This Is How the Buick Y-Job Changed The Auto Industry

One Man’s Vision Became An Industry Benchmark

This was the first-ever concept car that the auto industry created. It fell in the hands of Harley Earl who ran the GM Design company.

The Buick Y-Job lay on the chassis of a 1937 Buick. Harley Earl aimed at combining a vivid mission of the day’s automobile with epic technologies and features that would serve as a benchmark and be carried well into the future. He thought if elements such as hidden headlights as well as flush door handles.

He also had in mind a convertible top as well as electrically operated windows. Whereas this may look obvious and easy to modern-day car lovers and owner, such luxurious features. Achieving them would be a whole different matter altogether.

Notably, the streamlined shape found in the Y-Job reverberated several elements found on the Chrysler Airflow design. But it is what the Y-Job did to future car designs that remain memorable.

It did a tour around the country showcasing what GM wanted to incorporate in its future cars. This of course eventually became a reality. Furthermore, it helps to paint the picture of what kind of a visionary Harley Earl was.

This man kept an office called the “hatchery.” It is here that he hatched his ideas and he kept this space completely blacked out, minus telephone and away from any distractions. Writing about him Stephen Bayley observed, “Earl conducted the design process with a mixture of discretion, emotional violence, and bizarrerie.”