Reatta Engineer Encounter

Just stopped at the local NAPA store to pick up more light bulbs and cleaning supplies for the Reatta and another customer asked "Who's driving the Reatta?" We struck up a conversation and it turns out he (Don McEwin) was an engineer at the Craft Center back in the day. Buick laid off a bunch of people including him because of low senority and kept the senior engineers. He said he worked with Roger White (he stressed it was not the bigwig Roger White, but an engineer like himself) there. He works at the local Love's Truck Stop, so maybe in the future I can check with him about some Reatta issues.

I have a similar story..... At our local car club, we often stand, give our name and the cars we own. After the meeting a fellow stops me and ask if I had a Reatta and of course the answer was Yes.

His name was Hugh Bolen and he was responsible for the manufacturing of the doors. We later met a few times and he gave the the names of several other people in his department and what they worked on. He also showed me the Reatta model that was given to several of the people that worked (early) on the the car by Hawtal-Whiting Design and Engineering in England. They did the prototype assembly and debugging.

Hugh moved from Michigan to Texas in retirement and now lives about 4 miles from me....but does not own a Reatta. We also have Fred that worked at the Flint newspaper living here and he does have Reatta.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Model given out by Hawtal-Whiting.....probably rarer than a pewter Reatta model

Several forum members have met members of the GM Reatta Craft Center staff. Living in Michigan, I hope to as well. I have, several times, run into a Buick dealer who talked a bit about the Reatta. I really like hearing stories like this one.