William L. Mitchell
Mitchell (1912 – 1988) maintained until his death an intimate involvement with the world of motor racing and his flamboyant figure was familiar at both race tracks and international motor shows well into the 1980s. Even when in his 60s, Mitchell's activities belied his years. He felt comfortable at the wheel of one of his special Stingray Corvette creations or swinging a leg across one of his three Honda Motorcycles, a 350, a 500 or a 750. "Everyone likes Bill because they associate the things he does with the things they'd like to do," said Ed Taylor, who was director of Styling at Vauxhall in 1972.
General Motors were very fortunate to have had styling staff who regarded the design of cars as something more than a paid chore – indeed most of them during this era seemed to be professionals working at their hobbies. Chuck Jordan was, in the early 1970s, in charge of design for Cadillac, Buick and Oldsmobile, having previously held a three year position as head of styling at Opel in Germany. Jordan liked to drive his Ferrari GT to motor races and he was always a pit visitor at the German GP. His successor at Opel, Dave Holls, enjoyed a different field of motoring with a collection of classics that included a 1931 Cadillac roadster, a 1937 Cord 812 and a four-door Packard Darrin convertible.
Cadillac Chief Designer
Mitchell first joined General Motors in 1935, rocketing to the post of Chief Designer for the Cadillac studio a year later at the age of 24. It was Mitchell's interest in art and in motor racing that was directly responsible for his prime position with GM. His father was an automobile dealer for some years which planted an early interest in cars, but young Bill leaned more towards the arts. When he joined the Barron Collier advertising agency preparing layouts he met up with the famous Colliers, three brothers who founded the Automobile Racing Club of America - the forerunner of the SCCA that controlled CanAm, TransAm and club racing.
In 1931 Mitchell was appointed official illustrator of the ARCA and he once said he worked to model his style or at least respond to the influence of F. Gordon Crosby, the best-known artist in racing who worked for the British motor magazine "Autocar". Mitchell's racing sketches were displayed in the ARCA clubhouse where they were noted by a friend of Harley Earl, who headed the GM styling team. Bill developed his sketches into a portfolio in the summer of 1935 and he was invited to join the company. In 1936 he assisted GM Research in the design of a small rear-engined experimental car, and then as head of Cadillac styling his first complete car was the 1938 "60 Special", a smaller Caddy which became the first "personal luxury" car.
This personal-luxury development become something of a Mitchell theme throughout his career. By 1962 he had fathered the concept and lines of the Corvette Stingray and the Buick Riviera and after five years of work the same idea was sold to Cadillac as the Eldorado. Mitchell wasn't an American sports car buff in the MGTC sense of the word - Billy liked his pace but he liked his home comforts with it. It was in the early 1970s that he decided to fit a Camaro with a 7-litre aluminium CanAm Chevrolet V8. "Stroke the throttle and it's like laying a whip across a mare's ass," he enthused at Watkins Glen. According to reports from the time, the acceleration of the modified Camaro was unreal almost to the point of being uncontrollable.
The artist was never far below the surface with Mitchell, vying for a place with the showman, the egotist and the plain lover of cars. Some of the people in racing tended to regard Bill as something of an eccentric, but he had been a keen car-racing fan for more than 40 years and he could afford to let his enthusiasm show. The GM Tech Centre at Warren on the outskirts of Detroit grew from a staff of 90 when Mitchell first joined to more than 1500 by the mid ‘70s. Being in charge of styling meant more than mere corporate responsibility - for Mitchell it meant continuing to produce styles that would keep the largest manufacturing company in the world ahead of the field in world markets. The Mitchell home at that time was something straight from a set of "Gone With the Wind". It was built in eight acres of ground in the exclusive Bloomfield Hills suburb of Detroit by a millionaire member of a newspaper family.
It was in his garage that Mitchell had the mounted head of a 275 lb Mako shark, along with a 460 lb tuna. The opalescent blend of colouring from the silver underbelly to the jet top of the Mako inspired Mitchell in his styling of the experimental Mako Sharks I and II based on the Stingray which toured the international motor shows – these ended up in his garage too. They were joined by motor racing photographs, prints and paintings - but Mitchell's real pride and joy was his trophy room - a huge basement that had been converted to a sort of racing hall of fame combined with a record of Mitchell's career.
Being able to afford to indulge in a hobby has its rewards, among them being portraits specially commissioned that included Stirling Moss, Caracciola, Rene Dreyfus and Raymond Mays. Stirling Moss even presented him with the goggles he was wearing when he crashed at Goodwood in 1962 and these were preserved in a glass case with an appropriate plaque. At one time or another his garage housed a Mercedes SSKL copy-car - an SSK with faked-up holes drilled in the chassis rails - but the purist in Mitchell meant the Mercedes became something of an embarrassment and it has been sold to await a Type 59 Bugatti.
The Perks Of Experimental Styling
The perks of heading experimental styling was being able to build the sort of cars you like best and the Mako Shark versions of the Corvettes were examples of Mitchell's ideas being translated into cars. The original Stingray was Mitchell's idea for an advanced styling exercise on the Corvette and after being displayed at the motor shows it was fitted with a different body and raced occasionally by Mitchell. The polished aluminium forerunner of the production Stingray became pride of place in the Mitchell motor house, and he would proudly fire it up to demonstrate the bark of the then newly-fitted 7-litre aluminium engine.
There was also a little red Monza SS roadster which sat alongside the Stingray as an example of a small rear-engined sports car based on the Corvair but never carried through to production. Another edition to his fleet was a red mid-engined Ferrari Dino. Like most of the motor men in Detroit, Mitchell had little time for the crusading views of Ralph Nader. It was reported that he though Nader was doing his best to reduce the automobile from any semblance of a sporting carriage to the excitement and performance level of a farm cart.
Arthur Hailey’s “Brett DeLosanto”
As for his subordinates, it is widely reported that they both respected him and enjoyed his company. He was genuinely a much larger than life character. In fact when Arthur Hailey (author of "Airport" and "Hotel") was researching his new book "Wheels" he went to dinner with Bill and his wife Marian and was later shown through the trophy room downstairs. Hailey was so taken with Mitchell's style that he based the character of Brett DeLosanto around him in "Wheels". In some strange sort of way the flair and enthusiasm that Mitchell exuded filtered through to the GM range of cars in America, particularly during the 1960s, that many preferred the Camaro or Firebird over the equivalent Mustang or Cougar. Subjective of course – you decide.
Bill Mitchell finally retired in 1977, but he continued to be active operating a private consulting design firm, William L. Mitchell Design, from 1977 to 1984. He died of heart failure at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Oakland, Michigan in 1988. He was survived by his wife, Marian Mitchell, of Bloomfield Hills; three daughters, Wendelin L. Campbell of San Diego; Lynne Werner of Carlsbad, Calif., and Penelope Mitchell of Bethesda, Md., and four grandchildren.
Also see: Honour Roll - Founding Fathers Of The Automotive Industry 
