Only a handful of individuals have earned General Motors’ coveted Vice President of Global Design title. Bill Mitchell, who led GM design for 19 years, wanted a clean break from Harley Earl’s chrome and big tail-fin looks. He was also much more rebellious.
Motor Trend detailed Mitchell’s anti-establishment history at GM in a new feature published last Thursday, and it goes deep inside the halls of GM. In fact, no one knew where Mitchell’s most important work was done because that was the point. Studio X was secret, leanly staffed and birthed a handful of iconic GM cars.
Before Studio X, Mitchell also worked out of a small, secret space in a basement called Research B. Here, work began on what would become the Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray, but these were the days before Mitchell took over GM design. In 1958, he asked for a new space to develop work in secrecy. Despite limited space, a blueprint showed Earl’s former file room as suitable and within walking distance to the elevator from Mitchell’s office. Studio X had a space.
The small room had space for one one car platform, two drawing tables and a coffee pot. Most importantly, the space was hush-hush and it operated under the radar from GM executives and other wandering eyes. The C2 Corvette concept, known as XP-87, became the Stingray prototype racer in the secret studio, which won the 1959 and 1960 SCCA class championships. Following its racing success, it became the basis for the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray. Other cars designed in Studio X include the Oldsmobile Toronado, Monza GT, two Mako Shark concepts and more.
Alas, Studio X closed under Irv Rybicki, head of styling in 1967. Mitchell worked to reopen the studio once more to design a retirement present for himself, but the project was ultimately canceled. However, the car, a Pontiac Grand Prix based “Pontiac Phantom,” still lives today at the Sloan Museum.
Does the same kind of energy live inside GM today? Actually, yes. Recently retired chief designer Ed Welburn reopened a Studio X to develop the 2006 Chevrolet Camaro concept. And even today, Michael Simcoe, the latest GM head of design, admitted secret places still exist.
Comments
Irv Rybicki succeeded Mitchell in 1977, not 1967.
The stuff rolling out of GM during the ’60s and early ’70s under Mitchell’s watch were simply legendary.
Best looking cars, from any manufacturer, from any time frame.
Totally agree! Far cry from the vanilla, bland, focus group designed vehicles of today!
Mitchell’s career blossomed with the Cadillac 60S.
Fans of Mitchell and automotive design historians have always known about the ‘Secret’ studio.
While the beautifully executed intimate designs that emanated from the GM design studio under the auspices of Mitchell found form in production vehicles, his own personal ‘customs’ based on those cars were a bit over the top in ornamentation and contrary to what he was trying to avoid from Earl’s days.
I have owned a number of cars that had the hand or insight/direction of Mitchell involved in their design. 38′ Cadillac 60s. _ 41″ Cadillac 62-Series_ 48′ Cadillac 62-Series convertible_ 54′ Cadillac 62-Series coupe_ 55′ Nomad_ 57′ Cadillac 62-Series convertible_ Several 57′ Chevrolet’s_ 60′ Impala_ 63′ Sting Ray(Larry Shinoda)_ 65′ Riviera GS_ 66′ Riviera GS_ 66′ Corvair Convertible _ 1975′ Oldsmobile ‘Starfire’.
Unfortunately, he would have liked to draw small cars with the same passion than a Corvette, maybe, GM wouldn’t have filed for bankruptcy in 2008. He was too much a fan of Ferrari rather of the BMC Mini which was the real pattern for the car of future. For me, some guys like Clare Mackichan or Bob McLean would have been better into this position…
Could not disagree more. Remember, GM was designing cars for the US Market largely and still is. Americans have shown a huge distaste for very small cars going back decades with the exception of the VW Bug and later during the fuel crisis small Japanese cars. However the minute fuel prices drop they abandon them and go for big cars, SUV’s and pickups. Look at the sales failure FCA has had trying to push the 500 in the US. Nope, Bill Mitchell was the man. Another thing is you really must understand the internal GM culture that prevailed. They developed from within and nobody from outside the inner circle at the GM Tech Center was going to be moved into that job. There are big doubts about the current design head in that regard.
Clare MacKichan, former Chevy an Opel chief designer, was at the origin of the FWD x-body program and no matter if the x-body’s range was a disaster in the field of the reliability, it was the good decision to take. Instead, when James Roche, the current GM’s president had been stunned by the FWD BMC 1800 during a european travel and had asked to Bill Mitchell to design a similar car, he dropped soon the idea. it was logic for Bill Mitchell which said that designing a small car is like tailoring for a dwarf. The leadership means looking ahead, against the trend… I’m very fan of some Bill Mitchell’s cars as the Aerovette, Corvette or of the “longer, wider, lower” policy but all this had its limits.
Okay, GM has made well of dropping the small car’s market to japanese and european carmakers….