Design Relief

For those of you whose eyes have been scarred by the new Ferrari F12, here's another masterful Bill Porter sketch to soothe your jangled nerves.

via Dean's Garage

The Perfect Design Sketch

Bill Porter is not as famous as his flamboyant predecessor as head of GM Styling, Bill Mitchell.  Porter had worked his way up from a summer intern fresh out of Pratt, all the way through being Chief designer for Pontiac before he replaced the mercurial Mitchell at the helm. While the 1960s was a golden age at GM that saw many prodigious talents flower, I have to say that for me, Porter's work stands out as some of the finest examples of the art of sketching from that era.  As a trained designer myself, I stand in awe at his sensitivity to light and shadow and his masterful use of shading and line weight to convey fluidity and reflectivity of the surfaces he is drawing.

The sketch below is one of his Pontiac sketches. What I love is how the important parts such as the chrome grill are rendered to an almost real level, but the outer parts of the drawing are so quick and sparse, giving just enough information for the eye to comprehend the shapes. Compared to some of the spectacular final airbrush renderings of the period, some of you may not find this impressive. But all Porter used here was pencil, pastel (or maybe conte crayon?), and black marker, and he probably did this pretty fast.  At his peak as a designer, he would have done a whole pile of drawings like this in a single day, showing different front-end themes.  Very impressive and worthy of close study in today's age of digital tablet sketches, where variations can just be done as layers over a 3D under-drawing.  Today's tools are still no substitute for sheer talent, but most practicing designers you talk to will agree, those guys were just on another plane...

Click HERE to see more amazing GM Styling sketches from the 1960s over at Dean's Garage.

The Ferrari 512 BB: A Forgotten Manifesto

To say that the 512 BB was a seminal design for Ferrari might meet with raised eyebrows from many people.  After all, it's rather an unsung car compared to its more plentiful V8 siblings and its more flamboyant red-headed Flat-12 progeny of the 80s. Because it replaced the Daytona, and thus closed the era of great front-engined V-12 sports cars for Ferrari (until the 550 Maranello came out in 1996) one might say that certain Ferrari purists look at the 512BB as the regrettable end of an era rather than the start of a new 25 year epoch. Though the 512BB has certainly become a collectible car in its own right, it's still far less sought after than the Daytona.  And yet it broke far more boundaries than that car, and had long-lasting impact on the entire design direction of Ferraris for the next two decades. First of all, the 512 was Ferrari's first flat 12 production car, as well as Ferrari's first mid-engined flagship supercar (unlike the mid-engined 246 Dino, which had a much smaller V6 and never wore the prancing horse.) Aside from these mechanical aspects, the 512's design cues constituted an often-ignored manifesto work that set the tone for all subsequent Ferrari sports cars of the 70s and 80s.

Like many classic designs that today are perceived by the general public as "very 80's looking" the 512 was actually released as far back as 1972, and its design roots go back to the late 1960s.  The thematic elements of the 512 BB can be directly traced to two show cars by Pininfarina: The P6 Berlinetta of 1968, and the 512 Modulo of 1970.

A close look at the P6 shows proportion and massing that is very close to the eventual silhouette of the 512BB. However, the details, such as the creased body side and the flying buttress rear window treatment were already well established Pininfarina styling elements that were seen on many cars such as the 246 Dino. The same is true of the air intake carved out of the door panel, which was on the Dino and several other Ferraris. Yet this particular execution of the scooped out intake would find its way into the later 308 GTB. Other details such as the "venetian blind" detailing were thankfully not found on later production Ferraris (Bertone more successfully executed a similar detail two years later, on the Urraco).

The staggeringly beautiful and utterly unique 512 Modulo concept (above) of 1970 was the other source of inspiration for the 512BB. Although the Modulo is much lower and differently proportioned from the production car, there are many styling elements which saw their way to production. Most notable is the horizontal "reflection line" separating the upper and lower portions of the bodywork with a band of contrasting color (usually black on production Ferraris). The "reflection line" is a central thematic element of the Modulo that makes its first appearance in the 512, and carries through every subsequent Ferrari Berlinetta until the F360 Modena eliminated it entirely.  The other most obvious cues carried over from the Modulo to the 512BB are the artfully flared rear fender bulges.   Looking at these cars next to each other (below) one may say, ok that is where the similarities end. And they might be right...

I personally never associated either of these show cars directly with the 512BB, but I recently came across some fascinating sketches from the Pininfarina archives (in the book Pininfarina:Prestige and Tradition, Edita, 1980) which clearly show the designers grappling with how to translate the themes of the Modulo to a production-based reality. These sketches clearly bear witness to a morphing process in which the Modulo's space age lines gradually were refined and softened into what would become the 512BB. In particular, note how the Modulo's unique window treatment is explored and gradually changes shape through the iterations.

In the end, the 512 comes out looking quite different from the Modulo, but it nontheless set the tone for all mid-engined Ferraris to come for the next 20-plus years.

