Car Collector Corner; The great designers and a letter from Harley Earl’s grandson

By Greg Zyla —

I promised after last week’s editorial style “The cart before the horse” column, centering on the lack of electric car recharge stations across the country, that I would return to the wonderful world of classic cars and specifically the renowned designers of the 1950 to early 1960 decade.

We’re also including this week a letter I received from Richard Earl, the grandson of perhaps the best-known designer of all time, Harley Earl, who oversaw the entire family of General Motors beauties for decades. Richard responded to my column about the GM luxury brand LaSalle, l. 

Here we go, with a new column on some of the great automobile designers.

Since I’ve written about Earl many times in the past, here are some of the other designers who deserve to be included in any discussion dealing with car styling and design.

Virgil Exner: Virgil was head designer for Chrysler Corporation from 1949 to 1961, when some of the most innovative and beautiful designs arrived at dealer showrooms from 1955 to 1960. Noted were everything from three color designs to all new cab forward beauties like the 1957 DeSoto. and several years of Chrysler 300 performance cars. His Imperials were also noteworthy during those years, as were his Dodge and Plymouth works of art. 

Exner was noted for beautiful fins, although I never really liked his later big fin applications on the 1959 Plymouth, which by 1960 disappeared completely if you were a Plymouth owner.

Robert Bourke: Bourke was head designer of the Studebaker Golden Hawk and Silver Hawk series that debuted in 1956, but was an outgrowth of his Studebaker coupes series that debuted in 1953. Although some of Bourke’s designs were not inspiring, his Hawk series to this day looks great at car shows. His other Studebaker novel designs include the 1950 Bullet-Nose Studebaker, and the pre-Hawk Starliner models in 1953.

Bryan Nesbitt: Nesbitt was responsible for two noted retro-styles: the Chevy HHR (high heritage roof). Before joining the General Motors team at HHR, Nesbit made a major mark with his Chrysler PT Cruiser, similar in theory to the HHR, and personally I liked both designs with a bit more leaning to the HHR. 

Raymond Loewy: In co-operation and working with Bourke, is co-designer of the Studebaker Starliner series, noted as one of the best new sporty designs with lower body aesthetics completely different from competing models. Most notable perhaps is Lowey’s Studebaker Avanti, a more luxurious performance car that set records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in co-op with Andy Granatelli when it came to power under the hood. 

Lowey’s years at Studebaker started in 1938 until 1961, yet later returned to Studebaker to design the body for the Studebaker Avanti. Unfortunately he is sometimes forgotten when it comes to talks about Studebaker and sporty cars, but insiders laurel his accomplishments to this day.  

Bill Mitchell: Bill succeeded Harley Earl at GM, and two of his designs come quickly to mind – the split-window 1963 Corvette and the Buick Riviera / Olds Toronado front drive cars. Mitchell guided GM through what I feel was its best decade when it came to muscle cars, starting immediately in 1961 with the Chevy Impala SS with the 348 big block and then, at year’s end, the ’61 Impala SS 409. 

Add in the great Pontiac GTO, Olds 442, Chevelle SS396, Buick GS, along with those nasty fast Corvettes, and no decade compares in both fast cars and sales numbers. MOPAR and Ford are close, but GM receives my nod of affection thanks to Mitchells and his bevy of autonomous team leaders. 

Let’s end this week on a high note – publishing a personal email I received from Harley Earl’s grandson, Richard.  

Said Richard, “Hi Greg, maybe you want to share some of what follows with your LaSalle audience after reading your recent great article. Anyway, I just wrote an article for a LaSalle club newsletter entitled, ‘A Breakthrough on an 87-year-Old Controversy.’ 

“The article flushes out the ‘delicious pressure’ of what was going on in the background of General Motors (GM’s) engineering world after my grandfather Harley began working with key players in ‘autodom’ (Cadillac) starting in the mid-20s.

“After Harley stepped down some 30-odd years later, many GM engineers would go on to do a number (in the history books) on his legacy.

“No doubt this has to do with how badly America’s auto design pioneer / HJE had sidelined GM’s myriad of traditional engineers from being at all involved in the exciting genesis process of creating the company’s new product designs.

“In other words, after Harley’s new hybrid-engineering / art department, a.k.a. GM Art & Colour came into existence and when it turned into GM Styling it really became powerful.

“Harley and his team of players took entire control of this exciting engineering process of, ‘WHAT A GM CAR WOULD BE,’ and hence all GM’s cars became not only more useful, but beautiful, too. 

“You could even say that right after HJE stepped down from the auto business, something new started in the 1960s. This was when the traditional engineers inside GM ganged up right alongside the finance guys, (remember, both these factions had entirely been cut out of the creative control process HJE and his team dominated for 30-plus years), so moving forward in auto history, let’s just say for simplicity’s sake the decades that followed the 1960s some of GM’s biggest engineers and finance guys had an axe to grind and went on to get even with HJE’s legacy / design department.

“In this aftermath, GM’s auto designs (especially the Interior Designs of all GM’s cars) were significantly watered down in comparison to the cars Harley and his team designed so flawlessly.” 

Take care, Richard Earl, Harley’s youngest grandson. 

I answered: Richard, I am honored that you have contacted me, as I hold your grandfather in the highest esteem when it comes to General Motors design. He indeed is the most influential designer / engineer EVER!

I want to thank you, along with my readers, for the links you provide as they are loaded with excellent photos and information. I’ve already “Liked” your Facebook page.

Thanks again for your letter. For more information, start with Harley Earl on Facebook and you’ll find many other links.

(Greg Zyla is a syndicated auto columnist who welcomes reader comments or questions on auto nostalgia, collector cars or old-time racing at greg@gregzyla.com or extramile_2000@yahoo.com.)