1971
Establishment of the Shromet Corporation
Frustrated by the bloat and inefficiencies of Detroit in the face of import vehicles, Marc Shromet declares that he “could design a better car with his eyes closed” and that “laziness and corporate fat-asses are killing the domestic auto industry.”
1972 – the Shromet badge is born
1973 – Shromet unveils turbocharged engine
Utilizing a discarded all aluminum 4 liter V8 from one of the domestic companies, Marc Shromet and a team of 4 engineers put together a design which kept the performance of pre-emissions restricted engines while offering lower emissions and greater efficiency.
1974 – Shromet establishes Sommervile Assembly in Massachussets
Shromet is given a loan by the Massachusetts state government to retool and revitalize a plant formerly shuttered by a domestic failure in 1958.
1975
The Shromet Dragon: the first-ever Shromet
The design brief for the Shromet Dragon was ambitious: utilize advancements in Computer Assisted Design (CAD) with a highly aerodynamic body and computer controlled fuel injection systems. Dragon was designed to showcase the latest and greatest advancements in the auto industry. As a limited production run, the first Dragon was created with the intent of generating excitement around the technology. The car was initially praised for its high performance but was subject to multiple reliability issues later on.
1976 – Mexaco investement
After going public in 1976, Shromet is quickly subjected to a hostile takeover my Mexaco.
1978 – The Shromet Mystic: Bringing innovation to the masses
Not satisfied with offering a high-end GT car to showcase engineering innovations, Marc Shromet and his team set out to create a more mass market disruptor, a front wheel drive sedan aimed squarely at the mainstream market, a huge innovation for an American maker at the time. However, to save costs, the team bases their design on an ACA platform. The car is praised for engineering innovations, but issues like NVH and ride comfort, combined with its higher pricepoint, set it back from achieving Marc’s desired success.
1978 – Shromet CADC
The Shromet Computer Aided Design Center- Shromet opens a new design and manufactering facility utilizing multiple IBM System 370 Mainframes, with the goal of leading the automotive industry in computer design. The facility has since been rebranded to Shromet Digital Dreams and Beyond.
1979 – The Shromet Radiant: A Shromet for everyone
The Shromet design team create a follow-up to the Mystic sedan, the Radiant Sub Compact, utilizing lessons learned from the Mystic, and maxizing aerodynamics and computer controlled fuel injection systems, the car achieves an astonishing US 50MPG, and the Turbo version punches well above its weight, beating out much more expensive and powerful muscle cars, while achieving 30mpg. Shromet makes bold claims about leading the automotive industry in terms of computer design.
1980 – Incorporation into the Davalos Corporation
Seeing opportunity for engineering advancement during a deep struggle in the auto industry, historic American automobile company Davalos purchases a controlling stake into the Shromet Corporation, allowing for greater funding for future projects.
1983
The 2nd-Generation Shromet Mystic: Revolutionizing an industry
The Dragon proved a successful showcase for performance technology, but domestic manufacterers, particularly Davalos was still getting thier ass handed to them in the mainstream by competitive Japanese offerings. To combat this, Shromet made the Mystic. I’m gonna write more here about the revolutionary design of doorhandles or something
1985 – The first Shromet Interval: America’s Exotic
In the face of greater emissions and fuel economy regulations, Shromet retools the transverse FWD platform into a mid-engined two seater with the aim of creating a hyper efficient sports commuter styled by Zagato. The platform accommodates a full-size V8, which is added late in development. The resulting car proves to be immensely capable, competing with Italian imports for handling and acceleration, thus leading Shromet to dub the creation “America’s Exotic.”
1985 – Dragon MK2
The Shromet Dragon makes its historic return to production, this time, controversially to be built on the Mystic’s FWD platform, to show off the benefits and advancements Shromet made to packaging, maximizing interior volume, and offering superior handling on a front wheel drive platform.
1993
Cars & technology as one
In 1990, Shromet entered into a long term partnership with IBM in order to research and implement new vehicle technologies. This pioneers many of the electronic standards in cars today, such as of the Onboard Diagnostics II (OBD-II), as a way of unifying and standardizing vehicle diagnostics. They also introduced the use of in-car telematics like Onstar to communicate with outside sources.
