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.

Ford Mach II

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.

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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.

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Other Photos from the Car Styling Reprint

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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)

I was a staff designer with Raymond Loewy in 1953-54, and then my own firm produced the color and trim changes for the 1966 Studebaker and the 1967 prototype.

Our 1967 Studebaker prototype proposal is in front of the Marcks, Hazelqist, and Powers office in Dearborn, Michigan, along with drawings for future ’70 proposals. Marcks, Hazelqist, and Powers had a 1967 Studebaker prototype designed, and close to production. The last production car came off the line in March 1966, which was about the time this photo was taken. The Studebakers were necessarily tame because they were to be, at best, major facelifts of a pedestrian body of the period.

Studebaker never built a sedan which was based on the beautiful 1953 coupe. I was a designer there then and since then I have thought that they should have built such a sedan.  Here is my scale line drawing of Starliner based sedan. This drawing was sent to Brazil along with several others which were developed into a 1/15th scale model.

When I had my own firm we designed (sadly) the last (1966) Studebaker, but were working on future possible Studebakers. In this case we were trying to work with an existing platform which included the windshield and doors, etc. That was a problem.

We actually created a more restrained version (we didn’t modify the roof) of this Lincoln with the filigree work  as our company car. In Los Angeles it really did get favorable attention and envy from all the auto exhibitionists and even the hippies gave it a thumbs up. If anyone asked we told the the trim was silver from Tasco, Mexico. That illustration is in color and beautiful, by one of the staff guys.

I was a designer for Ford in 1953, and 1956-1961. Here are two of my Ford proposals, one is of a series for the 1964 Ford ’64 Galaxie, which I also designed. Another of my sketches provided the major inspiration for the ’64 T-Bird. The two Ford drawings I’m proud of because they were part of a series that became the ’64 Ford Galaxie, two years after I left Ford. You can see the beginnings of the rear quarter in one of the drawings. Regrettably, I don’t have the final Galaxie drawing.

Ford leaked this photo of a Thunderbird rendering to a magazine as a preview teaser (from fall 1963 Motorcade) for the ’64 T-Bird. As I recall, it was originally as a metallic red.  I had left Ford in 1961 so it was very unusual for them to use a design that was from someone who had left. Ford had a total staff of 1,000 in the styling building, this just for designers, modelers, support, and a skeleton crew of engineers. The engineering department itself was somewhere else.

This is an Imperial proposal I did later when I was employed by Chrysler.

Here’s the Turbine Car as it turned out. It started life as the Chrysler LeBaron. I changed the whole front end, and refined some of the other elements in the rear quarter and back. The grille texture and  “waterfall”  was similar to the ’76 Imperial, to keep a Chrysler look. I didn’t know if there was a “right’ shape for a turbine engine grille, but I figured it ought to be different so I made it narrow. I like  the center photo because it shows off the execution to best advantage. I supervised it “off-site” with non-union help on the modeling, so I could get involved myself. Unknown to me, the car was selected to be inspiration for the 1980 Imperial (If they liked it so much, how come I wasn’t invited to participate??). I thought the ’80 could have been a lot better, a little crown in the surfaces would have helped for openers.

1977 Turbine Car sketch and photo of it when it was being designed in clay.

The ad campaign for the Chrysler Cordoba, with Ricardo Montalban’s praise for its “fine Corinthian leather,” contributed greatly to its success (the company worried that the car was too small to be a Chrysler!) and it has been called “one of the five best automotive campaigns of all time.” At the time, in 1977, I was a Chrysler designer who had recently moved to Chrysler from California, where I had lived on the beach, at Sunset Boulevard and PCH-1 (Pacific Coast Highway One). So I was familiar with what the affluent residents of Malibu and Beverly Hills drove. With that in mind, I customized a Cordoba for Ricardo Montalban with the objective of making it a car he could really drive with pride in that elite environment.

I studied the classics of the ’30s and ’40s. I settled on an Art Deco-style black and silver motif, that is carried throughout. Gold accents turn up in the pin-striping, hood ornament and tire stripe. I designed custom seats that were trimmed in extremely soft Silver (belly) leather. The carpet is black mouton. The fake woodgrain trim was replaced with silver leather and brushed silver inserts on the instrument panel. I added a Maserati air horn—the “right” sound for Sunset and Wilshire Boulevard traffic. It had a remote starter that died early on. It has wire wheels and Vogue tires, found on classic cars of long ago, and half the Eldorados in Beverly Hills. After appearing at the Detroit and Chicago Auto Shows, it was sent to Ricardo Montalban for his use.

Shortly thereafter, I received a four page hand written letter from Ricardo in which he said, “My reaction to the prototype Cordoba is…I’m in love with it!  It is, without a doubt, the handsomest car I’ve ever had. All my friends, parking boys, gas attendants, express their admiration. It is truly unique.” And the letter winds up with, “I congratulate you on the marvelous job you did on the car and please consider me your devoted fan (a little role reversal there!).”

It was his until the Cordoba model change two years later. At that point I acquired it for just $5,000, as my personalized dream car. It is now in the Chrysler museum in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

Several decades ago when I was a young designer at GM, I bought a few acres in Hooterville—I mean Ortonville—Michigan. Owning vast acreage (four) means that there will be weeds to cut and snow to blow. So I anted up and bought a new 16-hp Ariens tractor with a 48-inch mower deck with matching 48-inch, 2-stage snow blower. If the snow was right, it’d arc that white stuff 40 feet in the air. About the same time, my friend Gray Counts decides he needs a tractor for weed whacking and snow clearing on his acreage down near Clarkston. Gray bought a real tractor for his spread—he bought a 1948 Ford 8N. 

