DREAM RIDES: American DREAM CARS of the 1950s Pebble Beach Concours with DISNEY Imagineer Bob Gurr

By the 1950s, auto manufacturing was back in full swing worldwide, and many expressive cars were offered by automakers. But a few individuals wanted something different and personal, and they had the imagination and skill to do something about it.

The result was a few unique automobiles that owed little of their engineering and styling to convention. This class of cars at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance 2023 celebrated one-off and very limited production cars conceived and built by some remarkable individuals whose stories are often as interesting as their cars.

In conjunction with the class that was co-curated by Undiscovered Classics, an amazing forum discussion all about the cars and people involved was organized the day before the big show.

Dream cars are what inspire people to design, purchase, drive and create – but not all were built by Detroit. This forum explores the history, inspiration, valuation, validation and display of dream cars that headlined the industry and were built by individuals and small independent firms.

The forum was hosted by Ken Gross, the former executive director of the Petersen Automotive Museum. The panel included Leslie Kendall from the Petersen Museum, our own Geoff Hacker, Merrill Powell from Victress, Mark Hyman from Hyman LTD and the legendary Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr.

While many people remember Bob for his work with Walt Disney as the park was initially being developed, he had a prolific career in car design before going Disney. Bob worked with the legendary Dan Post and penned many of his own unique designs for a complete custom car styling book, which can still be found today for the avid collector.

Bob Gurr attended the very first Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 1950. At the time, he and fellow ArtCenter College of Design pupils couldn’t afford a hotel and slept in their car before attending the Concours the next morning. Seventy-three years and a dream-come-true career with Disney later, Bob reflects on what it means to be back at the Pebble Beach Concours to speak about Dream Cars of the 1950s.

Bob Gurr’s career began at ArtCenter, where he met a professor who would become a lifelong friend, Strother MacMinn, whom he affectionately refers to as “Mac.” Bob initially disliked MacMinn’s strict teaching style: “He was making us write script lettering with an airbrush—which is very difficult—and one day I asked him, ‘Do you even like cars?’” The two laughed and a friendship began.

Strother MacMinn’s legendary Le Mans coupe will be on display at the 2023 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance as a part of the featured class “American Dream Cars of the 1950s,” which celebrates the skill and innovation of individual auto lovers who designed and built their own unique vehicles.

Additional Dream Cars in that class range from the 1948 Kurtis-Omohundro Comet and the 1951 Manta Ray to a 1959 Scimitar Convertible Coupe, and also include creations by Sterling Edwards, Phillip Egan, Ray Fageol, H. Sterling “Smoke” Gladwin, Bob Sorrell, and Norman Timbs.

“Mac was all excited about the Le Mans coupe design,” Gurr says. “He showed me the drawings he was making to build the car, and he did a lot of the lofting for it. Mac asked me several times to go up to the shop with him to see the progress on the car body buck that they were building.” When Strother MacMinn, who was the first Chief Honorary Judge at the Pebble Beach Concours, passed away in 1998, Bob received Mac’s Le Mans archives, including Mac’s original drawings and a scale model of the car.

After graduating from ArtCenter, Bob moved to Michigan in pursuit of his own “Detroit dream” of designing cars for General Motors, then was scouted by Ford Styling. Disheartened by designing hubcaps, Bob was back in Los Angeles after just one year and one day. Upon his return, Bob accepted a request from Walt Disney to meet, not knowing his career would completely shift gears.

Bob was first assigned by Walt to design the Autopia series of cars. As Bob was given project after project—designing the monorail, a submarine, the antique cars on Main Street, and the Matterhorn ride—he incorporated Strother’s careful teachings in his designs. “If you look at the Autopia Mark I, the first car that I did for Autopia, it used those surface development techniques and that’s what made the car look so good.”

With “100% creative freedom” at Disney, Bob’s imagination could accelerate.
_____________

There’s More to Discover with Undiscovered Classics:
https://www.undiscoveredclassics.com

Follow/Connect:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/undiscoveredclassics/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UndiscoveredClassicsUSA
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@undiscoveredclassics

_____________

LIKE. SHARE. SUBSCRIBE.

Give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed watching 👍

#cars #restoration #carlovers

Thanks for watching the video DREAM RIDES: American DREAM CARS of the 1950s Pebble Beach Concours with DISNEY Imagineer Bob Gurr

source