1991 – The Shromet Netizen: A minivan for the digital age
in 1986, Shromet begins to develop their own vehicle in response to the growing popularity of the Minivan in the US. What started out as a simple re-bodied Mystic sedan became a hub for engineering prowess. The van would be marred by multiple delays as the company researched market leading innovations from the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), interior innovations like a rounded dashboard, and compact packaging to maximize interior volume. Totaling over 2 billion dollars in R&D, Netizen went on to be a massive sales success, due in part to a partnership with Gateway Computers who included a intel Pentium 3 powered Personal Computer (PC) with every Netizen Purchase.
1995 – LMC Partnership
Whilst the two companies were heated rivals in the world of GT1 racing for several years, LMC struggled to keep pace in the road car business without the budget to develop the electronics cars relied on. The two struck up a partnership to develop a parts sharing and compatibility program which would span the latter half of the 1990s. The project ultimately lost momentum by the turn of the millennia due to the controversial LMC Weezer and both companies went their separate ways.
1996 – Sprezzatura Purchase
With Luxury ambitions on their mind, Shromet purchases Sprezzatura in order to develop high-end vehicles.
2000
Upmarket aspirations
Ballooning costs of research projects like Netizen took a long time to recoup R&D; toward the latter half of the 1990s, the Shromet board was placed under pressure to produce quicker returns on massive research efforts, thus leading them to focus on premium and luxury offerings with higher margins.
2001 – Gen 3 Interval
The Gen 2 Interval received near universal praise for its sharp driving dynamics, so the succeeding Interval had to pull all the stops. Utilizing the engineering team from newly acquired Sprezzatura, a bespoke aluminum 5.9L V12 was developed: using lightweight casting technologies, the whole engine weighing in at under 400lbs. The car required a specialized platform and a brand new single clutch automated manual dubbed “Techniq-Shift.” While the vehicle attracted praise for its dynamic A-Wing design from LMC, the Gen 3 Interval’s premium objective struggled to prove as a sales success.
2003 – China & The Euphonix
Recognizing the importance of the developing Chinese Market, Shromet Engineers are sent overseas for 6 months to work closely with their Chinese counterparts and develop a full-sized luxury limousine. The resulting vehicle was the EUPHONiX. It was a radical design, introducing a fully digital gauge cluster and jade-lined interior. While the vehicle made quite the spectacle and drew in many crowds, being one of the first Western vehicles to make its global debut at the Shanghai auto show, the spectacle fell short financially. The vehicle was hugely expensive, even when compared to German and Japanese offerings, and the Shromet name did not carry much prestige overseas. It’s estimated that fewer than 5,000 EUPHONiX models were produced.
2005 – New Levine
one avenue where the Luxury rebrand did see success was with the gen 3 Levine. The car had originally pioneered the concept of the full size truck based luxury SUV, and the gen 3 improved on the concept by offering luxuries others did not have such as a stiffer partial unibody chassis and independent rear suspension, offering the comfort and quality of a comparable luxury sedan at a competitive price, it became the favorite of [REDACTED]
2008-2015
Financial Crisis & Liquidation
Davalos Motors was placed under intense scrutiny by shareholders in the wake of the financial crisis. In an infamous moment, Davalos’ CEO was interrogated in front of US Congress when Senator Dick Cheney asked “how the hell can you expect a bailout when you’re spending billions on jeweled cars for the Chinese?” This lead to massive spending cuts at Shromet, the company was ordered to dial back the research efforts wherever possible and focus on parts sharing and compatibility. The luxury efforts, including a planned SUV successor to the EUPHONiX, were scrapped.
2014 – Financial insolvency
Despite the orders and the multitude of cost cuts, Shromet was still deemed to be unprofitable and had no viable path to profitability, thus Davalos announced in late 2014 that it would be searching for a buyer for their Shromet assets, or even considered discarding the Shromet nameplate altogether.
2015 – Overseas partnership
After multiple failed attempts to sell parts or even the whole of Shromet to another corporation, ultimately the partnership was signed with the Chinese conglomerate Silfox Co., who agreed to acquire 51 per cent of the Shromet Corporation. Shromet would be dual-headquarted in both Boston, MA and Nanjing, China, and all EV models would be produced in China. The Company’s IBM partnership was spun off and eventually became Moore Threads GPU manufacterer.