“The Brief was simple—a monument to the automotive age in the middle of Las Vegas. Ostentatious? Certainly. Over the top? A must. The project tested the world’s leading visionaries and this is the plan that came out on top.” Published in Top Gear Magazine. Photos in gallery are captioned with the original text. Thanks, Stan.

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By John Mellberg

I’ve had these photos filed in a brown envelope since leaving GM Styling in 1972. The car in the photos was a Firebird that was underway when I was assigned to the Advanced Pontiac Studio, initially working for Gordy Brown, Studio Chief Designer, and then, when management decided to shuffle the Chiefs around—Jerry Hirshberg became the Studio Chief Designer for Advanced Pontiac and Gordy Brown took over Advanced Buick Studio. It was a great learning experience working with both of these talented design leaders and the Advanced Pontiac team members. We had a lot of creative fun working together, while learning from one another in the process.

Working in Adv. Pontiac when I came on board was Roger Hughet (Assistant Chief Designer), Elia Russinoff (a lifelong friend), John Houlihan, Dennis Burke (a then GMI Co-op designer), Dave Rossi (Chief Modeler) Cliff Gabler, Kurt Struckmeier, Dean Towne, Juergen Stoldt, Klaus Brink (a good friend and Studio Engineer), and Rick Stuhlstatz (Klaus’ assistant). If I’ve forgotten anybody, my sincere apologies, as this was a long while ago.

This Firebird design was initially developed from a series of 1/5th scale clay and fiberglass models, from which one was picked to do full-size.  We had been working on the refinement of the design for about 6 months when Jerry Hirshberg joined us. The design went from a single theme, to 2 themes, or variations, with one side the sporty design with full wheel cuts, and the other side, a boulevard design with the rear wheels skirted. This gave the model an interesting split personality. At the time these photos were taken by Bob DeMerrill, a Design Staff Photographer, the clay model had been fully di-noc’d and details were cartooned by this writer to add visual substance to the design. The modelers foiled the headlight bezels/cans and trim around the tail lights. It was a bold, striking design, clearly a complete departure from the then current FIrebird, and would have been a hatchback. The large round headlights give the car a place in time, as it wasn’t long after we had worked on this that rectangular headlights emerged on GM automobiles and the others. The model’s color was a metallic orange, somewhat like the recent 2005 GTO Ram Air 6 Concept that Kip Wasenko’s group put together adding muscle to the Australian GTO beyond its appearance as had been shipped to the States as a Pontiac.

If I recall correctly, we abandoned work on this car when the then new Federal regulations for front and rear bumpers became law, as this design would not have been compliant. I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen photos of this concept proposal ever published. Perhaps my fellow design colleagues from Advanced Pontiac Studio who also contributed to the design of this vehicle can further add to the pedigree of this design and its history.—John Mellberg

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Back in the early 1970s, I edited and co-owned a magazine called Special-Interest Autos. My partners were the principals of Hemmings Motor News.

As SIA editor, I regularly flew from California to Detroit to research articles and gather photos for future issues. In doing that, I’d typically drop by as many Detroit research facilities as time allowed. They usually included three or four libraries at General Motors (GM had 37 active libraries at the time), the Henry Ford Museum archives, the auto history collection of the Detroit Public Library, the AMA library and the Chrysler archives.

In those days, Detroit’s research facilities were open to just about anyone, and visitors were free to roam and browse at will. I could choose photos, and the car companies would nearly always make dupes for free and mail them to my office—very different from today.

On one such trip, I stopped by the Chrysler archives looking for pictures of experimental cars of the 1930s and ’40s. In a file of styling photographs, and I stumbled across a series of 8×10 glossies of a 1936 scale model that looked to me like a Bonneville streamliner. Interesting, I thought, and I tried to find out why this model was built, who made it and what became of it. No one seemed to know.

Then, about a month ago, I happened to be watching a movie called Speed. The movie, released in mid 1936, starred a very young Jimmy Stewart. The plot revolved around his work for a mythical car company. Stewart’s character had invented a new type of carburetor, and to test its performance, the company entered a car in the Indy 500 and also built a streamliner to set speed records at Muroc.

Some of the stock footage in Speed clearly came from Chrysler: scenes of assembly lines and executive offices. Also, most of the passenger cars in the movie were 1936 DeSotos, so apparently Chrysler Corp. had a hand in making this film.

