Proceedings of Edited by Automotive Historians Harriet Edquist AHA 2016 Australia Mark Richardson Automotive Volume 1 Simon Lockrey Histories: Driving Futures Proceedings of The papers in this volume Other than for fair dealing were presented at the for the purposes of private Automotive Historians Australia inaugural Conference of study, research, criticism or Volume 1 Automotive Historians review, as permitted under Australia Inc. held on the Copyright Act 1968 and 1–3 September 2016 at Copyright Amendment Act the Design Hub, RMIT 2006, no part of this volume University, Melbourne. may be reproduced by any process without the prior All papers accepted for permission of the editors, publication were blind peer publisher and author/s. reviewed by two referees. Copyright of this volume The Proceedings are a belongs to AHA Inc. record of the papers Copyright of the content presented at the annual of individual contributions conference of Automotive remains the property of the Historians Australia Inc named author or authors. (AHA). Publication of the All efforts have been made research documented to ensure that authors in these Proceedings have secured appropriate underscores AHA’s permissions to reproduce commitment to academic the images illustrating freedom and academic individual contributions. integrity. The conclusions and views expressed in the Proceedings do not necessarily reflect the views of AHA.

Edited by Published in Melbourne, Harriet Edquist Australia, by AHA Inc. Mark Richardson 2017 Simon Lockrey ISBN: 978-0-646-97124-7

II FOREWORD Harriet Edquist Mark Richardson Simon Lockrey Convenors

In 2004 British sociologist Mike Featherstone noted that with bike- and car-sharing on the increase; as cities look to while there had been increasing academic engagement with alternatives to private car travel; as road congestion increases the ‘mobility turn’, automobility the ‘modes of autonomous, and oil supplies decrease, it is clear that the dominance of the self-directed movement’ afforded by the motorcar, had been twentieth-century conception of the vehicle is waning. neglected as a subject of enquiry. Since then, automobility studies have gained some traction in the academy, particularly The convenors thought it was timely therefore to reflect within social sciences and cultural studies. However, while the on the Australian condition, to consider the broad themes of parameters of automobility are set wide, and cross a number of automobility through a particularly local and national lense, different disciplines, the practices of design within this context both in terms of the past and the potential for the future. have rarely been the focus of study. In Australia, which has been It was hoped that the implications for design in what John Urry a centre of vehicle production for 120 years and is one of the has called ‘the car system’ would be addressed. few countries in the world that has the capacity to design and manufacture vehicles from the ground up, there has been little The conference offered the opportunity, for the first time in scholarly research in these areas. Australia, for these ideas to be discussed and debated in an academic, peer reviewed, forum. Papers were evenly divided The major Australian car companies - Toyota, Ford and General between those that examined the history of the Australian Motors Holden - will cease manufacturing and exit the country automotive industry and its cultural context and those that by 2017 following Mitsubishi’s closure in 2008. The implications looked to current and future issues of automobility and design. of this dramatic shift in terms of job losses, weakened industrial Significantly, the papers represented a multi-disciplinary view capacity and also the potential loss of significant cultural of the automotive industry as the authors included automotive heritage sites and assets, are becoming the subject of increased industry professionals, museum curators, architecture historians, concern and debate. Furthermore, as automotive design rapidly industrial designers, design historians and business historians. changes under the forces of new propulsion, data and energy They and the audience who attended the conference explored technologies (autonomous, electric, solar cars); as increased the depth and breadth of interest and expertise here in an urbanisation means fewer young people want to own vehicles, industry that defined the twentieth century.

