Harley J. Earl: Four Important Contributions Given To The Automotive Industry

Harley J. Earl

Harley J. Earl started his career at General Motors in the design department as Head of Design. After proving his skills to be invaluable, General Motors appointed him to become Vice President of the corporation.  

The move by GM made Mr. Earl the first-ever appointed top executive of a major corporation in American history. Every executive prior to Earl was grandfathered into their positions.

So what made him so desirable?

What made General Motors go so far out of character to appoint Mr. Earl and his abilities to a Vice President position?

Not only was Earl’s ability to design vehicles incredible, but he also had a knack that no one else did, he could tap into what the consumer wanted.  

Instead of designing vehicles that General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford deemed as profitable, he wanted to design and build vehicles that consumers wanted to see and drive. This idealism made General Motors nervous, but ultimately they trusted in Earl with good outcomes. GM saw the rise in public excitement, vehicle sales, and of course, profits.

Here are just four of Harley J. Earl’s important contributions to the automotive industry.    

 

1. Freeform Sketching and Hand Sculpted Clay Models: Harley J. Earl was a coachbuilder by trade. By honing and adjusting his craft, he became a pioneer of car design by introducing the use of freeform sketching and hand-sculpting clay models. Bringing this skill to the industry helped create some of the finest bodylines that we’ve come to know and love today.

2. Chevrolet Corvette: Earl decided that America needed a real sports car, one that resembled the English and European sports cars that were getting built overseas after WWII.

With Earl’s already established reputation in the automotive industry, he didn’t think he would get too much pull from other executives by presenting the thought of taking on such a risky project as creating a sports car, and he didn’t.

He went to Chevrolet’s general manager, Ed Cole, with a secret project called “Project Opel." With complete confidence in Harley Earl, Mr. Cole gave him the okay with no hesitation. Not more than a year later, in 1953, America would get its first glimpse at what would become the most iconic American sports car ever built, the Chevrolet Corvette.  

3. First Concept Car: The 1939 Buick Y-Job was the first-ever concept car built. Earl recognized early the need to get the public's reaction to a vehicle's appearances and performance before one is put into production.

Under Earl’s supervision and direction, the General Motors styling division created something similar to what they hoped would become the next production car for Buick. With enough interest and feedback from the public, GM put a vehicle into production that turned out to be very successful. With such success with the “concept car”, to this day the concept is used every year by every large automotive corporation in the world. 

 

4. Tailfins: If you like the look of classic cars, then you know you like the look of tailfins. They’re stylish, they’re sexy, and the design of them are credited to Harley J. Earl. First appearing on the Frank Hershey 1948 Cadillac, they became an iconic look that was used throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

After the public accepted the look, Detroit car builders, especially Chrysler, competed to see who could design the most complex, biggest tailfins that could fit on the back of a car while still looking awesome.

An American Automotive Pioneer

Some of the coolest inventions and designs the public gets to enjoy in the automotive industry today are credited to Harley J Earl. Without him, who knows if we would have the Corvette, the ‘57 Chevy, and concept cars among many other great things we get to enjoy credited to Earl. 

You don’t hear about him too much, but we should always remember one of the great pioneers of the automotive industry.

2020 C8 Mid-Engine Corvette Just About Ready For Unveiling

2020 C8 Mid-Engine Corvette

It’s about that time, the cats just about out of the bag and the mid-engine C8 Chevrolet Corvette’s most recent run around Nürburgring raceway has given us a lot to look at.

The 2020 C8 Corvette is getting ready to shred its camouflage. Most all rumors from credible sources all have the same info in common, and that is we will most likely see the first version of the 2020 Vette at the North American International Auto Show.  

But thanks to some great spy photos and some insider info,  we can get a pretty good grasp of what to expect at the Corvette’s international unveiling. Corvette is trying to keep the C8 from falling into a class like the Ford GT, a high-priced limited edition exotic sports car. To accomplish that goal, the new C8 Corvette will be using the C7 Spaceframe to keep cost down.

The C7 Spaceframe is a beautifully designed frame that is more than capable of handling the speeds and the cornering that the C8 will be expected to handle.

The body of the C8 Corvette does feature a lower and wider stance than the C7 Corvette which is much expected. The short front overhang and the big front air dams really make the Corvette look much more like a European supercar. But since Corvette is looking to make a much bigger presence in the global market, the look makes sense.

You won’t find vertical lifting doors (Lambo doors) on these new Corvettes, but you will find a set of dual rear calipers and a set of dual buttress supports placed on both sides of what most people think will be a see-through glass engine cover.

Now The Fun Stuff: Powerplants

When the C8 Corvette was tested at the famous Nürburgring raceway, from what everyone could tell it was being tested with the first engine that will be available with the mid-engine Corvette. That engine is the C7 Stingray 6.2-liter V8 that will put out 500-hp.

Later in the year, a 5.5-liter V8 engine should arrive with a flat plane crank and a DOHC setup pushing out about 600-hp. The next move after that will be to implicate a twin turbocharging option that should boost the Corvette’s 5.5-liter horsepower engine up to 800.  