I thought I was pretty smart buying a new tractor. But it slowly started to sink in that I had a fold and staple tinfoil tractor. In ten years mine would be scrap and be worth nada and Gray’s would probably be appreciating. Gray had a real tractor. There is a difference. (Right: Gray and his 8N he’s restoring—nearly 30 years later.)


If the snow was right, it’d arc that white stuff 40 feet in the air.

Years go by and I move to Arizona. Acerage out here changes by the minute. One morning you spot a lizard taking a break under the shade of a cactus. The next morning there is a bulldozer where the cactus and the lizard were. Espresso bars and malls sprout quicker than wildflowers. No snow, but weeds sprout in the spring, and my dirt road is always a mess. So I decided to look for a tractor. A real tractor.

There was this guy down in Phoenix who had old Ford tractors for sale. He catered to unsuspecting city folk like me who were willing to take chances. A buddy of his bought them at auctions in the southeast and hauled them to Phoenix where they were “detailed.” That meant they were power washed. I sat on a few, started them up, drove them around a bit. Figuring that there was no way to know their real condition, I bought the best looking one of the bunch, a ’41 Ford 9N. Kinda like buying a horse by looking at his teeth, I suppose. It had a 3-speed transmission, but it also had a 2-speed rear end which was cool if you wanted to get somewhere fast. With this tractor I would be the one going nowhere fast.

My 1941 Ford 9N. Pretty sad. We named it Harold.

By the way, Ford named tractor models thus: The 9N came out in 1939, the 2N came out in 1942, and the 8N came out in 1948. The NAA Jubilee (named after Ford’s 50-year anniversary) came out in 1953 replacing the 8N and were made for two years.

After a while several issues about my 9N began to emerge. For one thing, the Phoenix heat exposed weaknesses in the hydraulic system. At first the hydraulics would lift my scraper or dirt tote OK until the fluid got warm. Phoenix is all about warm. Between the heat and what use I gave it the hydraulics just got weaker. “Maybe it’s the hydraulic fluid,” I thought.  So I drained the old stuff out. It was the color of coffee with too much cream. Water in the hydraulics is bad, but the new stuff without the water didn’t seem to make any difference.

When I went to refill the hydraulic system, I removed the filler plug next to the shifter on a cast cover. This casting is in two parts. The bottom half covers the top of the transmission and cradles the steering shafts to coming out of each side. The top half covers the steering gears. This is important. We’ll come back to this.

I took off the plug to fill the hydraulic system. I looked down into the abyss and see… burlap.

Burlap? A little digging with a pair of extra long needle nosed pliers rewarded me with a piece of burlap about 18-inches square. I had a bad feeling about this. That burlap wasn’t put in at the factory and didn’t get there on its own. There had to be a reason it was there. I had a suspicion that I would regret finding out why.

I forgot to mention that the steering was pretty sloppy and getting worse.

After I removed the grain sack or whatever it was, I filled it with new hydraulic fluid and started the tractor. It was then that I discovered that there were cracks in the cover. Fluid was now seeping out and making a real mess. I had to do something. 

The casting is in two parts. It covers the top of the transmission, allows for the steering shafts to come out of each side, and also covers the top part of the steering box.

So I took the cast cover off. Now this is the same cover that also covers the steering gears, remember? Steering shafts come out of each side of the cover supported by bearings. There would be a bearing half in the lower case casting, and another in the upper casting cover along with a rope seal. So I removed a bearing half from the top half, and another from the bottom. Then I removed another one from the bottom. From each side.

Do you remember the Bob Newhart show? “Hi. I’m Larry, and this is my brother Daryl, and this is my other brother Daryl.“ Well there were three half bearings per side. That’s two too many. Some owner up the line shimmed the worn out steering shafts with an extra bearing half to take out the play. Too much play and the steering sector gears would no longer engage and the front wheels would no longer cooperate with each other. The cover was not designed for the extra bearing thickness. As a result the cover cracked when it was tightened down.

The burlap was there to keep oil from splashing up against the cracked cover and leaking all over the place. While the burlap was an effective solution to prevent fluid from seeping through the cracks in the cover, it had an undesirable consequence. It was also very effective at preventing oil from lubricating the steering sector gears that relied on lubrication splashed up from the transmission. This had the look of a short term fix. I think maybe they saw me coming.

I replaced the steering sector gears and shafts, and had the cover welded up. But it still leaked. The fact of the matter was the whole thing was just plain worn out. It didn’t need to be restored. It needed to be replaced. In the words of a good friend of mine, “I know enough that when I can’t fix something to throw it overboard and order a new part.”

The engine ran pretty good. The reason was the thick substance in the crankcase. Of course, I stupidly changed the oil and then it started to smoke. Had I still lived in Michigan, it would have been very effective at keeping mosquitos away. But that’s another story.

I eventually sold the 9N, but a few years later had to have another tractor. I bought a ’53 Jubilee from the owner in Union, Nebraska who had it 23 years. It’s not perfect, but it’s not worn out. And in ten years I’ll still have something. If I would have bought a fold and staple tinfoil garden tractor from Home Depot, in ten years it would just be so much scrap. If it lasted that long.

Most people when they find out I have a tractor look at me funny. They always ask why on earth would I want a tractor and what do I do with it? “What, do you have 100 acres?” I don’t waste my time with them. First off, it’s just a really cool piece of machinery. My property is groomed, and I can pop a large staghorn cholla out of the ground like it was nothing. You can’t get close enough to one of those nasty cacti to get it out by hand without getting stuck.

By Gary D. Smith. Story edited by John Thawley. Thanks, coach.

The Jubilee is a modern tractor with its overhead valve engine! And it has a really cool hood.