III PAPERS

Laura Belik Philip Goad Cities: to whom, by whom? The Critic and the Car: Robin Boyd, The Minhocão elevated highway case Automobiles and Australian Architecture study in São Paulo/ Brazil Phil Guilfoyle Michelangelo Bolognese & Matthew Lombard The 1914 Delage Grand Prix Type-S: Worth Holden’ onto? Preserving and Resurrecting a sole survivor displaying Australia’s automotive industrial heritage Simon Lockrey Temporal ripples – Automotive industry Michael Bogle influence on contemporary Australian Advertising “Australia’s Own Car” design practice 1948–1949 Jonathan Laskovksy & Elizabeth Taylor Steve Campbell-Wright A Lot of Thought: The space of car parks Imperial Echoes: one company’s and shopping centres in Australian cities exploitation of cultural identity in marketing cars before the Great War Mark Richardson Collisions and Divisions: on ideological Norm Darwin democratisation in design from Henry Ford The development of Australian automotive to Maker culture design: General Motors-Holden 1923–1953 Lisa Stevens Harriet Edquist Preserving the Legacy of South Australian Motor The Repco racing programme 1940-1970: Racing Identity Tom Stevens and 70 years of innovation and enterprise in the private sector Racing MG’s

Jennifer Fawbert Gary Vines G. P. Innes (1863–1936). Archaeology of the Automobile industry Pioneer of the motor industry in Victoria 1896–2016

IV Fourteen years ago I published a book The ‘Model T’ Ford provides a base-line PENNY SPARKE entitled, A Century of Car Design. My for many discussions about car design. aim in writing that text was to fill a gap Ford’s famous comment that the car Kingston University in the story of modern design and to could be produced in any colour ‘so show that, although car design has long as it’s black’ demonstrates that been side-lined by mainstream design the idea of design encapsulated in this Keynote: history for the most part, the same object was not aesthetically focused aesthetic, functional, technological, and was therefore not a ‘styling’ Automotive History: social and cultural considerations exercise. What, then, did ‘design’ mean that go into the design of a chair, an in this context? In essence, the Model Design versus Styling interior or a product also go into the T came at the end of a period of car creation of an automobile. The aim of design that was dominated by invention this paper is to address the complex and technological innovation. and changing definitions of design that relate to the history of the automobile The problem Ford wanted to solve was and to demonstrate that the story how to create an automobile that could exists within the broader subject of be made at a price that was affordable design history. A fundamental issue to the large numbers of rural Americans in any discussion about ‘car design’ who, until that moment, had had to is the fact that the word ‘styling’ was make do with a horse. It was, therefore, widely used through the twentieth a ‘horseless carriage’ that allowed century to describe the car designer’s these early consumers to bring their practice. This has proved problematic: products into town to sell at the market. it created a hierarchy and tended to Aesthetics wasn’t an issue for these marginalise the work of car designers customers but status symbolism most from that of their peers in other design probably was. That requirement was fields – architecture, interior design, provided by ownership alone. and furniture and product design The car didn’t need to be bigger and in particular – designers who were better than that of one’s neighbour. It thought to have purer intentions. An simply had to do its job at an affordable assumption has been made that the price. It was enough that it existed. car stylist works in a more commercial This was a ‘tabula rasa’ approach to and superficial way than his fellow design in terms of what later becomes designers. This assumption derives, I known as ‘car styling’. The formula believe, from the cultural dominance, was, rather, a simple one. It required through the twentieth century, of the technological acumen and basic modernist design values developed at marketing know-how. There was no the Bauhaus in Germany in the 1920s, need for ‘art’ at this point. If we look which, where serious discussions about for a parallel in other design fields of design are concerned, left car ‘styling’ the period, we find it in early electrical at the margin of things, seen as a kind appliances which were also the result of of ‘impure’ practice. technological inventiveness and market demand. By aligning examples of car design with other areas of design, I hope to show Interestingly, there were exceptions that it has a rich history worthy of as to the rule in this field where ‘art’ much as discussion as that of any other was needed. Some appliances design field. were destined for the domestic (i.e. feminine) arena and therefore had to V be embellished with decoration to fit is evidence also that, by this time, Vanden Plas, Figoni et Falacshi, and connoisseurs. Only the famous into that space. The Model T had no women played an important part in Delahaye, Chapron, Castagna and inclusion of the Cisitalia in New York’s such requirements. A public sphere car purchasing decisions so there are