A company headed by Muhammad Ali announced plans Tuesday...
Dec. 23, 1986
RACINE, Wis. -- A company headed by Muhammad Ali announced plans Tuesday for a $10 million auto plant employing at least 300 people in hand building luxury cars.
'Muhammad Ali will be president of Ali Motors, a subsidiary of Diversified Mobility Inc.,' said Clayton Nielsen, president of Nielsen Building Systems Inc.
The firm plans to produce at least 3,000 hand-built luxury cars each year at the plant, said company attorney John Couture.
The first line of cars will be called the Ali-3WC, 'meaning Ali, champion of the world three times,' Nielsen said.
The first 100 cars will be sold domestically and will be targeted for celebrities. 'Most of the remainder of the first 3,000 would go to Saudi Arabia and Muslim countries where Ali is popular,' Nielsen said.
The cars, priced from $30,000 to $40,000, would use the frame and engine of General Motors Corp.'s Pontiac Fiero, Couture said.
'We plan to hire approximately 300 to 450 people, trying to draw from the Racine and Milwaukee local area,' Nielsen said.
Nielsen also is a partner in the real estate company which is selling the land for the project.
The new company will buy about 10 acres from Delta Real Estate Development Corp. No. 3, Nielson said. Delta consists of Nielsen Building System officers.
'We will be putting up a 77,000-sqare foot manufacturing plant, a 10,000-square foot plus office and administration building, including a memorabilia room of Ali's artifacts.
'Engineering drawings will start immediately for the plant layout,' Nielsen said. Construction should begin in late February or early March and take six to nine months for completion of the entire facility.
Prototypes should be completed in two to three months.
The Caledonia Town Board gave initial approval Monday night to issuing $10 million in industrial revenue bonds to pay for construction of the plant.
Apparently the same man, Joe Palumbo, that designed the Aldino and Enterra designed this car.
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