Rest in peace Maestro Gandini. Surely one of the greatest car designers of all time....
Rest in peace Maestro Gandini. Surely one of the greatest car designers of all time. https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a60192964/marcello-gandini-obituary/
Just read this. Women designers were indeed an oddity in the beginning of the industry. Not so much today. having said that, it's difficult to get females interested in the profession. When I was teaching at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit I rarely had a female student. They just aren't interested.
The anti-Mark II? Looks like a custom bone-stock. Lotta stuff going every which way, sometimes ya need a cove, sometimes ya don't - those headlights maybe landed on a '55 Chevy or two at Motorama? And they stuck with 'em throughout the run - no series 2 - would be fun for full-breezeway'd DQ runs; don't see many around?
Seems like engineering was questionable too, with the chief Lincoln engineer not passing along information about critical solutions from other departments to his own. Given he retired shortly after, was this premeditated revenge for having what was previously his design department spun off into an independent department? All the best, Andrew.
There was an interview with Don Delarossa where he said that during the Mark II development he was warned to stay away from it. The Mark II was designed by John Reinhart who was considered an outsider to the rest of the design management. Maybe since Reinhart was left alone that allowed him to make the Mark II such a great design. As for the topic of the 1958-1960 Lincoln, this has every hallmark of just throwing sh*t against the wall and then trying to incorporate some bit of each proposal. Not pointed to in this article is how much input there was from the various suits during the design reviews. In an interview with George Walker he touted how he appeased Ford management by incorporating some bit of design proposals that a "suit" liked so that they felt they had input. That may be a fine way of butt kissing a wide assortment of senior management but it also means that sanctity of a cohesive design is of little concern. This Lincoln sure suffers from that. As written in this saga, it makes me feel for Najjar. He was following what Walker and Engel wanted him to do but when the result blew up they sure let Najjar take the hit. Way, way back I remember being told that Ford had a history of no project got really underway until those in charge had determined who the poor sap would be the fall guy if the project went south.
I was on a deep dive on coach built website looking for a low production maker.. and I stumbled upon Don Lee Coach and Body which started off as Earl Carriage Works. Additional picture sources: https://www.harleyjearl.com/ and allcarcentral and lastly hemmings (poor quality but has shots of details I couldn't find elsewhere) by Daniel Strohl. J.W. Earl’s custom-built automobile and truck bodies were well-known for their sculpted appearance and could be seen in numerous film studio’s parking lots during the day and cruising Hollywood Blvd. at night. J.W.’s son, Harley J. Earl (1893-1969), worked in the shop after school and wound up attending Stanford University to study engineering. 6’3” tall Harley was an outstanding athlete who excelled at pole vault, broad jump and shot-put as a member of Stanford’s track & field squad. Much to his father’s chagrin, Harley excelled on another type of track as well. In 1918 Harley dropped out of school and was put in charge of dealing with his dad’s fast-growing custom-body clientele. Earl had a special talent for both schmoozing with and designing exotic bodies for Hollywood’s elite. Including Fatty Arbuckle's Pierce arrow further below Image Unavailable, Please Login Harley would design a car body starting with two dimensional rough-sketch, then turn his favorites into small clay models to show to the client. Up until that time, designer’s sketches were turned into full-size body drafts but were rarely modeled in three dimensions. When a three dimensional model was made, they were typically made from plaster and wood. Clay allows stylists and modelers greater freedom as well as a more malleable modeling process. Earl helped develop and perfect the rules which would govern car design for the next 50 years. Even today, it’s still not known whether Earl sculpted his own early clays or had them made by an assistant. Image Unavailable, Please Login These 3-dimensional presentations plus Earl's splendid sales presentations brought many of Hollywood’s top-list to the Don Lee dealership. pared. Earl started with a 147 ½-inch, 1919 Pierce-Arrow 66-A-4 chassis which cost $6,000 at the time. Roscoe then paid $25,000 to Don Lee for the coachwork, a figure that Earl recollects was $28,000. Among the many features of the Arbuckle vehicle is the radiator cap which features a letter "A" with an arrow running through it. Earl employed a number of styling concepts that would appear many years later in his production designs. Earl reshaped the cowl and hood to form a horizontal plane from the windshield to the radiator, a flowing silhouette seen a full decade later on the 1930 Cadillac V-16. Huge barrel headlamps and Arbuckle’s signature was mounted to the radiator in place of the characteristic Pierce-Arrow frogs-eye lights and logo. Prohibition started in 1919 and a hidden cabinet located underneath the rear foot rests was undoubtedly built to hide the now-bootleg booze. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Here's a good video from Jay Leno and a Pierce arrow club member with the same model
The College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI inherited the Argonaught Bldg where GM Art & Color were housed until they moved to the GM Tech Center. Mr. Earl's office is still there on the 11th floor. The school still uses the original Design Auditorium. Used to tell my students"if these walls could talk." Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ran across this photo, which is apparently about some type of HJE exhibition. Photo suppose to be on www.harleyjearl.com but I couldn't find it for more information about split-windows. Read the letters on the clay model! I wonder what year this was? Image Unavailable, Please Login
I’m not usually a big fan of matte paint jobs, but this special SP1 in satin hold is pretty cool IMO. The fact that it belongs to ‘The Boss’ is even cooler. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Looks like the bots finally got to the Norman Rockwell section of the library for their indoctrination.
