Police block, which prominently featured the Chrysler PT Cruiser at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ‘/>George Pimentel / WireImage / Getty Images
Chances are you’ve never liked the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a retro-style five-door hatchback sold from 2001 to 2010. You may even hate it. Most people do. Just ask Tom Gale, the former vice president of Chrysler Corporation.
“The PT Cruiser is being hammered by a lot of people,” Gale said. ‘But it really got a place. You know, we sold 1.3 million of those things. ‘
Today, it is easy to forget how extraordinarily popular this compact car was when it was introduced. Attribute the PT Cruiser’s success to its retro look, which was a relatively new car design trend that was gaining in popularity at the time. The PT Cruiser would end up being just one of the many retro-style vehicles created by automakers. Others include the 1989 Nissan S-Cargo, 1991 Nissan Figaro, 1992 Dodge Viper, 1993 BMW Z8, 1994 Dodge Ram, 1994 Ford Mustang, 1997 Jaguar XK-8, 1998 Plymouth Prowler, 1999 Jaguar S-Type, 1999 Volkswagen New Beetle , 2001 Mini Cooper, 2002 Ford Thunderbird, 2002 Jaguar X-Type, 2004 Chevrolet SSR, 2004 Chrysler Crossfire, 2004 Ford GT, 2004 Jaguar XJ-8, 2006 Chevrolet HHR, 2008 Dodge Challenger, 2009 Chevrolet Camaro, 2011 Fiat 500, 2017 Fiat 124 Spider, and, most recently, the upcoming Ford Bronco in 2022.
What is retro design, you ask? Simply put, retro design has a famous car design and re-introduces it using the style of the original car but updated with contemporary surface and contemporary technology. The idea was crucial for Chrysler Corporation, where Gale and his colleagues used it to their great advantage as a way to offer a look and feel that was a little different from the competition in a particular market segment.
From the beginning, Gale understood retro design in a way that few others have done, and car designers are only now beginning to understand what Gale knew then: retro design not only brings a recognizable look, but also a substantial understanding of what a new model is. must be.
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The mid-nineties were an extremely fruitful period for Chrysler concept cars. The Atlantic Ocean is inspired by Bugatti’s Type 57 Atlantic Ocean.
Chrysler
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The Atlantic Ocean, like the Bugatti before, created an engine with a legal eight, in this case from two Neon engines, connected to the crank.
Chrysler
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A Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante, which in 2019 won the best in class for the various Type 57s on Pebble Beach.
Jonathan Gitlin
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“Name me nuts, but I love the Plymouth Prowler,” says Jonathan Gitlin of Cars Technica (vehicle seen here during the virtual 2020 Cars & Coffee event)
Jonathan Gitlin
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The four-door 2021 Bronco will have available removable modular roof sections – left and right front panels, a full-width center panel and a rear section. Roof panels on both two- and four-door models can be easily removed by unlocking the latch from the inside.
Ford
How the past became the present
An early example of retro design dates back to 1988, when Bob Lutz, Chrysler’s industry president, proposed building a sports car that was no different from the original Shelby Cobra. The result was the Dodge Viper Concept, which debuted at the 1989 Detroit Motor Show and reached production three years later. “Some people call it retro, but I really don’t see it that way, even though we did not make a bit of a fuss about it being inspired by the Shelby Cobra,” Gale told Ars. “We tried to do something else, but it would be immediately recognized.”
Although the production figures were never large, the Viper helped change the consumer perception of Dodge and Chrysler Corporation. As such, Gale is going to use retro design in a range of concept cars, some intended for production, others not.
“Some of them were pretty literally what we thought or where we were pointing to, and then others were really far-fetched,” he said. “And part of it was just testing the waters to see how much was too much and how much was too little.”
What many competitors did not realize was that Gale used retro style as inspiration and not as imitation. “Obviously we looked at our own heritage as a business and sometimes we borrowed heritage that may not have been ours,” Gale continued. ‘But if you’ve done a draft car, it’s going to be ours soon. You show it and now you own it. And so it was an important consideration and an important strategy for what we did with the 50 or 60 concepts. ”
The legacy of other companies was particularly successful with the 1994 Dodge Ram, which channeled the language of Kenworth and Peterbilt. “It was a pretty big jump, but we had nothing to lose,” Gale admits. ‘The market share for Aries at that time was six percent or something. And after we did the Aries, it didn’t take long before we were in our 20s. ”
Or consider the 1995 Chrysler Atlantic concept car, a design study reminiscent of the 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic. While Chrysler never built a production version, many of the smaller Atlantic designations are on the Chrysler Chronos and Citadel used, which made the surface better familiar. As a result, Gale has lifted these classic elements, such as grid textures or mudguard blossoms, and integrated them into aggressive modern production engines, giving them a timeless quality. The result can be seen on the C-pillar on the Chrysler LHS, or the grille on the Chrysler Concorde. This is something that designers who followed in Chrysler’s retro aftermath will miss.
Even Gale’s most retro design, the Plymouth Prowler, had some ulterior motives. “As a business, we did not have the resources for a lot of research,” Gale said. ‘We had no idea of the formation and standing and extrusion and welding and bonding of aluminum itself. So Prowler was really a test bed about it. ‘
As a hot hot enthusiast himself, Gale knew that most hot rod community would not accept the car. ‘Their whole reason for life is to change something that someone else came up with. For me, it has always been more about getting research from the providers we work with. ”