I
Suddenly it’s 1960 was Chrysler’s ad campaign slogan of 1957. From GM and Ford’s
perspective Chrysler had indeed jumped three years ahead in styling. This was a dramatic
turn-around for the Highland Park company. The standing joke in Detroit was, ‘Leave a
Ford and a Chevy in the same garage overnight, and nine months later you get a
Plymouth’. It was designer Virgil Exner sr whose ‘Forward Look’ design system had
changed derision into begrudging admiration, and emulation.
Exner, like so many of his peers in Detroit had come through GM’s design system.
Hired by Earl in 1933, Exner became Chief of the newly establish Pontiac design studio in
1936. His designs were marked by distinctive, well proportioned shapes, and futuristic
detail. He was then hired by the great industrial designer Raymond Loewy in 1938, as a
member of the firm’s newly established automotive design group.
Nine years later, Exner’s rather conspiratorial part in the development of the post war
Studebackers, led to his dismissal from Loewy, and hiring as Studebacker’s first in-house
Director of design. The impact of the ’47 Studebaker, on its competitors and the market,
placed Exner at the forefront of American design. In 1949 Chrysler decided to bring him
on board as their first Director of design. Much like Harley Earl’s entry into GM in the
thirties, Exner had to fight the established structure of body engineers for control of design.
He was well supported in this effort, because he had been personally hired by Chrysler’s
CEO K. T. Keller. Under the banner of the Forward Look Exner transformed the staid
Highland Park operation into an advanced lab for automotive design. And shook things
up in Detroit.
The term car guy, in the industry, has come to mean someone who is an enthusiast,
destined to fight the good fight with marketing and accounting. It is a term of respect
given those rare individuals whose automotive vision produces the cars that excite the
public, as well as marketing and accounting. Exner was such a guy. He envisioned the
car as a whole design. A cohesive unit of purposefully shaped sheet metal, stretched over
capable engineering.
Chrysler’s engineering was good. Had been from the time Walter P. built the company
on the high-compression six. Following the war Chrysler developed its first V8, it was
ready for market in 1951. Highland Park’s engineers had taken a radical direction for the
engine’s design. The target was performance. Taking a page from the supercharged
racing engines of the thirties, the engineers designed the new V8 with hemispherical
combustion chambers to greatly increase airflow and power. The engine was initially
released with 331 Cubic inch displacement, producing 180 horsepower. This was
advanced engineering, and a harbinger of things to come from Chrysler.
As the hemi was reaching completion, Exner was organizing his advanced design
department. One of the first projects undertaken was to create a show car for the engine’s
introduction. It was a car design that was to take a most interesting road to the American
auto shows, via Italy.
Under the Marshall Plan for the rebuilding of a war devastated Europe, Chrysler had
been asked to assist in the rebuilding of Fiat’s production operation. Getting a good look
at the Italian auto industry, Chrysler gained an appreciation for the relationship between
the Carrozzerias, which designed and built the bodies and the interiors, and the
manufacturers, who engineered and built the rolling chassis. Under Exner’s direction,
Chrysler’s Advance Design looked to develop an association with Pinin Farina for the
development of their new prototype. When Pinin’s heavy workload prevented this,
Chrysler was approached by Carrozzeria Ghia. This relationship resulted in some of the
most dynamic custom cars, and one-off show cars designed by an American manufacturer
during the early fifties.
