Yours Truly, 1959

Approximately 2 years old, U.S. Army base, Stuttgart, Germany. I was born to style, lol.

A cool photo of the family car during our time in Germany, our 1956 Ford Fairlane Sunliner convertible in pink and black. Above, the family German Shepherd, Duke, is sitting in the driver's seat. All sorts of cool European cars are all around, early VW Beetles, Renaults, and what I think is an Austin. The American Army personnel liked their American cars, though. There are two Studebakers on the left, and a Jeepster station wagon in the background. Those early SUVs were all-metal but the early ones were embossed and painted to resemble wood siding. 

Keeping Watch for More than Fifty Years

Though she no longer sits at the top of a Christmas tree for two weeks every year, this German angel has been keeping watch in my family since the mid 1950s. I leave her out year-round, and she now adorns the cone-shaped metal "horn" of my Edison Gem cylinder record player. She keeps company with the seated china-doll to the right, dating to the 1890s. That little vintage doll wears a non-original red and navy blue cotton dress sewn by my grandmother in the 1920s. She updated the aging doll for a new generation of little girl to play with—my mother. In the upper left is a gold and white 1:24 scale 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk, and a lavender 1:43 1953 Packard Caribbean convertible with a broken windshield. The little turquoise plastic jewelry container is an early 1950s piece and holds a few period pearl rings. I love having little boxes and containers everywhere, with beautiful little things in them to explore and become reacquainted with every so often! Just peeking into the photograph at the lower left, is a gray and red 1:24 Duesenberg SSJ supershort wheelbase LaGrande roadster, a scale model of Clark Gable's famous sports car of the Thirties.

Have a great day today, however you spend it and with whomever you spend it with! I think I can smell my scallion pancakes and shrimp egg foo yung already, lol! I may have more photos to post later in the day.

• Still fun to look at, this is a post from last Christmas, with a quick walk through my 1954 holiday TV Guide. Click to peruse this vintage magazine and smile! 

"Independents" Day: More Photos from the '80s

Continuing my series of vintage cars I photographed in the early 1980s, today I present three manufacturers among the last of the domestic "Independents," Packard, Studebaker and Hudson. Pictured in canary yellow and black is a 1956 Clipper sedan by Packard, the last year that Packard sold cars using its own bodyshells. Clipper was now its own division, although it was clearly a junior Packard. I'm sure most people didn't understand, or appreciate, this difference, as the Clipper nameplate had been used by Packard since the early 1940s. There is a long, sad story of Packard's last days, first being bought by Studebaker and eventually dropped after building badge-engineered Studes for '57 and '58, but I won't go into it now. The last "true" Packards, the '55s and '56s were magnificent cars, whether they were the juniors, the Clippers,  or the seniors, the 400s, Patricians and Caribbeans.

The '56 Packards featured push-button automatic transmissions, visible through the steering wheel, just under the radio. Notice the divided leather front seats; even a bottom-of-the-range Packard was a quality automobile.

The "Clipper" script on the front of the hood is one of the most distinctive uses of typography on a mid-century automobile. Stretching seven connected letters across almost the width of the car was gutsy, artistic and dramatic. The Clipper's "ship's wheel" logo is centered in the grille below it, and the bow-shaped grille itself, a modern interpretation of Packard's classic "yoke" radiator shape.

Many, many times in its long and storied history, Studebaker fielded dramatic and elegantly styled cars. This is the rear window of a 1937 Dictator business coupe. Art Deco meets Streamline styling and equals distinction and presence in spades.

Another Studebaker coupe that blew the competition into the weeds in 1947: "The first by far with a post war car!" proclaimed the company's advertisements. This wraparound rear window of the Starlight coupe was the exclamation point for the entire lineup of futuristic automobiles designed primarily by Virgil Exner, though credited to Raymond Loewy at the time as it was his name on the design firm's letterhead and in the newspapers. There was nothing like it then, or now.

The Hudson Italia, a halo car built for Hudson by an Italian firm named Touring. This was a compact "personal luxury coupe" a good ten years ahead of its time. Only 25 examples of this car were built, all in the same cream exterior with red and white leather interior as this car was. Click on the links in this caption to read more about this fascinating automaker.

The red-and-white leather bucket seats included lumbar supports, and the interior boasted flow-through ventilation, creature comforts ahead of their time. Also visible in this view are the aircraft-inspired door openings cut high into the low roof for ease of entrance. I don't seem to have gotten a shot of the car's most interesting design detail—the taillights were housed in three individual chrome "tubes"  on the rear sides of the car, looking for all the world like jet exhausts. Many manufacturers seized upon the postwar jets' styling cues, notably DeSoto and Mercury, but none as stunningly as Hudson on their Italia.

As with all of the images in this old car show series, these photographs were taken with black-and-white film and have been colorized in a whimsical manner using Photoshop; all are clickable to enlarge.

