June 14, 2002
Ford Puts Past Visions of the Future on the Block
By PHIL PATTON
At 2 p.m. on Sunday, a Christie's auctioneer, Dermot Chichester, will bring down his gavel inside an unusual venue: the Ford Motor Company's Product Development Center in Dearborn, Mich. Ford hopes to raise a million dollars for charity by selling 51 of its concept cars from automobile shows past.
Concept cars — preliminary models of possible future vehicles — have grown more important over the last decade or so as manufacturers test new ideas and try to build enthusiasm for upcoming models among the public. But after their travels on the auto show circuit, most vanish into storage. In decades past, many concept cars ended up in junkyards.
Miles Morris, the international head of Christie's motorcar department, called the auction prototypes "the visual history books of motorcar designs."
The cars on sale include the stunning 1992 Mustang Mach III, the 1995 Lincoln Sentinel (which would be at home in the Batcave) and two versions of the Indigo (pronounced "IN-dee-go"), a street dragster produced in 1996.
Also to be sold are the first concept cars for the revamped Thunderbird and the Lincoln Blackwood pickup.
The cars will be on public display in Dearborn from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 14 and 15, and from 9 a.m. to noon the morning of the 16th.
"These cars have helped define us as a company," said J. Mays, Ford's vice president of design. "Rather than letting them fall apart in the warehouse or crushing them, we wanted to put these prototypes in the hands of other people who love them."
But if these cars are of such historical value, shouldn't they be saved and displayed, as they are at other companies, instead of sold off?
"We would never do that," said Kip Wasenko, a designer at Cadillac, which has plans to display some of its concepts in a company museum. "They are part of our history."
General Motors, which created the idea of publicly displaying concept cars with its traveling Motorama shows in the 1940's and 50's, crushed or gave away many show vehicles in the past. Chrysler has several at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum, in DaimlerChrysler's United States headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. The Henry Ford Museum, in Dearborn but not affiliated with the company, displays several important concept cars, including the first, the 1938 Buick Y Job, and so does the Alfred P. Sloan Museum in Flint, Mich.
The largest collection of concept cars in private hands is probably that of Joseph Bortz, a Chicago restaurant owner who has about two dozen, including stars like the 1954 Pontiac Parisienne, the 1957 Chrysler Dodge Dart and the 1954 Packard Panther. The 1964 Dodge Charger is his most recent acquisition.
"The executives ordered them destroyed," Mr. Bortz said. "But the designers started crying, `These are Rembrandts, these are works of art!' The executives would say, `Fine, take it — I don't ever want to hear about it again until I'm dead.' "
Many of Mr. Bortz's cars are General Motors models that did end up in junkyards before being rescued and restored. The company sent many of its Motorama show cars to the Warhoops junkyard, near its research center in Warren, Mich., north of Detroit, Mr. Bortz said.
The vehicles at the Dearborn auction will be sold without reserve, or a minimum price being set, which could attract buyers looking for a bargain, although Christie's explicitly warns that the cars are "not for use on public roads."
Mr. Morris of Christie's said he has been surprised at the number of inquiries he has received from Ford dealers, who might envision a concept car as a lure in the showroom.
Several of the cars are legacies from the Italian design firm Ghia, which Ford purchased in 1973. Forming a kind of appendix to Ford's design history, these are wild and crazy dream cars, like the Selene II, with a single upright fin on its back and a podlike passenger compartment that makes the car seem to be moving backward. It was designed by Virgil Exner Jr., the son of the famed Chrysler designer.
The startling long red IXG car from 1960, nicknamed La Drag Car da Records (that's Italian, not rap), was designed by Tom Tjaarda, the son of John Tjaarda, who did the legendary Lincoln Zephyr.
The star car of the Ghia group may be the Focus of 1992, whose head and taillights look like bubbles and whose asymmetrical fiberglass body displays the influence of Art Nouveau and Bugatti. It is estimated that the car will sell for between $100,000 and $120,000.
Mr. Bortz said he will be at the Ford sale, but he's not sure he'll buy.
"I'm puzzled by the idea," he said. "This may turn out to be a whole new way of looking at these cars." He added that it's difficult to predict how valuable the cars may become.
