(FORTUNE Magazine) – For all the excitement the computer industry has stirred up here at the approach of the 21st century, it is still dwarfed by that most 20th century of businesses: the auto industry. And let's face it, most of us get a lot more lathered up when we set off to buy a new car than when we shop for a laptop. In other words, New Economy be damned, cars still matter. For more than 20 years now, Alex Taylor has been covering the perennially fascinating landscape that we loosely call "Detroit"--first for the Free Press, then for our sister publication Time, and since 1986 for FORTUNE.

In this issue, Taylor discovers a vibrant new global company called--Ford. "It's the great thing about covering the auto companies," says Alex. "They're always changing. Ford is a completely different company than it was five years ago. They're thinking about new things, reacting more quickly. They get it. They're acting less like a car company and more like a business." Of course, he adds, "obviously Chrysler and Daimler get it too." A close Ford watcher, Alex was the first journalist to report the news two years ago that Jacques Nasser would ascend to the job of Ford's No. 2 executive. And now he's spent time with Nasser, his boss, Alex Trotman, and other Ford executives to learn just how Ford has managed to reinvent itself, outstripping GM profits in what has become nearly an annual occurrence.

For the past couple of years, senior editor Sue Zesiger has broadened FORTUNE's auto coverage by test driving everything from Ferraris to Chevy Suburbans to muscle motorcycles. For a profile to accompany Taylor's Ford story, she spent a great deal of time with Nasser, a passionate "car man" who showed her some of his hot new stuff on Ford's test track in Dearborn, Mich. "Considering how much time Jac spends on jets, his heel-and-toe technique is impressive," says Sue. "His friend [race-car driver] Jackie Stewart thinks he may have missed his calling."