The League of Retired Automotive Designers is an informal group of mostly retired automobile designers whose ability has been honed by years of experience and who still have the creativity, passion, enthusiasm, energy, and ambition to design cars and trucks for the fun of it.

The League created a Vision for Future Ferraris, and displayed their work at the San Diego Automotive Museum. The artwork display coincided with a spectacular display of rare Ferraris that opened on October 11, 2008, and ran for three months.

The League is currently exhibiting at the Skillman Annex Branch of the Detroit Library:

Recapturing the Magic—Visions of the Future American Automotive Design
November 14, 2009 through April 15, 2010
Skillman Annex Branch of the Detroit Public Library, 121 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48226

For more information about the League of Retired Automotive Designers, contact Ron VanGelderen.

 

About the League of Retired Automotive Designers
by John Mellberg

The League of Retired Automotive Designers came about following the 2004 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild ‘REUNION,’ for which automotive afficionado/enthusiast, Ron Van Gelderen had visited and photographed the Guild’s exhibit of Model Cars at the Eyes On Design Concours. These two events having been coincident with each other. Following this, Ron Van G. contacted Chuck Jordan and this writer, our having been the co-organizers of the FBCGuild Reunion, to inquire as to what was next after gathering all these Guildsman/Designers together after so many years of being scattered In various corners of the auto industry, some of us at GM, others at Ford, Chrysler and the other automotive companys too?

We decided to keep those of us who had become automotive designers together and we would do what we all loved, design cars, only, now that most of us were retired, we all could participate, in selected venues, together (not being competitors anymore), and do this for the fun of it. The initial League Group included Virgil Exner, Chuck Jordan, Wayne Kady, John Mellberg, Elia Russinoff and Ron VanGelderen (who was to become our Administrator). We all spread the word about the League’s informal charter, and 5+ years later, we now have approximately 60 members.

Our first show was an exhibit sponsored by the Cadillac La Salle (Owner’s) Club, called ‘Images of Cadillac in 2006, and in 2008 we participated in an exhibit at the SanDiego, CA., Automotive Museum, called Cavalino Rampante, Celebrating Italy’s Prancing Horse, sponsored by the Ferrari Club of America.

Our most recent exhibition called, Recapturing the Magic!, Visions of Future American Automotive Design, is currently displayed at The Skillman Annex of the Detroit Public Library. The exhibition is ‘free,’ and all are invited to attend during normal library hours.

Next on our plate Is an exhibition at the Studebaker Museum in South Bend, Indiana, opening this November. The theme of the exhibition will be ‘Designing a new Studebaker.

Retired Automotive Designers interested in learning more about joining the League, should contact:

Ron VanGelderen, Administrator
The League of Retired Automotive Designers

League Designers include:

Robert (Bob) Ackerman
1969-1996 Design manager, Chrysler Corporation
1960-1969 Senior Designer, GM Design
1966 Art Center Graduate
1969-1996 Design manager, Chrysler Corporation
1960-1969 Senior Designer, GM Design
1966 Art Center Graduate

Robert Barnes
1968-2005 Design Manager, Ford Motor Company
1968 Cleveland Art Institute Graduate

Richard Lee Beck
1968-2007 Designer, Ford Motor Company
1968 Art Center Graduate
1964 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild 3rd, Nat’l Sr. Award

Graham Bell
1974-1998 Chief Designer, Ford Motor Company
1960-1974 Asst. Chief Designer, GM Design
1955-1960 Designer with British Airways
Wayne State University, Art Center, Harrow Art/Tech College, United Kingdom

R. Preston (Press) Bruning
1963-2000 GM Design
1980-1990 Automotive Design Instructor, CCS, Detroit
1961 Pratt Institute Graduate

George Camp
1963-2001 Senior Designer, GM Design
1963 Art Center Graduate

Joan K. Creamer
1965-1966 GM Design Staff
General Electric Corp.
Textron Staff Designer
1987 Joan Creamer Design
1966 Cleveland Institute Graduate

Paul Deesen
1954-1996 Asst. Chief Designer, GM Design
1954 Pratt Institute Graduate

Virgil M. Exner, Jr.
1967-1988 Design Executive, Ford Motor Company
1957-1967 International Design Consultant
1958-1961 U.S. Air Force Officer
1957 University of Notre Dame Graduate
1947 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild 1st, Nat’l Jr. Award

Allan Flowers
1980-2006 Chief Designer, Nissan Design America
1964-1980 Assistant Chief Designer, GM Design
1964 Illinois Institute of Technology Graduate

Anthony Frassetto
1972-2002 Design Specialist, Ford Motor Company
1970 Art Center Graduate

Darwin Hawthorne
1964-2002 Auto Design Executive, Ford Motor Company
1964 Art Center Graduate
1960 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild Award

Bob Hubbach
1962-1967 GM Design
1967-2001 Design Manager, Chrysler Design Center

Roger E. Hughet
1959-2001 Asst. Chief Designer, GM Design
1959 Art Center Graduate

Ray Isip
Ford and Chrysler Designer
Pratt Institute and Art Center Graduate

Charles M. (Chuck) Jordan
1949-1992 Vice President, GM Design
1949 M.I.T. Graduate
1947 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild 1st, Nat’l Sr. Award

Wayne A. Kady
1961-1999 Chief Designer, GM Design
1961 Art Center Graduate

John Mellberg
Creative Design Specialist, Thomas Bus (Daimler Trucks, N.A.)
1968-1972 GM Design
1968 Art Institute of Chicago and University of Chicago Graduate
1966  Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild 2nd, Nat’l Sr. Award

David S. McIntosh
1964-2003 Asst. Chief Designer, GM Design
1964 Art Center Graduate

William (Bill) Michalak
1966-2001 Senior Designer, GM Design
1966 Pratt Institute Graduate

Howard D. (Buck) Mook
1967-1997 Design Executive, Ford Motor Company
1967 Art Center Graduate

Richard (Dick) Nesbitt
Creative Design Consultant, Author
Designer with Ford Motor Company
1970 Art Center Graduate

Steve Pasteiner
1966-1989 Asst. Chief Designer, GM Design

John Perkins
1962-1999 Chief Designer, GM Design
1964 GM Institute Graduate
1955 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild Honorable Mention

David (Dave) Royer
1965-1996 Design Manager, Ford Motor Company
1965 Carnegie Tech Graduate

Elia (Russ) Russinoff
1955-1995 Asst. Chief Designer, GM Design
1954 Pratt Institute Graduate
1949 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild 1st, Nat’l Sr. Award

Richard Wells
1978-2007 Chief Designer, Ford Motor Company
1975-1978 Sr. Designer for Massy Ferguson
1973 Center for Creative Studies Graduate

Ron Will
1981-2006 Product Planning and Design Manager. Subaru of America
1976-1981 Independent Designer; created Turbo Phantom
1966-1976 Senior Designer, GM Design
1966 Illinois Institute of Technology Graduate
1961 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild 1st, Nat’l Sr. Award

Don Wood
1959-1997 Chief Designer, GM Design
1959 Art Center Graduate

Dennis Wright
1959-1996 Assistant Chief Designer, GM Design
1959 Art Center Graduate

This first post features Harry’s illustration work scanned from various publications from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. During that time sneak previews of the new models sold magazines, and Harry was hired to illustrate new models. His illustration styles varied considerably over time, and often in one publication Harry would have several different styles. His illustrations were fun to look at, and at times he played with the viewer with backgrounds, reflections, and perspective. When I look back at my artwork from my early days at GM, it is apparent that Harry’s style influenced my own.

