Strangely enough, two of the transportation design projects during my Art Center years involved assignments to develop a vehicle powered by an engine supplied by a different automaker. Remember, this was in the spring of 1973, long before GM was caught with their rocker covers down, so to speak, after it was found that the General had been incestuously installing Oldsmobile V8s in Cadillacs and Chevy V8s in some Oldsmobiles. (This great piece from Tom Halter is required reading if you must learn the sordid details).
With that bit of background out of the way, for the first such task we were given a “package drawing” (a scale representation of the size and dimensions) of a Wankel rotary engine/transmission. As budding automotive stylists, our task was to choose a GM division and design a car to accommodate the powertrain, in either a transverse front-wheel drive or mid-engine configuration. In the early ’70s, GM had become a Wankel licensee, and intended to offer the rotary engine in its upcoming H-Body compact sport coupes from 1975 onward (think Chevy Monza 2+2 and its Buick Skyhawk, Olds Starfire, and Pontiac Sunbird kin), or even the Vega, if Popular Science was to be believed.
They only got this slightly wrong. (Source: vauxpedianet.uk)
Our instructor for this fifth-semester Transportation Design class was the incomparable Strother MacMinn, an ex-GM designer who literally took thousands of budding car design students under his wing during his many years as an Art Center instructor. MacMinn typically came into class each week with a twinkle in his eye, a stack of automotive photos, articles, and literature (and a cigarette between his lips, as he was also a chain smoker). He would relate absorbing anecdotes of his days at GM rubbing shoulders with the likes of design boss Harley Earl (“Misterl”) and others, offering encouragement and quiet suggestions for improving our sensitivity to form and shape (“maybe this line wants to do something like this…”) as he looked over our shoulders.
Strother MacMinn (at left) with GM’s Harley Earl (second from right) examining an Art Center project. (archives.artcenter.edu)
I don’t recall whether we were free to choose, or whether Strother assigned each of us a General Motors division. I’m guessing the latter, because Buick would likely not have been my first choice (despite the fact that according to my parents, the first automotive word I uttered was “Buick”). For this assignment, we worked in teams, MacMinn presumably feeling that we would each gain from another’s inspiration. I was paired with Jacques, a chain-smoking Frenchman easily a decade older (and more worldly) than I, who was working up a sleek Citroen-esque front-drive four-door sedan with which to envelop his passengers and the requisite rotary engine. Visualize the mating of a Citroen SM and an NSU Ro-80, if you will…
Yes, this early attempt had a wrap-over rear side window, long before the Bronco II. Mea culpa.
My design evolved into the mid-engine two-seater seen in the fifth-scale side-view sketch above and the full-size rendering below. I make no excuses for the bulbous front and rear ends. In 1973, we were all aware of the impending 5-MPH bumper mandate, actually measuring models of the intended impact pendulum against our fifth-scale side-view drawings to ensure that we all had the proposed impact range (16″ to 20″ from the ground) covered. I suppose were all alternately discouraged by the forthcoming bumper standards, feeling that they would have a permanent negative impact (pun intended) on future car design, and at the same time challenged to find some redeeming aesthetic qualities within their parameters.
And now, somewhat more civilized, the full-size airbrush rendering.
Magazine publishing lead-times being what they were, our collective efforts got some ink in the October 1973 issue of Road & Track, along with MacMinn’s commentary on each design proposal. Keeping it in the Buick family, with the benefit of hindsight and some squinting, I can see some elements of the 1988-1991 Reatta in my effort, along with a hint of the “basket handle” greenhouse treatment used by Ford in its late-1970s Thunderbird, as well as its “sporty” Fairmont/Zephyr two-door coupes. Your eyesight, I realize, may differ.
A ’91 Reatta in Polo Green, a rarely-seen color. (eastcoastreattaparts.com)
Twins from different mothers, separated before birth? Maybe, or else I may just have been fifteen years ahead of my time in predicting a potential GM Deadly Sin.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1988-1991 Buick Reatta – GM’s Deadly Sin #30 – The Death Of Sex And Soul
Looking at the full-size airbrush rendering, it looks like the early 5MPH bumpers were expected to be the full height of the body overhang area. The midsection is attractive and modern, though there doesn’t appear to be any room for the window to roll down, or much space for even a 2+2 size rear seat.
