GM Design Studio Drawings, Clay Models, & Prototypes

[Casey]

On 9/20/2018 at 2:17 PM, Howard Cohen said:

There have been several articles about styling over the years and a few books written by stylists.

The ultimate Must Have when it comes to automotive styling and design:

 

These two Michael Lamm books are must haves, too, if youre interested in GM F-bodies:

 

9 hours ago, henry57 said:

Wow! great pics, any tri-fives?

Cars That Never Were is also a great book, featuring many different makes of cars which never made it past the design or clay stage, including some great Tri-Five Chevies:

[MrObsessive]

This would make a really cool modeling subject! An Opel GT as a starting point??

Or perhaps a shortened and sectioned C3 'Vette..........

Edited September 22, 2018 by MrObsessive
Picture Edit

[Ace-Garageguy]

Some of the mockups were so odd looking, it's almost hard to believe they got as far as full-scale clays. Of course, it's relatively easy to heavily modify a clay, but still, it's a LOT of effort for something that really had no hope of production, and little carryover into anything eventually built.

This thing, for instance. GM never used anything other than part of the roofline (excluding the tapered C-pillar)... 

...and the front fender blisters, which eventually found a home on the C2 Corvette (which appears to have inherited the peaked hood / nose as well) ...

...and remarkably, over at Chrysler, on the '61 Dodge Dart...

Edited September 22, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[tim boyd]

That "''72" El Camino photo is much closer to actual production than most of the other design studies shown here.  

How do I know that?  First, the GM "A-Body" program was originally scheduled for the 1972 model year, not 1973 as actually occurred.  Various explanations for the delay include a UAW strike early in the program development, and another more recent explanation that escapes my memory bank at the moment.     

Second, well into the 1972 A-Body program, the federal bureaucracy inserted itself into the automotive design world with their declaration that all 1973 cars would have to have 5mph front bumpers.  The 1972 (now 1973) GM A-bodies had to be redesigned, relatively late in the development process, to accommodate the 5mph front bumpers.  Some of the cars (the Buick Century Regal and particularly the Olds Cutlass and Cutlass Supreme) managed the transition to the bigger bumpers well.  The other two, the Chevelle/Malibu/ElCamino, and the Pontiac LeMans/GTO (other than the Grand Am) suffered greatly.  This mage gives us a hint of what the Chevelle/Malibu front end might have looked like without the 5pmh bumper change.  Not the most beautiful design, but infinitely more commercially acceptable than the final 1973 production design that resulted.  

Thanks guys for posting all these GM Design Studio photos.....TIM 

 

 

 

[espo]

3 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Some of the mockups were so odd looking, it's almost hard to believe they got as far as full-scale clays. Of course, it's relatively easy to heavily modify a clay, but still, it's a LOT of effort for something that really had no hope of production, and little carryover into anything eventually built.

This thing, for instance. GM never used anything other than part of the roofline (excluding the tapered C-pillar)... 

...and the front fender blisters, which eventually found a home on the C2 Corvette (which appears to have inherited the peaked hood / nose as well) ...

...and remarkably, over at Chrysler, on the '61 Dodge Dart...

Hard to tell from the angle of this picture, but the rear window opening reminds me of the '61 Chevrolet 2 and four door sedans. They had a slight wraparound with the roof extending flat over the top edge of the rear window. The windshield looks very much like the '61 Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick models. 

[Casey]

On 9/19/2018 at 4:43 PM, om617 said:

This look fantastic. Do you know what year this claymodel was made?

I love how close the prototype for the 1967 Cadillac is the final product.

More info here: http://www.eldorado-seville.com/67eldo/67eldohistory/

 

 

Good thing this bug-eyed monstrosity never made it through, but those suicide rear doors were a thing for a while:

 

I love how the A-pillar flows right out into the hood peak edges on the below car. The quad headlights mounted low, not so much:

 

Edited September 22, 2018 by Casey

[Spex84]

I love this thread. Fantastic photos. I've always been fascinated by concept and development sketches and mockups. 

I'd also highly recommend the book "A Century of Automotive Style". It's full of cool stuff. I picked one up years ago, and it was hard to track down...took ages to get here...but when it did, it was signed by one of the authors, Michael Lamm...so that was neat!

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

55 minutes ago, espo said:

Hard to tell from the angle of this picture, but the rear window opening reminds me of the '61 Chevrolet 2 and four door sedans. They had a slight wraparound with the roof extending flat over the top edge of the rear window. The windshield looks very much like the '61 Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick models. 

Yeah, that would be the "part of the roofline" I referred to as one few things GM did use from that particular exercise...though I now see I should have been very specific. I thought it was so obvious I didn't need to really go into it, but it would have made more sense if I'd said "greenhouse" rather than "roofline" anyway.  

