These were seen on Woodward last week also.... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Between seeing John's picture of the rocket Thunderbird and a recent 100 best car design article done by a British magazine it makes me think of best aesthetic designs but broken down by manufacturer. GM during Mitchell's reign is too easy to work with as it overshadows the rest of Detroit with only a few exceptions. For Ford with the criteria is it had to be a full production car (car, not truck or SUV), post WWII. Here is a start. 1949 Ford coupe 1956 Lincoln Mark II 1961 Thunderbird 1961 Lincoln Continental (the loosing design for the Thunderbird that was further developed) 1967 Mercury Cougar 1993 Lincoln Mark VIII
This Ford was in production for a while and was an influential design> Raced rather successfully to... Image Unavailable, Please Login
I had that in mind with the real production clause not because of Ford but of other manufacturers that we might want to think of. The GT40 was a great design that changed the form language of the highly rounded shapes. Because of Ford's money they did a lot of development, especially in aerodynamics, that really changed forever race car projects. A lot of this was documented in the GT40 book done by the Italian magazine Style Auto. As for John with the 55 T-bird and the 64.5 Mustang inclusion. Make your arguments. I think of the T-bird as nice but not necessarily spectacular. With the Mustang I find it lacking in complete cohesion but accept that puts me in the minority.
Part of a successful design is how it influences other products. The Mustang of 1964 1/2 had influenced the competition to come up with the Camaro and Barracuda to name two. Plus the whole idea of an American size sporty car that was not the size of a European sporty car. The English sports cars were tiny by comparison...
Yes, but both those examples started new design idioms that spawned countless copies. While I would agree the Mustang may not be considered 'beautiful' by our design standards, it created a whole new genre of design/packaging solutions, so by definition it has to be considered a landmark design IMO.
If you are requiring arguments, I think you need to explain the Mark VIII (At least to me ). It certainly doesn't have the presence that an upscale car should have and just comes across like any car from that era.
You have hit upon a recurring problem with the design lists. In my not so humble opinion, these sorts of lists need to put a criteria. Best Aesthetic Design is not necessarily the same as Most Influential Design. The Chrysler Minivan would certainly fall under Most Influential. The 1964.5 Mustang certainly is also a Most Influential. The 1953 Studebaker Starliner coupe would be a Best Aesthetic Design but arguably not a Most Influential (although I suspect it did influence a bunch of unselected proposal at the other companies). Over the years I have given thought to some more diverse lists, aesthetic design only: Great but underappreciated - Chevy Baretta might be a choice here Trendsetting - ahead of it time but might not be the perfect execution Design a designer wished they could claim as their own Finest execution at the end of a trend or an incredible but dead end for any trend Over rated by the public but under rated by the professionals I do want to be clear with any of my design criteria. This is about aesthetic design. A seriously crappy car can still possess great design.
since we have digressed to mini vans how about a nice La Salle? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
or not buy> Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Read that this generation of Riviera was originally intended to be on a smaller platform but corporate dictated that it instead use the size of the Eldo and Toro. If this had of been on a smaller scale it might have worked far better. At the time, I hated these but am now far more be accommodating to what it was doing.
These took place before I got there but I used to see them in Mitchell's spot in the executive garage. At the time I thought they were a bit OTT...........now I think they're cool.
But with "The Deuce" that is a question on his desire of wanting leading design. He was about numbers with minimal risk. He had his perfect so called leader of design: Gene Bordinet. A butt kissing drunken politician with some highly questionable senses of design. Not well respected. When Bill Mitchell was retiring there was an article in Automotive News where when asked about the other design leaders in Detroit he just refused to comment on Bordinet.
Thank you; it sounds like some 'shark infested' waters there... and then there was 1965> Image Unavailable, Please Login
My favorite GM designs: 1957 Chevrolet Corvette 1958 Chevy Impala 1961 Buick LeSabre 1961 Pontiac Ventura 1963 Chevrolet Corvette 1965 Buick Riviera 1965 Pontiac 2+2 1965 Buick Wildcat 1966 Buick Riviera 1966 Pontiac GTO 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass S 1970 Chevrolet Malibu 1970 Pontiac GTO 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme 1970 Oldsmobile 88 1970 Pontiac Firebird/Trans Am 1971 Oldsmobile 442 1982 Pontiac Trans Am 1984 Chevrolet Corvette