Part Two will feature his more recent work including many hot rod and design illustrations.

There are several tributes to Harry Bradley online, including: The Andrew Johnson Gallery, and Rik Hoving’s online photo archive.

Biography

Harry Bentley Bradley was born in 1936 in Waban, Massachusetts. He began to draw early, and nurtured his artistic talent through youth classes at the Museum of Fine Arts. “What I recall most about those classes was the magic. My whole world opened up.” During the summer of 1949, fourteen year old Harry contracted Polio and was soon paralyzed from the waist down. Harry was treated at the Boston’s Children’s Hospital for seven months. He passed the time with drawing. Nurses would place his wheel chair by a window overlooking the street so he could sketch automobiles. For the first few months at home he used a wheelchair of which he was very proud. He added lots of decorations: mirrors with reflectors, squeeze-bulb horns, handgrips with red, white and blue vinyl streamers, and a fox tail hanging at the rear. It was his first customized vehicle! After learning to live with leg braces, Harry went on to finish grade school and became further entrenched into the car culture of the early 1950’s.

Harry got into the early fifties Chevys after borrowing an all-black 1950 Chevrolet Bel Air from the guy who was dating his sister. He started to make sketches and designs, making plans for his own car. After a couple of years he wrangled a cherry red 1951 Chevrolet Bel Air from his parents. This happened in 1954. The Chevy had been the milkman’s car. When he got it, Harry promised his parents that he wouldn’t touch the car, never. But it was too late; his parents didn’t have a chance against the inspiration Harry had gotten from people like PininFarina, Harley Earl, Joe Bailon and the Barris Brothers. The Chevrolet is better known as the La Jolla.

Harry Bradley’s later work will be the subject of Part Two.

Harry attended the College of Wooster for a liberal arts education at the urging of his parents but his real goal was a career in automobile design. He wrote to General Motors asking about job opportunities and their response suggested the industrial design program at Pratt Institute. While attending the design program, Harry launched his own business as a custom design consultant and began to contribute regularly to various automotive publications such as Rodding and Re-styling, Customs Illustrated and Rod & Custom.

Harry was recruited by General Motors during his last semester at Pratt and moved to Detroit in July, 1962. It was against General Motors company policy to publish designs for Hot Rod and Custom Magazines while working for General Motors, so Harry continued to publish his design under the false name Mark Fadner. Within weeks of his arrival at GM Design Staff, Harry and the Alexander Brothers had forged a relationship that would result in more than 10 Bradley-designed custom cars over the next eight years. While working for the Cadillac design studio, Harry designed the Alexa, a 1964 Ford fastback Galaxie for the Alexander Brothers. The car was part of the Ford Custom Caravan, so needless to say, working for Ford’s interest while working for General Motors would have threatened Harry’s job, so Mike and Larry Alexander credited Harry as Designer X. The threat wasn’t much of a deterrent; Bradley and the brothers designed and built several more Caravan cars.

Harry worked for GM for four years. During his time there he worked for a number of studios. Harry took advantage of GM’s fellowship study program for a Masters degree at Stanford University. In 1964, while studying in California Harry designed the Dodge Deora for the Alexander Broethers.

In the spring of 1966 Harry was recruited by the Mattel Corporation. Mattel wanted to hire a designer from one of Detroit’s “Big 3″ to create the look of their new Hot Wheels die-cast cars, so Elliot Handler of Mattel sent Fred Adickes to Detroit to find what they were looking for. Adickes placed an ad in the local Detroit newspaper. The response was surprisingly low, but Adickes returned with Harry Bradley. Harry saw the job at Mattel as a great opportunity to return to California. With Mattel paying the gas money Harry drove his 1964 Chevrolet El Camino to California. Bradley’s mix of hot rod and mainstream car design proved the perfect combination. The original line had 16 models in bright candy colors with carburetor stacks, mag wheels, chopped roofs and red line tires. The cars were released in 1968 and all of the cars were designed by Harry Bentley Bradley with the exception of the Custom Volkswagen which was designed by Ira Gilford.

As it turned out, the Hot Wheels brand was a staggering success! Unfortunately, Harry Bentley Bradley didn’t think that would be the case and had quit Mattel in 1969. When the company asked him back, he recommended a good friend, Ira Gilford. Gilford, who just had just left Chrysler, quickly accepted the job of designing the next Hot Wheels models. Harry resigned to start his own design firm and began work on a variety of projects. Harry designed everything from plastic model kits to full size hot rods and custom cars. Source: Kustomrama.

1969 Cars Motorcade

 

1973 Motor Trend’s New Cars

 

1979 New Car Previews

 

1980 Corvettes of the Future

 

1982 World Car Previews

 

Modes and Motors

“Out of the merger or art, science, and industry have come new techniques that have within themselves the ability to create an entirely new pattern and setting for the life of the world.”

The pamphlet’s text is here to read, and scans of the great illustrations are reproduced in gallery form. Also available is the booklet in PDF format.

But hardly anyone will think of industry.

For art in industry is comparatively new. Only in recent years has the interest of manufacturer and user alike been expanded from the mere question of “Does it work?”to include “How should it look?” and “Why should it look that way?” Appearance and style have assumed equal importance with utility, price and operation. The artist and the engineer have joined hands to the end that articles of every day use may be beautiful as well as useful.

Every civilization has contributed something of importance to man’s understanding of the principles of beauty. It remained for our own times, through new forms of skin to provide the means by which artistic creations are made available to everyone.

Probably in no field have the results of the application of art to the products of industry been more apparent than in that of the automobile. In this book is told the story of this new partnership, together with a description of the methods used in designing style and beauty into a modern motor car.

This simple drawing is important to us because in it Ab demonstrated, all unconsciously, certain principles of beauty and design that have governed artistic creation ever since. For example, he used bold sweeping lines. He painted in color. Later artists found that color adds naturalness to any composition. He pictured the bull in motion-it is now an accepted principle that motion increases realism and interest. Again, although he made his picture smaller than life size, he kept the various parts in rough proportion (experts call this “scalar reduction”). Finally, and doubtless without being aware of what he was doing, Ab utilized effectively most of the seven
elementary shapes we know today.

Thus, right at the very beginning certain definite principles of design were laid down that have been followed from that day to this.
But it is not for technical reasons alone that the bull drawn by Ab enjoys world fame. It holds a place high among the masterpieces of all time as our earliest known example of man’s striving to improve his surroundings and make them more pleasing and beautiful.