The aforemorentioned "reflection line" becomes a standard thematic element, as does the 512BB's modernistic execution of the egg crate grille. This grille treatment was recycled and revisited continuously on the 308, the 328, the Mondial, the 288 GTO, and other models throughout the 80s and 90s. The tail light cluster treatment on the 512BB, while hardly the first round tail lights on a Ferrari, are nonetheless archetypal for the designs that followed, and the horizontal grille between them even presages the eventual tail treatment of the Testarossa. When seen from a side view, it's clear that the nose treatment and raked A pillar formed the basis for the 308 GTB, the 328, and the 288 GTO.

Now that we have established both the design foundations of the 512BB as well as its importance in setting the tone for following models, one might ask why the car never achieved cult status, and also one might rightfully question whether Enzo himself even liked it. After all, when it came time for the Dino 308 GT4, which was to be Ferrari's higher volume bread and butter, he gave the job to Bertone (who did a fantastic job, i might add).  And yet by the time the 308 GTB came around a few years after, one must assume Enzo had warmed, to the styling themes first seen on the 512BB. And if sales of the 308 and 328GTB and GTS series were any indication, so had the buying public. I can't guess as to why the car never attained cult status, but to my eye it's a true classic that has been overlooked due to the mythical status attained by its immediate forebears and the over-representation of the cars it spawned.

Classy and Glassy: Transparent Tailgates of the 70s

I really love some of the 70s cars that have transparent tailgates. Sure they aren't safe, and sure they are vulnerable to even a minor parking mishap.  But boy are they cool!   It's interesting to note that this concept has recently returned to vogue somewhat with hybrid vehicles, going back to the first generation Honda Insight.

"Cars, Culture, and the City" Exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York

Last night I had the distinct pleasure of attending the opening of the new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.  As its name implies, this new show explores the relationship between the Automobile and the City. On the face of it, one would expect a polemical exhibit that focuses on urban planning crises wrought by the car, and how Robert Moses and his road and bridge building almost destroyed steet life in the city.  But in fact the exhibit avoids these well worn themes, and should be really edifying to the casual visitor because it reveals and celebrates the fact that until the decay of the 70s, the city's relationship with the automobile had many positive aspects, and that in fact New York offered many far-reaching contributions to car culture across the country. Moses is still presented too, naturally. But he is shown within a larger context which makes the viewer better understand the general optimism and enthusiasm for the car that formed the cultural backdrop for his actions.

For example, the very first auto shows in America were here in New York.  They were held in posh hotels and geared towards the very wealthy who were in the market for bespoke luxury automobiles -- usually chauffer driven. It was a far cry from the uniform black GMC Yukons that convey the wealthy and powerful around Manhattan today.  As the mass produced automobile became a commercial reality, the first real auto show for the masses was also held in New York.  It was GM's Futurama at the 1939 World's Fair. The Motorama changed the auto show from an elite event into the mass spectacle that it is today. And it all happened right here!  The exhibit has some really wonderful artifacts and ephemera from the Motorama, as well as period footage of the event. The exhibit also covers, among other things, the Vanderbilt Cup races held on Long Island, which were the premier racing events held in the United States nearly a decade before the Indy 500 even existed.  There were also many fascinating renderings of urban planning proposals for car-oriented architecture.  A Paul Rudolph proposal for a multi-use complex built over the approach to the Williamsburg bridge leaves one breathless with its MC Escher-esque complexity.

This historical, political, and cultural survey flows across two large rooms filled with original artwork, drawings, models, and ephemera that are truly rare and special to see.  There was so much great eye candy, my photos don't really come close to doing it justice, even though it is not a large exhibit.

Some selected highlights:

Original Hugh Ferriss drawings I had never before seen, even as reproductions.  Ferriss was a master renderer, used by many major architectural firms in New York to delineate art deco skyscrapers.  Here he envisions a riverside highway that precisely presages what FDR Drive would end up looking like!

This is a design model for a Pontiac concept car from the Bill Mitchell era at General Motors.  The model is stunningly executed, oozing appeal from every angle.  Truly a treat.

Original Frank Lloyd Wright drawing for the showroom of Max Hoffman's Manhattan auto dealership.  But Hoffman was not just some car dealer.  Hoffman was to cars what Murray Moss is to the world of high design: a tastemaker who brought the best of Europe's offerings to a sophisticated New York audience.  Hoffman was the first to import the VW Beetle to the United States.  He was first to import BMW's here, and also was the sole importer for Porsche and Jaguar in the 1950s and 60s.  In short, Hoffman was a critical conduit through which European sports cars reached our shores, and his influence on the sports car market can't be overstated.

Original period model for Norman Bel Geddes' ideal automobile, known as Motor Car no. 9.  Bel Geddes was not only a New York based Industrial Designer and one of the founding fathers of the field, but he was also the master planner of the GM Futurama exhibition.

Check out the rest of my photos here!

The Exhibition runs through August 8th.  Worth the trip up to see it!!

Museum of the City of New York is located at 103rd Street and 5th Ave.