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   This 1960 Pontiac Catalina represents a radical redirection in GM design.  As I wrote in The Forward Look, it was an unexpected event that inspired the future of GM design, represented so clearly, and yes, crisply, here in this superbly preserved Cat.

   “During the summer of 56 a new member of GM's design staff, Chuck Jordan, made a surreptitious visit to the fence outside the Chrysler proving grounds.  Generally a mission of little concern, the photos taken through the chain-link on this day would cause a major change at GM.  When the photos were passed around during a conference at the GM design center, they at first were greeted with derision.  A replay of the Airflow disaster of the 30's with fins, some remarked. Then as the photos were further analyzed it became clear that Exner had rewritten the rules. The proportion of body height to glass area had been completely altered.  The bodies were lower, the glass area greater and the roof pillars thinner.  The chrome was sparingly applied, with the highlights coming from the new clean wedge shape.  A new shape that was completed by fins that actually served an aerodynamic function. Suddenly it was utter chaos at GM.  The bulbous 58s were already in the pipeline.  The LeSabre concept car was being scaled up as a production sedan for 59.  Harley Earl, about to leave for his annual trip to the European auto shows, quickly ordered chrome to be ladled on the 58 designs to change their now aged look. 

   The point was driven home hard as Chrysler's new products were a hit with the public.  Everything in GMs pipeline for '59 was tossed.  Harley Earl, out of necessity, deferred to Bill Mitchell's thinner crisper lines, with the dictate to "out fin Chrysler." Bill Mitchell and his team's solutions were of course more sophisticated in solution than mere fins, though the fins did grow significantly. 
   This radical redirection, so quickly implemented, cost GM in the area of 400 million dollars.  The 1958 models would stand as the only one-model year cars GM ever produced.  And for all intent and purpose, Harley Earl did not so much pass the torch of design leadership at GM to Bill Mitchell, as Virgil Exner SR. handed it to him.”





Excerpt from: Automobilist Century: Volume II: The Forward Look