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The first great era of Chrysler concept car creation and design came when Virgil Exner was hired away from his post at Studebaker in 1949 to develop a series of "idea cars" for Chrysler. The president of Chrysler, K.T. Keller, hired Exner to bring the company to the next level. Not long after his hiring, Exner introduced the 1950 Chrysler K-310 "idea car." Exner used "idea cars" to help influence new production vehicles. In that vein, the K-310 was designed to showcase Chrysler's upcoming revolutionary 1951 Hemi V8. In creating the K-310, Exner developed his "pure automobile" design philosophy in which functional elements of the car were featured instead of being disguised - elements like the wheels, the radiator grille, spare tire storage, taillights, etc. Before the K-310, those features had been hidden. Exner went in a different direction because, as he said, "The wheel is one of mankind's greatest inventions. Why attempt to hide it?" After the success of the K-310, Exner continued to climb the ladder at Chrysler. In 1953 he was named Director of Styling. Then in 1957, he became Chrysler's first Vice President of Styling. At that time, Exner insisted on having complete control of the clay modeling room and final approval of die models. Keller granted him the control and Exner made history.
Source: CarStyling.ru, worthpoint.com
