Addio Sergio

As you may have read, Tuesday marked the passing of a giant in the field of automotive design, Sergio Pininfarina, who was 85 years old. While Sergio was not personally responsible for many of the designs that bore his family's now legendary name, it was his tremendous business acumen as much as his artistic sensibilities that saw him not only keep his father's venerable carrozzeria alive after taking its helm in the mid 1960s, but expand it, build upon it, and cement his father's legacy for all time.  In the process, he created Pininfarina's R&D center, built a wind tunnel, and using early digital technology brought his company strongly into the computer age while many of his competitors faded into second tier status or disappeared completely.  I recently took some photos of a 246 Dino, which was one of the first production cars created under Sergio's directon. I thought this a fitting time to share them with you. Click for high resolution.

RIP Tom and Chuck

The automotive world has lost two important figures this past week. Tom Walkinshaw and Chuck Jordan were both men of great achievement, but from very different backgrounds.

Tom Walkinshaw, who passed away at the age of 64, was one of the most successful team manager/owner/constructors in motorsport history, achieving victories in a wide array of formulae, but perhaps most notably with Jaguar's World Sports Car program in the 1980s and with Volvo's BTCC program in the 1990s.  He was also involved in F1 for many years at Benetton and other teams.  Also a driver of quality, here he is in a simply electrifying qualifying lap at the wheel of a Jag XJS, at Australia's Mount Panorama Circuit!

Chuck Jordan was hired at GM as a stylist under Harley Earl, and eventually worked his way up to that man's position over the course of more than 4 productive decades at General Motors. He was head of GM Styling from 1986-1992.

A true blue car designer of the "old way," Jordan fought GM management for creative control over design, and had famous disdain for focus groups and consumer testing that became  the norm at GM: "A good designer doesn’t need Mr. and Mrs. Zilch from Kansas telling him what to do," he once quipped in an interview.  Chuck Jordan passed away at the age of 83 last week.

Image credit: GM

Hat tip to Drew for the Walkinshaw video.