DBUSINESS DAILY NEWS Elwood Haynes, Luca di Montezemolo, Roger Penske, and Ratan Tata will be inducted into Dearborn’s Automotive Hall of Fame at an awards ceremony in July. “We are pleased to honor four individuals whose entrepreneurial spirit helped create today’s global automotive industry,” says William Chapin, president of the Automotive Hall of Fame. “Each made their unique vision a reality through tenacity and creativity.” Haynes was the co-founder of the Haynes-Apperson Automobile Co., which

By Matt Wolfe Windshield wipers are an innovation that hardly anyone gives a second thought today. They have been standard on nearly every vehicle since the early 20th century, and over that time the basic design has barely evolved. Its invention and commercial success came thanks in large part to a pair of innovative individuals who, despite sharing a name, were completely unrelated and never actually met. One winter day in 1902, a young woman

By Matt Wolfe A genius of engineering and product development, Francois Castaing was an integral part of Chrysler’s success throughout the 1990’s. If not for Castaing, nameplates like Grand Cherokee and Viper may never have gotten off the drawing board. After serving as Technical Director for Renault Sport, Castaing came to the U.S. from France in 1980 to work at AMC in product development. He was deeply involved with projects like XJ Cherokee, and it