly put in the classic movie Old School<\/i>, \u201cShe wasn\u2019t exactly street legal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI drove it on the street, \u2018cause it was a lot of fun; it was noisy, loud and caused kind of a ruckus and whatnot. In the end, I had a chromoly roll cage in the car, a couple of red Sparco race seats and some harness belts in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The racecar was all business, but \u201cpretty stealthy.\u201d It was built to corner, yet remain capable in a straight line, putting down mid-12-second passes in the \u00bc mile! That was doing something in the late \u201990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was bigger than just that car; it was about me as a designer learning how stuff works! How does a car work, what does a suspension do, what can you do to a suspension to make it handle one way versus another, or go faster? It was a huge learning tool for me, albeit very expensive, but just doing that \u2018wrenching on the car\u2019 thing to me was fun and maybe at some points a stress relief.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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He nods to his shop space and the work in progress Dart, \u201cSo here I am in this garage now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff might still be wrenching and building, but his racing days came to an abrupt end, because family always comes first.<\/p>\n

Jeff met his wife Riva on a blind date in the late \u201990s. They clicked right away and got married in 2002.<\/p>\n

Currently, Jeff is Chief Designer for Dodge and SRT Interior Design, and his wife\u2019s experience has been very helpful in him becoming comfortable in the new role:<\/p>\n

\u201cRiva was driven and had her own career,\u201d Jeff says, referring to before they were married. \u201cShe graduated from Wayne State with a fashion design degree, but wound up working in automotive, being in Detroit, as a harmony in craftsmanship engineer. So being in interiors right now, this is good for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going back in time again to when they started a family, Jeff found himself faced with the question of mortality asked by, of all people, his dad.<\/p>\n

\u201cRiva was pregnant with Sophia when I gave my dad a ride around the racetrack, and he was pretty dumbfounded at how fast I could go around the track. So here I am talking about going faster and getting wider tires and he seemed a little nervous about that. He said, \u2018What about that wall at the end there, what happens if you get hurt? What happens to Riva and the baby?\u2019 So that was like the nail in the coffin.\u201d<\/p>\n

My reaction was one of laughter: \u201cThat\u2019s hilarious coming from the guy (Tom Gale) who designed the car that everyone calls a killer on the track, the Viper, and it being such a wild car, saying, \u2018you probably shouldn\u2019t race anymore.\u2019 Kind of ironic!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff stopped racing, but has zero regrets. \u201cRacing was expensive.<\/em> I was able to save more money for the kids, and we wound up with 3 beautiful girls now (in addition to the oldest, Sophia, Riva and Jeff have twin girls: Lily and Lauren). I\u2019m blessed in that I\u2019ve done well enough in my career to do the things I do, I guess I\u2019m really lucky in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to that career. In the year 2000, Jeff received a call from Mark Allen, who was a design manager for Jeep\u00ae<\/sub> at the time (Mark has been the head of design for Jeep now since 2009).<\/p>\n

\u201cYou kinda gotta know Mark. He\u2019s a straight-to-the-point kind of guy,\u201d Jeff says.<\/p>\n

Mark: \u201cHey. How ya doin\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff: \u201cPretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark: \u201cWhat are you up to?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff: \u201cJust finishing up this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark: \u201cOh, that\u2019s cool. Wanna come work for us?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up having an interview that weekend and started working there in a couple of weeks,\u201d Jeff recalls.<\/p>\n

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Since then, Jeff has been involved with a bunch of crazy, cool and influential vehicles. He worked exterior design on the first Charger and Magnum built on the LX platform and all 3 of the first SRT8\u00ae<\/sup> cars. He was an exterior designer and manager on one of my favorite concepts, the 2009 Challenger 1320, which obviously has spawned not only the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, but also the \u201919 R\/T Scat Pack 1320 Challenger just unveiled. Those are just a few of the many projects Jeff had a hand in shaping.<\/p>\n