Died 25 years ago the car designer Elwood Engel. He created icons such as the 61er Lincoln Continental or the Chrysler turbine car – and he liked do not suffer from fins.

The late of fifties it contributed to the chrome with the proverbial trowel in Detroit. Thick sled with powerful tail fins and all sorts of missiles decoration have become a symbol of an automotive abundance society. In the 1960s, the radical cut followed: America’s Landyacht were only rarely small but almost continuously sober, straight, angular. One of the most beautiful examples of this offers the 61er Lincoln Continental. The flagship of Ford’s Luxury Division is now an icon of automotive engineering and comes from the pen of designer Elwood Engel. Angel that was used in World War II as a cartographer in the army, learned his artistic craft at the design school of General Motors. He designed at the beginning of his career but no cars, but agricultural machinery. Angel also household appliances such as alarm clock, kitchen utensils, or even women came up on the drawing board.

Through his friendship with the industrial designer George Walker jumped in the car Angel, Walker attracted an order of the Ford group ashore and finally was appointed Vice President for design. Angel developed from the square 1958 Ford Thunderbird, which he had also designed the 61er Lincoln Continental. The car was so successful that the Ford group ceased the brand Lincoln not as originally planned after 1960. The quiet, elegant forms and the “doors of self killer” were the hallmarks of 5.4 meters long luxury Lincoln, who became world famous in 1963 by a tragic event: President John F. Kennedy was shot during his campaign tour by Dallas in the open car. Only after the attack left the car with an armoured hood upgrade, today is Kennedy’s Lincoln at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit.

Elwood Engel Ford joined Chrysler in 1961 and became Chefstylist. Angel replaced Virgil Exner, whose outspoken fins Monster design of car giant in the “forward look” era had dominated for many years. The 57er Chrysler 300 C for example went to Exner’s account. Elwood Engel had in the 1960s now the Gegenkurs implement. In 1962, which was “forward look” era ends, Chrysler had decided a clear, sober design vocabulary. Under Angel’s aegis, battleships such as the were Plymouth fury, angular compact cars such as the Dodge Dart or bulky coupes such as the Dodge Polara 500 in the 1960s.

Angel was also the last word in the design of the famous muscle cars, Dodge Charger, Dodge Challenger and Plymouth Barracuda. “Get hot!” Angel gave his people on the drawing board with on the way. The result disappointed not: against the Barracuda Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird looked Ford rather old. With ellenlanger hood and short rear deck, the forms of the car were harmoniously from bumper to bumper, recessed door handles and wipers, the designers avoided any disturbing influence on the overall impression of aerodynamic.

Elwood Engel was known “to fill in all corners of a car” – suitably imposing the cars of the Chrysler Group fell off in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Even if angels attacked not more to the pencil, he had an excellent sense, which design in the audience arrived and what not. He put on like to hand the clay models for the finishing touches itself. Chrysler sales success spoke for him. Engel was Chrysler’s Chief Designer until 1973 and remained the group one year as a consultant. He died in 1986.

His project perhaps most interesting, if also not commercially successful was the Chrysler turbine car from 1963. The car was powered by a gas turbine. With more than 45,000 revolutions per minute and a low-vibration run this drive in the country of the bollernden V8 engines was extremely unusual. Some of 203 respondents that under ordinary motorists were drawn and were allowed to try out the turbine car, is felt even in a vacuum cleaner recalled. Despite the largely successful test history and many other research, Chrysler built the gas turbine car never in mass production.

The turbine car was legendary not only because of its unique technology, but also because of the timelessly elegant design. In the shade “turbine bronze” black hard top car painted strongly remembered at the Ford Thunderbirds, the Elwood Engel at Ford had created. Although it managed the turbines Coupe not in series production, so some design elements in Dodge models of the 1960s lived on.