Art and nature, then, are so closely related that appreciation of beauty is not limited to the artist or the art student. We all know when we like a pattern or design. You often hear a person say, when looking at a new design, “It doesn’t look right.” You probably have said it yourself, without exactly knowing why you felt that way. Usually it is because objects designed naturally, in accordance with such natural laws as balance and unity, are pleasing to the eye-they “look right.”. At the same time, whatever violates the laws of nature “looks wrong.”

A neighboring people, the Assyrians, excelled In the use of color and discovered that borders make a structure appear stronger. Sculpture was made more life-like, more “natural,” by an unknown Assyrian about 2,000 years ago when he conceived the idea of modelling the surface of statues to represent muscles.

The Romans followed in the footsteps of the Greeks, but rarely, if ever, equalled the work that had already been done in the realm of pure artistic creation. The Romans were practical men, faced with practical problems and driven by the desire to build a great empire. So it was chiefly in the field of architecture and public works that the Romans showed themselves to be highly skilled and able artists, men with the vision and the ability to translate into stone the beauty that every truly useful thing must have.

Every civilization has thus helped to teach us the principles by which things are made beautiful. Wherever artistic geniuses lived and dreamed, they left behind them evidences of their hopes and ambitions and desires—evidences that have come down to us in the form of artistic creations.

Widespread dissemination of art was impossible because a means or method for duplication of artistic objects was lacking. Even small, movable works of art were scarce and costly. The artists of long ago were creators of beauty by their own hands-and by their own hands alone. The master painter of the Renaissance could produce only a few great pictures during his entire lifetime. A master silversmith, such as Cellini who lived in the 16th century, made relatively few pieces, spent months and even years in the creation of a single cup or bowl. Duplicates were rare-the pleasure and benefit

derived from a single work of art were restricted to the few.

Let us suppose, for a minute, that Cellini had lived and worked today. His designs would be used as master patterns. Expert craftsmen using modern methods would reproduce his work in finest detail, quickly and surely. Millions of these reproductions could be made and distributed all over the world. Everyone would have an opportunity, if he so desired, to see and purchase the product of this great master’s brain and skill.

In recent years, through such joint efforts of artists and engineers, sound artistic principles have been applied to hundreds of things in everyday use-from the package of perfume we buy at the store to the motor car we ride in. Not only has the influence of the artist been multiplied by science and industry, but modern research has provided the artist with a much more exact knowledge of artistic principles. No longer is it necessary to depend entirely upon “impressions” and that vague faculty known as “taste” in arriving at critical standards of comparison in artistic fields.-It is true, of course, that art cannot be produced with pure mathematics and applied science alone-there must always be the added ingredients of human feeling, inspiration and ImagInation that are the mark of the truly great artist.

Knowledge itself became widespread only when invention made it possible to reproduce in quantities at low cost the work of the world’s writers and thinkers. When manuscripts had to be written by hand, only a few people ever learned to read. The printing press made information and learning available to everyone.

Radio and motion pictures, through the application of research and modern industrial methods, bring the finest artistic productions in the field of music and drama into the lives of us all. Tomorrow, television may still further widen our opportunities to enjoy the beauties of the world in which we live.

By thus bringing together the best artistic thinking from aII fieIds, it’s entirely possible that within the span of our own times the products of our factories will come to represent one of our most noteworthy contributions In the realm of art.

During this period the artist regarded manufacturers with thinly-concealed contempt—to him they were rough, coarse men whose sole purpose in life was to make money. In turn, manufacturers considered most artists to be dreamy, impractical fellows, notoriously unsuccessful by the accepted business standards of the day. Few of them felt the need of an artist to tell them how to design their products.

So, for more than a century we, in this country, were busy thinking out and learn•ing how to make the things we wanted. Even with the development of “mass production”—that is, the technique of making goods in large enough quantities so that many people can have them—it was quite generally assumed that machine•made products necessarily would lack artistic qualities. Gradually, however, as purely mechanical problems began to be solved, there came a growing realization that useful things need not be ugly, that in fact the most useful shape is the most beautiful—that good engineer•ing and good design were closely related.

It was not by chance that makers of automobiles were among the First to devote serious study to appearance engineering. The automobile had grown out of the carriage business. In many respects it still carried the earmarks of the family buggy it supplanted. But in reality the automobile was a new form of mechanical transportation-it served the individual, taking him where and when he wanted to go. To serve this purpose well, it must fulfill a number of very definite requirements.

In the first place, the owner wanted to move about at a rapid rate. He wanted to do so comfortably. He required a vehicle that could be operated with ease and confidence. And, because the motor car was a personal possession often second only to the home in which he lived, it was essential that it express individuality, style and good taste.

The job of the designer, then, is to combine the mechanical requirements with the human requirements to bring together the science of the engineer and the skill of the artist in order that the automobile might be as beautiful as it is useful.

Quietly, in the drafting room and in the industrial studio, this work has gone forward. Because the automobile utilizes materials of every sort-metals, plastics, glass, rubber, fabrics, lacquers-artists in many fields have been recruited from the style centers of the world.

The First Step
Engineers and designers, assembled around a conference table, take the first steps toward designing the new model. From an engineering viewpoint, mechanical specifications are studied, changes are explained. A new type rear axle may permit lowering the body-an increase in wheelbase may mean changes in seat location. As Leonardo da Vinci showed, the designer must know what is underneath be•fore he can design the covering, or envelope, known as the “body.”

From the viewpoint of the customer, the problem involves what might be called human mechanics. In other words, the car, in a sense, must be built around the human form-must be so proportioned as to provide the greatest possible convenience, comfort and safety for the average occupant.

The artist is interested in what the car will look like—in what it should look like. Because it is a swiftly moving vehicle, its exterior must express fleetness and movement; because it carries passengers, its interior must express comfort and repose.

Now comes what might be called a “creative field day.” Design runs riot. A group of designers give free play to their creative instincts, working out all the new ideas that happen to come to mind. Files of drawings made in the past are consulted for whatever material of value they may contain. (Incidentally, an average of 1500 separate sketches are prepared in the process of arriving at one finished design.)

Along with the actual sketching, fashion trends in other fields—women’s costumes, architecture, interior decorating—are studied, for the motor car must reflect in its design the style tempo of our times. Reports on special features and details of appointments are compiled from surveys made among “Motor Enthusiasts”—practical motorists who have more than a passing interest in motor cars.

Then comes a period of appraisal in which these various conceptions are weighed one against the other. Out of it all emerge a few ideas that have definite possibilities of application-the rest are filed away against a time when, under different conditions, some•thing that is not quite acceptable today may become the mode of tomorrow.

While finished designs are being created on the drawing board these artists develop their ideas in miniature, quarter size clay models. They spend hours and days molding contours with their hands, scraping and smoothing lines with tiny instruments, adding a curve here, taking away a curve there. It is careful, painstaking work, requiring patience a’ld craftsmanship of the highest order. The clay is very much like that sold for children’s use and is kept at proper working temperature in special electric ovens.

Clay models have two main advantages over drawings and sketches-they are in three dimensions and therefore show more nearly how a design will finally look, and the soft clay permits easy experimentation with different contours.

