executive vice-president
Dick Brown
Former president of DeLorean Motor Cars of America who became executive vice-president of Zimmer Corporation, the parent of Zimmer Motor Cars, in April 1983.
The People Behind Zimmer
A mobile-home maker's family and staff built the original Zimmers in Florida; a Syracuse publisher and a body shop built the revival's. Who they were and what each did, with the two companies kept apart.
About the pictureThe El Segundo museum's Golden Spirit coupé, 2018: the kind of car these people made, not the people.
The Golden Spirit began as a chairman's sketch, and its name went on long after his company stopped making cars. Paul H. Zimmer's mobile-home company made it at Pompano Beach, Florida, from 1980 until 1988, with his son Bob at the head of the car company in its first years, and its second model, the QuickSilver, was drawn by a former General Motors designer, Don Johnson, not the actor. About 10 years after the plant closed, Art Zimmer, a Syracuse publisher of no relation, was selling new Golden Spirits again through a company of his own.
Those with records of their own have cards below, and the three above have pages. The others are here, under the company they worked for, with only what the sources record. No source read names anyone who worked for both.source 1source 2source 3source 4source 5
Zimmer Motor Cars and its parent, 1980–1989
Zimmer Motor Cars Corp. was the car-making arm of Paul Zimmer's mobile-home firm, and his son Bob was frank about why the family had gone into cars.
The philosophy of this company is really simple, … Whatever you do, you do to make money.
- 1982
Paul Hahn
Head of quality control, who road-tested every car himself, UPI reported that year.
- 1987
Tim McRoberts
Director of marketing support, who described Paul Zimmer to the Miami Herald that September.
- 1988
Pierre Stanis
Director of reorganisation when the parent filed for Chapter 11 in May 1988.
The parent's other businesses, its homes, motor homes and coaches, are in the history, and so is the story of how they took the car company down with them.source 1source 6source 7source 8
The revival and after, 1996–2016
Art Zimmer's company, Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Co., had its cars built under contract, from about 2000–01 by Sam's Auto Body, a Syracuse family firm founded in 1969, which said he had chosen it over shops in four other states and quoted him on why.
Sam's had the reputation as the largest, finest quality and best-equipped body shop in the area. I felt that's what was necessary to do the job.
- 1998
Art Zimmer's relatives
Two of his relatives set up the revival company's parts depot for the old cars near Roanoke, Virginia, on 1 September 1998, and from 2010 the website gave them as the contacts for its owners' club. After the sale of 2012, Hagerty reported, one of them kept the parts business and the other ran the Golden Spirit Club.
- 2003
People
chief executive
Eran Heyman
Software developer, as Hagerty described him in 2014, and head of Heyman Motors, LLC of Closter, New Jersey, which took the Zimmer trademarks from Art Zimmer's company in October 2012 and ran the Zimmer website until 2016.
designer
Don Johnson
Car designer, not the actor. A former General Motors designer, as Car and Driver and Zimmer's own literature describe him, he designed the Zimmer QuickSilver of 1986 to 1988. Car and Driver quoted him on the car in its road test of April 1987.
general counsel, president
Terry McMahan
Zimmer Corporation's general counsel from 1979 and its president and chief executive from August 1988, when he took the company through Chapter 11 after the Golden Spirit and QuickSilver plant had closed.
president
Carl Severe
President of Zimmer Motor Cars Corp. by 1987, the voice of the company's releases that year. When he took over from Bob Zimmer, and what he did before or after, is not known.
owner, founder
Art Zimmer
Syracuse, New York, businessman, publisher of the Syracuse New Times from 1984 to 2010 and no relation to the Zimmers of the original company. By his company's account he first saw a Zimmer in Syracuse in 1995, bought a 1987 car in March 1996 at his wife's urging, and that September started a club for Zimmer owners. In 1997 he founded Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Co., which filed a new trademark rather than buying the old company and built Golden Spirits on new Mustangs and Lincoln Town Cars in small numbers, on order only. He assigned the marks to Heyman Motors, LLC on 16 October 2012. His memoir, Making It Count: From A to Z, was published in 2015.
