Pub. 1 2019-2020 Issue 3

16 T im Corcoran, the Executive Director of California’s New Motor Vehicle Board (NMVB), learned to drive in his father’s 1989 Ford F-150, it was equipped with an inline 4.9 liter six cylinder and three-speed with “granny low” manual transmission. His father was adamant that he be able to drive a manual transmission, as he insisted that automatics were less efficient, unreliable, and surely would be a thing of the past before too long – his father also favored 8-tracks and swore the Betamax would defeat VHS as the video standard. The F-150, serving as the “family car” despite being a regular cab, was outfitted with a bench seat from a 1979 Ford Fairmont (salvaged from the previous family car) bolted to a sheet of plywood and facing rearward in the pickup’s long bed. Tim went on to own that F-150 much later, after his 1988 Ford Escort lost a timing belt on Interstate 580, in Oakland, in rush hour. Meet Your Regulator: Tim Corcoran, Executive Director, NewMotor Vehicle Board Alisa Reinhardt, Director of Regulatory Affairs, CNCDA