Mulally, Nader Lead 2016 Hall of Fame Inductees

The Automotive Hall of Fame is adding former Ford CEO Alan Mulally, longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader, automotive pioneer Bertha Benz and engineering great Roy Lunn to its honor roll this year. The new members will be inducted during a ceremony on July 21 at Cobo Center in Detroit.

Ford hired Mulally as CEO in 2006. Securing a $23.5 billion loan, the former Boeing executive implemented the “One Ford” restructuring plan that transformed the carmaker and helped it survive the global financial crisis of 2008-09. He retired in 2014.

Nader’s seminal 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed about the rear-engine Chevrolet Corvair helped launch the automotive safety movement 50 years ago. More recently he has raised a caution flag about the potential dangers of automated vehicle technologies.

Benz is credited as being the first long-distance driver when she took a 66-mile trip with her two teenage sons in 1888 that helped promote the car invented by her husband Karl, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984. She also helped make several repairs to the vehicle during the trip.

Lunn joined Ford in 1953 to start a new research center in England. After the carmaker’s failed attempt to acquire Ferrari, Lunn led the development of the famed Ford GT40 race car that went to take the top three spots at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. He later joined American Motors Corp., where he developed the AMC Eagle four-wheel-drive car and Jeep Cherokee SUV.