others produced highly crafted, high MoMA bucks that trend. The fact that object, at that time, had no decorative gender issues to take into account here. quality cars with sumptuous interiors it doesn’t contain an engine, however, requirements but could exist, rather, as aimed at the wealthy. The best design suggests that it is being celebrated as a a basic machine, a functional artefact Sloan had to find a means of injecting parallel to this phenomenon was piece of sculpture rather than a piece of with no aesthetic purpose. What’s aesthetic values into his car and the haute couture. High quality, visually remarkable car design in which art, craft more, once it had been perfected well-known story of his employment innovative, glamorous clothing and engineering came fully together. technologically, it could, theoretically at of ex-theatre set designer, Harley Earl, produced by the firms of Schiaparelli, least, remain unchanged, as long, that is hugely relevant here. In 1927 Earl Chanel, Fortuny and others was aimed There is an intellectual distance is, as people were willing to buy it. created the Art and Color section of at an elite clientele. In design history between the appreciation of the Italian General Motors. He transformed the terms, both Art Deco furniture and domestic interior of the 1950 and The key change that occurred in the automobile from an engineered object decorative arts and haute couture dress 1960s and the objects of the public story of car design in the first decades into a stylish consumer artefact. Rather have been the subject of extensive spheres. Only the Vespa scooter of the twentieth century related less to than appealing to the purchasers’ minds scholarship, and are seen as occupying seems to have crossed that divide and visual innovation for its own sake than by offering reliability and efficiency, he the fine art end of the design spectrum. once again it is usually considered to new patterns of car consumption. appealed to their hearts by offering As yet, luxury cars have yet to be as a sculpted body-shell rather than There was a huge difference between stylishness, theatricality, fashion, studied in the same manner. In the as an object of transport. The little rural farmers buying their first car glamour, luxury and comfort. He relatively new academic discipline – the Fiat’s – the 600 and the 500 – have and new city dwellers wanting to demonstrated it in his LaSalle models. history of the interior – could do well also been absorbed into a number of change their car and, in so doing, Interestingly, what Earl introduced to include the interiors of these luxury design historical accounts, once again expressing their upward social mobility into the automotive industry quickly cars within its remit. Another important as mass-produced sculptural objects. and aspirations. Conscious of those spread into other areas of design. model of car design can easily be seen They can be compared with sewing changes Alfred P. Sloan at General Office equipment, cameras, furniture as part of an important modern design machines and typewriters Interestingly, Motors developed an approach towards and interior design soon succumbed phenomenon – namely, post-war Italian Italian cars of this era – the Ferraris, the car design that was more directly to the body contours of streamlining design. The cars that emerged from Maseratis, the Lamborghinis, created consumer-related and ‘style’ conscious. The same logic was in place: in order the Italian coachbuilders in the years by Bertone, Michelotti, Spada or Frua, As well as focusing on purchasers’ to beat competitors in an economically following World War Two played an among others– are still considered requirements from a visual perspective challenged era, products had to have important role within the general desire to have been ‘styled’ rather than he also developed a new manufacturing ‘added value’. As a result, objects to create a new aesthetic language that designed. There is a sense, however, approach that moved beyond Ford’s sold on their looks rather than their existed on Italian soil from 1945. The that, given its close alliance with philosophy of mass production and efficiency or even their price. They had documentation of that phenomenon contemporary sculpture this is art- product standardisation. Instead he to be ‘objects of desire’. In automotive has emphasised the importance of styling rather than commercial-styling developed the idea of flexible mass history the era of ‘styling’ had begun. furniture and office machinery and and therefore more acceptable. This production. In essence, this brought the names of designers and firms that is, perhaps, the acceptable face of with it product diversity and annual Over the next hundred or so years contributed to it have been widely car styling and the moment at which model changes. He also introduced the various different models of car styling/ celebrated. Castiglione, Zanuso, it nearly touches what was described idea of instalment purchasing which design emerged, each of which can Mollino, Magistretti, Bellini, Sottsass, in the period as ‘good design’. For meant that his customers didn’t have be seen to have parallels in the wider Cassina, Poltronova, Olivetti etc. are the most part cars have been seen to