Thanks to Tom Falconer for these great Design Staff photos. Some of the photos in this collection is of an Advanced Design scale model show. If anybody knows more information about the show or the designers, please email me. As additional information becomes available, I will update the post.
I vaguely remember seeing a full-size fiberglass model of a Mitchell design with four distinct fender forms that was nicknamed the “four-fendered farkle” by its detractors. I don’t remember if this was it or not. I have been told there were several such designs proposed. There was another full-size Mitchell design model (that may have been designed by Hank Cramer) called the “Phantom.” If memory serves me correctly, Mitchell wanted to make it into a running car for his retirement, but corporate said no.
Gary,
Wild scale model designs. I remember seeing the Four-Fendered Farkle, yes the photos are it, in the warehouse across 12 Mile Road shortly after I started working at Design Center in 1977. It had a futuristic Oldsmobile look about it. Probably destroyed sometime shortly after I saw it. I also remember seeing the 1964 Runabout Shopper and the Firebird lV. But never since.
Glen
Gary,
The “Four-Fendered Farkle” and the “Phantom” were both done in Studio X for Bill Mitchell. Studio X was located at the north west end of the administration building basement hallway, across the hall from the executive passenger elevator.
Bruce Brooks
THE FOUR FENDERED FARKLE
Later, the second generation Toronado theme was the seed for a more extreme version that was started in Studio X under Bill Mitchell’s direction. It was in process and was sent to a studio that I was newly assigned to, the former Emil Zowado studio, Advanced Design #4. There was an incomplete Oldsmobile C car underway when I was assigned there but we received the new assignment very quickly, within a couple of weeks of my arrival. It was an exciting project.
It was a study for the third generation Toronado, It was very dramatic, Cord-like with cat-walk cooling and a wraparound back-lite. As I recall we worked on it for several months, Irv Rybicki and Jack Humbert were the executives in charge. It was the first time that I had worked for Jack who was a great designer. Because it had four prominent fender shapes it was nicknamed it the “FOUR FENDERED FARKLE”, after a TV comedy routine by Rowan and Martin about a family of four.
After some time we had a full review with Bill Mitchell and he asked us to finish the car and then cast it for a fiberglass model. I am sure that the fake headers and some other details were added after I left. We were trying to make it a more contemporary rather than retro statement. I have several great sketches, one blow-up in black and white.
I was reassigned again to International Studio where we did all the advanced design work for the Citation, the X Car and it’s following front drive cars, J, A and Minivan, Fiero, etc. Kip Wasenko, Andy Hanzel and others worked with me.
All the best,
DICK RUZZIN
In reading the above Hank Cramers name is mentioned. That is the first time that I met him, he was working on the FFF and came with it to my studio for awhile. Apparently he did all the work for Bill and really did a great job starting the concept and designing it. He should certainly get credit for the concept and for executing Bill Mitchells thoughts, which often was not any easy task. A great guy he was a lot of fun to work with and I always enjoyed his company. He once gave me a Mangusta model. I lost track of where he went.
DICK RUZZIN
EVOLUTION OF THE 1966 TORONADO DESIGN / DICK RUZZIN
The greatest design credit should be given to Don Logerquist, the designer who originated the theme that the red rendering and the car was developed from. This was done on a beautiful quick pencil and pastel sketch that was silvery gray with yellow background and reflections. I remember Stan being very impressed with the clear presentation of the surfaces on the body side.
The sketch was made during our efforts to develop an alternate design for the 1965 Oldsmobile B car that was underway as a full sized clay model in the studio. We started modeling Don’s theme and Chuck Jordan was immediately excited about the design and he brought Irv Rybicki in for an opinion as he had been chief of Olds before Stan Wilen. He called it a design that could be used in the near future on a “special car” for Oldsmobile. It was after that the red rendering was started, worked on by Dave North, Don Logerquist and Stan as advisor. Dave started a tape drawing and did most of the layout and rendering and Don helped develop the look of the surfaces.
Frank Munoz and I were the designers in Oldsmobile Studio.
It is true that Dave North did the tape drawing and rendering with Don’s help. Stan was the one who inspired the front end, a thin long slot like the Firebird lll and I eventually did the rear, a derivative of the Ferrari GT race car called the Bread Van, tailpipes and all. It was called a Kamm-back after a German aeronautical engineer named Kamm who discovered that a chopped off rear on a car resulted in a small wake that reduced aerodynamic drag. Stan helped me with the tailamps, coordinating them with the front grill, asking me to keep them low, above the bumper and as wide as possible.
If you look at the red rendering compared to the final car you will see that it is very different. The wheel flares are subtle, very different than the three dimensional production car. First we saw the big wheel flares as a problem to execute between the front and rear but this was managed very well by Bill Morganti and Gene Messo who were two outstanding sculptors in the studio.
A great group of people, the project was very well managed and coordinated with the Riviera and Eldorado by Stan and Chuck. Bill Mitchell stayed at arms length with the exception of connecting the outboard roof crease to the tail of the car, taking the design to another level and creating a single plain for the two wheel flares. I was able to see and experience what it took to do an outstanding design.
Dick Ruzzin
Gary, reading Dick’s narrative, it occured to me that all three domestic car companies must still have (somewhere) vast files of design program photos which no one currently on their staffs could identify accurately, with accompanying anecdotes that explain their relevance. It.seems to me that there is a “window” within which design history can be connected to the recorded images of programs though interviews with designers (either central or peripheral) to the subject, but that the opportunity is slipping away as designers get older. Shouldn’t there be an effort to capture the stories of those design participants while they are still available to be interviewed?