Retired Pontiac and Buick designer Bill Porter is Concours d'Elegance of Southwest Michigan's featured designer in 2013

Bill Porter in front of his remarkable, unusual home near Ann Arbor, MI 

There are many enjoyable aspects of organizing a major automobile exhibition like the local Concours.   Each year I meet a large number of new enthusiastic vehicle owners.  I also get acquainted with the invited featured designer.

We started the practice of selecting a featured designer in 2008 when retired GM chief designer and VP Wayne Cherry was invited.  His appearance was followed the next year by another highly regarded GM designer, Cadillac and Buick man Wayne Kady.  In 2010 we attracted a top Ford designer, Jack Telnack, who ended his Blue Oval career as VP of design.   Virgil Exner, Jr. of South Bend joined us in 2011 and we found Chrysler and Ford vehicles designed both by Jr. and his famous father, the late Virgil Exner, Sr.

Last year we had authors Dennis and Terri Horvath as our featured automotive authors.

This year retired GM designer Bill Porter accepted our invitation to be our featured designer.  A great number of Pontiac and Buick nameplates from the 70s, 80s and 90s bear the stamp of Bill’s design touch.

All of our featured designers in the past were gifted automotive artists, but with Bill Porter we have an automotive historian and a walking automotive library to boot.  His resume’ lists pages of awards received, teaching positions held, lectures and gallery talks given and slide presentations produced.

I am enthusiastically looking forward to his Friday, August 9 evening presentation that will be offered to everyone in the community on a first come, first serve basis.  Watch for details later.

I met Bill and his wife Patsy back in March on a bright winter day in Whitmore Lake, a little community just north of Ann Arbor.  One cannot write about the Porters without commenting on their spectacular home built on 20-acres in the midst of farmland and woodlots.  The land was purchased in 1996, the year of his retirement from GM, while the Porters still lived in Birmingham.

Referred by the Porter’s as a “warehouse with period rooms,” the 13,000 square foot structure features living space, studios, workshops and galleries, all designed by Bill to house his and Pat’s wide-ranging collection of art and design artifacts.  The new home shows brilliantly his aesthetic take on architecture that he embraces as an artist and designer.  

He shuns the use of color in the structure itself; instead both the interior and exterior are a medley of grays and other neutral colors, and there is an emphasis on the use of exposed metal, both inside and out.  The period rooms will each have color schemes appropriate to their own eras.

A dominating feature of the Porter’s home is a full-size silo with an observation deck in its top.  It is used not to store silage or corn, its traditional purpose, but as an admittedly romantic spot to ascend and watch dramatic Michigan sunsets over a glass of wine.

Bill and Patsy, married for 54 years, have three grown children and three grandchildren.  Natives of Louisville, Kentucky, both are devoted, successful collectors of Tiffany glass, early American blown glass and Mission-style furniture (Roycroft, Stickley.) 

In addition, Bill has built a very impressive and eclectic collection of early 20th c. paintings by Michigan artists.  The gallery space in their impressive home will be hung with these works on a rotating basis.

Bill received his fine arts education from the University of Louisville, followed by a stint in the Army.  After a brief fling as a neon sign designer, he attended Pratt Institute to earn his Masters.  It was at Pratt that he was discovered by GM and did a summer internship in 1957 at the Warren, Mich. Tech Center. That fortuitous appointment would lead to a 39-year career as a top designer at GM.

His first design assignment as a junior designer at the Tech Center was in the styling and research studio (where the Firebird I,II and III were created.)  In 1963 he was given duties hiring new designers for the design staff.  During this period he visited some 30 colleges in the country searching for the best young talent.

Over his lifetime as a GM designer, Bill Porter drew thousands of sketches of automobiles, like this effort made in the mid-60s of the proposed 1968 Pontiac mid-size Pontiac Tempest/LeMans. Some features were eventually used on the actual 1968 LeMans, including the loop chrome bumper.  But the hidden headlights atop the bumper were not used, nor were the twin bumps on the hood.

 In 1965 Bill was assigned to an advanced studio where he created the basic body shell that became the 1968 LeMans/GTO.  He was then promoted to head the Pontiac Studio and oversaw the design of all Pontiac automobiles from 1969 -1973.

During the remainder of the 1970s, Bill headed Advanced 1 studio where he created basic body shells and concept cars.   Says Bill of that time, “I had a ball!”

Later his talents would be appreciated by buyers of Buicks.  He was appointed chief designer of the Buick 1 studio in 1979.  He remained head of that studio until his 1996 retirement. 

Bill has his favorite vehicles that were designed under his watch.  Right at the top is the 1970 Pontiac Firebird, especially the Trans Am model; he was strongly involved with the development of the Firebird’s tremendously popular Trans Am model.   Bill was one of the pioneers in using wind tunnel data in the design of a vehicle.

Bill has favorite Buicks too.  The final Riviera, introduced in 1995 and discontinued in 2000, rates number one.  He is bringing his personal 1995 Riviera to the Concours.

As in past years, we hope to have 8 to 10 featured designer – created automobiles at the Concours for the Pass in Review event.  We are seeking owners who own the following Pontiac and Buick models: 1968-70 Tempests or GTOs, 1973 Grand Ams, 1985 Electra and 1986 or 1992 LeSabre.

I would need at least five of my car columns to adequately disseminate Bill’s lifelong accomplishments.  I recommend that readers take the time to read more about Bill Porter by searching “Bill Porter auto designer” on the Web.  The Internet is full of Bill Porter history and accomplishments.

