If it wasn't for this guy we wouldn't have some of the cool ass cars to kustomize that we do. Thanks to him we have fins! I found his site today and it is full of info on him nad his creations. Maybe some of you will enjoy it. Harley Earl
I'll bet that banked track is rough with the concrete poured that way. Harley Earl brought a lot of cool stuff to cars like fins and hardtops plus he was his own man. Cool guy.
...nice site...if anyone gets a chance to read it...find a copy of tom wolfes book..."the tangerine flake candy colored streamlined baby"...there's a chapter in there he's hangin' out in the early l.a. scene with ed roth and ect...he notes that a lot of the detroit guys were keepin' an eye on barris....
Man, I have known about the site for some time....I probably should have posted it myself. What a great web page is all I can say....I still have yet to see it all as I like going back and seeing something new. The man was a great designer and I think he is rolling over in his grave because of these stupid Buick commercials that are supposed to have him in them....the cars look nothing like the man liked. His LeSabre concept is top 5 all time specialty cars in my book....so ahead of its time....and the man drove the hell out of it...has over 50,000 miles today in its unrestored and well preserved state. Thanks for posting this 1Load... Greg
Something I learned from owning a '56 Safari wagon......The reason the roof has the lines in it is because it orginally was supposed to have a retactable roof. The design guys couldn't keep it from leaking so they scratched that idea, but Earl was so tall he took a lot of pride in how the roof of a car looked since he saw it alot, so he had the lines put on the roof with the "look" of his original idea. Just think how crappy a smooth roof would have looked on a Nomad or Safari?
Heres proof of how much a real car guy he was..... 1938 Buick Y-Job concept Because there were no regular automobile shows in the United States in 1938, Harley Earl employed the astonishing Y-Job as his personal transport. He drove the car regularly until arrival of his even more outrageous Le Sabre Motorama car in 1951. You tell me how far ahead of his time he was.....does that look like any 1938 model anything you've ever seen?
The Jalopy Journal
