{"id":47666,"date":"2017-04-11T14:05:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T13:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/?p=47666"},"modified":"2022-06-15T11:18:16","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T10:18:16","slug":"chuck-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/people\/chuck-jordan\/","title":{"rendered":"Fins, Firebirds and Ferraris \u2013 The life of Chuck Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are fewer men that have been Vice President of GM Design than have set foot on the moon; Charles M. \u201cChuck\u201d Jordan was one of the lucky few.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before him the leaders of GM Design were Harley Earl, who was seminal in creating automotive styling of the \u201clower, longer, wider\u201d type and Bill Mitchell, who led GM\u2019s rocket-fin era and felt a car design should have beauty, elegance and the surprise of something new.<\/p>\n

Chuck Jordan was born in 1927 in Whittier, California, to a ranching family. By the age of 12 he was driving trucks on the ranch and became obsessed with drawing cars; so much so that his mother would bring him dinner in his bedroom whilst he drafted up new concepts. She envisaged his early passion would somehow lead him to greatness.<\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/a><\/figure>\n

By his teenage years, Chuck Jordan was drafting up scale models and the natural move, after graduating with honours from Fullerton High School, was to enrol at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), notable alumni include Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.<\/p>\n

Encouraged by his mother, Chuck entered the GM Fisher Body Craftsman\u2019s Guild model-car competition and he won, securing a $4000 scholarship and the attention of GM\u2019s Harley Earl (below). Shortly after graduating in 1949, Chuck accepted an offer to join GM as a junior designer.<\/p>\n

\"Harley<\/a><\/figure>\n

Jordan\u2019s talent quickly set him apart. In 1953, Harley Earl appointed him chief designer of GM\u2019s special products studio. It was there that he produced the designs for the iconic streamlined 1955 Aerotrain locomotive for which he gained high praise from Earl.<\/p>\n

\"Aerotrain\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

Seeing the talent Chuck Jordan held, Bill Mitchell\u2013 who was poised to assume the top design slot from the retiring Earl \u2013 went over to him and said, \u201cKid, if you want to get anywhere around here you\u2019ve got to do cars.\u201d Chuck was moved over to the main GM building and placed in an advanced studio. Here he flourished ending up getting the design patent on the 1955 GM truck and designing his first car – the Buick Centurion concept for the 1956 Motorama show; which featured sweeping lines, bat fins, and bubble top, it also had the world’s first reversing camera with in-dash monitor. Chuck also produced the Pontiac wide-track concept with help from John DeLorean.<\/p>\n

\"Buick<\/a><\/figure>\n

Things moved fast and in 1957, aged 30, Chuck became the chief designer for Cadillac. One of his most famous designs was the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado featuring the highest-ever fins, a concept he designed to compete with Plymouth.<\/p>\n

\"Cadillac\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

In 1962, Chuck became Executive in charge of Automotive Design, responsible for all GM car and truck exteriors and in the same year Life magazine hailed him as one of the \u201c100 most important young men and women in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an avid Ferrari fan and owner, Chuck met Enzo Ferrari three times through their mutual friendship with designer Sergio Pininfarina. He recalled once discussing design over lunch with Enzo, in the famous Cavallino Restaurant, opposite the Ferrari works at Maranello. Afterwards Ferrari asked Chuck if he wanted to come along whilst he did a test drive in the mountains. Chuck recalled that Enzo was an aggressive driver and did things that scared him \u2013 such as cutting the corners in blind turns. However, he looked back on it to be one of the best days of his life. Chuck went on to own a Lusso, Daytona, Boxer, Testarossa, 360, F40 (his favourite Pininfarina design) and a 456GT.<\/p>\n\n\t\t