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May202022

Influential Designs by Virgil Exner

Chrysler concept cars by Virgil Exner and Virgil Exner Jr.

5 Comments
May182022

Lincolns That Never Were

The ebb and flow of Continental proposals that never saw production.

3 Comments
May62022

Continental Mark II—End Game

Axe the Continental. Full steam on the Edsel.

3 Comments
Apr222022

Henry Ford’s Plastic Car

Henry Ford’s soy bean, lightweight, $400 car. Concrete molds. Didn’t smell so good.

5 Comments
Apr162022

A Re-Think on the Origins of Wedge Car Design

Ray Cannara’s built this wedge design while a student of Strother MacMinn at Art Center School in the ’60s.

10 Comments
Apr62022

A Tale of Two Mercurys—Turnpike Cruiser and the XM-800

That these cars represented an opposite design philosophy from Harley Earl’s show cars from the same era would be an understatement.

5 Comments
Apr12022

Why Cars Are So Bad

Brief summaries of Karl Ludvigsen’s stories on his new website.

1 Comment
Mar272022

Stan Mott’s Autobiography

Stan Mott is gone. He wrote this autobiography in 2019 especially for the Dean’s Garage book.

17 Comments
Mar252022

Women in the 1950 Mexican Road Race

We don’t need no stinkin’ seat belts.

2 Comments
Mar142022

Design of the 1961 Thunderbird Sports Roadster and Italien

Just get the right guy to like it.

7 Comments
Mar12022

1961 Thunderbird Design Development

Last minute all-nighter clay marathon. “Vertical stabilizers.”

8 Comments
Feb202022

Alex Tremulis: Elephant Ears, Theater Receipts, and Other Stories

Alex Tremulis—Antics at Ford

4 Comments
Feb152022

D-523, The First “Cougar”

The D-523 Cougar—From Styling Study to show car to movie star.

10 Comments
Feb92022

Wayne Kady’s Watercolors

Wayne Kady shares some of his superb watercolors.

19 Comments
Feb42022

Imagine—Automobile Concept Art

A great collection of five decades of studio art.

5 Comments
Jan272022

The Continental Mark II Retractable Hardtop

The back story to the Continental Mark II retractable hardtop.

5 Comments
Jan202022

The Origins of Ford’s Retractable Hardtop

Gil Spear’s Retractable Hardtop Presentation and resulting Sytris 3/8-scale Model.

11 Comments
Jan152022

GM Sculptor Ray Hildebrandt

Dick Ruzzin remembers a remarkably talented studio sculptor, engineer, and artist.

5 Comments
Jan132022

Who Designed the 1949 Ford?

The controversy over who designed the 1949 Ford.

13 Comments
Dec312021

George Walker and the 1964 Lincoln Continental Mark IX

Corporate politics and the aborted Mark IX.

19 Comments
Dec242021

The 1957 Ford Mystere Story

The mystery of the Mystere revealed.

6 Comments
Dec182021

Tom Peloquin

My good friend Tom Peloquin is gone.

31 Comments
Dec162021

The Lincoln Futura/Batmobile, Part 3: Interview with George Barris

George Barris answers questions about the acquisition and development of the Batmobile in a 1995 interview.

5 Comments
Dec82021

The Lincoln Futura, Part 2: The Batmobile

The story of how Futura, the belle of the ball, turns into Creuella, the Batmobile.

6 Comments
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Featured Books

Click on covers for ordering information.

Dean’s Garage Book Praise
  • Gary, Just received your book and read part of it, and can’t wait to finish it! EXCELLENT BOOK WOW! Thanks!

    Carl Kofron
  • It’s a book whose pages you’ll return to again and again…sometimes just to look, other times to read and learn and to laugh!

    Helen Hutchings
  • It brought back so many memories. The book captures some of the antics that took place. I recommend Gary’s book for anyone that has an interest to get a glimpse of an era long gone.

    John Manoogian II
  • Very impressed with the emphasis on the “people stories.” Most people think of GM in terms of the cars, whereas you focused on the designers that created the cars. Congratulations on your excellent and personable narrative.

    Roy Lonberger
  • Great book! It will provide many hours of interesting reading. Thank you for writing and publishing it!

    Charles Pieier
  • All the wonderful anecdotes and photos bring laughter and smiles of recollection of the years at GM Design. The other content is equally entertaining, too! One can keep returning to its pages, finding a new topic of interest each time.

    George Camp
  • Gary’s book focuses on the people who drove designs and events at GM Design. It is always informative, sometimes funny and sometimes sad. Picture are breathtaking. Extremely well done.

    James Rice
  • Thank you Gary for this wonderful publication vicariously delivering the human condition nectar recalled from the good old days at GM Design.

    Bill Boudreau
  • Closest thing to an actual time machine I have experienced! The photos, quotes and artwork really transported me back to what was a fabulous time at GM Design.

    Len Casillo
  • I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed The Future is Back. Great stories and wonderful comments! Excellent selection of illustrations and photos!

    Peter Brock
  • The book is providing lots of interesting reading along with so many great photos, illustrations and renderings.

    Sheldon Payne
  • It’s like going to a family reunion and meeting all your old friends, the studios and the models all over again. I can almost smell the fresh clay reading your book.

    Ron Will
  • Reading the stories and anecdotes of designers who shared their experiences in this book allowed me to vicariously imagine what it would have actually been like to have worked in a studio. Thumbs Up Gary!!

    Steve Sicklick
  • Great book Gary. It’s like taking a trip down memory lane!

    Dennis Burke
  • I’ve enjoyed the Dean’s Garage book. I know a lot of the designers and places you mention; it’s like a reunion or old-home week.Thank you very much for putting everything together in such a beautifully organized, fun, illuminating way.

    Michael Lamm
Posts from the Archives
  • Last Days in the (Packard) Bunker: A Clay Modeler’s MemoriesLast Days in the (Packard) Bunker: A Clay Modeler’s Memories
  • GM Designer Gray CountsGM Designer Gray Counts
  • Creative Industries of DetroitCreative Industries of Detroit
  • Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild, Part IIFisher Body Craftsman’s Guild, Part II
  • Harry Bentley Bradley, Part 2Harry Bentley Bradley, Part 2
  • Tom PeloquinTom Peloquin
Recent Comments
  • Richard Haynes on Photos from Car Styling
  • Henry on Requiem for a Heavyweight Junkyard Dog
  • Robert Goodrick on 1971 Boat-Tail Riviera A-body
  • David McIntosh on Influential Designs by Virgil Exner
  • John Houlihan on Influential Designs by Virgil Exner
  • Jon Albert on Influential Designs by Virgil Exner
  • Norman Gaines Jr. on McNamara’s Interchangeability Study
  • Norman Gaines on Influential Designs by Virgil Exner
  • ROY VERNON LONBERGER on Influential Designs by Virgil Exner
  • Chris Dowdey on Lincolns That Never Were
No Small Thing

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

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