The Forward Look

in the thirties, Exner had to fight the established structure of body engineers for control of design. He was well supported in this effort, because he had been personally hired by Chrysler’s CEO K. T. Keller. Under the banner of the Forward Look Exner transformed the staid Highland Park operation into an advanced lab for automotive design. And shook things up in Detroit.
The term car guy, in the industry, has come to mean someone who is an enthusiast, destined to fight the good fight with marketing and accounting. It is a term of respect given those rare individuals whose automotive vision produces the cars that excite the public, as well as marketing and accounting. Exner was such a guy. He envisioned the car as a whole design. A cohesive unit of purposefully shaped sheet metal, stretched over capable engineering.
Chrysler’s engineering was good. Had been from the time Walter P. built the company on the high-compression six. Following the war Chrysler developed its first V8, it was ready for market in 1951. Highland Park’s engineers had taken a radical direction for the engine’s design. The target was performance. Taking a page from the supercharged racing engines of the thirties, the engineers designed the new V8 with hemispherical combustion chambers to greatly increase airflow and power. The engine was initially released with 331 Cubic

inch displacement, producing 180 horsepower. This was advanced engineering, and a harbinger of things to come from Chrysler.
As the hemi was reaching completion, Exner was organizing his advanced design department. One of the first projects undertaken was to create a show car for the engine’s introduction. It was a car design that was to take a most interesting road to the American auto shows, via Italy.
Under the Marshall Plan for the rebuilding of a war devastated Europe, Chrysler had been asked to assist in the rebuilding of Fiat’s production operation. Getting a good look at the Italian auto industry, Chrysler gained an appreciation for the relationship between the Carrozzerias, which designed and built the bodies and the interiors, and the manufacturers, who engineered and built the rolling chassis. Under Exner’s direction, Chrysler’s Advance Design looked to develop an association with Pinin Farina for the development of their new prototype. When Pinin’s heavy workload prevented this, Chrysler was approached by Carrozzeria Ghia. This relationship resulted in some of the most dynamic custom cars, and one-off show cars designed by an American manufacturer during the early fifties.