Studebaker National Museum Award Winners

Hi Folks. Busy day today! I was just taking a break and I found this list of winners from the "Design A New Studebaker" contest at the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana last fall. I posted at the time I won Honorable Mention for my Packard V12 coupe, eligible since Studebaker owned Packard at the end of its life. Here's the illustrated list of winners, and once again, I'd like to thank automotive/industrial designers Bob Marcks and Virgil Exner, Jr. for encouraging me to enter, and Peter De Lorenzo for putting them in touch with me via his Autoextremist.com website.

• For my original post, click here.

Honorable Mention!

I received a certificate in the mail today, my Honorable Mention award from the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana. I placed in their 2010 design contest with my Packard Twin Six Club Coupe, above. 

Studebaker bought Packard in the Fifties, and all marques associated with Studebaker were eligible. The contest was sponsored by the League of Retired Automotive Designers, so I was in pretty heady company to say the least. Above and beyond the certificate, my real award was being contacted, and receiving emails from, Bob Marcks and Virgil Exner, Jr, two designers I've read about since I was a child in love with cars. 

Mr. Marcks was a staff designer with Raymond Loewy in the early 1950s, and went on to form his own design firm, working on the last Studebakers in the mid 1960s, as well as many other industrial designs. Mr. Exner consulted for Italy's Ghia design firm, and worked for Ford, helping to create the 1970 Thunderbird, Maverick and original '71 Pinto exterior designs. He also worked for Ford of Europe, working on the European Escort, Granada, and original Fiesta. Both of these men are the epitome of everything I wanted to be as a young man as I was dreaming of becoming a car designer. Just knowing they saw my work, and appreciated it, was all the award I needed. To actually place in the contest was, as they say, icing on the cake. 

Here's my original post concerning the contest.

Studebakers and Packard Front and Center

Considering my recent contest entry, I thought it would be good karma to place a few of my Studebaker and Packard scale models in my late-18th century secretary, a place of prominence in my life. There is a small (1:43) 1953 Packard Caribbean convertible in lavender to the left. Next to it are two representations of the 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk, a 1:24 and a 1:87, Matchbox-sized. I also have a beautiful 1934 Packard speedster in bright red from one of the mints, but can't quite put my finger on it right now, lol. You know I'll be in the attic looking for it tomorrow!

National Contest Entry-My Reborn Packard

I've recently entered a design contest with the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana with my Packard Twin Six Club Coupe. Eagle-eyed and elephant-memoried readers will see that I updated the background and typography a bit for this entry from the original chop I did a few years ago. I was never thrilled with the way I rendered those pieces the first time, and this was an excellent opportunity to rectify the situation for "the record." 

The Studebaker-Packard Corporation was formed when Packard bought Studebaker in the mid 1950s, and this contest is for a design for either a new Studebaker or Packard. The winners of the contest will be announced November 11 at the opening reception for a show by The League of Retired Automotive Designers (scroll to the bottom of the link for information on this cool group). The contest was open to anyone with a vision for Studebaker or Packard. It was a whirlwind decision last week—if I'd had more time to think about it I probably wouldn't have done it, insecurities and all that, but I'm glad I did—I'll fill in the details in a few weeks. I'm not an actual car designer of course, and I don't even play one on TV, lol, but it's a great feeling to know that some really historically influential greats in the field of car design will be seeing my Packard. That's winning for me, right there—all I've ever really hoped for.

As an aside, the Studebaker logo, above, designed by Raymond Loewy's group in the late 1930s, has the best "S" in all of "Typeland." My readers know how much of a font fan I am, font connoisseur really, and that I pay really close attention to all of the typography in my book designs and my car art. This "Lazy S" is perfection, and the rest of the logo, the red "button" and the simple all-caps for the rest of the name, fully supports the design in every way. I would have retired after this had I had designed it!

Chopping Vintage Ads-The 4-door Sedan Coupe Fifty Years Ahead of its Time

I enjoy reworking older cars as much as I do creating new cars. There is something about trying to get into the heads of those fantastic designers, in this case, Raymond Loewy, and creating something new. As gorgeous as this generation of Studebaker's coupe was, the sedan was shorter, taller and frumpier from every angle. In these two renderings, I've based the sedan on the longer, lower coupe body, and I think it's all the better for it!

C H O P — I like photo-editing, or chopping, vintage cars as much as I enjoy creating future cars. These two new examples show what could have been one of the first 'four door coupes' on the market, a mythical 1954 Studebaker Sedan Coupe. I've illustrated both pillared and pillarless styles, the Starlight and Starliner respectively. I made the Commander Starlight an ohv V8 model, and the Champion Starliner a flathead 6 cylinder. 

Besides basing my new sedan's body on the coupe, as opposed to the shorter, taller chassis Studebaker actually used for its sedans, I've rearranged, and added, some trim, including the chrome rocker panel spear. I used the coupe's 5 place interior, instead of the sedan's 6 seats, and I've made the door panels a bit 'ritzier' as well. I changed all the relevant 'small type' in the captions to suit my new bodystyle. I also added the chromed rocker panel spears and detail trim, with the 6 cylinder version different than the V8's side trim.

U p d  a t e :  I shortened the roof of the red Starliner hardtop coupe sedan. It had a bit of a dachshund look to it before. This corresponds with the Coupe a bit more accurately. Thursday 5pm