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Harley J. Earl

  • Jul 31, 2020
  • 1 min read

Harley J. Earl (1893 - 1969) was an American automotive designer and business executive. He was the initial designated head of design at General Motors, later becoming the Vice President.

A coach builder by trade, Earl pioneered the use of free form sketching and hand sculpted clay models as automotive design techniques. He introduced the "Concept Car" as a tool for the design process and a clever marketing device.



Harley J. Earl's Designs


  • Earl Automotive Works was bought by Cadillac dealer Don Lee, who kept Harley Earl as director of its custom body shop. Lawrence P. Fisher, general manager of the Cadillac division, was visiting Cadillac dealers and distributors around the country, including Lee. Fisher met Earl at Lee's dealership and observed him at work. Fisher, whose automotive career began with coachbuilder Fisher Body, was impressed with Earl's designs and methods, including the use of modeling clay to develop the forms of his designs. Fisher commissioned Earl to design the 1927 LaSalle for Cadillac's companion marque. The success of the LaSalle convinced General Motors president Alfred P. Sloan to create the Art and Color Section of General Motors, and to name Earl as its first director.
    1927 LaSalle Phaeton
  • In 1939, the Styling Division, under Earl's instruction, styled and built the Buick Y-Job, the motor industry's first concept car. While many one-off custom automobiles had been made before, the Y-job was the first car built by a mass manufacturer for the sole purpose of determining the public's reaction to new design ideas. After being shown to the public, the Y-job became Earl's daily driver. It was succeeded by the 1951 General Motors Le Sabre concept car.
    1938 Buick Y-Job
  • Designed by legendary GM stylist Harley Earl, the LeSabre embodied the styling of early fighter jets in its basic design. This is especially prevalent at the nose of the concept, which strongly resembles a turbine intake, allowing the car to not only have a futuristic appearance, but to also have a level of aggression that was absent from production Buick models of the time. In addition to looking stylish, the LeSabre concept was also a technological showcase that included features such as a dual fuel system that burned alcohol and conventional gasoline, as well as a specially-designed moisture sensor that automatically raised the convertible top in the event of a sudden downpour. All of these features put the LeSabre way ahead of its time, while also making the car a herald of what would eventually become the modern iteration of the automobile.
    1951 GM LeSabre
  • Tailfins
    Tailfins
  • Influenced by the English and European sports cars being raced on road racing circuits after World War II, Earl decided that General Motors needed to make a sports car. Design work on "Project Opel" began as a secret project. He first offered the project to Chevrolet general manager Ed Cole. Cole accepted the project without hesitation, and the car was offered to the public in 1953 as the Chevrolet Corvette.
    1953 Chevy Corvette
  • The 1953 XP-21 Firebird 1
    The 1953 XP-21 Firebird 1
  • The Damsels of Design is another bold forward move by modern maverick-Earl and one newspaper writer penned, "Earl, being an adventurous man at heart and long an advocate of women's rights in the auto industry..." Well, his risk-taking "women's rights" move ruffled a lot of feathers in Detroit's staid "all-male" engineering world. Even though equality was the future, Harley's trailblazing stand for women being equals to his male designers of GM Styling Section created a fire storm of tension.
    1955 The Damsels of Design
  • 1956 GM Firebird II
    1956 GM Firebird II
  • 1958 GM Firebird III
    1958 GM Firebird III

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