From these models other characteristics besides appearance can be studied. For example, by placing the scale model in a wind tunnel and generating gales up to fifty miles per hour, the effect of wind resistance can be measured. Incidentally, through such tests it is sometimes found that some minor projection or curve creates an unusual wind noise, in which case the contours are changed to eliminate the objectionable sound.

Every artist and designer is limited by the materials in which his design is to be reproduced. Some designs that look good on paper have to be discarded because there is no machine yet available that can produce the parts, or no materials that can be processed in the way called for by the plans. Every step in designing an automobile is really a compromise between human imagination and human ingenuity-between what might be done and what can be done now.

For example, take the recent development of all-steel tops. The idea was in men’s minds and on their drafting boards long before it could be put into production, simply because no one knew how to make steel sheets of the required size and quality, nor had any press been developed capable of stamping them into shape.

So right here at the beginning, production men and engineers step into the picture to check the efforts of the artists and make sure that the design selected can be produced with the present knowledge of materials and methods. When the necessary alterations have been completed, a full size drawing of the new model is made in chalk on a blackboard. Here every curve and every dimension is accurately plotted and drawn in outline; end views as well as side views are shown.

You probably have noticed frequent references to the extremely fine measurements used in the manufacture of a motor car. Connecting rods and pistons are balanced within a small fraction of an ounce; clearances held to 2/1000 of an inch are common. This is fine work, requiring precision instruments and skilled workers, and the automobile industry is justly proud of the accuracy with which these operations are performed.

But these men you see in the illustration are not interested in decimals and fractions-they are designing for comfort, making the automobile body fit the human body. People vary so greatly in size and stature that tiny fractions make little difference, but an inch or half an inch is important in the angle of a seat cushion or the height of an arm rest.

The designers carefully check the full-size drawing to determine proper door width, correct seat spacing and to establish ample head and leg room. Is vision clear and unobstructed? Where should the instruments and controls be placed so as to respond, .easily to. the normal movements of the driver? Their decisions are based upon carefully computed averages, but, whenever possible, adjustments are provided to make the final product even more suited to the user.

As a final check on the interior plan, a “trim buck” is constructed•a skeleton framework built in accordance with the proposed interior measurements and arrangement. It serves an important purpose by providing an actual reproduction of the head room, seat width, seat depth, leg room and other dimensions that will be present in the finished body.

If changes seem necessary they are indicated on the full size chalk drawings. Then, with the external outlines of the car established, tracings of the blackboard drawings are made on vellum paper and turned over to the drafting room staff.

Here the work is divided between two groups. One group prepares full-size working drawings of the contours of the car, using the vellum tracings. Another group concentrates on working drawings of details such as bumpers, emblems and headlights. Both activities are carried on simultaneously by skilled and experienced draftsmen. As time goes on and the design progresses through the various stages of full-size clay model, wood model and finished body, these men will revise and keep up-to-date the early working drawings they are making here. On their accuracy and care depends the success of the final design in production.

Through the preliminary stages of design development miniature scale models provide a ready means of translating the idea and sketches of the artist into three-dimensional form. But later, when the new design approaches its final stages, full-size models must be made in order to be certain that the design is entirely harmonious.

Using the working drawings prepared in the drafting room, a full-size model is carefully built up out of clay, over a wooden form. Some parts of the work go rapidly; others, such as details of the louvers, radiator and rear contours require endless hours of experimentation. On the same body shape innumerable combinations of louvers, lights, fenders and grilles may be tried out before arriving at the one combination that is satisfactory in all respects.

No door or window glass is installed in this model, and the interior is rough and unfinished. But every detail of the exterior surfaces is carefully and accurately worked out, so that from the standpoint of size and exterior design this clay model is an exact replica of a finished car.

With the last minute changes made, templates· and patterns are taken of every curve and contour for use in the construction of the hand-made wood model described on the following page.

When the design has been accurately reproduced in clay, the activity shifts to the wood and metal shops. Here, as shown in the illustration, a new full-size model is built up out of mahogany and poplar. Metal parts, such as bumpers, grilles and body hardware are made by hand by skilled workers, and are finished complete down to the smallest detail and even plated with chromium where required.

Next the inside of the car is trimmed. Seats are installed, glass placed in the windows, instruments in the instrument panel. Tires are mounted in position, doors hung, head and tail lights put in place. The exterior surfaces are then covered with cloth and painted. The cloth is used to give an extra smooth surface to the body, so that the painted areas will have all the gloss of a new car. As a result, this finished model-lacking an engine, frame and all the rest of the chassis-so closely resembles a real car that most people can’t tell the difference from a distance of six feet.

From this finished model a complete set of master drawings are made and turned over to the engineers and designers. They in turn make the shop drawings, dies and patterns from which the design will be produced in steel.

As already pointed out, the exterior of a car should be suggestive of motion and fleetness-an effect achieved, in the main, by the use of dominant horizontal lines. The interior of an automobile” must give a different feeling—a sensation of restfulness and repose for maximum passenger comfort. This is accomplished by using about the same technique as in designing a living room “cozy corner.”

The details of interior treatment are worked out simultaneously with the development of the exterior design. Hardware and moldings in many different styles are prepared. Customer preferences bearing on types of fabrics and styles of trimming are consulted. Harmonious color schemes in floor coverings, head-linings and upholsteries are developed.

Of special importance is the design of the instrument panel. For maximum safety, relaxation and comfort the instruments must be within easy vision, the controls within easy reach. Moreover, the color must be neutral and the instruments adequately illuminated.

The proper design and location of gear shift levers, door handles and window controls, the position of rear vision mirrors-all are of importance from the standpoint of safety and comfort.

These color experts do not guess at what colors should be used they find out by conducting field surveys at regular intervals among new car buyers everywhere, tabulating exactly what colors people like.

On the large map you see illustrated above, the color “vote” in each state is recorded and kept up-to-date. In passing, some interesting variations might be mentioned. For example, in the colder sections of the country, black and blue are favored; in southern areas light colors such as tan take preference. Automobile colors are even a fairly good index of economic conditions. During periods of reduced business activity people seem to prefer dark colors and swing to lighter hues with the return of good times.

New colors, especially those destined for automotive use, must be tested carefully before being used in production. This work is carried on in part at an extensive testing station in Florida, where sample color panels are exposed for long periods to the action of the hot tropical sun and the salt air. At regular intervals these panels are checked for signs of deterioration, or “weatheringIt as engineers call it. No finish can be adopted for automotive use until it passes these tests.

At any given time upwards of sixty colors stand approved by the color experts, including special forms of lacquer such as the recently developed metallic colors-made by adding a small quan•tity of fine aluminum powder to the pigment. From these approved colors selections are made for the various types of cars and body styles.

Many months have passed since the first conference of engineers and designers. Much work has been done-plans have been made and thrown away-ideas tested and rejected-designs perfected. The long weeks of study and research are drawing to an end. Engineers, designers and draftsmen gather to see the final result of their joint efforts.

The curtains roll back, the lights flash on. A new car is born!

