Key Takeaways
During Earl ’s 31 - class career with the company , General Motors dominate supreme as an industry loss leader . Under his direction , designer and stylists pioneered countless innovations which propelled the ship’s company to the forefront of automotive design .
1. The Auto-Styling Studio
Prior to Earl ’s reaching in Detroit , cars were designed almost entirely by engineer who often show little talent for attractive , cohesive forms . The Art and Colour Section ( which Earl afterward renamed Styling ) changed all that . GM ’s new section revolutionise the auto industry , and rival manufacturers soon prepare styling studio of their own . A car ’s appearance became just as important as its mechanicals in Detroit ’s new product growth process .
2. The Wraparound Windshield
The groundbreaking 1951 LeSabre construct car bluster an groundbreaking young windshield figure in which the glass kink acutely at the end to meet the windscreen pillars . This yield a futuristic look and a panoramic purview . The design soon learn production on the 1953 Cadillac Eldorado and the 1953 Oldsmobile Fiesta , and it quickly becamede rigueuron most American cars in the 1950s .
3. Model-Line Hierarchy
One of GM Chairman Alfred Sloan ’s great innovations was a exemplary - line of products hierarchy of increase terms and status . The idea was that General Motors would have an appropriate production for consumers at each level of the automotive market place , and consumers would aspire to the next stave up the GM merchandise ravel . Harley Earl ’s work dovetail dead with this strategy , as he contrive a natural forward motion of increasing stylus and prestige intoChevrolets , Pontiacs , Oldsmobiles , Buicks , and Cadillacs .
4. The Dream Car
Earl popularise the idea of the " dream railway car , " or concept automobile , a one - off , non - production fomite ramp up for motorcar - show display . Earl ’s fulgent , futurist ambition cars forecast tomorrow ’s styling innovations and whet the gondola - hungry public ’s appetency for the " next big affair " in self-propelling design . Public chemical reaction to the new designs was also used to guess the popularity of next production models . Earl ’s 1938 Buick " Y - Job " was the first full - fledged dream car .
5. Clay Modeling
Even before he arrived at General Motors , Earl was a pioneer in the conception of taking a intention from a two - dimensional draft to a three - dimensional form by create clay models of his introduction . The use of clay as a moulding tool greatly simplified and travel rapidly up the design appendage by allowing designer to project shape and form that were hard and time - have to create in blade .
6. Dagmars
Among the 1951 LeSabre dream gondola ’s many design innovations were large , bullet - mould bumper sentry go . These gibbousness , which were nicknamed " Dagmars " after a buxom TV personality of the day , became standard styling tucket on fifties Cadillacs .
7. The Chevrolet Corvette
Harley Earl put more than 45,000 mi on the LeSabre show car , using it as his personal railcar and driving it to automotive events . In September 1951 , Earl took the LeSabre to a sports car airstream at Watkins Glen , New York . picture the passion these enthusiast had for their auto , most of which were import , Earl make up one’s mind America needed an low-cost sportswoman elevator car of its own . The Corvette debuted at the New York Motorama in January 1953 , and the rest is story .
8. Integrated Body Design
When Harley Earl first started out in self-propelling design , cars were a hodgepodge of disparate part . Earl visualized a car as a cohesive whole and designed individual components so they would harmonize with the overall design of the car .
9. Tailfins
Earl was infatuated with aircraft design motifs and jazz incorporating them into automotive designs . In particular , the twinned - windfall tail of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning caught his eye . The1948 Cadillacwas the first yield car to receive these ornamental appendages , which trigger off a tendency that culminate in the skyrocketing fins of the 1959 Cadillac . vertical stabiliser became more curb each yr and had mostly disappeared by the mid-1960s .
10. Copious Chrome
Chrome trim was a simple mode to add up optical pizazz to car , and Harley Earl was a lord at in effect using this automotive bling bling . However , he finally take on the " more is better " plan of attack , and by 1958 , GM room decorator had gone overboard , jam on the brightwork until railroad car look like gaudy , chrome - encrusted chariot . Detroit began toning down the chrome presently after .
11. Rear-Mounted Television Cameras
Earl loved self-propelling gadgetry . In office of rear view mirrors , the 1956 Buick Centurion show car boasted a usable idiot box camera that communicate the rearward view to a small screen on the dashboard . Rear view cameras that append rearward view mirrors get showing up on S.U.V. and big luxury motorcar in the early 2000s . Earl was decidedly in front of his time .
