Many of you may already know that the last of the great GM Styling Chiefs, Chuck Jordan, passed away back in December. I thought it was worth raising a glass to five of the finest General Motors (pre 70s) auto designs under his watch. These are just ... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Tough to choose which one is his best in my opinion. If you think of fame, you almost can't beat the '59 Cadillac. It is the icon of finned 50's cars. It's not my favorite though. I have read that the '58 Corvette was his design; also a classic design, though I prefer the '63-67's. Hmmm... much less popular, but nonetheless a very good design is the '67 Cadillac Eldorado. Perhaps it's just me, but this design language is very much still representative of the current Cadillac design language. Faceted, creased planes, bold proportions. OK, then I'll go with the '67 Eldorado as my favorite of his for it's lasting impact on Cadillac design.
I've always dug the '59 Caddy, ever since I was a child. As you pointed out (Jay), the "pinnacle of late 50s American design excess" was mostly down to Harley Earl (the King IMO). For me the straight line and sharp angular designs that followed were never as beautiful.
Back when styling was done with pencil, paper and imagination, gas prices be hanged..not a wind tunnel and an eye towards fuel consumtion
Seems I remember one of Chuck's drawings was of a 49-52 Chevy-turned-El Camino....maybe the first Ute rendering....been years since I saw it, so I forget where. Anyway I recall it mentioned as likely being the inspiration the El Camino. Great designer, not well liked by some within GM, but very talented.
There were a lot of great designs out of GM in those days (50's & 60's).......... Ran across the GM Stiletto the other day..........sleek The prototype to the El Dorado Brougham (Pininfrana) was call the XP-38......The main difference being the tail lights.......Not as flamboyant as the production car but attractive none the less........ Two others were the 1956 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket Dream Car, and the Cadillac El Camino..........Both 2 door coupes.....
Being a huge Cadillac lover, the 1961 ElDorado Conv. is one of my personal favorites. Hope you saw the two 59 Cads at the SEMA show, they were great!
I can tell you he was a very nice guy. In recent years he'd stop in at the San Diego Model Car Club meetings on occasion and talk about cars and design and show a slide show which always had terrific artwork, renderings, etc. of his designs. Being an executive, he had great speaking skills but was down to earth and very interesting. He always had a behind the scenes story about the production of any car he spoke of. He loved Ferrari's and from what I'm told, had several.
In high school (senior year) we had a group that hung together......We would go riding at lunch (had an hour and could leave campus in those days).......One of the guys drove his Uncle's Caddy ElDorado convertible(55)......We were so "cool"...at least we thought so.......
So, is it just me or does that Biscayne look like a future Corvair? And the Centurion....what an awesome example of '50s GM concepts at their best...
If you lop the front and rear fascias off the centurion, you'll see that it is Buick's Century for 57(another Jordan design, clearly watered down from the original). Jordan did design the 58 vette. His influence is felt and seen(and unfortunately is consistently overshadowed by Harley Earl's)even today, not just in General Motors products. While he may have gotten a fair deal of credit-he never got enough. If you ever get the chance(and not too many do)to get into the basement of Alfred P. Sloan museum in Flint Michigan, you'll see some of the concepts born under his administration that were simply junked at the time(and rehashed for later use) as well as some that came to fruition. I realize everyone's got their favs', but I don't have one. I can't. I love them all. But I agree with Tbomb428, those eldos(as well as the toronado) were BEYOND ahead of their time. Thanks for highlighting this REAL innovator....This man made the future happen....
Yes, Chuck was a great contributor to GM but don't forget Harley Earl who came to GM in 1927 and spent many years pushing the Buicks and Cadillacs (LaSalle, too) not to mention his avant-garde of the 40's hardtop convertibles. The first Corvette ws part of a joint inspiration, too. mrbuick16
Don't forget , the 1955-59 Chevrolet Apachie and 3000 series trucks were all from Mr. Jordans sketch pad ! scrubba
Harley Earl understood the connection between outstanding automotive design and long-term financial success at GM. Many of the designs Jordan is lauded for, in this piece, obits and recent mag articles (like tailfins and penning the Cyclone concept car) were in fact Earls creations but even if Jordan had been the greatest artist of all time, by the time he took the reins, the GM bean counters had quietly staged a coup and taken control of this side of the business, completely de-emphasizing the role of automotive design played in car sales. This cost GM, the greatest company of all time in numbers and finance, their automotive monopoly and is eventually why this company went bankrupt in 2008/2009. Regards, Richard Earl [email protected]
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