From what I’ve read, GM’s initial plan was to offer the rotary engine in the Vega, but then it was decided to showcase the new engine in a new car that became the Monza. Early sketches for the Monza showed a very low and short hoodline that was to have been made possible by the Wankel’s smaller dimensions (early drawings for the AMC Pacer, which was to have also used the GM Wankel, had a ridiculously tiny engine compartment). The production 1975 Monzas had a huge driveline hump designed to accommodate the rotary’s driveshaft linkage that was shrunken to normal dimensions starting in ’76.
Stephen – I’m enjoying this series.
My eyesight told me that between the wheels the full-sized airbrush was related to the Mustang II coupe – mainly the greenhouse.
It’s fun to see these! The photo of McMinn, Earl, and the other two gentlemen shows how fashion styles changed quickly during the Seventies. By the time I started working with industrial designers regularly in the mid-eighties, they all seemed to wear skinny ties with pink or mint green shirts, black pants and had earrings. Not like we engineers in our khakis and white or blue button-downs. Of the two renderings, I actually saw some Citroen SM in the blue one even before I read the comment about Jacques, and the C pillar on the second one looks very Fox Mustang notchback to me. But even with its big nose I like it; only the droopy pre-Bangle butt looks off.
Nodding. Fox-body Mustang is what I saw too, namely the greenhouse.
In another world I would have enjoyed doing this, although my artistic talents are lacking. Thanks for taking us along.
Stephen, I’m definitely enjoying this series. I can indeed see the connection between your last rendering and the Reatta. It’s even more pronounced when I flip the Reatta photo so that it’s facing the same way as your illustration.
Also, I know that I’m probably more jaded than I should be due to our current civilization’s lack of flying cars or vast glass domed undersea farms, but it’s surprising to hear that anything featured on the cover of Popular Science was actually based on factual industrial intelligence.
Bears a very strong resemblance to the production car. Nice comparison.
MacMinn was a legend for sure. The full-sized rendering is not at all disagreeable, save for the odd concavity along the top edge of the taper at the rear end…?
Wow, great to see your work!
I remember doing full size airbrushed tape drawings – lots of work with what we later learned was highly carcinogenic Flowmaster inks!
Looking forward to hearing more of your stories and seeing more of your work!
Thanx for sharing this .
I like the air brushed renditions, wish I had similar skills .
-Nate
Nice Air brush renderings!
Mac was a Art Center TREASURE! He always would go the extra TWO miles to help any and all ACCD students that needed it, like me! He was the proverbial gentleman and scholar. As with many other students, Mac and I kept in touch over the years. Our conversations bored my wife to tears when we visited him at his house in Pasadena, but he and I completely enjoyed talking about cars, design and whatever. 🙂
I took him out to dinner one Friday night when on a business trip to L.A. with a co-worker. The fellow had heard me speak of Mac, and was completely enveloped by Mac’s wonderful personality and knowledge during our dinner. Sadly that was the last time I ever saw Mac as he was in the car accident that ultimately claimed his life not many months later. 🙁
As I understand it Mac was driving the Camaro I had found for him years before when he decided his ’68 Firebird would go for a “NEW”’70 1/2 generation Camaro. The trouble was they were not being built due to a strike! I found a slightly used, blue 307 which he decided was close enough to the black SS 350 he really wanted, due to market conditions. 🙂 DFO
I’ve never seen a Reatta in green before. It looks so much better in a dark color than in the bright red that seems to be the default of every Reatta online at least. Even as someone that loves Buicks bright gloss red is just not a very Buick color.
Wow, Steve, we were classmates! All those memories come rushing back. Mac, Harry Bradley, all my great classmates, and so much more. Thanks for writing this and taking me back to another time.