"Some of the models haven't matured yet," Mr. Bortz said, as if describing fine wines in a cellar. "They don't have the depth of character they will acquire in time — the patina."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/14/automobiles/14CONC.html
Ford Puts Past Visions of the Future on the Block
By PHIL PATTON
At 2 p.m. on Sunday, a Christie's auctioneer, Dermot Chichester, will bring down his gavel inside an unusual venue: the Ford Motor Company's Product Development Center in Dearborn, Mich. Ford hopes to raise a million dollars for charity by selling 51 of its concept cars from automobile shows past.
Concept cars — preliminary models of possible future vehicles — have grown more important over the last decade or so as manufacturers test new ideas and try to build enthusiasm for upcoming models among the public. But after their travels on the auto show circuit, most vanish into storage. In decades past, many concept cars ended up in junkyards.
Miles Morris, the international head of Christie's motorcar department, called the auction prototypes "the visual history books of motorcar designs."
The cars on sale include the stunning 1992 Mustang Mach III, the 1995 Lincoln Sentinel (which would be at home in the Batcave) and two versions of the Indigo (pronounced "IN-dee-go"), a street dragster produced in 1996.
Also to be sold are the first concept cars for the revamped Thunderbird and the Lincoln Blackwood pickup.
The cars will be on public display in Dearborn from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 14 and 15, and from 9 a.m. to noon the morning of the 16th.
"These cars have helped define us as a company," said J. Mays, Ford's vice president of design. "Rather than letting them fall apart in the warehouse or crushing them, we wanted to put these prototypes in the hands of other people who love them."
But if these cars are of such historical value, shouldn't they be saved and displayed, as they are at other companies, instead of sold off?
"We would never do that," said Kip Wasenko, a designer at Cadillac, which has plans to display some of its concepts in a company museum. "They are part of our history."
General Motors, which created the idea of publicly displaying concept cars with its traveling Motorama shows in the 1940's and 50's, crushed or gave away many show vehicles in the past. Chrysler has several at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum, in DaimlerChrysler's United States headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. The Henry Ford Museum, in Dearborn but not affiliated with the company, displays several important concept cars, including the first, the 1938 Buick Y Job, and so does the Alfred P. Sloan Museum in Flint, Mich.
The largest collection of concept cars in private hands is probably that of Joseph Bortz, a Chicago restaurant owner who has about two dozen, including stars like the 1954 Pontiac Parisienne, the 1957 Chrysler Dodge Dart and the 1954 Packard Panther. The 1964 Dodge Charger is his most recent acquisition.
"The executives ordered them destroyed," Mr. Bortz said. "But the designers started crying, `These are Rembrandts, these are works of art!' The executives would say, `Fine, take it — I don't ever want to hear about it again until I'm dead.' "
Many of Mr. Bortz's cars are General Motors models that did end up in junkyards before being rescued and restored. The company sent many of its Motorama show cars to the Warhoops junkyard, near its research center in Warren, Mich., north of Detroit, Mr. Bortz said.
The vehicles at the Dearborn auction will be sold without reserve, or a minimum price being set, which could attract buyers looking for a bargain, although Christie's explicitly warns that the cars are "not for use on public roads."
Mr. Morris of Christie's said he has been surprised at the number of inquiries he has received from Ford dealers, who might envision a concept car as a lure in the showroom.
Several of the cars are legacies from the Italian design firm Ghia, which Ford purchased in 1973. Forming a kind of appendix to Ford's design history, these are wild and crazy dream cars, like the Selene II, with a single upright fin on its back and a podlike passenger compartment that makes the car seem to be moving backward. It was designed by Virgil Exner Jr., the son of the famed Chrysler designer.
The startling long red IXG car from 1960, nicknamed La Drag Car da Records (that's Italian, not rap), was designed by Tom Tjaarda, the son of John Tjaarda, who did the legendary Lincoln Zephyr.
The star car of the Ghia group may be the Focus of 1992, whose head and taillights look like bubbles and whose asymmetrical fiberglass body displays the influence of Art Nouveau and Bugatti. It is estimated that the car will sell for between $100,000 and $120,000.
Mr. Bortz said he will be at the Ford sale, but he's not sure he'll buy.
"I'm puzzled by the idea," he said. "This may turn out to be a whole new way of looking at these cars." He added that it's difficult to predict how valuable the cars may become.
"Some of the models haven't matured yet," Mr. Bortz said, as if describing fine wines in a cellar. "They don't have the depth of character they will acquire in time — the patina."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/14/automobiles/14CONC.html