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GM Design Studio Drawings, Clay Models, & Prototypes


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  • 2 weeks later...

62corvair.jpg

Oh yeah Snake........this is still tied to much to the '50's although 1962 was barely out of the '50's. If the car was more squared up below, that roofline might have fared better style wise. The '64 Barracuda pulled this off well but its rear window was more stretched out which helped.

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13 minutes ago, espo said:

The last Studdy Larks come to mind also. 

The '53 Stude was FAR ahead of its time. IMHO, the rest of Detroit didn't start catching up until about the '61 Thunderbird. 

But being so far ahead, they had nowhere to go with the design to go but backwards, so started gooning it up with tacky chrome, tail fins, grilles, and other unneeded garbage to meet the rest of the market in the kitschy middle. 

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18 hours ago, Snake45 said:

The '53 Stude was FAR ahead of its time. IMHO, the rest of Detroit didn't start catching up until about the '61 Thunderbird. 

But being so far ahead, they had nowhere to go with the design to go but backwards, so started gooning it up with tacky chrome, tail fins, grilles, and other unneeded garbage to meet the rest of the market in the kitschy middle. 

They had also struggled with finances after the merger with Packard. There were many issues beyond design for Studebaker after WW II and combined with some questionable leadership a once proud company folded. I have owned a couple of $50 Studebakers for winter cars back in the '60's and they were built like a tank and the flathead 6 with overdrive was able to keep up with traffic and still get 20 + mpg with well over 100k miles and  little or no maintenance prior to my ownership.   

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  • 2 months later...

The Head lights and the Hood almost look production ready for the '59 model year. The production models had a much deeper center section on the Hood but the Head lights look about wright I'm glad they passed on the Grill. The Hub Caps look like the '56 Bel Air design.  

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  • 3 months later...

First time I've ever seen that..It was very informative..I knew there was lots to making a car but WOW and that was in 1958-59..I can't imagine the technically advance the assembly is now..I imagine some of it still is done the old fashion way but now I don't know if its as as good with some of the junk on the streets now..I'am pretty sure they won't last as long as they did back then..I don't imagine you'll see many vehicles today in 20 or so years like you do now..Very interesting film about GM..I imagine Chrysler and Ford worked the same..

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22 hours ago, Casey said:

blazer4.jpg.f6ee504f9d621abbc3d876c6f56dbe85.jpg

I wonder when this picture was taken. This looks almost like a production ready '67 or '68 Chevy Blazer. The shape of the rear side glass is different and the front fender running lights, but everything else looks like the finished vehicles.

 

16 hours ago, 59 Buick said:

This is a great video as well, sure most have seen it. 

This speaker should try and show a little more enthusiasm in his voice. He could put a sales meeting to sleep in minutes. 

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33 minutes ago, espo said:

I wonder when this picture was taken. This looks almost like a production ready '67 or '68 Chevy Blazer. The shape of the rear side glass is different and the front fender running lights, but everything else looks like the finished vehicles.

 

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14 hours ago, Casey said:

 

That is sort of what I was thinking. In the past while looking at some of these design proposals I notice styling ideas that I wish they had used but often these same ideas show up on a different model a year or two later.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

The white car on the left has the A pillar, wheel well openings and the tail lights of the '64 and '65 Tempest. I love looking at these old pictures and seeing how the designs evolved and the different styling that shows up in  later year models.  

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