Retired GM designer Bill Porter was responsible for the creation of dozens of Pontiac and Buick automobiles over his career.  One of his favorites is his last effort, the 1995 Buick Riviera.  Shown here is Bill (on the left) with a fiber-glass, non-running model of the car and Buick Interior Studio Chief Paul Tatseos.  The 1995 Riviera was intended as a 1993 model but GM financial difficulties postponed the intro.

Seeking special Cadillacs

What's a Cadillac without a fin.

 
This time of year I really look forward to the daily visit from my mailman.  The deadline for vehicle entries for the upcoming Concours car show in August is approaching and I receive a number of applications each day.   I have a smile on my face when I open each envelope; eagerly anticipating what vehicle has been submitted.

When all the entries have been received by mid-April and made into a PowerPoint presentation, the volunteer Concours selection committee will meet and review all the submitted vehicles.  From the volume of mail so far, it appears we will have a record number of vehicle owners wishing to have their car, commercial vehicle, motorcycle or bicycle in the fundraising event.

This year the Concours selection committee will again descend on Hickory Corners in late April and assemble in a meeting room of the Gilmore Car Museum.  From the submitted entries the committee will select approximately 90 vehicles, including a representative sampling of Cadillacs, this year’s featured marque. 

As I write this column, 12 Cadillacs have been submitted.  That’s a good number but we are short of Cadillac entries for the 1915 – 1940 period and for the 1950s.  The decade of the sixties is well represented with a large number of entries submitted.

Naturally we want a selection of Cads that represent the luxury brand throughout its long history.  We are especially interested in showing some of the magnificent Classic Cadillac offerings from the twenties and thirties and also two other key examples; a 1948 model to show the beginning of the fin age – which Cadillac introduced that year – and the iconic 1959 model that took the fin age to its outrageous zenith.

There are two “special feature” classes in the Concours this year.   We are seeking a number of vehicles from the turn of the 20th century for the “High Wheeler” class and a few more for the “Lady Owned Cars” special class.

Fortunately, we already have a nice selection of entries for the “Lady Owned Cars” class.  Female interest in the collector car hobby is growing and this year the Concours leadership thought it was time we highlight this car-collecting phenomenon with a special group.

So far we have no entries for the “High Wheeler” class.   If none are received by April 20, committee members and I will get busy and contact the various high wheeler car clubs in the country and see if we can stir up some interest.

For those not familiar with a high wheeler vehicle, here’s a short history lesson.  The high wheeler is an early car body style that is unique only to the United States.  As the name implies, vehicles called high wheelers were built with slender, large-diameter wheels beginning in the late 19th century.  The last high wheeler was probably built around 1910.

Prior to the advent of gasoline engines, high wheelers were powered by electric motors or steam engines.  The high wheeler’s popularity began to wane when standard automobiles became both less expensive and more sophisticated.  It has been written that when Henry Ford introduced the Model T, the high wheeler era rapidly came to an end.

Automobiles with the slender high wheels often used solid tires.  The wide diameter of the wheels provided ample ground clearance.  This was a necessary feature because most roads in America at the time were primitive.  High wheelers also were designed with a wider track than those found on a standard automobile.

The high wheelers were available in many body styles (utility vehicles, runabouts/roadsters; some with detachable tonneaus) and often shared features found on horse-drawn wagon like wood-spoke wheels, similar suspensions and boxy bodies made of wood.

Over 40 high wheeler companies were in business at one point in the United States.  A few had names that might be recognizable – like the Cole, Duryea, Economy, International Harvester, and Sears – but most had a moment in the sun and then disappeared.

Attendees of the Concours car show may recall last year the 1909 Economy G Surrey high wheeler that was featured in the “Family Owned Vehicle” class.  Brady and Emily Mann of Roanoke, IL brought the Economy that his grandfather had purchased new over one hundred years ago.

Readers who know someone who owns a well-preserved high wheeler is urged to contact me.  We’ve had a few of high wheelers in our show in the past and the quaint and almost pre-historic looking automobiles are huge crowd pleasers.

The Concours featured designer this year is retired GM designer Bill Porter of Whitmore Lake, Michigan.  I interviewed Bill a while back and will share highlights of his exciting career with readers in an upcoming column.  

Bill headed both Pontiac and Buick design studios during his career.  Without a doubt his most notable effort while at Pontiac was overseeing the creation of the second gen 1970 Pontiac Firebird.  He takes extra special pride in developing the Firebird Trans Am of that period. 

Bill will join narrator Ed Lucas during the noon Pass in Review and discuss all the cars in the show that he had a hand in designing.   Take a look at the list below and contact me if you or if someone you know owns one of these Porter-influenced vehicles. 

The Porter-designed cars we’d like to have in this year’s Concours include:
1968 – 69 Pontiac Le Mans and GTO, 1970 – 72 Pontiac Catalina, Bonneville, 1970 ?  – 73 Firebird and Firebird T/A, 1973 Pontiac Le Mans, Grand Am, 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix, 1985 Buick Electra, 1982 Pontiac Firebird, 1991 Buick Regal 4-door sedan, 1986, 1992 and 2000 Buick LeSabre, 1991 and 1996 Buick Park Avenue and Ultra and 1995 Buick Riviera. 

Mr. Porter, now in his eighties, is a dynamic speaker and will give a pre-Concours presentation on Friday night, August 9.  Details on location and time of the program are incomplete.  Watch for announcements in this column in July.