In the factories, production soon will start. Then a different kind of craftsmanship comes into play-the craftsmanship of skilled production workers who execute the designs of the artists and engineers. Materials begin to flow into the factories, wheels begin to turn, and soon replicas of this master model will be sent to thousands of customers all over the country. But for the designers the job is finished—it is time to start another. Like the artist who draws Christmas cards in June, the automotive designer works far ahead of the actual appearance of the product on the market.

Because the principles of sound industrial design are equally applicable to any field, extensive development work in design is carried on with a number of diverse products, ranging from radios to streamlined trains, from batteries to buses.

No matter what the product may be, the problem of its design is approached in the same way. To follow the progress of, say, a truck design, would be largely repetition.

However, you may be interested in glancing through the following pages to see some of the results of this design activity in other fields.

The appearance of trucks and buses used to be even more neglected than the appearance of passenger cars-all the attention was given to power and capacity. In fact, only within the past few years has any real progress been made towards making commercial vehicles pleasing to the eye.

While passenger and driver comfort, ease of control and adequate visibility are of the same importance as in passenger cars, a distinctive commercial body design in itself possesses value from the standpoint of serving as a sort of moving billboard advertising the owner and his products.

Buses present their own peculiar problems of design-maximum passenger capacity, comfort, safety and ease of handling must be provided. But designers say that, strangely enough, one of the most difficult things to develop is a satisfactory plan or scheme for painting the body. The bus body is a massive object and it is the task of the designer to handle these large areas of external color so as to por•tray gracefulness and fleetness. The sweeping lines and pleasing color harmonies you see on the latest transcontinental buses were worked out mathematically to create this effect.

In automobiles the principal benefit of streamlining is in improved appearance. Since an automobile is usually operated at relatively low speeds except on rare occasions, the factor of wind resistance does not affect economy or performance to any great degree, practically speaking.

Trains are a different matter. They are often run at high speeds over long distances. They have a large frontal area. By following the best streamline practice, combined with the utilization of new, lightweight materials now available, it is possible to effect great savings in weight and operating costs, and at the same time increase passenger comfort.

With the development of Diesel powered trains the whole problem of locomotive design could be approached from a new angle. Not only were designs developed for many of the streamlined locomotives now in use, but the work was extended to include the interiors of the cars, the color scheme, seating arrangement and, in some cases, even the china, the silverware and the porters’ uniforms.

The ability and experience of these “industrial artists” have found expression in many of the products that surround our everyday lives.

For example, car radios and heaters were redesigned from the standpoint of style and utility, resulting in products that harmonize with the interior treatment of the car. Such little refinements as proper blending of colors, smoother contours and accessible controls are the result of long testing of preliminary designs before the final one is selected.

Storage batteries likewise were given a “face lifting” treatment. Simply because batteries are usually out of sight was no reason why they should not be better looking, reasoned the engineers. The application of the principles of design to this particular problem resulted in a battery that was not on I y more pleasing to the eye, but much easier to keep clean—which incidentally seems to bear out the theory that just as mechanical advances promote better appearance, so design based on sound artistic principles frequently results in improved function.

Progress in artistic design, as in most other things, is evolutionary. Advancement comes in logical sequence-it would not have been possible to jump, for example, from a 1934 design to the current one without benefit of the experience that came in between. Each year new knowledge and new skills are added to what was known before. In the constant striving for better products there can be neither hurrying nor holding back.

Always there is a race between our ideals of what a thing should be like and our ability to make it that way. Design frequently waits upon technological advancement before the product can be made as the artist pictures it in his mind -upon new materials’ and new methods and machinery to work these materials, and upon mechanical improvements in the car itself. Finally, every improvement in design must always be measured in terms of the cost of this benefit to the user. Modern industry by constantly devising new methods and perfecting new processes has brought a multitude of former luxuries within the reach of the average person.

There is much speculation about what the car of the future will look like-and many people have ideas about how it should look. As a matter of fact, no one really knows. We can look back over what has been done in the past and discover certain trends. We can even hazard a guess as to how long these trends may be continued. Further than that no one can, with accuracy, speak. But there is no reason to suppose that ten years from now the automobile will look any more like the car of today than today’s car looks like the product of ten years ago.

Certain it is that out of the merger of art, science and industry, fostered and made effective by modern industrial processes, have come new techniques that have within themselves the ability to create an entirely new pattern and setting for the life of the world.

 

You might be interested to know that since the end of March, 2009, Dean’s Garage has had over 20,000 visitors, nearly 55,000 page views, and the average time spent on the site is almost three minutes.

Last year I met a lot of great people through the site, made contacts with old friends, and was able in several instances to reunite old friends.

This post contains a link to the Design Staff Directory from January, 1988 in PDF format containing names of designers, sculptors, and engineers and what studio they were in at the time.

Click here (right click to save the PDF to your hard drive): Design Staff Directory, January, 1988

If you have an idea for a post for Dean’s Garage, or an event that needs to be listed, don’t hesitate to email me.

Happy New Year.

Gary

Larry Shinoda Interview

Gary Moore features the Golden Sahara II by George Barris on I’ve Got a Secret

Studebaker Lark Daytona Wagonaire with sliding roof

1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner Commercial with Desi and Lucy

 

Grand AM Development from How Stuff Works

The 1973 Pontiac Grand Am started out in the development stages as a GTO. But the muscle era was drawing to a close and, very much aware of that, Pontiac decided to change the car’s character. Instead of continuing to make the GTO a stoplight drag star, the next iteration was to be more European — more along the lines of a luxury sport sedan. With that in mind, Pontiac designers and engineers examined Mercedes, BMW, Audi, and Volvo as likely targets.

To backtrack a little, the Grand Am concept originated in the Pontiac styling studio. At that time, all Pontiacs were designed in one studio under the direction of William L. (Bill) Porter. Working with him were his assistant, Wayne Vieira, plus senior designers Ted Schroeder, Charley Gatewood, and Geza Loczi. Dennis Barnes was a young modeler in the studio.

Porter, who retired as chief designer for the Buick LeSabre, Park Avenue, and Riviera, recalls that the notion for the 1973 Grand Am’s soft front end evolved from the GTO’s “Endura” bumper/grille, GM’s revolutionary body-color nose, which Pontiac introduced for 1968. Wanting to take that idea one step further, Porter and his staff did some collective brainstorming, while still thinking in terms of the next GTO. As a result of that session, Porter and Gatewood got together to sketch what ended up being the Grand Am front end, with its peaked prow flanked by “catwalk” grilles, plus quad headlights, an integrated bumper, and sharp fender end caps.

One of the givens in the then-GTO program—which subsequently spilled over into the Grand Am—was that the car had to be based on GM’s new 1973 A-body, i.e., Pontiac’s LeMans. Among other things, the GTO/Grand Am would have to use the new LeMans hood, which was already locked up. Because this had a raised center section, the Grand Am prow-nose seemed a natural.

Gatewood worked out the rest of the graphics and, being a superb artist, made a full-size rendering of the front end. Porter hung it on the wall opposite the studio entrance. The idea was to impress GM design vice president William L. (Bill) Mitchell when he next walked in. After all, Mitchell would be instrumental in selling the design and the soft-nose concept to Pontiac management.