More to the point, the significance of that streamlined scale model finally dawned on me. The clay must have been a study for the shape of the movie streamliner, a car called the “Falcon.” I have no proof, but the similarities between the 1936 Chrysler scale model and the 1936 Falcon are remarkable: the envelope body, the glass canopy and the large, single tailfin.

I’m not sure I’ve actually solved a mystery here, but I’d like to present the evidence as a possible theory. And I’d very much appreciate hearing from anyone who knows more about the connection (or lack thereof) between the Chrysler model and the movie streamliner. –Michael Lamm

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“I am not at liberty to say how fast the rail car was moving when it vaporized the station. But suffice it to say more rational bureaucrats approved the machine for production and service providing none would be driven past railway stations faster than 89 km/h (55 mph). Martini agreed, unless, of course, they were behind schedule. As a result, no Cyclops railcar has ever been run on schedule.”

Relive Cyclops Railcars in PDF format. Thanks very much, Stan.

Gallery of artwork from Cyclops Railcars

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Photos Courtesy of Wayne Ellwood

The GTO Concept was created in the fall of 1998 in only three or four months. It was done when Brian Baker had the Advanced Design Group, during the time when Wayne Cherry wanted to explore designs 15 years into the future. Wayne Cherry also wanted all of the brands to have their own identity. They made brand character models for each brand and after that the designer could only use those ques that related to a certain brand.

The GTO’s designer was Jay Bernard. When they had a press conference about the car, he remarked that at the start of the program he had never heard of a GTO. So they brought in a sculptor old enough to not only know what a GTO was, but also actually had one. He worked with Jay through the design process, and among other responsibilities was supposed to also make sure it came out looking like a GTO. His influence was negligible.

Jerry Palmer had the most direction in the design. Ben Salvador and Glen Durmisevich were also in that group. Another designer that had input in the GTO was Jim Brinkerhoff.

A foam pushmobile was made and it ended up at a few car shows around the country, including the Detroit Auto Show. Then it disappeared.

The GTO Concept exterior was one of the first all-math models. The interior only existed as sketches. It was milled in foam, not clay. No room for mistakes.

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Car & Driver video from the 1999 Detroit Auto Show.

Thanks to Joel Ratts.

Oldsmobile wanted to highlight the introduction of the Quad Four engine by showing it off as a highly modified engine mounted onto an Indy type racing chassis. The goal was to have the car break the world lap record around an Indy-style oval track and be driven by former Indy 500 winner, A.J. Foyt.

Our goal was to develop an eye-catching interior to complement the exterior development for an introduction at the Chicago Auto Show. So in the summer of 1984, our design team made a trip to the Michigan 500 track to research the car chassis and to understand the driving needs of the racers. Upon returning, I started developing the design themes. We wanted to convey a design that was not only reflected the essence of a race machine, but also incorporate some high tech electronics such as Head-Up Display, Flip-Up Digital Info Panels, Access Panels to the onboard computers, and video cameras. My design themes were inspired by the F-16 fighter aircraft cockpit as well as some of the fantastic robotic models coming from Japan.

One minor problem that developed during our design phase was that we could not obtain any reference drawings from England where the March racing chassis were built. Without those drawings we could not accurately build our upper portion of our design to properly interface with the real car. We found out that the people in England knew their job well enough to complete the cars without reference drawings since they were all hand-built. Luckily, GM Design Staff was able to obtain a body chassis that had been involved in a crash, allowing us to take critical reference points. We had the unique opportunity to work closely with some very forward-thinking engineers from GM’s Delco Electronics that provided us with the digital display panels and supported us in developing all the electronic components, including the head-up display unit.

The interior design was completed by 1986 and introduced with the exterior show car model at the 1987 Chicago Auto Show. This was one of my most favorite projects. I had the pleasure to work with a fantastic group of people at Design Staff, incorporate cutting-edge electronics, and establish a great working relationship with various other GM groups such as Delco.

Thanks very much to the very talented William Quan who now works as an Industrial Designer for Teague in Seattle, Washington.

