The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
From the VeloceToday Archives, September, 2010
By Wallace Alfred Wyss
Photos by John Huggins
Long ago, you could go to an Italian coachbuilder and order custom-made bodywork for your Chrysler, or Cadillac or whatever and pay a few thousand bucks and have a car that looked like a million bucks.
There were plenty of workmen and in the early ‘50s, and many factories were still in ruins. Italy was still on the rebound from the war.
By Wallace Wyss
Auction photos courtesy Mecum Auction
You would think that since I have been writing about cars for a half-century or so, I would have heard about this one. But it’s new to me.
Catalog courtesy Peter Larsen.
By Brandes Elitch
Photos courtesy of http://www.madle.org/
If you were a teenager in the 1960’s, as I was, you will remember that Renwal made a series of plastic 1/25 scale model car kits of the Revival Cars. Renwal Products was located in Mineola, NY. I have the ’66 Packard model. The box art says, “Modern Version of a Great Classic Car-Advance Showing.” There was even a slot car version, at least according to the assembly instructions. This is the story behind the Exner Revival cars.
In December of 1963 Esquire magazine published an article under the heading “Flights of Fancy.” It was titled “Introducing the 1964 Duesenberg, Packard, Stutz, and Mercer!” and written by Diana Bartley. It describes how the concept of the Exner Revival Classics, in particular the Mercer, Bugatti and Duesenberg designed by Exner with bodies constructed by Ghia and Sibona & Basano was brought to Exner.
Bartley sets the stage:
“Granted that American car design now ranges from acceptable to handsome, still, one of the ways our cars aren’t better than they used to be is that they all tend to look alike…anyone familiar with the individuality of so many of the great American cars of the past does notice – and cares.”
Bartley, who was a well-known automotive writer in the fifties and sixties, was one who cared. More than that, she had a notion and the opportunity to do something about it. She contacted Virgil Exner, recently retired VP of Styling at Chrysler. Exner and his son had a design consultancy business. Bartley broached the idea to them of creating sketches of a “modern parallel” to the great American cars which had what she called “immense marque identity,” but which no longer existed.
Choosing to work with the Exners was a stroke of genius for Bartley. As she relates, “…the Exners still believe that luxury-car buyers would welcome a return to the wide choice of luxury-car makes and models that was available almost until WWII.”
Exner Sr. commented, “We believe not only that greater stress should be put on the development and continuous refinement of a distinctive character for each marque, but also that the market for luxury cars can be greatly stimulated by some real effort to recapture some of the elegance and originality which make many of the old cars so interesting and exciting to us yet today.”
Bartley further comments, “You might think that the Exners are the theorizers…But they are more than that. They’re the doers.” Responding to her guidance, they actually produced four modern versions of the cars in the title for 1964. In creating the cars, Exner assumed that “… each manufacturer had pursued a policy of refinement and modernization of the cars’ identifying characteristics, and that each had decided to resume business after a thirty year lapse. What we are trying to do is to capture the spirit of the older car design and body type in a modern package.”
In the article, the Exners provided pencil sketches of the original cars and their modern version. There were four pencil sketches of each car, two of the front and two of the rear three-quarter views, along with their informative commentary. Above this was a 7-8 inch color rendering of the side view of each car.
Bugatti T101
The Exner Bugatti Revival on a T101 chassis. Now with General William Lyon.
By Robert Pauley
For 25 years Robert Pauley worked as a design engineer for Chrysler’s Research Department and spent many years on the gas turbine program. What follows are some remembrances of the time he spent on the Chrysler turbine program with the Italian engineer and designer Giovanni Savonuzzi. Part 1 describes meeting Savonuzzi at Chrysler and the circumstances surrounding Savonuzzi’s position and his idea for a gas turbine-powered Indy car. In the lead image above, Savonuzzi poses with George Huebner along with the Chrysler Turbine Car.
Designing the Chrysler Turbine Powered Indy Car
Savonuzzi had collected some Indy car drawings and an Indianapolis 500 rule book and I began making a large, roll-size layout drawing of the proposed race car. The drawing had no part number but was dated July 31, 1963. That concept drawing, now lost,* showed the car in three views, side, top and front, at one-quarter scale. The cockpit was located slightly forward of the midpoint with two Chrysler A-831 gas turbine engines behind the driver. Large air intake scoops were located on each side of the driver’s headrest feeding air into dual plenums, one for each engine. The internal engine components were to be production parts but the four regenerators were to be eliminated. That change required redesigned “regenerator covers” to separate the compressor air from the exhaust gasses. Four rectangular exhaust ducts passed upwards through the engines’ top cowling with the outlets facing aft. The two engines were mounted side-by-side and aligned fore-and-aft with the output flanges bolted to a transverse housing that incorporated a transmission and the final drive to the rear wheels. The car had a long, pointy nose somewhat similar to that of the Lotus 58 that raced at Indy in 1968. The nose of the Chrysler proposal, however, was broader, flatter and not as long. Savonuzzi said he wanted it shaped that way for aerodynamic reasons. In one corner of my layout I had included a perspective drawing of the proposed race car and as a final touch had drawn a large Chrysler Pentastar logo on the flat surface of the nose. Savonuzzi became quite excited as the design evolved on my drawing board over a period of several weeks. He exuded optimism and appeared confident that with the aid of my drawing he would be able to sell the proposal to Chrysler management.
John Huggins' 1966 Ghia 450SS.
By Wallace Alfred Wyss
Photos by John Huggins
Long ago, you could go to an Italian carrozzeria and order custom-made bodywork for your Chrysler, or Cadillac or whatever and pay a few thousand bucks and have a car that looked like a million bucks.
[Read more…] about Sugarman’s Express: The Ghia 450SS
Winning Delage D86 Roadster. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.
By Wallace Wyss and Brian Winer
French cars, Italian coachbuilders at Pebble Beach.
Virgil Exner, Jr., stands next to the Chrysler Ghia Diablo.
By Brandes Elitch
Color Photos by Brandes Elitch
Most car collectors are familiar with the GM “dream cars†of the 1950’s, the heyday of the Motorama. But not many people are familiar with the Chrysler show cars of the same period, most of which were built in Italy and styled by the famous Virgil Exner.
[Read more…] about Virgil Exner Jr. Reunited with Diablo