Harley Earl: the most important designer ever from the USA
Posted on 16-06-2015 at 22:58 by dizono – 26 Comments”
What do you think if we ‘American cars’? Giant boats with huge tail fins? Or maybe earlier on the Corvette? Doesn’t matter, both come out of the sleeve of Harley Earl, so he, without a doubt, the most important designer of American automotive history.
The last time both we and specials for about autodesigners and their creations, but our attention was mainly focused on Europe. The highest time for the most important car designer that America has ever known even bring it under the attention.
Of graduate up’s head of design in a few years
Harley Earl left the Stanford University to be with his pa to go to work in the company. Together with his father and there he built special car bodies for Hollywood stars on the basis of, among other Cadillac’s, Duesenberg’s and Auburn’s. In the mid – ’20s, the company was taken over by the local Cadillac dealer, but the young Earl should stay on as manager of the coachbuilder.
There he is, in 1927, discovered by Lawrence P. Fisher, the then director of Cadillac. Who will see immediately the talent of Earl and decides him to bodies, and for zustermerk LaSalle cars to draw. The Earl signed LaSalle (on the picture is a copy from 1931) stores, and the GM decides the ‘Art and Color Section of General Motors’, that will act as the umbrella department of the group. Harley Earl, at that time beginning 30, is appointed as the first chief.
The first concept car
Although the one off in those days is generally accepted by the non-self-supporting vehicle body is also relatively simple – has the world until shortly before the Second world War, never seen a concept car seen. The Earl signed Buick Y-Job of 1939 is the first car to be solely designed for the audience to warm up to design what then will be introduced on production models. Not that the Y-Job after its stock market debut will languish in a warehouse, Harley Earl, there was just his daily car. Below are the big boss in the first concept car ever.
The emergence of the flukes
In 1948, makes the world acquainted with the first car ever to feature of the typical flukes. For the Cadillac’s of that year, Earl is inspired by the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, a beautiful fighter aircraft of the Second world War with two standing flukes (yes, such a thing had we to Breeder at the time also). Those two tail fins were in 1948 still very small, but would rap in size start to increase.
Looked at the competitors initially the cat out of the tree, the tail fins of Cadillac proved to be a shot in the rose. Quickly gave Earl almost all the cars of General Motors fins, and brands like Ford and Chrysler were soon to participate in the battle for the largest and most impressive fins. That match was won by the ’59 Cadillac, with perhaps the most famous fins ever.
It was also the last model year that, under the supervision of Earl was signed, at the end of 1958 he retired. From 1960 would be flukes also going to shrink up after a year or six completely disappeared. Below, the concept car that a year earlier a hint gave to the tail fins of 1959 (such as the ’59 Eldorado Biarritz, and in the photo at the top of the article).
The birth of the Corvette
But Earl’s influence on the American auto industry does not end with the tail flukes, also the only true American sports car comes out of the sleeve of Harley Earl. Just after the war in Europe is still in a lot of sports cars (when still) and a lot of welcome guests on the American circuits. Earl understands that Americans prefer cars of their own soil to drive and begins in the secret with the design of a sports car, which interestingly enough the name ‘Project Opel‘. When he made the drawings to Chevrolet chief Ed Cole showed, doubted that for a second and he let the Corvette continue the development right. In 1953 saw the first Corvette, then with plastic body and a six-in-line, the light.
