IN A DESIGN STUDIO FAR, FAR AWAY... - RM Auctions

PLYMOUTH XNR
94 MARCH 2012
IN A DESIGN STUDIO
FAR, FAR AWAY...
Stylist Virgil Exner truly took America into the space age with the
Plymouth XNR concept car. This is its extraordinary survival story
Words Matt Stone // PhotograPhy Shooterz.biz // archive Picture Chrysler
MARCH 2012
95

PLYMOUTH XNR
TODAY MOST PEOPLE refer to
them as ‘concept cars’. You know,
those one-off dream machines,
mock-ups, design studies and
turntable toys intended to dazzle
us at motor shows, give potential
customers and the media a hint
at specific vehicles or automotive
design language that’s coming in the near
future, and possibly even gauge reaction to
them. Virgil M Exner Sr had a different
name for them – he called them ‘Idea Cars’
because, to this visionary designer and design
department leader, the power of good ideas
was what it was all about.
Exner began his career as an advertising
illustrator and, as a rising design star
and protégé of GM design boss Harley Earl,
he ran the Pontiac styling department,
before leaving to join Raymond Loewy and
Associates in 1938 to work primarily on
Studebaker projects. His relationship with
Loewy was star-crossed at best and he was
dismissed by Loewy in 1944, only to join
Studebaker directly – although Loewy gets
much of the credit for Studebaker’s fresh
post-war designs, a lot of the effort should
more correctly be credited to Exner. Exner left
Studebaker in 1949 to join Chrysler’s design
studio, ultimately to become its styling chief.
96 MARCH 2012
Exner rightly assessed that Chrysler’s early
post-war cars were staid and boxy, and set
to work to revolutionise their look to be more
in step with the new post-war jet age. His
‘Forward Look’ designs were sexy and
exciting, and sales improved dramatically.
‘Ex’, as he was affectionately nicknamed,
respected the great work of Italy’s
coachbuilders, and established a friendship
and business relationship with one of the best:
Luigi Segre ran Ghia in Turin, and Exner saw
the value of a relationship with an Italian
carrozzeria that could turn out affordable,
high-quality one-offs in relatively little time.
There soon followed a decade-plus parade of
Idea Cars that enthused the public, the media
– and Chrysler customers.
In an internal catalogue about Idea Cars,
Chrysler stated that such a car ‘…had to be
more than just a show car that was simply a
production model with special paint and
upholstery. Yet it couldn’t be an impractical
“dream car”. It had to have a completely new
body that would interest and even startle the
casual observer. It had to have new, practical,
usable ideas in styling and accommodation.’
The Idea Cars are well known to anyone
who is a student of automotive design, and
include landmarks such as the Chrysler
Special, the K-310, Flight-Sweep I and II, the
original DeSoto Adventurer and Adventurer
II, the GS-1, Plymouth Belmont, several
iterations of Dodge Firearrow and many
others. Of the 28 vehicles built between 1940
and 1961 that Chrysler identifies as Idea Cars,
24 were built in co-operation with Ghia –
largely designed by Exner and his staff in the
USA, then detailed and built in Turin. A few
were produced in limited numbers, such as
the GS-1, plus a brief run of long-wheelbase
Chrysler Crown Imperial limousines.
In the late ’50s, Exner felt that Plymouth
needed a sports car. Chevrolet had the
Corvette, Ford had had success with the
original two-seat Thunderbird of 1955-57,
Jaguar had the XK (and made racing history
with the C-type and D-type); plus there were
Austin-Healey, Maserati, Porsche, Ferrari
and others. And Ex had just the parts and the
team to get the job done.
He went to work putting all his ideas
together in one place for a radical, wedgeshaped
roadster that became known as XNR.
Say that quickly and it sounds like the name
of the man who conceived it, and the legend
goes that the car was so-named by Exner’s
Advanced Styling studio team. It was built by
Ghia during the latter half of 1959 on a
modified Plymouth Valiant frame provided
by Chrysler, and made the rounds of the
world’s great international auto shows in 1960,
dazzling the crowds and the media, appearing
on 1961 covers of American motor magazine
giants Road & Track and Motor Trend.
XNR incorporated several asymmetrical
design features, including a bonnet scoop that
begins on the driver’s side and tapers back to
form the basis of a cowl for the instrument
cluster, steering wheel, and racing-style
windscreen. Those lines continue past the
cockpit, culminating in a fin resembling that of
a Jaguar D-type. The front edge of the fin is
padded as a driver’s headrest.
The tail ends in a heavily chromed, fourpointed-star-shaped
rear bumper, with the
vertical line of the star offset to the left of the
car, in line with the driver, the steering wheel,
tailfin and front bonnet scoop. It’s strictly a twoseater,
and the passenger side of the cabin can
be covered by a removable metal tonneau.
‘EXNER SAW THE VALUE OF AN ITALIAN
CARROZZERIA THAT COULD TURN OUT
AFFORDABLE, HIGH-QUALITY ONE-OFFS’
MARCH 2012
Above and below
Motor shows were the XNR’s
natural habitat; nowadays it acts
as a reminder that the 1960s
was an era of ‘anything goes’
in American car styling.
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PLYMOUTH XNR
98 OC MARCH T OBER 2012 2011
The wheels are highlighted by pontoonish
wing shapes that emphasise power and
aerodynamic purpose. And although the
wheels themselves look as if they have knockoff
hubs and contain finned brake drums, the
effect is created simply by affixing racylooking
hubcaps to conventional steels.
The heat-shielded dual exhaust muffler
system is mounted sidepipe-style just below
the driver’s door, and you might expect one of
Chrysler’s massive hemi-V8s mounted under
that long, asymmetrical bonnet to breathe out
through it. Not so.
In 1960, Chrysler was going into battle
against the Chevrolet Corvair and Ford Falcon
in the compact car wars with the Plymouth
Valiant, which employed a sturdy ladder
frame, torsion-bar front suspension and a
leaf-sprung live rear axle. As well as its chassis
frame, the Valiant donated its new, overheadvalve
2.8-litre slant-six, inclined by nearly 30º
towards the passenger side to maintain a low
profile, and treated to a warm-up by the
racing division, including the Hyper-Pak
intake and exhaust system, a Carter fourbarrel
carburettor, and a more aggressive
camshaft. Rated output was 250bhp, certainly
enough to compete with the Jags, ’Healeys,and
Aston Martins of the day. It transmits power
via a three-speed manual gearbox with a
close-coupled floor-shifter.
Left and below
Extravagant sidepipe
belies the fact that there’s
an economy-car slant-six
under the bonnet; cockpit
is exquisitely detailed.
The interior is a study in polished
aluminium and sturdy black leather. A racy
set of instruments faces the driver through
the drilled-spoke, wood-rimmed steering
wheel, and instead of a glovebox there’s a
hard leather case that can be detached and
worn over the shoulder. From the passenger
seat, it’s clear this car is highly driver-centric,
an effect that’s accentuated by fixing the
passenger-side tonneau panel in place.
Exner’s creation isn’t huge but it’s hardly
compact: at 195.2in, it’s nearly two feet longer
than a Jaguar E-type, and about 6in wider.
Exner’s dream of a new sports car based on
a production saloon wasn’t to come true. Its
looks were too outlandish, its bodywork too
complicated to produce. After the XNR’s tour
of duty, it was returned to Ghia and later
sold to a customer in Geneva. The XNR was
subsequently spotted in Switzerland by one
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – otherwise known
as the Shah of Iran.
The Shah, quite the enthusiast in his own
right, was smitten by it, and convinced the
Swiss owner to sell. After that, the ownership
waters grow murky, but somehow it survived
numerous wars and revolutions in Iran,
and ended up in the hands of an exotic car
dealer in Kuwait.
Largely intact, the XNR made its way to
Beirut, where it was hidden in a basement
‘ITS LOOKS WERE
TOO OUTLANDISH,
ITS BODYWORK
TOO COMPLICATED
TO PRODUCE’
MARCH 2012
99