wait to buy the car of their dreams. design context. One of these models almost household names – the heroes either as feats of engineering, or as the What Sloan really did was to introduce brought Earl’s ideas about luxury and of a design movement that challenged results of styling, rather than design, the idea of fashion into the world of glamour together with craftsmanship. the hegemony of fine art. This is not which has been focused on the former automobiles. This meant that colour In 1930s Europe, what came to be to say that the coachbuilders of the decorative or applied arts – furniture, and style, rather than technological called Art Deco made an impact same era, and the iconic cars that were ceramics, glass, textiles, metalwork etc. inventiveness and engineering across the fine and decorative arts. It produced, have not been equally feted. As mentioned at the beginning of the sophistication, suddenly become the also influenced the upmarket design What has happened rather, I would lecture that is largely because of the key requirements of consumers. There of the automotive coachbuilders and suggest, is that they have been seen role played by principles developed companies such as Hispano Suiza, in isolation, celebrated by collectors at the Bauhaus, which considered

VI architecture to sit at the peak of the early idea that the automobile was of the day – General Motors, Chrysler to demonstrate that car design is not design hierarchy. There have been an engineered, functional machine and Ford. With the help of designers, just about styling but that it can reach some occasions when car design that simply appealed on the basis of or ‘stylists’ Harley Earl, Virgil Exner, E. deeper into solving problems. I want to has aligned itself either with modern efficiency and reliability. It was a means T. Gregorie and others, they added finish this talk by offering an example architecture or with the functionalist through which the industry could reach bigger and better body adornments – of what I would call ‘car design’ rather principles – form follows function - that consumers and persuade them to chrome, fins, radiator grilles, rear lights than ‘car styling’, a project, that is, have been linked with it. Architect, change their cars on a regular basis. – inspired by jet and rocket imagery that sought not to make the car more Walter Gropius, the director of the Car design was defined, at its most – and technical novelties. Interiors appealing to consumers but rather to Bauhaus, tried his hand at car design, basic, by a formula that combined featured beauty accessories, drinks address the fundamentals of the car for example, as did leading modern engineering with fashion, technology cabinets and cigarette lighters, in an itself. French architect, Le Corbusier. In many with art. Cars sat somewhere along the effort to domesticate the spaces. Earl ways these were not wholly successful engineering/fashion spectrum, aligning said that entering one of his cars was Since their invention, cars have experiments. Gropius’s Adler car was themselves with other aspects of the like ‘going on vacation’. It was a utopian maintained a special relationship with rather conservative and Corb’s designs shopping culture and targeting different vision. In many ways automobiles of this the world of men. Due to the origins of were not realised. When the principles levels of the market. In the 1940s and era were the ultimate symbol. While these highly fetishised objects within of Bauhaus design were abstracted 1950s, along with other aspects of refrigerators and food-mixers, among the male domain of technology and however – that is, good, standardised, popular culture of the time that were other domestic consumer goods, also engineering and the male-dominated simple modern design for everyone destined for consumption by a newly managed to capture the desire on the environment of mass manufacture, (the idea that Ford had pioneered but democratised market, automobiles part of new affluent buyers to express the horseless carriage has, over the failed to implement later on due to suddenly rushed to the fashion end their joy and in attaining the life-style years, provided an important means competition from General Motors) – of the spectrum. They could not, of they had long desired, automobiles through which significant aspects of they were more successful. The result course, ignore technology but they took that pleasure into the public modern masculine culture has been was the European ‘people’s car, among concealed it very effectively under their sphere for all to see. The negative formed and communicated. And, as them the VW Beetle, the Citroen 2cv baroque body-shells. result of the dream car phenomenon, Judy Wajcsman, has explained, this and, a little later, the Austin ‘mini’ - the however, was that the ideas of styling, relationship is now deeply embedded only cars that have penetrated the It was at this moment that ‘styling’ superficiality, excessive commercialism within our culture. ‘Countless good design filter. In the post-war became a dirty word, associated as and waste had become inextricably novels, films, popular songs and years these cars can be seen as existing it was by its critics with conspicuous linked. It took a long time for the