(upbeat music)
- When you think of celebrities and cars,
who comes to mind?
Some people might think of Matthew McConaughey
and his Lincoln commercials,
Brie Larson and her Nissan commercials
or Mike Wazowski and his sick new ride.
(wheels screeching)
But I have a different name for you, Muhammad Ali.
Yeah, that Muhammad Ali.
The boxing legend,
the civil rights activist.
Every college freshmen dorm
had that photo of him standing over Sonny Liston
but did you know that he had a car company
based out of Brazil.
Tape up your hands and buckle up
because this story is gonna float like a butterfly
and sting like a...
I'm not gonna finish that sentence.
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Looking right into the sun.
These are not safety glasses.
- First off, how does someone like Muhammad Ali
and a small Brazilian car company like Puma meet?
In order to find out,
we need to do a little bit of backtracking
to answer questions like,
what is Puma?
And what kinda car was it?
Or how did Muhammad Ali get involved?
Before we get onto that,
we'll first need to take a brief look
at the history of the car industry in Brazil.
Pre 1950s, Brazil was a mostly agricultural nation
whose main export was coffee.
The only notable thing related to the car industry
was that Ford had been there since 1919
assembling Model T's in Sao Paulo.
However during 1950s,
the Brazilian government made efforts
to industrialize the country
and one of the big steps they took to achieve that
was to encourage domestic car production.
Brazil applied heavy import taxes
on vehicles that weren't produced in the country
and for a long period of time,
banned imports all together
and to be frank,
these import taxes and bans worked.
In order to avoid these new hurdles,
General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen
would all soon build their own factories within Brazil,
but before foreign companies set up shop,
this burgeoning industry
also spurred the creation
of local Brazilian automakers as well
and they were a little different.
These first Brazilian car companies
were mostly of the specialty and kit car variety.
One of these cars called the DKW Malzoni
was built in Sao Palo and gained popularity rather quickly.
Let me break down that name
so we understand what both DKW and Malzoni represent.
DKW was a German automaker.
They were actually one of the original
four auto union brands
and the Brazilian arm of the company was called DKW Vemag.
DKW Vemag focused on producing cars
for the Brazilian middle-class.
Malzoni was the name of the man that built the car,
Genaro "Rino" Malzoni.
He was a lawyer,
but also an avid car enthusiast and race car driver.
At DKW Vemag's request,
Malzoni was asked to build a competition car
based around DKW's three cylinder, two stroke engine
to compete in motor sport.
Originally when the car was built,
the steel body was too heavy
so they switched to fiberglass instead.
Soon afterwards it debuted in 1964
and the DKW Malzoni won its first race
at autodromo Jose Carlos pace aka interlagos that same year
not a bad start.
Following the win, the DKW Malzoni gained popularity
and Malzoni could not handle production on his own.
So he started a new company
with a few of his buddies to build these cars.
They called it the Lumimari company.
Something to keep in mind
is that it was very hard for these things companies
to keep up with the big brands from outside Brazil.
Lumimari production had started around 35 cars a year
but very quickly increased to 100.
There were two versions of the Malzoni,
the first version was called the Spartan.
It was used for racing and lacked luxury department
since it had little to no internal comforts.
So it was a pretty fitting name I'll give them that.
The other version was geared towards the general public
and was built to be more sophisticated.
It had upgrades like leather upholstery
to have that higher end field.
In 1966, the Lumimari company was renamed to Puma.
The Malzoni was now known as the Puma GT.
Not a terrible idea since saying,
"Oh, I bought a brand new DKW Malzoni,"
probably doesn't sound as enticing as,
"I bought a brand new Puma GT hell yeah dude."
This new version took the leap
from a limited production car
to a fully realized vehicle for consumers.
It sported a refresh design that had smoother lines
and was designed with a greater focus on daily driving.
The car was an instant success
and was praised for its awesome looks.
It was awarded Brazil's most beautiful car
by the magazine Quatro Rodas,
which included in its jury
the Italian Carrozzeria Nuccio Bertone
who was the designer of the Lamborghini Mira,
the Aspada and the Countach
so pretty big get for the magazine.
Meanwhile in 1967,
Volkswagen purchased DKW
and halted manufacturing of any DKW specific part.
Without a DKW chassis and motor to source,
the Puma GT needed to change its design.
Their new car was based around the rear engined
air-cooled Volkswagen Karmann Ghia sold in Brazil.
This meant that the Puma GT
was going from a front engine front wheel drive car
to a rear engined rear wheel drive car.
That's quite the shift from one generation to another.
I can't really think of many cars that have done that.
Usually it goes rear wheel drive to front wheel drive
not front wheel to rear wheel and rear engine, that's crazy.
The new car's design was inspired by the Lamborghini Mira
and Ferrari Dino 206GT.
This beautiful new car wasn't gonna be exclusive
to the Brazilian market either.
In the 1970s and into the 80s,
complete cars were being sent to Canada
and there was a kit car version sold in the US.
The buyer purchased the car without the front suspension
or transaxle or engine or wheels or tires or...
It's a lot of stuff.
You would have to supply the missing components
from a partner distributor
or the buyer could supply the needed parts themselves.
Go look in the junkyard for a Karmann Ghia
boom, you got your stuff.
Unfortunately however, harsh economic times
came upon Brazil in the 1980s
and it impacted Puma
causing them to file for bankruptcy.
The company was sold twice
once in 1985 and then again the next year
and that ladies and gents is when Muhammad Ali
comes into the picture.
In 1986 while the company was being sold
for the second time,
the production rights
had been sold to a firm called Araucaria vehicles.
I did my best.
Surprisingly, even during
this gloomy transition period for Puma,
they still had one loyal employee
that was still trying his best to help them.
