AutoPuzzles - The Internet's Museum of Rare Cars!
Puzzles, Games and Name That Car => Solved AutoPuzzles => 2015 => Topic started by: Tom_I on July 30, 2015, 05:56:32 AM
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Can you identify this car? For a point, what is it, who designed it, and when does it date from?
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Experts?
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Looks a bit llike a Hillman from the 1950's
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1950s is right, but it has nothing to do with Hillman.
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Vauxhall?
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No, not Vauxhall.
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is it a british ford?
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No.
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simca?
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No Simca connection.
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Singer Gazelle?
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Not a Singer of any type.
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standard?
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Not Standard either.
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German Taunus concept from about 1956 design by Pinin Farina?
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"Concept from about 1956" is very close - just one year out. But it's not a Taunus, and not by Pininfarina.
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It's really neat - it looks 'GM-family' to me, so how about a1956 proposal for an Opel Rekord for 1958, to match the similarly-styled Opel Kapitan?
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You are right that there are conscious elements of contemporary GM styling about it, but apart from that, there is no connection with General Motors. And therefore it's not an Opel.
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Could it be East German or Russian?
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It can't be described as being of a particular nationality, as the base car and designer are from different countries. Neither of them is East German or Russian.
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Professionals?
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By a British designer?
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Studebaker?
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A mid-50s design for a Japanese marque, such as Prince?
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The 1950s date has been established, but apart from that, it's not Japanese or a Studebaker, and the designer is not British.
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Is the base car European ?
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Yes, it is.
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A Raymond Loewy design?
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No, not Loewy.
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Is the base car from a company associated, in any way, with a US automobile manufacturer?
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Is it a proposal for a Volvo ?
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Is the base car from a company associated, in any way, with a US automobile manufacturer?
No.
Is it a proposal for a Volvo ?
No, not a Volvo.
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Is the base car British ?
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No.
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Is the base car German ?
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Yes!
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1955 Ford proposal ?
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Someone trying to disguise a VW?
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1955 Ford proposal ?
Not a Ford.
Someone trying to disguise a VW?
Exactly!
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Was Ghia involved ?
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No.
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Any relation with Vauxhall ?
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Is the designer American ?
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Any relation with Vauxhall ?
No.
Is the designer American ?
Yes!
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Virgil Exner ?
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No, not Exner.
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I guess there's no way that Harley Earl would be styling VWs?!
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Certainly not this one.
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Was it done by a well-known American designer, like the ones mentioned before?
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Not as well-known as the stylists already mentioned, but not obscure either (at least not by Autopuzzles standards). It's a name that has appeared here before.
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Brooks Stevens ?
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No.
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Was this designer part of Raymond Loewy's team at some point of his career ?
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Del Coates?
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Was this designer part of Raymond Loewy's team at some point of his career ?
No.
Del Coates?
Not Del Coates.
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Has this designer ever been part of the design studio of one of the Big Three ?
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He worked briefly for one of them, but most of his subsequent design work was not done for the motor industry.
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Did this designer have anything to do with the rather attractive 1957 Buick?
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No, he didn't.
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Larry Shinoda?
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Bill Mitchell?
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Neither Shinoda nor Mitchell.
Reply #56 should perhaps lead you away from the more mainstream car designers.
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did he work in non-vehicle industry?
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It's tricky to answer that without being misleading. Much of his work was done in what most people would think of as "non-vehicle industry", but as part of that, he did design vehicles of sorts.
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but it was a type of industry, right?
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Another tricky question. It depends on how you define "industry". From the Oxford English Dictionary:
industry: economic activity concerned with the processing of raw materials and manufacture of goods in factories.
- to which the answer is "no".
industry: a particular branch of economic or commercial activity.
- to which the answer is "yes".
So it's not a manufacturing industry.
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Hawley Bowlus?
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Not Hawley Bowlus, but if you are thinking of his recreational vehicles, you are starting to move in the right sort of direction. The designer we are looking for was not involved with trailers/caravans, as far as I know.
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Alex Tremulis
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No. As already hinted, to find this designer you need to move away from the mainstream motor industry.
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Was this guy a boat designer ?
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No, though during the course of his career he did design one or two waterborne vessels.
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Was he an architect ?
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No.
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Was he usually designing static objects (appliances, furniture, graphics...) or rather moving ones (any kind of transportation means) ?
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Was he usually designing static objects (appliances, furniture, graphics...) or rather moving ones (any kind of transportation means) ?
Mostly moving objects.
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Planes ?
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Alexis de Sakhnoffsky?
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Not an aircraft designer, and not Alexis de Sakhnoffsky.
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Trains ?
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Not a railway designer.
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Trucks ?
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No, not trucks either.
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jay doblin,perhaps?
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No, not Jay Doblin.
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Industrial vehicles ?
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No.
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Not planes, not boats, not trucks, not trains ... which moving objects are left ? Rockets/space ships ?
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Not an aerospace designer.
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Toy designer ?
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Not a toy designer.
As a hint, earlier in this puzzle I said that while this designer mainly worked in a non-vehicle industry, he nevertheless did design some vehicles of sorts during the course of his career.
In a similar way, although he could not be described as an aeronautic, aerospace, marine or railway designer, during his career he did design items which could loosely be included in most, if not all, of these categories.
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Did he design merry-go-rounds ? They often include scale models of planes, cars or boats.
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I'm not sure that merry-go-rounds is quite the right term, but you are definitely heading in the right direction.
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Did he design rides and attractions (roller coasters, bumper cars, ghost trains...) for amusement parks ?
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Yes.
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Bob Gurr ?
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Yes, you've got it. Well done.
It's by R.H. Gurr, also known as Henry or Bob. After a brief spell at Ford, he worked extensively for the Disney organisation. He is quoted as saying "If it moves at Disneyland, I probably designed it".
He has appeared on Autopuzzles before, for example in this thread (http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=19131.msg192251#msg192251).
I'll award a point to oko94. I'm away from home at the moment, so I'll leave the puzzle here for now, and post the original drawing and other information when I get home, hopefully Monday.
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Thanks ! Very nice puzzle, lots of head scratching but it wasn't in vain !
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Here's the original drawing, with an idea of how it would fit with the VW floorpan. This appeared in a magazine in 1957, and I don't think it was ever intended as anything other than a speculative design concept.
Later Gurr said of of it:
Much speculation existed in the mid to late Fifties as to what a "real" VW should look like. Unfortunately, I went for the full GM cliché. Time has now taught us that you don't mess with functional purity.