Corvette has also mentioned plans for a hybrid option. Some old school American car enthusiast might cringe at this idea, but if Corvette wants to compete in the supercar market globally, then they have to get with the times. This new hybrid option will add an electric motor to the front wheels while the twin-turbo engine will be supplying power to the rear wheels ultimately giving the Corvette hybrid a rating of 1,000-hp.

What’s Happening in Bowling Green, KY

About 15 months ago, Corvette closed down their Bowling Green Corvette Plant in Kentucky to make $700 million dollars in upgrades so that they can efficiently mass produce the C8 mid-engine Corvette. The plant will reopen to the public sometime in January 2019.

Unfortunately, with such a massive move to upgrade the plant to accommodate the new C8 Corvette, one can only speculate that Corvette planned for the ZR1 to be the final hooray for the C7 and front engine Corvettes altogether.  

Two Classic Corvettes That Could Go for $1 Million Apiece at Auction

In January of this year, a 1967 L88 Corvette showed up on the auction block at the world famous Barrett-Jackson auto auction. This '67 L88 was specially built for a General Motors executive and was produced as the only known L88 from that year with a red-on-red color combination. It was in such good shape with paper work to match it fetched $3.8 million.

The stipulation of that Corvette is much the same as two Corvettes that will be rolling across the auction block at the Mecum Auto Auction (Houston, April 10-12, 2014).

The first Corvette that might fetch some big numbers is an one-off 1963 Corvette Sting Ray convertible styling car that was built for General Motors Chevrolet Division General Manager Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen. Now owned by his son, Bernie Knudesn, this rare Corvette stands out from the rest with huge, unique chromed out side-pipes, on a special Crimsom Firefrost Metallic red with white strips. The interior was modified from the factory with 1964 interior components and styling. The seats were covered in Naugahdye and were chic-white with maroon stripes.

Underneath the hood is a 327 cubic-inch motor with plenty of chrome plating and crinkle black finish to take the place of the cast-iron look.

“All of Knudsen’s cars came in this color, and I’m sure he was out and about showing it off often,” says Mecum consignment director John Kraman, who says that this car could reach the $1 million mark. “It’s a real automotive landmark that has special panache.”

The other Corvette that will probably fetch some big numbers was so pampered it has never even hosted a passenger, and there is only three known people that have ever sat in it. This 1967 Corvette Sting Ray that only has 2,996 org. miles on it is so nice it probably belongs in the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

It has only had one owner, who passed away in 2011. Don McNamra was a United State Marine, he struck a big payday in Las Vegas where he took his winnings and bought this '67 Sting Ray. McNamara lived in Colorado Springs, he never married and lived a very private life. At one point, sometime during the '80s, he denied even owning the rare Corvette to keep a low profile. Legend has it that the small amount of miles on the vehicle were mostly put on during late night cruises.

These Corvettes may not bring a $3.8 million price tag like the Barrett-Jackson L88 Corvette, but they could easily be some of the Mecum's highest auctioned cars of the weekend, maybe even of all time. One thing that will hurt the Corvettes is that the Mecum auto auction doesn't bring in as many high-profile bidders like the Barett-Jackson auctions often do.

“It’s a great color scheme (white with a red stripe) and must be the absolute best second-generation Sting Ray in the country,” says Kraman, who believes this Corvette could also see the $1 million mark. “The first thing that jumps out at you is how different an original car feels from a restored one. This is what it must have looked like in the showroom, down to the whitewall tires.”

3.8 Million Dollar 1967 L88 Corvette

What made this L88 Corvette so valuable?


To understand that, you first have to understand what the L88 Corvette was, and that was a pure breaded race car. Rated at 430Hp, dyno test proves that number was underrated. Some where around 560Hp was more like the real horsepower rating. The underrating was a deliberate attempt to keep with-in safety regulations imposed by the government.


There were only 20 L88s built in 1967, making them some of the rarest production Corvettes every made. But the one that rolled across the block at the Barrett-Jackson Auction was a one-of-kind. Ordered by a GM executive for his sons friend, it is the only documented '67 L88 with Red-on-Red (Red Exterior - Red Interior) to come off the assembly-line.

What makes it even more rare is the original condition of the vehicle and the condition of the documents. The tank sheet (order copy) which is accessible by dropping the gas tank is surprisingly legible and had all of the correct information that indicated its true L88 fully optioned status.

The GM/NCRS Document Validation Service approved of the documentation and awarded it the prestigious "Top Flight Award" in 2011. It also went on to collect three other prestigious accomplishments: "Duntov Mark of Excellence," "Bloomington Gold Hall of Fame" and was approved in the "Bloomington Gold Special Collection."

This particular Corvette was a two owner car. It spent the first two years of its life racing at Dragways like Detroit, Motor City, and Lapeer in Michigan. And then in 1970 it was sold to its second owner, a teacher who thought he was just getting a regular Corvette. But while doing a brake job one day he realized that the car had unique dual-pin calipers only found on the J56 option which came with the L88. This discovery promoted him to drop the gas tank and seek out the tank sheet where he discovered he had purchased one of the rarest Corvettes that was every made.

After a few more owners, this car finally made its way to the auction block on Saturday afternoon. The Corvette will have a new home, probably a garage somewhere where it will be put on display. Due to the rarity and the amount of money it cost to own this car, I doubt it will ever see the road or any racetracks, but it will probably see a lot of car shows.