Edited September 22, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[StevenGuthmiller]

10 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Some of the mockups were so odd looking, it's almost hard to believe they got as far as full-scale clays. Of course, it's relatively easy to heavily modify a clay, but still, it's a LOT of effort for something that really had no hope of production, and little carryover into anything eventually built.

This thing, for instance. GM never used anything other than part of the roofline (excluding the tapered C-pillar)... 

...and the front fender blisters, which eventually found a home on the C2 Corvette (which appears to have inherited the peaked hood / nose as well) ...

 

 

There is a lot of similarity in the overall shape of the rear fender with the '61 Olds.

Heavily smoothed down & minus the dual creases.

The roof line is very evident in this example as well.

 

A modified version of the hood peak showed up on the '61 Buick long before the '63 Vette, but I can see how they threw at least 3 similar features of the front end of this model into the front of the Corvette.

 

 

Steve

 

[Casey]

"Known internally at GM as XP-836, Chevrolet’s answer to the Ford Mustang is shown here in clay model form in November of 1964":

[Joe Handley]

Interesting that this all but nailed down the '67-'68 body sides and the '69 grill all on one mock up.

[Joe Handley]

One thing I find interesting is that somebody there saw fit to sort of bring back the "Bubble Top" shape on the '88-'03 Cavelier and Sunbird/Sunfire Coupes, just with more curve and less clunky appearing than the original Bubble Top.

Edited November 19, 2018 by Joe Handley

[1930fordpickup]

One thing I have noticed is that they found what they like with these mockups and what they did not like. Sometimes if you really look at something you can see features that are similar but changed as others have pointed out with the fender shapes front and rear. 

I also noticed the one picture (with the GM logo ) that had what looked to me like a Ford truck on the other side of Chevy truck. Yes I know they all have each others cars in their R&D buildings at one point or another. Dad always talked about the alternators they had at their Ford plant they were testing from the other companies. 

[gotnitro?]

Cool pics 

I watched a special about GM where they take mockups outside and park them at different angles and the head design  guy sits inside a building looking over the cars looking at how the light plays off the body lines.  He said many have been altered after that because they determined the bodies weren't quite perfect yet. Very interesting show

[Snake45]

5 hours ago, Joe Handley said:

Interesting that this all but nailed down the '67-'68 body sides and the '69 grill all on one mock up.

AND the '66 Caprice top to boot! 

[MrObsessive]

5 hours ago, Joe Handley said:

One thing I find interesting is that somebody there saw fit to sort of bring back the "Bubble Top" shape on the '88-'03 Cavelier and Sunbird/Sunfire Coupes, just with more curve and less clunky appearing than the original Bubble Top.

Can't forget about the 2005-09 Cobalt! More than likely they had the early '60's on their minds.

Too bad it was never pillarless like that '61!

[espo]

Around '88 or '89 we got a new Cavalier Z-24 for my wife. The rear window looked like a miniature '61 Impala. The GM cars with the "bubble roof" from 1961 thru 1962 on the Chevrolet Bel Air Hardtops have always been a design I liked.  

[Joe Handley]

Forgot about the Cobalt!  Friend of mine has one in that is a Supercharged SS in black that he did some sort of Caddy V Series front brake upgrade on, looks pointlessly huge on a Cobalt unless you realize it's an SS with a factory power adder and that they could actually use that extra brake!

 

[Joe Handley]

2 minutes ago, espo said:

Around '88 or '89 we got a new Cavalier Z-24 for my wife. The rear window looked like a miniature '61 Impala. The GM cars with the "bubble roof" from 1961 thru 1962 on the Chevrolet Bel Air Hardtops have always been a design I liked.  

I had noticed it with the first gen Saturn SC coupe too, but as late as it was forgot about the '88-'94 Cavalier and the SC.

[MrObsessive]

Now THIS is definitely a great modeling subject for me!

It was said that this prototype was under serious consideration for production, but in the end Chevy deemed it too costly and might have bit into sales of the Corvette. Hmmm..........a shortened '67 Camaro body and chassis, straighten out the upper fender line, Big Block 396 power.........SS trim......Very Interesting!

[W-409]

I like this one, and my plan is to build a 1/25 scale version some day...

[Casey]

7 minutes ago, W-409 said:

I like this one, and my plan is to build a 1/25 scale version some day...

  I like that, too.

How much longer until the Moebius '64 and or '65 Chevy II kits drop?

[W-409]

Yeah, I need to start saving money for those Moebius Chevy II kits too. I have a few of those Trumpeter kits and they're not bad either... But one or two of each Moebius versions isn't probably enough. The Chevy II is a great looking body style, and that's not only because I have one in 1:1 scale.

Edited November 19, 2018 by W-409

[Casey]

https://macsmotorcitygarage.com/chevys-baby-riviera-the-1964-super-nova/

[chepp]

Here are some more. Could those Halibrand wheels have been the inspiration for Chevrolet Rally wheels?