Wayne Vieira, who would become chief designer for GM’s Saturn small-car subsidiary, confirms that “Charley Gatewood was the designer who came up with the original front-end sketch. Charley’s a very modest person, and he would tend to say something like, ‘Oh, actually . . . I remembered an old sketch that Ted Schroeder did years ago. All I did was to do Ted’s sketch over again.’ But it was Charley who sold the idea.”

Vieira continues, “And to help sell the design to Bill Mitchell, Charley did this full-size air-brush rendering . . . a white rendering with black grille slots. It really stood out from across the room. In fact, when Bill Mitchell walked in, all he said was, ‘Jeeeeeeezus Christ!’ And we were off and running. He brought people in to see it, and it was really quite exciting. The graphics on the front were so strong and unique compared to what was on the road at the time,” Vieira recalls. “In fact, we all felt that when the car came out for 1973, it had by far the best front end of anything in the industry.”

The technology needed to engineer the Grand Am’s soft front end wasn’t fully developed when the initial soft-nose designs were proposed. But a 174-day strike during 1972 gave GM extra time to make the soft front end feasible. “This was one of our first attempts to do a full plastic front,” Vieira told us. “The technology hadn’t yet caught up, and the car would have been very complicated and expensive to build [with the technology at the concept's beginning]. The division at first felt that they wouldn’t have a competitive, quality car for the price. But now that we had more time to work on it—due to the strike—they told us to take another crack at it, and this started the process of a new design.”

Source: 1973-75 Pontiac Grand Am from How Stuff Works

By the time I got to General Motors Design Staff in March of 1973, they were placing new hires directly into studios instead of through an orientation program like Design Development. I was placed into Advanced Chevrolet. Ron Hill was the Studio Chief, and Geza Loczi the Assistant Chief Designer. Geza must have recently been transferred from Pontiac Two studio where these renderings were done. I was given a three months to get orientated on my own, a daunting prospect. After a three month review I was transferred to Pontiac Two production studio.

Chalk and marker rendering by Tom Semple

The day Tom Semple and I nearly did each other in.

I became interested in motocross motorcycles in the ’70s, and rode in the woods with several GM designers and sculptors including Larry Brinker and Bernie Smith. One Saturday several of us met up around Mt. Grampian ski area in Oxford, Michigan. There was a challenging, single-track loop about a half mile long that had hills, banked berms, and woods. Because it made a big loop, you could get to know the course, and each lap became faster than the last one. There were a couple of spots where you could get launched pretty good and get some air. And there were many blind turns. So for safety reasons, it was strictly one way. Tom Semple showed up with his Bultaco. I don’t remember who was going the wrong way, but Tom and I met in mid air, missing each other by inches. That was the day Tom and I nearly killed each other.

 

There are many photos in the book of production and styling show cars from various manufacturers, renderings by Strother MacMinn of many of these cars plus several pages of his own designs. This rare, out-of-print book was loaned to me by Richard Nesbitt. Strother died in 1998.

A Man of Wit and Genius

From Coachbuilt.com. As a young boy growing up in Pasadena, California, Strother MacMinn spent every spare moment drawing pictures of cars or pestering salesmen at car dealers to share their brochures and knowledge of the treasures in their showrooms. It was on one such occasion that a kindly gentleman at the Pierce-Arrow agency provided a turn of fate for Strother by disclosing the whereabouts of a service entrance into the Walter M. Murphy Studio, where he met and became friendly with Franklin Hershey.

Franklin Hershey, one of the best designers in that custom body shop, was so taken with young Strother’s sketches that he invited him into a whole new world by having him come to his office Saturday mornings where he showed him the basics of professional body design. This friendship and guidance continued after Hershey moved to Detroit to work at GM, and throughout Strothers’ prep school, summer classes at the Art Center School in Los Angeles and high school years. It eventually led to Strother’s first working job in 1936 in the Buick studio at General Motors Art & Colour Section with Franklin Hershey as his boss.

With corporate approval from GM’s German division, Harley Earl set up a new studio in 1937. Strother MacMinn, John Coleman and George Jergenson, with Frank Hershey in charge and Hans Mersheimer of Opel as design liaison officer, were given the assignment to style the upcoming 1938 Opel Kapitan. It was an exciting enterprise because of its new approach to international styling and included advanced ideas such as built-in headlights, stretch fenders and a clean body form. (That basic model, with face-lifts, remained in production into the early fifties.)

It was with skill and enthusiasm that MacMinn participated in the development of design proposals for GM’s inter-city bus client, Greyhound Lines, Frank Springs styling department at Hudson Motors, Ed Anderson’s Oldsmobile studio, and many others on his long list of credits.

But, according to MacMinn, the best job offer anyone ever had was his part-time teaching job in 1945 at the Art Center College in the Industrial Design department. MacMinn feels nothing can compare with the excitement and stimulation of sharing enthusiasm and knowledge with dedicated, professionally oriented young design students. Perhaps that is why he has been teaching part-time for the past 41 years.

In addition he has worked independently as a designer of: aircraft seats, household products, and fiberglass boats. And as a consultant in 1979, he helped to found the first Southern California advanced concept satellite auto design studio for the Toyota Motor corporation.

Since 1953 MacMinn has written and illustrated articles for Road & Track, Motor Trend, Automobile Quarterly, and Car Graphic magazines in addition to historical catalogue essays for the “Automobile and Culture” and “Detroit Style: Automotive form 1925-1950″ exhibits in Los Angeles and Detroit.

Strother MacMinn’s lifelong love of the automobile has led him to own a 1937 Cord 812 phaeton and a 1929 Rolls-Royce P-1 Derby phaeton. He kept and still drives the 1951 Jaguar XK-120 roadster that he bought for $2400 in 1953.

An excerpt from the Coachbuilt.com article about chrome

Chrome, too, can be a temptation. Cadillac introduced chrome plating in 1929 and it quickly spread throughout General Motors and then the industry. Nickel, with its lovely warm hue, had had a soft richness that was appealing, but when that super-hard blue-white of chromium came along, which needed little polishing and which seemed to last forever, nickel quickly became pass. Few owners chrome inappropriately on cars that predate 1929, but on later cars, there’s a tendancy to chrome everything, including parts such as water pipes and electrical conduits that weren’t chromed originally. Chrome wire wheels appear in such abundance today that one is tempted to think that all classic cars had plated wheels. Yes, chrome wire wheels were possible as the problems of embrittlement were solved, but they were rare.

The problem is compounded when owners add whitewalls to chrome-plated wheels. Such a combination again shouts “Look at Me” too readily. Strother MacMinn, who served as Chief Honorary Judge at Pebble Beach for twenty-five years, always maintained that a car could have chrome wheels or white sidewalls, but not both; he felt the eye was so drawn to the combination of whitewall and chrome wheel that the general line of a car, its balance as a whole, was distorted.