Puma had a representative in Texas named Kevin Haines.
Why is this important?
Well, he was friends with Mohammad Ali.
Haines mentioned Puma to Ali
and convinced the retired boxer to invest in the company,
but I'm not even sure Haines
would have been expecting how involved Ali was about to be.
Muhammad Ali took Haines up on his offer,
actually went down to Brazil with an engineer
and an additional consultant
along with a lawyer and a buddy to learn more about Puma.
Soon after he formed the Ali vehicle industry
and decided they would produce
a new version of the Puma GT
called the Ali Stinger.
The car's development started quickly
and according to an article from 1987,
there were 20 prototypes of the stinger made
with a Porsche flat six from the 911 inside.
There were gonna be three different versions
of the Ali's stinger offered,
a hard top, a convertible
and the most expensive version
that would have had a sophisticated finish
with white and red seats for a sportier appearance.
The hype for this car was building.
Muhammad Ali remained heavily involved
from here on out as well.
He told the press all the things
you'd want the legendary Muhammad Ali to say about his car.
The Folha de S.Paulo newspaper quoted him saying,
"The car will be as I was in the ring.
It will flutter around like a butterfly
and sting like a bee.
He was showing up an ads for the car.
Tell me this isn't cool.
This is sick.
Ali had plans to expand sales to North America, Europe
and Saudi Arabia.
Ali would need help with that last part.
So he formed a deal with quite an interesting fellow
named Mohammed Al Fassi.
Mohammed Al Fassi
or self-proclaimed
"Sheik" Mohammed Al Fassi
was a Moroccan Saudi businessman
related by marriage
to the Saudi Royal family.
This guy is in the running for one of the most absurd people
to have ever lived okay?
It was rumored that he had a 170 member entourage,
an extra limousine for his personal camera crew
and at one time he had a title so long
that it took up a full page on his passport.
Al Fassi was known to send $50 to complete strangers.
if they wrote him a hard luck story
and he was quoted as saying
"I'm using all my power to help people,
Muslim, Jewish it doesn't matter.
I feel like I'm helping people
and it gives me satisfaction.
I kinda like that.
In 1982 though,
the Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida
demanded that he pay his $1.56 million bill.
Al Fassi came back and sued the hotel
for 1 billion claiming malicious prosecution.
This guy was on another level.
If you're liking the story so far,
go ahead and hit that like button,
it actually really helps us out.
and that's all I ask.
So what did Muhammad Ali and Mohammad Al Fassi have planned?
Well, Ali brokered a deal with "Sheik" Al Fassi
to order 400 special additions of the Puma P-108 convertible
to be called the Puma Al Fassi
and sell them throughout the middle east.
Some sources say it was 440 cars
others say 1,440 cars.
With Al Fassi being involved
who really knows.
Two prototypes were built around 1988 and 89
with a big old Al Fassi badge on the rear
and with smaller badges on the quarter panels.
The cars were gonna be imported from Brazil
but before they were sent off
they're actually were gonna be modified
in order to pass European car standards.
Basically the whole car was widened,
the headlight design was tweaked to be square sealed beams
instead of round
and the dash and interior materials were upgraded with wood.
Now at this point,
everything seems to be going pretty well right?
So why hasn't anyone heard of these cars?
Well, remember when I mentioned how eccentric Al Fassi was?
That came back to bite him.
Muhammad Al fast he publicly declared support
for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the Gulf war.
This declaration resulted in him being put
under house arrest in Saudi Arabia for three years
and then eventually banished from Saudi Arabia altogether.
He fled the country and took any movable assets
he could with him,
including two Boeing 707s.
His remaining assets in the towns
were either confiscated or frozen
killing his deal to bring over the Puma Al Fassi.
This was a fatal blow to Puma and Muhammad Ali's brand
because there was $36 million invested
into the production of the cars for Al Fassi.
Muhammad Ali was forced to give up production rights
of the Puma to another company called it Alpha Metals
who produce the final run of Pumas in Brazil.
This new financial turmoil
combined with Brazil lifting the ban
that stopped imported cars from coming into Brazil
was the last nail in the coffin to Puma.
Unfortunately, Pumas wild run
finally came to an end in 1995
until it came back what?
Unbelievably Puma returned in 2013 in South Africa
under the name Puma Automobiles.
In 2017, they revealed the Puma GT 2.4 Lumimary
of which there are only 10 to be made
and actually it looks pretty awesome
but just basically a whole new company now
and the only other car they make
has a really crazy name that I can't pronounce.
It's like Youabian
and it cost $1.1 million.
Most people only remember Muhammad Ali for his boxing
but his brief stint in the car industry
is without a doubt one of the craziest stories
I've told in this show.
There probably isn't another instance of a sports icon
who tried to sell cars
to a self-proclaimed sheikh in Saudi Arabia
using a south America based car company
that was facing constant financial struggles.
but you know what?
I can't blame them for trying.
Thanks for watching Wheelhouse.
I love doing international car stories like this one.
This one is pretty nuts.
If you're intrigued by the mystique
of Brazilians automotive history
check out our episode of Past Gas on a Fordlandia.
Henry Ford went down to Brazil and tried to start a factory,
it goes a little off the rails to say the least.
I love doing global stories like this.
If you know some weird obscure car history
outside of the US that nobody's really heard of,
let me know in the comments.
I'd never heard of this
until we looked into like Brazilian car history
and we're like, wait a minute this is really weird,
let's check that out.
Follow Donut on all social media at @donutmedia.
Follow me at @nolanjsykes.
If you want, I take car pictures sometimes.
Be kind, take care of each other
and I'll see you next time.