car advertisements’ she has written, alongside the German, highly minimal, consumption and waste. Books by design profession to recover from it, if ‘romanticise flight in a car and link neo-modernist product designs of the American author Vance Packard, it fully has. cruising the road with liberation. For Dieter Rams and the revived Bauhaus including ‘the Waste-Makers’ made men, cars afford a means of escape designs of that era. The achievement this clear. Not only were these cars From the 1960s onwards car design from domestic responsibilities, from of ‘classic design’ status by cars such wasteful, their critics maintained, they arguably lost a great deal of its cultural family commitment, into a realm of as the e-type Jaguar and the Porsche were also excessively decorative, significance and the car became less a private fantasy, autonomy and control’. 911 is based on the application of covered as they were with visual symbol of exuberance, optimism and Nonetheless, cars have had an equally similar criteria. At the completely details. The automotive industry popular modernity and more one of strong association with the concepts of opposite end of the spectrum, however, was unapologetic and continued anxiety. It is a zeitgeist in which we are ‘high style’ and luxury, arguably earning was the 1950s American dream car to produce the dream car into the still embedded, however much we seek them a strong presence within what had phenomenon which had its roots less 1960s. Supporters of the energy and alternative energy sources and new been described as the highly irrational, in architecture than in the world of imagination of popular culture have ways to use cars. We cannot blame the female-dominated world of mass fantasy, popular taste and conspicuous described the phenomenon differently, car alone for this volte-face as in many consumption. Yet this ‘feminine’ face consumption. The design parallel seeing the 1950s dream cars as a ways there has been a cultural turn of automotive culture has been largely here was the 1950s dream home, the moment at which car symbolism was at that has embraced everything. The car ignored. Rather, the ‘boy racer’ image site of feminine aspiration and desire. its most sophisticated and imagination became, once again, a potent symbol of the car, extensively represented in The concept of styling established by at its most unfettered. The dream car of a more general trend. the multitude of automotive-related Earl and others in the inter-war years phenomenon was in part the result of magazines on sale in the marketplace, was, in essence, a reaction to Ford’s the intense competition that existed The 1990 and early 2000s have, and endorsed by the attentive weekend between the three giant manufacturers however, seen some impressive efforts ritual of cleaning and polishing, has VII dominated our understanding of this The presence of the chauffeur rendered responsibility for buying cars was firmly began to be acknowledged and small, idolised modern artefact. a technological relationship with the linked to the latter. Sloan was among utilitarian cars, such as the Austin Mini automobile largely unnecessary leaving the first to understand the feminine emerged, boasting a new, uni-sex Volvo’s YCC (‘Your Concept Car’) was women to relate to the horseless meaning of cars. character. launched in Geneva in March 2004. carriage primarily in terms of its For the very first time an all-woman- relationship with luxury, lifestyle and However strongly they were directed The Mini’s ease of use, its diminutive designed car offered an opportunity leisure. Numerous efforts were made at the discerning eyes of women, cars size and its neutral styling made it to reconsider the gendered bias of the at this time to perfect the development were still universally designed by men. one of the first small cars to appeal automobile. The nine-woman team, of the electric car aimed at making Harley Earl, nonetheless recognised the to women. Through the last decades composed of Anna Rosen (exterior driving easy, clean and safe and, above fact that women played an important of the twentieth century many other designer), Cynthia Charwick (interior all, appealing to women. Charles role in automobile consumption when, manufacturers aimed cars at the female designer) and Maria Uggla (colour Kettering’s invention of the automatic in the 1950s, he employed a group market, often, like Fiat’s pink ‘Panda’ and trim designer), Maria Widell self-starter, for instance, widely referred of women, dubbed the ‘Damsels of of the early 1990s, self-consciously Christiansen (project manager, design), to as the ‘ladies’ aid’, provided an Design’, in his GM styling studio. incorporating aesthetic features which Camilla Palmertz (project manager), indication of the encouragement given He failed to achieve a women-designed men believed would appeal to women. Eva-Lisa Andersson (project manager), to female drivers in the early days of car exterior, as he limited his efforts Yet, there were still no female car Elna Holmberg (technical project motoring. to making the car interior more designers. manager), Lena Ekelund (deputy attractive to women by letting them technical project manager) and Tatiana That encouragement came to an design it themselves. Although, in