He had spoken critically of the “Hollywood concepts,” taking a rather direct jab at
Harley Earl, “and the Buck Rogers coterie (of designers).” He went on to point rather
critically at the entire fifties future design movement, “the table clothe artists, air brush
experts and plush scale-model stylists of the Sunday magazine supplements…The big
responsibility,” he emphasized, “ of the automobile stylist is not to predict what the motor
car will look like many years from now, but to solve the more exacting problems of next
year’s model.”
One of his primary design tenets was, “To design the car as a whole,” not as a piece
meal affair with one group working on the rear end, one the front, one the roof, and
individually all the detail elements between. But to create it around a central theme, and
carry it through the entire car. Having been brought on as head of Chrysler design at a
critical time for the company, and having had his first line up of cars such a great success,
he was in the position to truly direct the outcome of his second series of cars.
The result was a shock to the American system. These were not cars of the future, but cars
that defined a very contemporary present. They stood as one the few significant
automotive design transitions. He didn’t do it alone. On the experimental side was Ghia’s
new director of engineering Giovanni Savonuzzi. An accomplished aerodynamic
engineer, Savonuzzi had made the transition from aircraft to automobiles at Cisitalia.
Through the use of Turin Polytechnic’s wind tunnel, Savonuzzi’s Supersonic design series
at Ghia transformed theoretical automotive aerodynamics into empirical data. One design
he and Exner developed in 1954 was a turning point: the Ghia Gilda. It was brought to
full Chrysler dimension as the Dart show car of 1956. These studies had fully proven the
aerodynamic legitimacy that lay at the foundation of Exner’s new designs. On the
practical manufacturing side Exner had men like Homer Le Grassy. Le Grassy had been
assigned the design of the Fury, one of the most successful cars of the new line up. But it
was the Line leader, the Chrysler 300 that embodied most clearly and completely Exner’s
philosophy, his prototypes at Ghia, and their practical application of current automotive
engineering.
The Chrysler publicity department was in full swing in the summer of ’56. The new
models would be premiered in the fall, and the factory was working at capacity. This
model release would be the full realization of Exner’s complete remaking of Chrysler.
So sensational were Chrysler’s new cars that they would have a major impact before
they were even released to the public; with the help of a little industrial espionage.
During the summer of 56 a new member of GM’s design staff, Chuck Jordan, made a
surreptitious visit to the fence outside the Chrysler proving grounds. Generally a mission
of little concern, the photos taken through the chain-link on this day would cause a major
change at GM. When the photos were passed around during a conference at the GM
design center, they at first were greeted with derision. A replay of the Airflow disaster of
the 30’s with fins, some remarked. Then as the photos were further analyzed it became
clear that Exner had rewritten the rules. The proportion of body height to glass area had
been completely altered. The bodies were lower, the glass area greater and the roof pillars
thinner. The chrome was sparingly applied, with the highlights coming from the new
clean wedge shape. A new shape that was completed by fins that actually served an
aerodynamic function. Suddenly it was utter chaos at GM. The bulbous 58s were already
in the pipeline. The LeSabre concept car was being scaled up as a production sedan for 59.
Harley Earl, about to leave for his annual trip to the European auto shows, quickly
ordered chrome to be ladled on the 58 designs to change their now aged look.
The point was driven home hard as Chrysler’s new products were a hit with the public.
Everything in GMs pipeline for ’59 was tossed. Harley Earl, out of necessity, deferred to
Bill Mitchell’s thinner crisper lines, with the dictate to ”out fin Chrysler.” Bill Mitchell and
his team’s solutions were of course more sophisticated in solution than mere fins, though
the fins did grow significantly.
This radical redirection, so quickly implemented, cost GM in the area of 400 million
dollars. The 1958 models would stand as the only one-model year cars GM ever produced.
And for all intent and purpose, Harley Earl did not so much pass the torch of design
leadership of GM to Bill Mitchell, as Virgil Exner sr. handed it to him.
