Have Your Heard of Erwin Komenda?

Erwin Komenda (1904 – 1966)

If you've ever driven, or ridden in, a Porsche, you probably noted how solid and rattle free the car was, no matter its age. If so, you can thank Erwin Komenda for that. From 1931 to his death in 1966 he was Chief Engineer and leader of the Porsche car-body construction department.
Prior to joining Ferdinand Porsche's new company, Erwin's education and work experience gave him the know-how to create car bodies that were both light and structurally sound – the ideal recipe for any car but crucial for a sports car! His first project with Porsche was to develop the body construction of the Volkswagen Beetle. He followed that by teaming up with Josef Mickl to design the Auto Union Grand Prix car, a mid-engined V-16 monster.
In 1946, Porsche decided they were going to build and produce their own sports car. It was Erwin that both designed the look of the car and engineered how it was to be constructed. That car came to be known as the Porsche 356. His work on that car and subsequent projects, including the 550 Spyder and the Type 901 (which became the 911), can still be seen in the cars Porsche produces today.
While Komenda was essentially an automotive engineer, his creations definitely had an artistic element to them. Probably the most notable being the Porsche 356 Series which was produced from 1948 to 1965. I still think this is one of the most beautiful cars ever built! Its elegant simplicity is something many modern designers could learn from.

Above is my digital painting based on a photo I took at the staging area for the 2009 Mille Miglia in Brescia, Italy. (Click on the image to enlarge it.) This beautifully prepared car is a 1954 Pre-A Coupe, my favourite era for the 356. I specially like the bent windshield, which was shaped to fit in the same opening as the earlier cars that were fitted with a two-piece windscreen. The car's unusual green colour made me think that if it was mine, "I'd be tempted to call it Kermit." For that title to make sense, I photoshopped myself into the frame, looking directly at you the viewer – my apologies to the guy whose head I replaced with mine! 

Was LaSalle the first muscle car?

In the middle of the roaring twenties, Alfred P. Sloan, CEO of General Motors is hard at work ensuring "The General" has a car in each and every price category potential buyers might want. But there's a problem, a few gaps have developed. Their product line started with entry-level Chevrolet, then Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick and with Cadillac at the top.
When the gap widened between Chevy and Oakland, Alfred added a new brand in between, called Pontiac. Similarly, when the gap increased between Oldsmobile and Buick, there were two more models created: Viking and Marquette (don't feel bad if you've never heard of them, I hadn't either). Marquette was placed below Buick, but above Oldsmobile's Viking.
The car buying public found all these marques confusing. Sales of Viking cars was dismal and Marquette just a bit better – both were gone by 1930. Oakland was quickly overtaken by the more popular Pontiac and disappeared completely in 1933. Since Cadillac's prices had soared in the early 1920's, Sloan decided they needed a lower priced model to fill the gap to Buick. LaSalle debuted in 1927.

The dapper Harley Earl

LaSalle was built by Cadillac to its high standards, but with a difference. It was not a junior Cadillac, but a car that was more agile and stylish. LaSalle is considered by many to mark the beginning of American automotive styling.
Harley Earl (1893-1969) was working in his father's custom coach building shop, when his design skill was "discovered" by Lawrence P. Fisher, general manager of Cadillac. Fisher was so impressed with the young Earl's abilities he commissioned him to design the new LaSalle. The resulting car was a resounding success and as a result Earl became Head of Design at General Motors. The beginning of a thirty year career for Earl with GM.

LaSalles came with Cadillac's V8 under the hood.  
In 1928, its 303 cubic inch 90 degree V8 made 75 horsepower. (For comparison, the Ford Model A's engine produced 40 hp.) This engine made the LaSalle a fast car and its smaller than a Cadillac size made it nimble and sportier to drive.
On June 20, 1927 a LaSalle driven by Willard Rader and Gus Bell went 1,532 kilometres, averaging 153.2 km/h at the Milford Proving Grounds. Quite an achievement when compared the average speed of that year's Indianapolis 500 at 156.9 km/h.
Maybe it's just me, but doesn't putting a big engine in a small car sound familiar? Pontiac GTO, Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Plymouth Barracuda to cite a few examples. Even the Allard, Sunbeam Tiger and the AC Cobra followed the same trail pioneered by the LaSalle.
With the coming of the Great Depression, LaSalle's role changed from that of a lesser companion to Cadillac to a means of keeping GM's luxury car division out of the red. Again, with the help of Earl's elegant styling touches, LaSalle weathered the depression. Sadly, when the economy started to pick up, there were new cars from other manufacturers that stepped on LaSalle's toes. The marque soldiered on but its sales were surmounted by the Packard One-Twenty and the Lincoln-Zephyr. GM wasn't sure what to do with the marque, as a result it slowly started to disappear, and by 1940 it was gone.

The Connection to the TV show "All In The Family"
Each episode began with Archie and Edith sitting at the piano murdering the show's theme song "Those Were The Days." There's one line of lyric that I could never quite decipher, it sounded something like, "Gee are oh lessel run gray." I happened to stumble upon the words to the song written out and the line is actually, "Gee our old LaSalle ran great! Here's a link: "Those Were The Days!"

In conclusion, here's my digital painting of a 1928 LaSalle coupe. It's based on a series of photos I took of a car at the Boyd Father's Day Car Show this year. At the time I was being thwarted by this fellow who seemed to get in the way every time I snapped a pic. When I started working on this image, I thought it would be more fun to keep him in the frame. Hence the title, "Takes More Than A Second Look." Click on the image to enlarge it.

ps Like Cadillac, the LaSalle brand name was based on that of a French explorer, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.

Out On The Town!

Last May when we were in Germany, we stumbled upon this Ferrari California, parked in front of a pub just down the street from our hotel in central Cologne. I've messed with the lighting in this image extensively, hopefully creating a scene that captures the mystery and cachet that is Ferrari.

Click on my image to make it bigger. Incidentally, Google translate says "Brauereiausschank" means "Brew."

Confession Time
The modern California is a very nice looking high performance car! But I must admit I much prefer the looks of the original car. Here's a link to a short video showing James from the British TV show called "Top Gear" describing and driving what had formerly been James Coburn's car... James drives a California! 
The ORIGINAL Ferrari "California" came out in 1957. Officially known as the Ferrari 250 GT LWB (long wheelbase) California Spyder. Only fifty of these cars were made. In January 2014, one of them sold at auction for a measly $8,800,000.00 US.
In 1959, Ferrari again had designer Scaglietti pen a new SWB (short wheelbase) GT Spyder California – about fifty-five were built. Incidentally a fibreglass replica of a 1961 250 GT Spyder was featured in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
In case you didn't know, in Italian, "Spyder" means a two-seat convertible car.

The NEW Ferrari California
This car was launched at the 2008 Paris Auto Show. It represents many firsts for Ferrari: the first front-engined V8, first with a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission, first with a folding metal roof, the first with a multi-link rear suspension and direct gasoline fuel injection.
This car is considered the entry level Ferrari. Prices in Canada start at about $250,000.00 and go up from there. This is probably the only Ferrari model that could be used as a real car. Trunk space is 340 litres with the top up – that drops to 240 with it down. The car can be ordered as a two-seater with a space behind the seats for luggage etc., OR as a two + two: meaning two short children can sit comfortably in back, or one adult sitting side-saddle. Another plus, this is the only Ferrari model with a ride height high enough to negotiate most speed bumps without scraping the front spoiler.

In keeping with the "real car" description, the car in my image was just parked on the street. I watched with great trepidation as another car parallel parked in front of it, missing its nose by fractions of an inch.

Just for fun I've included my original photo this digital painting was based on.