A great Concours d’Elegance automobile is a combination of beauty, accuracy of restoration, and an indefinable melange of “star” qualities. But above all, a car must reflect its own period, especially in matters of color and decoration. Strother MacMinn, a famous judge with strong artistic gifts, comments on taste: “Either choose chrome wire wheels or white sidewall tires but not both. Too gaudy.” He adds, “All classic cars were not red or cream!” (Two favorite colors of restorers which often show to advantage on a field). The best car may quietly state its own period with a delicate refinement, even with understated elegance, that, when new, would have reflected the buyer’s taste. Good judges will see this on the field.

Gallery of artwork from Sports Cars of the Future by Strother MacMinn

 

Source: From the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide.

Larry Shinoda brought to Ford a sense of no-nonsense car-guy cool. His work on the 1969 and 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 is all the evidence that statement requires.

Ford Vice President of Design Eugene Bordinat gave the always-outspoken Shinoda his first automotive design job, in 1954, only to see the new graduate of L.A.’s Art Center School leave Dearborn within a year. After a brief stint at faltering Packard, Shinoda was hired by General Motors design boss Harley Earl and was soon working with Bill Mitchell, who soon succeeded Earl, on futuristic concept designs—and future Corvettes.

Shinoda followed GM president and longtime friend Semon E. “Bunkie” Knudsen in jumping to Ford, in 1968, but both were fired after less than two years in a widely publicized shake-up. Even so, both left their mark on Mustang, the designer most famously with the fast, tight-handling Boss models of 1969-71. Shinoda and Knudsen went on to form RV maker Rectrans, then parted company in mid-1975, when Shinoda opened his own design business. Shinoda died in late 1997 at age 67. Here, in Shinoda’s own words, is the story of his work on the Boss 302:

One of the first things I did on coming to Ford was straighten out the Boss 302. They were going to call it the SR2. They had all this chrome on it. They were going to hang big cladding on the side, big rocker moldings. It was going to be more garish than the Mach 1. They had a big grille across the back and a great big gas cap and fake cast exhaust outlets and big hood pins and a really big side scoop. I took all that off, went to the C-stripe decal and painted out the hood, did the rear spoiler and the window shades and front airdam. That vehicle ended up being a profit-improvement program. They only built a few, but they made money on each one.

Bunkie Knudsen and I knew that to capture some of the youth market you had to have street machines that would run like your race cars. Ford had never done that before, and obviously Knudsen wanted to beat the Z-28 Chevrolets at their own game. So that was my first task coming in there, doing show cars, and getting the Boss going. I knew what kind of horsepower the Z-28 had, where its strong points and weak points were. So I had to find out quickly what the Mustang was all about and what the new developments were.

Larry Shinoda at Ford.

And what they were working on was pretty much wrong. They had an engine with high horsepower but enormous ports, so the power was very, very peaky. They needed something with a much flatter torque curve. And they needed better vehicle dynamics. They were saying, “All it has to do is go fast.” I said, “That’s not really where it’s at. The Z-28 gets through corners well because it handles well. And it accelerates well off the corner because it got through the corner faster, so you think it’s got more horsepower than it does. Another reason it’s going through the corner faster is aerodynamics. It has enough downforce in front, balanced with downforce at the rear. Your car has some downforce at the rear with a little built-in spoiler, but not in the front. And the suspension isn’t quite right.”

They said, “What do you know about it? You’re a designer.” I said, “I’m a designer, but I’ve also got common sense, and I know a little bit about vehicle dynamics.” Ford at that point had never used their skidpad to check out dynamics. Their skidpad at the Dearborn test track was all torn up at the time. I got an appropriation to repave it.

I took some people in a company plane and flew them over the GM Proving Grounds. I said, “See that? It’s Black Lake.” “What’s it for?” I said, “You’ll see.” Sure enough, here’s Roger Penske’s Trans-Am Camaro, the Sunoco Camaro, running on a skidpad. I said, “That’s what you need. You play with aerodynamics, suspension, roll stiffness, and tires, and you find out what’s going to get around there the fastest. Of course, you’ll have to do some adjustments at the race track.” In those days, most of the people in Ford’s performance department didn’t understand vehicle dynamics, which was kind of sad. The people at Chevrolet and, basically, Frank Winchell, wrote the book on that.

And as I said, I removed all the inappropriate things they were going to put on the Boss, including the interior. I think it saved quite a few dollars when we counted it all up. Don Petersen, who was in product planning at the time, got a big kick out of that. He said, “You trying to do our job for us?” I said, “No, just trying to do the job, period.”

But there was only so much he could support. Unfortunately, I made bold statements. When someone asked me, “What are your ambitions?,” I said, “to be the first Japanese-American vice-president at Ford Motor Company. I don’t think Gene Bordinat liked that.”

Source: 60-page reprint from Car Styling Vol. 18, 1977: The something big turned out to be the resignation of GM Vice President Semone Knudsen in March, 1968. Knudsen passed over for the GM Presidency in favor of Ed Cole, was offered the Presidency of Ford Motor company by Henry Ford II himself and Knudsen accepted. Ironically, Knudsen’s later father had left Ford in favor of GM and had risen to the GM Presidency years earlier.

Shinoda and Knudsen had become close friends at GM and admired each other’s talents. It was correctly assumed in the industry that Shinoda would join Knudsen at Ford and together they would develop cars to challenge GM’s best, especially including the Corvette.

But things did not go well at Ford and Shinoda didn’t join Knudsen until May 1968. Once there Shinoda went all out. His position was Design Executive, Corporate Projects Design Office. He was responsible for the design of all high performance vehicles and show cars. In this position he designed the following:

HIgh Performance:
Mickey Thompson’s Autolite Special Landspeed Record Car
Autoline”Lead Wedge” Electric L.S. R. Car
Mickey Rupp’s Super Sno-Sport Ford V-8 Powered Snowmobile
Ford Drag Clinic Vehicles
TASCA “Street Boss” Mustang

Production:
Boss 302 Mustang
Torino Talladega
Cougar Eliminator
Cyclone Spoiler I

Show Cars:
Super Cobra, Torino
Saturn II, Thunderbird
Scrambler, Ranchero
Aurora II, L.T.D. Station Wagon
Cougar Eliminator

In February 1969, Larry was promoted to the position of Director of the newly formed Special Projects Design Office. He was responsible for the following: The design of all High Performance Production and Limited Production Vehicles. The design and build of all show vehicles. The design of the Displays and Exhibits for all major autoshows in which Ford participated. In this position, he directed the design of the following:

High Performance:
King Cobra, Torino Design Study
Cyclone Spoiler II
Mickey Thompson’s Drag Cars
Eddie Schartman’s Maverick
Torino Pace Cars (NASCAR)
Mustang Pace Cars (A.I.R.)

Production—1970
Boss 302 Mustang
Bos 429 Mustang
Cougar Eliminator
Cyclone Spoiler
1971 Pinto—Theme Model/Re-Direction
Mach II-C Mid Engine Corvette Challenger

Show Cars:
Maverick Runabout
L.T.D. Berline
Econoline Kilimanjaro Safari Van
Torino Wheely Drag Simulator
Mustang Milano
Mark III Phaeton—Dual Cowl/Theme Model for Mark IV Silver-Cranberry Interior Production Model

Displays & Exhibits for Auto Shows:
Dallas State Fair
Detroit Auto Show
Chicago Auto Show
New York International Auto Show

(Although) Shinoda was at Ford long enough to accomplish many goals, which included a Corvette competitor “the Mach II-C” mid-engined sports coupe, which was to be US built with US components, but was shelved for the political bought-off/ill-fated Pantera by De Tomaso.