In 2002 a group of Volvo women Butovitsch Temm (communications abrupt end, however, with the decision comparison with Volvo’s recent dramatic decided to take control of the design manager), which made this project to use petrol and to democratise the achievement, this was a limited of the car as a totality and to redefine it happen, set out to re-think not only automobile through mass production. project it anticipated the Swedish in terms of what their market research the gendered meanings of cars but, The technological ethos of the factory achievement in a number of ways. told them customers wanted and, indeed, through that process, their very and the drive towards standardisation The damsels limited their attentions in particular, to meet the needs of a essence. What are cars, what and who pushed the car firmly into a male- to colour, creating matching luggage, growing and important customer group are they for and how do they, or should dominated world. By the early and adding feminine accessories, such – women. From the outset, the YCC was they, fit into all our lives? Addressing twentieth century that identification was as a cosmetic case into an armrest not seen as a car as a gender-specific these fundamental questions these nine decidedly in place. After 1913 and the compartment and tissue dispensers car but rather one which addressed women challenged the ways in which perfection of Ford’s mass production in leather-lined glove compartments. new questions, desires and needs we all think about cars now and into the system, cars and men became Interestingly, however, they also emanating from women’s experience of future. symbolically intertwined. The link attempted to address what was already driving and, as a consequence, offered between them has operated on many seen, stereotypically, as women’s built- customers numerous enhanced features In spite of the overwhelming historical levels and, since their beginnings, cars in technophobia and limitations behind which could be fed into production association between men and cars, have been almost exclusively designed the wheel by suggesting that there was cars. The team presented their ideas women have also had a long, albeit by men. a need for automatically guided cars to Hans-Olov Olsson, the CEO of Volvo largely unacknowledged, role within although no progress was made on that in 2002, and six months later they automobile culture. In the early days From the interwar years onwards, front. were given permission to proceed and of motoring, for example, when cars women have been seen to play a key around $3.3 million with which to create were all hand-made, few in number and decision-making role in the purchase Although they didn’t address the whole their all woman-designed concept car. essentially an expression of wealth and of cars focusing, for the most part, on question of the woman-designed car, Some fourteen months later the YCC leisure, aristocratic women interacted their aesthetic characteristics, especially GM’s ‘damsels of design’ were ahead was revealed to the public. strongly with their cars, relying on them colour and style. The cultural polarity of their time. No subsequent initiatives for a trip to the countryside or a visit to created by what social historians have were taken through the rest of the Not only was the YCC project managed the local department store to acquire described as the ‘separate spheres’ of twentieth century to involve women and designed by women, importantly the latest fashions. the sexes resulted in men being linked in the design of cars, except as the it also involved women at every with production and the workplace and selectors of interior fabrics. As women stage of its inception and realisation. women with consumption, the home drivers began to grow in number, Indeed, the idea itself was a bottom- and the creation of social status. The the need to produce a woman’s car up one generated by women at Volvo

VIII Cars. Of the 120 Volvo employees car. The sporty chameleon body-shell responsible for the interior design of new owner’s body size details would involved in its creation some 50% with alloy wheels created by Anna the YCC, devoted a great deal of effort be scanned so that, on entering the were women. Moreover, nearly 400 Rosen, a graduate of the Art Center in to resolving the female driver’s storage car, the seat position, the pedals, the female Volvo employees provided Pasadena who joined Volvo in 2002, needs. By moving the gearshift and steering wheel, the head restraint and their input to the project. The process contains all the passion and muscular the parking brake, storage space was the safety belt outlet would adjust which underpinned the design was features that one might have expected made available between the front seats. themselves automatically. Ergovision said to have been fairly lengthy in the from her male contemporaries. At the A cool-box and a waste-paper basket had its roots in the fact that most cars early stages as the women involved same time function was crucial and the were also positioned within the driver’s are made for the 95 percentile man. apparently talked and debated issues importance of visibility for the driver reach. Other practical responses to The YCC accommodates him as