Detroit model is outdated: veteran auto exec

By Chang-Ran Kim, Asia autos correspondent

TOKYO (Reuters) - As a young engineer at Honda Motor Co Ltd in the early 1970s, Shoichiro Irimajiri recalls thinking the Japanese carmaker could never hope to rival the might of Ford Motor Co.

In 1973, the Detroit giant shipped three dozen of its Galaxie sedans over to be fitted for Honda's CVCC engine system to clear new emissions regulations in the United States.

"I took a spin in that car and thought to myself, 'We could never build anything like this,'" Irimajiri, now co-chairman of Japanese parts maker Asahi Tec, told Reuters, remembering the exhilarating ride of the high-powered machine.

"For me, the Big Three were at the pinnacle of the industry, somewhere above the clouds."

It didn't take long for Irimajiri to change his mind.

Dispatched to Ford for four months for the CVCC project the following year, he noticed something odd. His counterparts in Dearborn, Michigan seemed to know less than the Honda team, who were schooled in the complete engineering process -- from the drawing board to the testing ground.

At first, he assumed he was meeting only junior staff, but his conviction grew as he got to know engineers higher up the ranks.

"That was 1974, when I started to think we had a shot at beating them," said the 68-year-old Irimajiri, a well-known, long-time industry insider who also had a stint on the board of top U.S. supplier Delphi after leaving Honda in 1992.