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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“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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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 worked with George Barbaz in the Lincoln-Mercury Advanced Design Studio during 1973. George was the “Senior” member of our studio, having started as a designer with Ford in 1945 after serving in the army infantry during World War II. He was of Hungarian descent, and had a great sense of humor, and very definite opinions on just about everything.

His career at Ford included participation in the design of a proposed 1949 Lincoln Continental and the 1949 Presidential Lincoln. Later, George contributed to the XL-500 “Dream Car” design and managed pre-production styling development of the controversial1958 Edsel.

An unusual and interesting assignment was the “lavish” exterior trim ornamentation George helped design for several Canadian Meteors and Monarchs.
One of his assignments I was especially interested in was his participation in the “Quicksilver” advanced design project. The Quicksilver became the radical, all-new 1960 full-size Ford, designed as a response to the really far-out 1959 Chevrolet.

It turned out the 1959 Chevrolet was not well received, and the angular, very conservative 1959 Ford outsold Chevrolet for only the second time since 1935. George said that when Ford’s “G-2″ spyguys got advance drawings of the 1959 Chevrolet, they first thought they had been found out and had deliberately been given this information as “misinformation!” Other talents George enjoyed sharing were caricature and cartoon drawing he excelled at. George was a pleasure to work with and he retired in 1981.

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“This magnificent machine is absolutely authentic, with a minor modification of the elephant head lever and the addition of the ‘wiper ward.’  The serpent horn was copied verbatim, right down to the molars. (I am pleased to note that I resisted putting in a gold one.)” Published in Automobile magazine in the ’90s. Thanks, Stan.

Dick Nesbitt sent me these and this note: “I came across some Harry Bradley 1968 forecast illustrations for Motor Trend (July 1967) I got from Strother McMinn when I was at Art Center.” There are two other posts on Dean’s Garage with a great many of Harry’s great illustrations.

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by Dick Nesbitt

There has been quite a bit of interest in the last post by Dick Nesbitt, if the number of comments is any indication. Here is some follow-up information and sketches/photos courtesy of Dick Nesbitt.

One Mark V proposal incorporated a Mark II influenced tail light and rear bumper ensamble as a link to the prestige and elegance of the legendary and very exclusive 1956-1957 Continental. The bumper extended from the rear quarter panel and replicated the Mark II exhaust port with an impact absorbing composite bumper extension.

Another proposal incorporated a vertical elipse opera window placement and a rear quarter panel raised wheel housing form similar to the rear deck lid form. The thin, narrow tail light-backup light theme emphasized a long quarter panel look.

1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II rear end and tail light photos illustrate design influence on the one sketch proposal.

The supercharged LSC proposal sketch incorporated a more traditional Continental hood leading edge theme with a more aggressive mesh texture grille insert deeply recessed at the outer edges with a forward projected vertical centerline.

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As rising insurance cost and increased emissions control concerns gradually phased out the exciting high-performance cars of the late 1960′s, high-image “personal-luxury” style became the new emphasis for the 1970s. From the “entry-level” Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Ford Elite, to the “mid-range” Pontiac Grand Prix, Mercury Cougar, Dodge Daytona and Chrysler Cordoba, sales were exploding into the hundreds of thousands. An upper-level range was represented by the traditional and larger Ford Thunderbird, Oldsmobile Toronado and Buick Riviera.

The personal-luxury category had it’s initial roots in this context based on Ford’s original Thunderbird from 1955, which was created to compete with the two-passenger 1953-1954 Chevrolet Corvette. GM’s Motorama-inspired Corvette was intended to compete with popular British sports cars of the early 1950′s, but missed that mark by a wide margin with the first 1953-1954 version. By 1956, the Corvette was more focused, extensively redesigned and well on it’s way to achieving exceptional sports car performance standards.

Ford’s intention was to define and develop the original Thunderbird as a “personal” 2-3 passenger car, and not as a sports car. Thunderbird emphasized luxury oriented convenience options like power steering and brakes plus power windows, seat and top features combined with elegant styling and spirited V-8 performance. After three years of surprisingly good sales for a 2-3 passenger car, Ford redirected the Thunderbird “personal” concept to “personal luxury” for 1958.

GM had created a great deal of excitement and interest with the exotic, glamorous Motorama “dream cars” on display at selected U.S. cities during the early and mid 1950s. Each GM division would create a futuristic dream car, usually with compact, low-height exterior dimensions. The interiors usually had four bucket seats combined with a highly styled central console dividing the front and back seats. GM never built a production car based on these Motorama dream car concept ideas, but Ford decided they would!

The 1958 Thunderbird was a totally new car inside and out, now with seating for four. It was larger and heavier and would be assembled in a newly constructed purpose-built factory in Wixom, Michigan designed for its sophisticated unit-body construction along with the much bigger unit-body Lincoln and Continental. This new Thunderbird styling was glamorous, unique and totally original. The interior was also as exotic and exciting as the GM Motorama show cars, with front bucket seats, a high central mounted full-length floor console and sculptured double-brow instrument panel. Originally available only as a two-door hardtop coupe, a striking convertible version was added after the first of the year. The convertible top was fully concealed and stored under the rear deck in a similar design to the innovative Ford Skyliner retractable hardtop.

Sales were way down for the American auto industry in1958 due to a severe, year-long economic recession. Two very notable exceptions were Thunderbird and Rambler! The Thunderbird was now a much admired personal-luxury car, and an unqualified success, generating very impressive profit earnings for Ford Motor Company. Thunderbird sales and profits continued to increase, and Ford would have exclusive benefit of this lucrative market until the arrival of GM’s Buick Riviera in 1963.

In 1968, Ford launched the Lincoln Continental Mark III based on the longer four-door Thunderbird chassis wheelbase combined with the Thunderbird two-door inner body structure and floorpan. With its unique new body styling, the Mark III Continental had the longest, most impressive hood length in the industry.

The high-end level of personal-luxury in the disco-decade 1970s era was represented by just two marques, the Cadillac Eldorado and the Continental “Mark” series, and even Bill Mitchell, General Motor’s fabled design boss, greatly admired the Continental Marks. From it’s imposing classic-era radiator grille to the iconic rear deck “Continental Kit,” the Mark series represented the absolute pinnacle of aspirational prestige in this crowded arena.

Lee Iacocca, Ford Motor Company President, would assign and “challenge” two different and separate design studios to compete for a single final design of various important all-new programs to get a more dramatic, intense
and focused design effort.

In 1973, I was assigned by Gayle Halderman, Lincoln-Mercury Advanced Design Studio Director, to create a special Continental Mark V design presentation for review by Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca at the Ford Advanced Strategy Conference in Boca Raton, Florida. I was instructed to create an extensive selection of very advanced, bolder and more aggressive concepts for the new Continental Mark V generation as compared to the Continental MK IV or the Cadillac Eldorado. The louvered hood proposals anticipated an “LSC” supercharged high-performance touring variation. This version was inspired by the 1929 supercharged 4.5 Litre Le Mans “Blower Bentley”,and incorporated a mesh grille texture similar to this Bentley. Other versions drew on inspiration from the legendary and classic 1956-1957 Continental Mark II heritage. Halderman was very pleased with several proposals I had created for other Lincoln Continental design programs and I was privileged and honored to be selected for this special assignment.

The Continental Mark V was produced from 1977 to 1979, and became one of the most successful, well-received editions of all the Continental “Mark” series.

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Thanks to Stan Mott.