well rather more than men would have done was a key consideration. Rosen has women’s needs included a headrest as the 5 percentile woman, thereby in a similar situation with the advantage explained that she gave herself the which could accommodate a pony-tail. reinforcing the fact that men were not that there were fewer panic stops in the challenge of designing an automobile being excluded but, rather, that women later stages. The aim of the project was exterior which prioritised neither The link between the domestic interior were being included. Such was the to create a car which, as well as being practicality nor beauty but rather – historically understood as women’s attention to detail in the design of the appealing to men, was attractive to embraced them equally. She didn’t sphere - and the inside of the YCC YCC, and the novelty of the solutions, an independent, professional female want to hide functionality but rather to was imaginatively addressed by Maria that the result was a wholly radical car, driver, possibly single, but without a vaunt it choosing, for example, not to Uggla, a Volvo employee from 2001, not just because it is designed with specified age, named ‘Eve’. To this conceal the bumpers by painting them responsible for Colour and Trim. Along women in mind but because completely end the team focused on a number the same colour as the rest of the car. with the emphasis upon practicality, the new automobile ideas emerged in of themes that had feminine starting conceptualisation of the interior was the process. Not only was this the points. These included an emphasis The results of the Volvo’s team research among the YCC’s most radical features. first time in history that a new car had upon the aesthetic language of showed that while women did not Soft materials – brushed aluminium and been designed and developed by the car, both inside and outside; its want a bland-looking car they valued pale laminated wood – were used for women but, in addition, a wide range possibility to manoeuvre even if the practical features equally highly. the surfaces and, instead of the cold, of new automobile concepts had been driver is shorter; its relationship with The concepts of storage, parking, functional fabrics conventionally used in proposed which had the potential to the domestic sphere and its focus on ergonomics and maintenance topped cars (which, as Uggla explained, nobody move into the arena of production practical, common-sense features. the list of requirements and the female would want to take into their living- cars and help to redefine the car in the Analysts of feminine culture have engineers and designers involved rose rooms) the materials used in the YCC process long focused on these themes in their to the challenges they were presented brought the feel of the car’s interior efforts to understand its defining with. The use of roller-ball valves for space close to that of home. ………………………………………...... characteristics. Still, the Volvo designers filling the car with petrol and with did not turn to a textbook to find them. water for the washer reservoir helped Like domestic textiles, as well, of the I have spent a lot of time on the YCC Rather they discovered these features to ensure that there was minimal eight different seat pads designed case-study, the reason being that through the market research that the involvement of the driver in the car’s for use in the car, one was in woven I think it is a good example of car company had already undertaken. maintenance, for example, Easy-clean leather, another was pale yellow with design, rather than car styling, although paint, compared to the surface of non- embroideries, which could, along with arguably it subsumes the latter and The aesthetic language chosen for stick frying pans, reduced the need for the matching carpet, be changed at shows it to be just one element within a the exterior of the YCC is especially the ritual of the weekly car wash. will. Being able to personalise one’s broader, more generic process. Indeed, interesting. Its exterior is not ‘pink, cute own space in the YCC was an important it shows how car design could provide a and cuddly’ as it might have been if Storage emerged as one of the requirement. model of design practice that attempts men had designed it with women in women’s key needs and this was not simply to reproduce, or even just mind but rather sleek and stylish with facilitated by the team in a number That every driver should be able to see challenge, cultural norms but rather to a high performance look. The women of ways. The use of gull wing doors and reach well was one of the most change them. It is, arguably, a post- involved in the design clearly did not made it easy to take bags in and out important requirements for the team. Bauhaus practice model that could be feel that they should be excluded from of the vehicle and the cinema-style They called the solution Ergovision, applied to a number of other contexts the pleasure that comes from being folding rear seats provided enough a combination of ergonomics and showing how car design could lead the behind the wheel of a racy-looking fast space for the luggage. Cindy Charwick, vision. When purchasing a YCC the way rather than follow meekly behind other design fields.

