The 1938 Buick Y-Job concept. Photos courtesy GM Media.
The modern process of introducing an entirely new automobile entails the construction of a concept car, which is then displayed at a series of car shows to solicit the public’s feedback. In some cases, the display is a fait accompli, as the car’s development has been completed and production is set to begin, regardless of public opinion. In other cases, a manufacturer pushes the envelope, displaying a radical design that will never see production, just to give consumers an idea of what the future may hold. The first such model built came from GM’s Art and Colour Section, ruled by Harley Earl, and while the 1938 Buick Y-Job never saw production, it would influence Detroit style for decades to come.
Prior to the Great Depression, automakers needed few tricks to entice potential buyers into showrooms. Each new model year brought with it a great deal of excitement, as manufacturers sought to offer more power and more amenities to a public eager for motorized transportation. The Wall Street crash of 1929 changed all that, and suddenly few consumers had the kind of disposable income necessary to purchase a new automobile. As the economy slowly improved, the malaise in new car sales lingered, and automakers soon began to realize that desperate times called for desperate measures.
For GM, these measures were dictated by Harley Earl, who envisioned creating a “dream car” that could be used to highlight features that would soon start appearing in showrooms. That the car itself would never be built in production form was irrelevant, and Earl believed that the right design could help reignite the public’s passion for the automobile. For Earl, the right design involved making the car as long and low as possible, as a guiding principle to his designs was that “oblongs are more attractive than squares.”
The Y-Job was used by Harley Earl throughout the 1940s.
Though Earl often gets design credit for the Y-Job concept, it’s more realistic to call him the car’s visionary than its designer. The latter distinction goes to George Snyder, who had the unenviable task of translating Earl’s ideas into design sketches that could then be passed along to engineering. To facilitate the process, the Y-Job would ride on a stretched Buick Century chassis, and working out the car’s mechanical details fell to Buick’s chief engineer, Charlie Chayne.
As for a body, the Y-Job would be a convertible, with a power-retractable soft top that stored beneath a metal deck panel when the top was open. Such a design was an industry first, as were the car’s power windows; furthermore, its absence of running boards, revolutionary at the time, would soon become a design staple for all automakers. The Y-Job used hidden headlamps as well, but this feature had been pioneered by Cord in 1937, and it’s possible that Earl derived his inspiration from the rival automaker. Other design features included a broad grille with vertical slats (which, in modified form, still graces the front of Buick automobiles), a “bomb sight” hood ornament that would see use on production Buicks, flush taillamps, a pop-out decklid handle, front fenders that flowed into the doors, horizontal chrome accents on front and rear fenders, and 13-inch wheels (instead of the then-standard 16-inch wheels) intended to make the car look even longer and lower than it was. With an overall length exceeding 17 feet and a height of just 58 inches, it’s hard to imagine the Y-Job needing any visual chicanery to accomplish this goal.
Power came from a 320.2-cu.in. inline eight-cylinder engine, rated at 141 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque. This was the same engine used in Buick’s 1938 Series 60, 80 and 90 models; despite the Y-Job’s role as a dream car, nothing was done to enhance the concept’s performance. Unlike modern non-functional concept cars, which are often destined for a date with the crusher when their glory days are through, the Y-Job was a fully functional automobile, reportedly driven by Harley Earl up until the early 1950s.
The Y-Job name itself reportedly has dual meanings. Experimental products in both the automotive and aerospace industries were generally identified by the letter X and an numerical designator, indicating the current version of the test subject. If X was good, the GM designers rationalized, then Y, one letter above X, would be even better. Furthermore, the 1924 U.S. Army Air Service aircraft designation system used Y as a prefix code for an aircraft undergoing service testing prior to initial deliveries, and in many regards the Y-Job’s role was to test the styling and content direction that GM was heading in.
The onset of World War II ended most auto shows after 1940, although GM did bring the Y-Job out for the return of the Chicago Auto Show in 1950. By then the car was no longer seen as futuristic, though few would deny that the Buick concept was influential. Its mission served, the Y-Job was stored in a GM warehouse, then donated to the Sloan Museum in Flint, Michigan. When interest in Detroit’s concept car history began to rise, the Y-Job was restored and displayed alongside other influential prototype models at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. In 1993, the car’s long journey came full circle, and the Y-Job received a permanent place of honor in the GM Design Center in Warren, Michigan.
For a car that never graced the inside of a dealer’s showroom, the Y-Job’s lasting legacy is particularly remarkable, but then again, so were the men who created it. Will a modern design concept one day deliver the same kind of influence that the Y-Job did? It’s possible, just not likely.