Peter Hanenberger is a German-born automotive specialist who worked all 45 years of his professional career for General Motors (GM) and subsidiaries. At the age of 16, he joined GM as apprentice in the Opel technical development center in Rüsselsheim, Germany, and retired at the age of 61 at the end of 2003 as chairman and managing director of Australian GM subsidiary, Holden, having served in a number of managerial positions at Opel, Holden, and General Motors internationally.

Beginnings

Peter spent most of his early career working for GM's Opel division in Germany as a vehicle tester and suspension engineer. In 1976 Hanenberger was approached by GM-Holden Australia to assist with suspension work on their vehicles, and with notice of a month from Opel, he was transferred there. During that year he assisted Holden with a new suspension tuning update for their cars, entitled RTS ("Radial Tuned Suspension"). Applied firstly to the

Holden Sunbird Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last three ...

, then to all other Holdens (and the

Vauxhall Chevette The Vauxhall Chevette is a supermini car that was manufactured by Vauxhall in the United Kingdom from 1975 to 1984. It was Vauxhall's version of the " T-Car" small-car family from Vauxhall's parent General Motors (GM), and based primarily on the ...

in New Zealand), it transformed the overall handling dynamics of the entire Holden range for the better in Australian road conditions. Well liked by the people at Holden for his genial and professional manner, Hanenberger left Australia to return to Opel in the early 1980s, becoming GM vice president and group executive of Opel's International Technical Development Centre (ITDC) in Rüsselsheim, Germany. In 1998, Hanenberger was in line to replace Gary Cowger as the head of Opel. However, the Opel supervisory board rejected Hanenberger and signaled that his contract won't be renewed.

Holden

In 1999, it was announced that Hanenberger was to be the new chairman and managing director of Holden. On assignment with Holden in the 1970s, Hanenberger had assisted Holden engineers with their "European look" design briefs, and upon his return in 1999, he implemented quality control and improved production engineering principles. After discovering that the prototype

Holden Monaro The Holden Monaro ( ) is a rear-wheel drive coupé manufactured by General Motors Holden in Australia from 1968 to 1975 and later reintroduced from 2001 to 2005. It was also manufactured as a 4-door sedan from 1973 to 1977. Three generations of ...

had been built by a group of enthusiastic and dedicated Holden engineers in their free time, Hanenberger encouraged the development of the prototype into production-readiness, and sought out export markets to guarantee the car's production. Hanenberger also consolidated the maker's exports programmes of its VT Commodore/ WH Statesman/Caprice platform, and the cars quickly became favorites in the Middle East, winning numerous motoring press awards. In 2003, he announced that he would retire, after spending about 45 years with GM.

Retirement

Hanenberger retired to his home town of

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

. As a farewell gift from Holden, they made him a once only special Holden Monaro. It is

left hand drive Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side or to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes referred to ...

(for Europe), with a special

Pontiac GTO The Pontiac GTO is an automobile that was manufactured by American automaker Pontiac from 1963 to 1974 for the 1964 to 1974 model years, and by GM's subsidiary Holden in Australia for the 2004 to 2006 model years. The first generation of the G ...

'' LS1''

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

. There was also a HRT0001 Monaro coupe Hanenberger had built as a special order company car when he was Holden CEO. This was a black Monaro CV8 with the Callaway ''C4B'' engine, GTO badging, unique interior trim, HSV brakes and HRT front and rear spoilers (same as HRT427) and was called "HRT Coupe 0001" this was the only "non-HSV" car to use a ''C4B'' engine. In a 2017 interview with Carsales, Hanenberger recounted his unrealised projects at Holden, and blamed the car maker's decision to cease production on interference and poor management from GM global headquarters.

References

External links

HRT/ Holden's Peter Hanenberger to Retire After 45 Years With GM

Hanenberger's hot farewell present
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanenberger, Peter General Motors former executives Opel people Holden former executives Living people 1942 births