Bill Mitchell’s Last Gift — The Phantom

by David Burrell The stunning 1978 Phantom concept car was the last hurrah for General Motors (GM) design boss Bill Mitchell. He commission...

by David Burrell

The stunning 1978 Phantom concept car was the last hurrah for General Motors (GM) design boss Bill Mitchell.

He commissioned it primarily as a retirement gift for himself.

It was to be a fully operable road registered automobile.

But it never went beyond the mock up stage.

So, what happened to Mitchell’s grand dream?

In early 1976 Mitchell started planning for his mandatory retirement (aged 65, in July 1977).

He’d been at GM for 42 years.

For 20 of those years, he had been the design supremo, only the second person to have held that role.

The styling themes which Mitchell had championed ensured GM retained its market leadership through the 1960s and into the 1970s.

Iconic cars, large and small, emerged from the company’s design studios across the world.

But, with Mitchell’s brilliance came a well-documented behavioural downside.

He held strident opinions, including views about many GM executives, including his boss, Howard Kehrl, which he would share in public.

Journalist Peter Robinson captured the man in an astute summation in the January, 2007 edition of Motor Trend:

“Bill Mitchell was profane, a bigot, often drank to excess, a womaniser and either loved or hated by his designers.

"But William L. Mitchell . . . was one of the great car designers, a dictatorial but inspiring leader, a genuinely funny man with a repertoire of tension-defusing one-liners, and, most important, an often visionary design sense.”

With the Phantom, Mitchell wanted a spectacular car that celebrated his achievements which he could then drive away from GM in triumph and into retirement.

What Michell had in mind was a car which combined the “classic” shapes of the late 1920s and early 1930s — such as Delahaye, Cord, Duesenberg, Bugatti, Hispano-Suiza — with “Mitchell era” design themes.

In other words, modern “retro”.

These classic shapes had long been cherished by Mitchell.

Bill Mitchell and Phantom

 

Commented David Holls and Michael Lamm in their book, A Century of Automotive Style:

“The Phantom represented that nostalgia Mitchell felt for the classics during those waning days of his vice presidency.”

A fibreglass body was created.

The car’s lines were curved and voluptuous.

The surfaces were smooth and sheer, with razor sharp fender tops.

The bonnet was flamboyantly long and the boot short.

Chrome was added only to emphasise a styling line.

The scalloped wheel wells were painted red.

A mock up interior was installed.

At this point there was no engine, drive train or working suspension.

Mitchell did not have the authority to approve the conversion into an operational vehicle.

The only group who had the authority to approve such a complicated and expensive decision was the GM Board, of which Howard Kehrl was a member.

Not surprisingly, Kerhl declined to authorise the car and that was that.

Mitchell retired soon after, without the Phantom.

Howard Kerhl became the vice-chairman of GM.

The Phantom went into storage awaiting an order for destruction.

But a group of GM designers rescued it and a deal was struck to house it at the Sloan Museum in Flint, Michigan.

And you can see it there today.

"This is the kind of car I'd like to drive," Mitchell said of it.

David Burrell is the editor of retroautos

 

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