PLYMOUTH XNR
for three decades. Amazingly, it survived the
Lebanese Civil war, and businessman and
automotive enthusiast Karim Edde bought it
in the late 1980s.
Edde wanted nothing more than to return
the XNR to its former glory, but his search for
the right people to restore it took 20 years. He
turned to Rob Myers, the head of RM Auctions
and RM Restorations. Myers and his team
know their stuff, having restored cars for
several of the world’s most significant biggame
collectors that have gone on to win Best
in Show at Pebble Beach.
Mario Van Raay, general manager of RM
Auto Restoration Inc, picks up the story: ‘The
important stuff was all there, such as the body
panels and difficult-to-remake parts such as
those unusual bumpers. What wasn’t there, we
remade. Fortunately, there are many great and
detailed photos of the car, and from that we
could recreate anything that was missing.’
Some of the work was straightforward, other
aspects more complicated. For example, each
hubcap contains more than 30 individual metal
pieces that had to be fabricated, largely by
100 MARCH 2012
hand. Van Raay said that Ghia’s original
construction job was of good quality, but that
time had taken its toll and everything needed
to be redone. Exner’s son, Virgil M Exner Jr,
also a successful designer, visited the car
during restoration and was consulted on
accuracy and detailing. The Hyper-Pak
powertrain was intact and the original
components were rebuilt and reused.
Edde brims with justifiable enthusiasm
about his car: ‘I just love this design, plus its
historical importance.’ Its first major postrestoration
debut was at the Amelia Island
Concours d’Elegance last March – as you’d
expect, the car draws a crowd wherever it
appears. Octane caught up with the XNR for
the second time at Pebble Beach last August.
Prior to the concours itself, the car
participated in the 75-mile Tour d’Elegance on
the roads of the Monterey Peninsula, driven by
Edde with his sister in the passenger seat. The
XNR performed flawlessly, its throaty exhaust
note speaking in more sophisticated tones than
you might expect from an iron-blocked sixcylinder
engine originally developed for an
economy sedan. The XNR was a hit with the
Pebble Beach judges too, earning two awards
at the concours.
Karim Edde takes satisfaction in that both
he and RM’s skilled restoration team have
saved the car and brought it back to its showpony
specification and appearance, and has no
immediate plans other than to continue to
show it, and drive it when conditions permit.
Don’t expect to see it crossing an RM auction
block any time soon.
Exner himself enjoyed much success,
although he also lost his youngest son, suffered
heart attacks, and had to bear the indignity of
watering down his flamboyant design language
for the 1962 model year.
The ultimate insult? Chrysler Corporation
dismissed him after those problem-plagued
’62 models flopped in the marketplace. He
formed his own design consultancy with son
Virgil Jr, before passing away in his home state
of Michigan in 1973, but he’ll always be
remembered best for introducing the kind of
space age cars you might expect from a man
bearing the name Virgil Exner. End
‘AS YOU’D EXPECT, THE
CAR DRAWS A CROWD
WHEREVER IT APPEARS’