Designing The Future: GM Vice President Of Design Builds The 1951 Le Sabre For The Next Millennium Still A Half-Century Away
FOR RELEASE: June 4, 2001Designing The Future: GM Vice President Of Design Builds The 1951 Le Sabre For The Next Millennium Still A Half-Century Away
DETROIT - Harley Earl was the master of perceptions. He knew the seductions of style and followed form with function. His brilliant Le Sabre appears to be a vast, American behemoth of the early '60s, but, in fact, is a relatively small show car from a decade earlier.
JET-AIRCRAFT INSPIRED 1951 LE SABRE REPRESENTATIVE OF GM INNOVATION TO APPEAR AT GOODWOOD 2001
Picture America's F-86 Sabre jet of the early post-war era and understand the inspiration for the forms that became one of the most famous concept cars ever created. It is one of a veritable gold mine of significant, intriguing and interesting General Motors vehicles and it has not been seen in Europe since its year of origin -- 1951. The 1951 Le Sabre is a featured vehicle of General Motors at the 2001 Goodwood Festival of Speed July 6-8, in West Sussex, England.
"Earl's jet-aircraft inspired Le Sabre is one of the finest examples of General Motors innovative styling and advanced engineering," said Scot Keller, staff director, GM corporate brand communications. "GM is proud to bring Le Sabre back to Europe, 50 years after its creation, as an example of GMs heritage of visionary design and invention."
INNOVATIVE DESIGN WOULD DRIVE THE AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY FOR DECADES TO COME
Le Sabre's elliptical intake simply disguised its hidden headlights and the circular jet exhaust glowed red only with a single, large brake light. Ed Glowacke, Earl's pick to head the design team, shared "Misterl's" vivid insight into the future. They shared the recognition that what they would create could drive American automobile design for decades to come. And it did.
Vertical stabilizers, needed only on aircraft, became the fins of the 1960s. Chrome grills that rotated to expose headlights remained futuristic for more than a decade, and the wrap-around windshield stopped traffic. Combined, that put the car out of its time. The high-tech drive train and chassis details may only have been interesting to automotive engineers, but what the person in the street saw was the windshield from an aerospace-driven future.
EARL EXPERIMENTED WITH AERODYNAMIC EFFICIENCIES SUCH AS MULTI-PANEL WINDSHIELDS
As early as 1918, when he was creating drama and the illusion of aristocracy for the embryonic film industries new stars, Earl had experimented with what he perceived as aerodynamic efficiencies. He couldn't bend glass but he did design multi-panel windshields that alluded to the rounded wind-tunnel forms still three-quarters of a century away.
From today's perspective, Le Sabre's aircraft-inspired face could also be seen as a road-going interpretation of a current Formula One car; a round nose lifted high above a simple structure to support a complex form of drooping wings.
TURBINE-BLADE WHEEL COVERS SEEMED FUTURISTIC AT THE DAWN OF THE JET AGE
The turbine-blade wheel-covers seemed futuristic at the dawn of the jet age but remind automotive enthusiasts of the promise of invention in the age of fabricated alloys and open spokes. Even the open slot at the top of the rear fender seemed aerodynamic in its elegant mirroring of the side molding, but it either predicted or inspired a solution to a problem soon faced by sports racing cars with tightly closed fenders and high-energy brakes.
GM's first vice president of design made dreams into reality. The Le Sabre became famous as much because Earl had put over 45,000 miles on it driving to automotive events as for the exhibits it dominated. It was Misterl's car, after all. He simply perceived it as the new suit that replaced his 1938 Buick Y-Job; that's another distinguished chapter in the GM story.
LE SABRE IS ONE OF AN ARRAY OF FINE GENERAL MOTORS HERITAGE VEHICLES ON DISPLAY AT GOODWOOD 2001
Le Sabre is one of an array of intriguing heritage vehicles that have been assembled under the GM Powered banner at this year's Goodwood event. The collection celebrates GM's worldwide history of innovation and the creativity and inventiveness of its people.
The annual Goodwood Festival of Speed is expected to attract thousands of guests over the course of two days in July. Considered by event organizers as "the greatest gathering of motor racing machinery on the planet," the festival provides both celebrities and automobile lovers a rare opportunity to observe motorsports heritage first hand.
GENERAL MOTORS HERITAGE REFLECTS A TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE CONTINUING IN PRODUCTION MODELS TODAY
General Motors, the world's largest vehicle manufacturer, is a leader in automotive branding, technology and design. Its heritage has been and always will be an integral element in shaping future endeavors.