Y-JOB WOWSER!
Harley Earl, the creator of the Buick Y-Job, started off his career building custom bodies for Hollywood stars in California; eventually he came to the attention of the bosses at GM and was spirited to Detroit where his first claim to fame was designing the 1927 LaSalle and going on to run the Art and Color section as director.
This eventually became the Styling Section around the same time he was promoted to vice president.
Earl’s most important achievement was moving the design of cars from engineers – who would be more concerned about cost and functionality – to actual designers, whose concerns would be about aesthetics and how the car actually looked.
Earl also pioneered the practice of creating specific styling cues to certain model years which could then be embellished or developed over future years, establishing continuity through a timeline. It’s something car makers do to this day – think ventiports on Buicks or tailfins on Cadillacs.
The Y-job was created under Harley Earl’s direction in the late Thirties as a one-off to gauge public reaction to specific aspects of styling and is widely considered to be one of the car industry’s first concept cars. The Y-Job went on to provide styling cues for many GM cars... and was also Harley Earl’s daily driver.
This particular ‘tribute’ boasts a hand-formed steel body and is based on a 1941 Cadillac chassis; however, don’t let that fool you – the drivetrain is thoroughly modern, with a GM LS V8 and auto transmission and utilises Corvette brakes and suspension.
Worldwide Auctioneers’ Auburn event takes place the day after this issue goes to print; however, for more info on this or for future auctions see: www.worldwideauctioneers.com