IX BIOGRAPHY AUTOMOTIVE HISTORIANS AUSTRALIA OFFICE BEARERS

Penny Sparke graduated from the University the present (1986), Japanese Design (1986), Patron: Ron Tauranac AO of Sussex in 1971, and since 1975 has Design in Context (1987) and Italian Design President: Harriet Edquist About taught the history of late nineteenth and (1988). In 1995 she published As Long As Vice President: Norm Darwin Following the highly successful Shifting Gear twentieth century design to undergraduate It’s Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste, and, in Secretary: Tony Lupton exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, and postgraduate students at Brighton 2005, a monograph entitled, Elsie de Wolfe Assistant Secretary: Helen Stitt Automotive Historians Australia was founded Polytechnic, the Royal College of Art, as well and the Birth of Modern Interior Decoration. Treasurer: Daryl Meek in Melbourne in 2015, to promote the as Kingston University. She has lectured, The Modern Interior followed in 2008. Committee Members: Mark Richardson + understanding and enjoyment of automotive curated exhibitions, broadcast and published Importantly in the context of this conference, Simon Lockrey history through scholarly research, discussion widely in her areas of expertise both in the in 2002 Professor Sparke published her and events. As such, the Automotive Historians Australia vision is: UK and overseas. Professor Sparke is an ground-breaking study of automotive Contact Honorary Senior Fellow of the Royal College design, A Century of Car Design, still one Automotive Historians Australia To promote research, education, of Art. Among Professor Sparke’s many of the few serious studies of this area of PO Box 319 archival collection and dissemination publications are the important books: An design history. Balaclava of knowledge about the history of the Introduction to Design and Culture, 1900 to VIC, Australia 3183 Australian automotive industry, and to involve members, industry and others in email: [email protected] this history through publications, events, web: www.autohistoriansaustralia.org meetings and conferences. Therefore, Automotive Historians Australia aims to: • Create communication and facilitate discussion, criticism and debate between people active in automotive history and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS archiving in Australia • Promote research in the subject of automotive history The convenors of ‘Automotive Histories: for recording the event; Rebecca Gilbert for • Hold a regular conference and other Driving Futures’ would like to thank the editing the filmed conference presentations; related events academics and others who gave their time the Lincoln Hotel for holding the conference • Produce a scholarly journal and expertise to refereeing the conference dinner; and Ricky Holt for catering the • Encourage student participation activities papers. conference. • Support the teaching of automotive history The convenors would like to thank and The convenors would like to thank and acknowledge the following sponsors: acknowledge Patrick Ryan of Ryan’s Bus RMIT University, Monash University, RACV, Lines for very kindly providing bus transport RMIT Design Archives, and National Motor for AHA conference attendees to visit Museum. Ivan and June Smith’s incredible transport collection in Kyneton. The convenors would like to thank and acknowledge enthusiasts that donated their The convenors would like to thank and automotive artefacts for display throughout acknowledge AHA members, without the conference, and to those who presented whom our AHA would not exist. on the final day. Finally, the convenors would like to thank The convenors would like to thank and and acknowledge the committee members acknowledge the support of staff of the RMIT of the AHA, the support from whom was the Design Archives, Kaye Ashton and Rickie- driving force behind making ‘Automotive Lee Robbie; RMIT IT and technical services Histories: Driving Futures’ happen.

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