One of my best friends growing up was Gene, who lived several houses down the street from me. We shared a lot of common interests, and one of those interests was cars! In fact, we both liked to draw cars, but our tastes were (and are) slightly different–I was drawing cars from the ’50s, and Gene favored more contemporary designs with a European flavor.
We recently went through his book of design sketches, which span 1982-86 approximately. These were intended by Gene to be actual proposals for real cars. In some cases, he made up new makes of cars that had a distinctive personality. In my opinion, some of these designs were better than what was actually produced by the major automakers. ’80s car designs tended to be bland and lacked charisma, but some of Gene’s sketches have a high-tech, futuristic look, while others synthesize modern design with retro elements.
Now, in 2019, this 35-year-old sketchbook is an historical artifact of its time. So let’s see what a teenager came up with back in those days:
Sample drawings:
Your 1986 Seville looks much better than what Cadillac built.
These are some nicely detailed drawings and having specifications is simply icing on the cake. The Dupree Brougham doesn’t seem to far off from what we are seeing today with some vehicles.
I admire the drawing talent both you and Gene possess.
Very cool – some of them wouldn’t look out of place on the road today. I used to draw quite a few cars when I was a kid in school, though mine were more in the ‘20’s and ‘30’s style.
These are certainly better than anything I ever attempted. As much as I like the cars, I like his attention to detail in the styles of labeling/lettering even better.
That Ghia Sypder looks highly predictive of the Miata.
And I applaud him on his choice in new cars in 1986.
Some of those are actually pretty clean designs. The dash looks pretty well thought out on the Spyder. I spent a lot of my youth drawing cars, although they were more influenced by Cartoons magazine. I even had a few recurring characters who had their own cars. Fred was a mechanic in a sloppy old gas station and repair shop who drove a battered Olds 442. The times I tried designing cars, they looked like something bred for a NASCAR trck in the 1970s. Sort of like a Torino or some slope nosed beast like a Laguna.
These drawings are very nicely done. The ’86 Cutlass and K-car proposals in particular actually look better than the respective vehicles built in that time period. Several of these, especially the RX-7 design, would fit right in on modern roads. As others have mentioned, the detail that went into some of these, including specs, makes it all the more interesting.
I noticed that the “Sable Moonbeam” bears a remarkable resemblance to the 90s Eagle Vision/Dodge Intrepid as well. And is it just me, or is there a slight resemblance to a 70’s Capri in the “Ford Mustang IV”?
The 1986 Cutlass would had been a very cool update of GM G-bodies coupes for the 1980s
His RX-7 sketch isn’t too far off from the new Mazda 3 hatchback.
Your 1986 Seville proposal is quite prescient.
I like the Sable Moonbeam. Wish they made that with about 280hp.
The Sable Moonbeam appears to resemble a 90s Eagle Vision/Dodge Intrepid. I suppose if you wanted you could get one and modify it.
This is the VERY reason why I failed 9th grade math!
Very nice. To this day I will sketch on my downtime, or when I need to concentrate during lectures, etc. The Renault Allure has strong elements that are present in the actual first (overall profile, sharp nose) and third generation (windowline) Megane coupes. The Plymouth Horizon Aero reminds me of a sharper Autobianchi Y10.
Interesting in that the sketches of children around this age are quite generic. They are caught between diagram and expression. They are diagrammatic because the lines are heavy and unambiguous. They are not realistic. They are expressive because they are imaginative. As people mature the drawing get looser and fluent. Like the drawings I did when I was 12, these are a blend of existing elements. And there is nothing wrong with that. It is how one learns to design.
These are well done. Thank you for sharing! I am especially impressed that you both attempted fresh designs, working to improve upon the designer’s work. Nice typography as well.
Gene had some very interesting ideas; I see a strong Renault influence in many of the designs and they were a realistic assessment of where car design was going at the time. It’s funny that the year 2000 seemed so far away in the future when we were children, and some of our ideas so outlandish vis-à-vis what we ended up with! What line of work did Gene go into eventually?
I did a very similar thing through the 90s and would love to share
Send them to me at [email protected]
Yup…. I was a car designer when I was growing up, too. That’s what we did in school, concentrating on our doodles instead of classwork. Your friend Gene could have been my twin, except that most of my “designs” were retro mash-ups. At around the same time ( c. 1983-4) I remember making up several alternative universe muscle cars. One combined the front of a ’68 Chevelle with the rear of a ’67 Charger, another the front half of a ’72 Coronet with the rear of a ’71 Mustang… There were several others, like a hot rod ’81 Continental with a chopped rear end. One original design was a sports car based on an ’83 Corvette that I called the Shark, with a fin on the roof. I even went so far as to make up a name for my imaginary company: ADC (“Arrow Design Co.”), with the cars called “Arrow I”, “Arrow II” and so on. I have to dig up those sketches one of these days…
Your top sketch looks remarkably like a new Rolls-Royce Wraith !
For those talented enough to become professional car designers, their childhood drawings are thought be real treasures and very collectible.