The role played by Shinoda and Knudsen had significant impact on the Ford Production models for quite some time. Both men were fired in less than two years. Click here to read an interesting article from September 19, 1969 Time magazine about Knudson being fired from Ford.

 

RecTrans and White Motors

From the Car Styling reprint: For the first time in their careers, Knudsen and Shinoda found themselves unemployed. But not for long. Knudsen headed for Florida to collect his thought and asked Shinoda to give some thought as to what kind of business they should set up. Soon, both agreed it would be motor homes as it was the recreational vehicle industries number one growth area.

RecTrans was formed in early 1970. By the autumn of 1970, the Discoverer 25 rear wheel drive on Dodge chassis and front wheel drive Oldsmobile powered Discoverer 27 ft. models were designed and prototyped and introduced at the R.V.I. sow in Louisville. Production of the Discoverer 25 on Dodge chassis started in early 1971.

In April 1972, Knudsen was appointed Chairman of the Board of White Motor Corporation. Rectrans was absorbed by White and Shinoda became Vice President on charge of Design. White, a Cleveland, Ohio based company wanted Shinoda to move to Cleveland, but he fought the decisions and started a design operation in Madison Heights, Michigan, a norhtern Detroit suburb. His reasonong was Detroit was the center of activity and the best talents and craftsmanship were available on most any basis. He used many moonlighters and part-time help to get the first projects off he ground. The first major unit was the “Road Commander.” White needed a new image and new products to bolster this image. The Road Commander was basically a facelift which transformed the old 7000 unit, which was referred to by the truckers as the “Chinese Freightliner,” as it was very heavy and had an antiquated look to it. Shinoda was asked to just change the grille panel for this new look, but he removed all the riveted on fiberglass panels and restyled them in clay giving the unit a whole new look. This was accomplished in two weeks. When White’s management first saw it they were dumbfounded. They, then asked how soon could it be prototyped and could a movie be made for it for their national sales meeting. The date of the review was February 1 and their meeting was February 22. The midnight oil flowed and the running prototype was completed on the eve of the 17th. The unit was a hit of the show and its sales increased 74.9% in the first six months of production. The Rad Boss conventional was next and also very successful.

Shinoda’s design activities continued to grow in scope and importance, and designs for a new concept lightweight combination truck and low cab forward model Road Xpeditor 2 followed. These were prototyped and put into production. Around this time there was a move to a larger facility, shared by the design group and Advance Products Division. The facility had a very nice setting and was located in Farmington, Michigan (northwest Detroit).

But the economic situation after the oil crisis gradually worsened, and White Motors found themselves in financial difficulties as the slump hit the heavy truck industry, and the company closed down or sold off units considered expendable. So, Shinoda’s corporate design staff and the research group were closed down.

May, 1976, and Shinoda was out of work again, but it also meant his independence.

Shinoda Design Associates Incorporated

From the Car Styling reprint: He started up his own business, called Shinoda Design Associates, Inc., with a staff of five, in Livonia, Michigan, west of Detroit. Now he has a staff of 14: designers, clay modelers, technicians, fabricators and engineers. His first client was the Emcor Division of GF Business Equipment. the aaignement was tough, to redesign a group of electronic enclosures without any structural changes, but it was done to the client’s satisfaction. The next client to turn up happened to be his former employer, White Motor Corp. The truck business was turning the corner and heading up. The Farm Group of the company also contracted Shinoda as a design consultant for their product lines.

The Shinoda Design Group is also doing work in the light truck/van field, and designs for motor homes class A, B and C.

Shinoda says the future is wide open and that his group is ready for anything: ski equipment/clothing, sail boats, power boats, electric commuters, kit cars, motorcycles, golf equipment and whatever needs the proper design approach to lure the buyers and show profitability for his clients.

 

Other Photos from the Car Styling Reprint

 

1990 Corvette C4 Shinoda/Rick Mears Special Edition Corvette

I only saw Larry Shinoda once at the SEMA show in the early 1990s. I have this poster I picked up at the show of the Shinoda/Mears Special Edition C4 Corvette.

From Illustrated Corvette Series website. The Rick Mears Special Edition came out of an interesting mix of talents. Mears, a three-time Indy 500 winner, was the front man, Corvette designer Larry Shinoda was the stylist, and Jim Williams was the businessman. While this certainly wasn’t the first body kit for a Corvette, it was one of the cleanest. Mears was at the top of his racing game by the early ’90s. Rick won the Indy 500 in ‘79, ‘84, ‘88, and ‘91! He was the Indy 500 “Rookie of the Year” in ‘79, and racked up six Indy 500 pole positions. Mears retired from racing in 1992 with 29 CART wins and 40 pole positions.

Larry Shinoda is generally known as the designer of the 1963 Stingray. While this is correct, the actual Stingray shape was first drawn in 1957 by Pete Brock and Bob Veryzer as a concept study called the “Q-Corvette.” Shinoda took the sketch and made it into a real car. Larry would go on the design the Corvair Monza show car, the Mako Shark, and the Boss 302 Mustang.

Jim Williams was the president and CEO of Golden State Foods, a food preparation company that services all of the McDonalds restaurants. In the late ’80s, GSF was an associate sponsor of the Penske racing team.

Shinoda showed some sketches to Williams and Mears at the Long Beach CART race in 1989. Both men liked the design and agreed to go into business. Shinoda-Williams Design, Inc. was formed and started making kits in 1991.

Shinoda’s design wasn’t just another make-over kit. The front and rear spoilers, along with the sculpted side panels lowered drag coefficient from .34 to .30! As a throwback to his old Mako Shark days, Larry gave the side panels some “coke bottle” style. All of the parts were barrier crash tested and designed so the the stock Corvette tire jack could be used. Except for the front chin spoiler, the factory ramp angles were maintained.

The kit was made up of 11 pieces that would attach to any ‘84 to ‘91 coupe or roadster. The panels were made from primed, semi-rigid polyurethane material. Also included were front fog lights, black finished stainless steel exhaust tips, floor mats with the Mears logo, a “Shinoda Design” badge, a “Rick Mears Special Edition” badge, and fasteners. Assembly time was 25 hours. The kits were designed to use common garage tools, used stock mounting points, and required little drilling.

The cost of the kit was $5,200, plus $2,500 to $3,000 for installation. Paint was another extra. The total cost for entire kit project was around $10,000. That’s why not many kits were sold. In the early ’90s, all regular Corvettes were under the shadow of the ZR-1. Extra money usually went under the hood. Shinoda pitched the kit to Chevrolet as a 1992 RPO option. They passed.—K. Scott Teeters

Larry Shinoda Rendering from Packard, 1956

Thanks to Brett Snyder (Andrew Johnson Gallery)