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I was in Oldsmobile 2 Studio when Ed Welburn was given the assignment to develop the Aerotech. The car was modeled in an out-of-the-way basement studio away from prying eyes. It is interesting to note that two years earlier when the Achieva styling model was being developed, Dave Holls decided to pull the clay out of the studio and put it down stairs so its development could be hidden until it was finished and ready for review. I think the Achieva clay was really starting to look good in the studio and Dave didn’t want Chuck or others meddling with it until it was further along. It came out pretty good and was the subject of a previous post on Dean’s Garage. I did the initial design of the car, full-size renderings, centerline and 3300 sections. But I wasn’t able to see the car through myself, as I was in Olds 1 and the Achieva was in Olds 2. The sculptors did an outstanding job surfacing the Achieva styling model. I wish I could remember the names of those involved.

The Oldsmobile Aerotechs were a series of experimental high-speed vehicles created between 1987 and 1992 incorporating the latest in performance technology with the intention of breaking multiple automobile speed records. The first such car was driven by four-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt to a world closed-course speed record of 257.123 mph (413.788 km/h) on 27 August 1987 at the 7.712-mile (12.411 km) test track near Fort Stockton Texas. Prior to this, on 26 August 1987, the car had posted a top speed over a mile of 267.88 mph (431.10 km/h). The car consisted of a March Indycar single seat chassis enclosed in an extremely efficient aerodynamic body shell. It was powered by a highly turbo-charged version of the 2-litre Oldsmobile Quad 4 engine. The Aerotech body was designed by GM Design staff and was one of the sleekest vehicles ever developed for use on a high speed track. The design of the Aerotech included the capability of adjusting underbody sections to control the distribution of downforce, front to rear. Oldsmobile produced three versions of the original Aerotech to prove the capabilities of the company’s Quad 4 engine. Two were short-tailed (ST) versions and one was long-tailed (LT).

Subsequently, between 7–15 December 1992, another version of the Aerotech, this time powered by a 4.0 litre Oldsmobile Aurora V8 engine and fitted with lights, broke 47 speed endurance records including the 10,000 and 25,000 kilometre world speed records. Other national and international speed records ranging from 10 kilometres to 24 hours were accomplished by a team of drivers working 24 hours a day for 8 days. These records were also set at the Fort Stockton test track.

The Aerotech is also featured in a previous Dean’s Garage post entitled ’80s GMs Image Cars. There is another video of the car in that post.

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Documentary of the Development of the Aerotech

Video includes studio scenes of the clay model at Design Staff.

1992 Oldsmobile Achieva SCX—the last real Oldsmobile?

The 1992 Oldsmobile Acheiva SCX is the last real Oldsmobile in the sense that it was the last Olds to have an engine designed by Oldsmobile, the 2.3 Liter Quad-4. Only about 1,400 SCXs were made with the 190-hp Quad Four. This video is a road test of the car.

I created the basic body design for the Achieva Coupe when I was in Oldsmobile One in 1986. The story and photos of the development of the car is in a previous post on Dean’s Garage.

My 1992 SCX is for sale

I’m thinking about selling my 1992 Achieva SCX. I’m the second owner of this car since 1998. The first owner is a good friend and bought the car new as a GM employee working for Oldsmobile. It has been well maintained. Mobil 1 since 3,000 miles, never overheated. New clutch and shifter cables. Clear title, no accidents. Original paint, no rust. It has been in Arizona since 1995. It needs some paint work to repair a small parking lot ding on the front right fender. The bumpers and rear air dam needs to be repainted. The BFG Comp T/As have tread, but they are nine years old and should be replaced if the car is to be driven any distance. 130,000 miles. Contact me for more information.

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The American Orphan was the League’s 2011 project in cooperation with the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum. The challenge was to design a future orphan concept vehicle that might have been, had the factory doors not closed 25 or more years ago.

Participants included: Bob Ackerman, Robert ‘Bob’ Barnes (Ford), Rich Beck (Ford), Jerry Brochstein (GM), George Camp (GM), Virgil Exner, Jr. (Ford), Wayne Kady (GM), Darwin Hawthorne (Ford), John Houlihan (GM), Roger Hughet (GM), Rolph Kneefel (Ford), Clark Lincoln (GM), Bud Magaldi (Ford), Bob Marcks (Chrysler), (GM),Dave McIntosh (GM), Bill Michalak (GM), Howard ‘Buck’ Mook (Ford), Bill Moraniec (Ford), Joe Papai (Chrysler), Steve Pasteiner (GM), Dennis Reardon (Ford), Russ Russinoff (GM), Stuart ‘Stu’ Shuster (GM), Rick Wells (Ford), and Bernie Smith (GM).

For information about the League of Retired Automotive Designers, contact Ron VanGeldren, Administrator.

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