Tag: Virgil Exner

Book of the Dead – Dual-Ghia

Not to be confused with a Karmann-Ghia.

Image: mecum.com

For a brief moment, it was the car to have amongst the rich and famous in the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Peter Lawford, Debbie Reynolds, Dean Martin, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra — you get the picture. Ronald Reagan also owned one, but lost it in a high stakes poker game to fellow political heavy hitter Lyndon B. Johnson. Columnist and reporter of the rich and famous Dorothy Mae Kilgallen was moved to remark that a Rolls-Royce had become “merely a Hollywood status symbol for those who can’t Continue reading “Book of the Dead – Dual-Ghia”

Style Council

Two giants of mid-20th century car design lay out their stall.

All images: Author’s collection

Both in oral and written communication the words Design and Styling are sometimes used as if they mean the same thing; this of course is not true. In broad terms styling is all about the visual qualities of a product, while design is more led by the functionality and consumer requirements. In the ideal fictitious case design leads to a product that is experienced as pleasing both in functionality as well as in aesthetics; for many, Dieter Rams for Braun or that of Jonathan Ive’s work for Apple fall within this treasured category. Continue reading “Style Council”

Body of Evidence (Part 2)

Reanimations are nothing new when it comes to Bugatti. 

Bugatti Type 101 by Gangloff. (c) wheelsage

Just because Ettore Bugatti could be accused of the sin of hubris, doesn’t necessarily mean his ending was neither poignant nor salutary. The demise of the Bugatti car business proved to be a somewhat convoluted one in the final analysis, complicated by the fact that Ettore had essentially been locked out of Molsheim since the bitter disputes of the mid-1930s.

Having retreated to Paris to plot his return, war had intervened and with the disputed area of Alsace quickly annexed by German forces, Ettore had little choice other than to Continue reading “Body of Evidence (Part 2)”