vice-president, president
Bob Zimmer
Paul H. Zimmer's son, who ran Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., the car company of Zimmer Homes (Zimmer Corporation from 1982), and spoke for it from 1981 to 1986 on its customers, dealers, exports and the QuickSilver. Vice-president in 1981 and president from 1982, he was still president in September 1986; when he left, and why, is not known.
designer, chairman
Paul H. Zimmer
American businessman, chairman and president of Zimmer Homes Corp., the Florida maker of mobile homes and recreational vehicles renamed Zimmer Corporation in 1982, whose car company built the original Zimmers. He told Forbes that the reaction to an Excalibur roadster he bought in 1976 convinced him his company could build such a car, and he drew the sketch from which its engineers developed the Golden Spirit, announced in November 1980. His son Bob ran the car company, Zimmer Motor Cars Corp. of Pompano Beach, which added the QuickSilver in 1986. Losses in the parent's housing, motor-home and coach businesses, not the cars, took Zimmer Corporation into Chapter 11 on 10 May 1988, and the car plant closed. He stood down as chairman at the start of 1989, citing his health, and stayed on the board. He was not related to Art Zimmer, who revived the name in 1997.
Sources
Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.
- Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
- Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
- Michael Langberg, "Zimmer has 'Golden Spirit'", Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel, 22 Mar 1981 (Sunday), p. 3F, p. 3F, the sketch and the family; p. 3F, Bob Zimmer's post and his words. Primary
- Patrick Bedard, "QuickSilver!", Car and Driver, Apr 1987, vol. 32, pp. 36–40, pp. 36–40, the designer. Primary
- Christopher Malone, "'M' is for Memoir: The A-B-Cs of Art Zimmer", Syracuse New Times, 16 Sep 2015, no relation to the original Zimmers. Reference
- Ellen Forman, Report on Zimmer Corporation's reorganisation plan, Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), 18 Jul 1989, the Pompano Beach plant, closed in May 1988. Primary
- Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Company, on nyautos.com, Zimmer Golden Spirit coupé and convertible pages on nyautos.com, Wayback Machine captures of 6 Dec 1998, 28 Jan 1999, 24 Apr 1999 and 12 Oct 1999, the first revival coupés. Primary
- J. P. Faber, "He produces immaculate autos for the filthy rich", St. Petersburg Times, from United Press International, 17 Oct 1982, Paul Hahn. Primary
- Joe Rhodes, "Autos as Art", Miami Herald, 20 Sep 1987, Tim McRoberts. Primary
- Ed Lopez, Report on Zimmer Corporation's Chapter 11 filing, Miami Herald, 11 May 1988, Pierre Stanis. Primary
- Sam's Auto Body, Syracuse, New York, "Zimmer" page, captures of 3 Aug 2002 and 1 Nov 2010, the Zimmer page and the About page; Art Zimmer's words. Primary
- Clifford Atiyeh, "Q&A: Art Zimmer explains his lavish, 'neo-classic' car craft", Boston.com (Boston Overdrive blog), 18 Sep 2009, the cars assembled in Syracuse. Primary
- Art Zimmer and Shirley Sherburne Zimmer and Lois Gridley, Making It Count: From A to Z, The Life and Times of Art Zimmer, Log Cabin Books, 2015, the builder named. Primary
- Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Co., Syracuse, New York, Zimmer Motor Car Company website (zimmermotorcars.com, 2000–2012), Wayback Machine captures, 3 Mar 2000 to 13 May 2012, history page, the parts depot; the club pages; the AmAC pages of 2003. Primary
- Jim Koscs, "All that Glitters is probably Fiberglass", Hagerty, 23 Oct 2014, Zimmer section: the parts business and the club after 2012. Reference
- United States Patent and Trademark Office (assignment recordation), Trademark assignment, reel 4882, frame 0146, executed and recorded 16 Oct 2012, the assignment of 16 October 2012. Primary