Sledgehammer
11-26-2007, 10:04 PM
(from GM Press Release & SW)
The 1938 Buick Y-Job is generally considered the industry's first concept car. Created by General Motors Styling and Buick Engineering, it was designed by Harley J. Earl, GM's first design chief, and built on a production Buick chassis modified by Charlie Chayne, then Buick's chief engineer. Power was supplied by a Buick 320 cubic inch straight 8.
Buick called it "Y" because so many makers dubbed experimental cars "X." Styling and mechanical features of the "Y Job" showed up on GM products, particularly Buick and Cadillac, throughout the '40s. Particularly noteworthy is the introduction of a wide horizontal grille with thin vertical bars, which remains a Buick styling feature to this day.
The car served as Harley's Earl personal transportation for many years, until he replaced it with the 1951 General Motors LeSabre dream car.
LeonOfTheDead
08-15-2008, 06:32 PM
what is a Y-job?
this car
X and Y are usually detected as prefix for experimental models as stated above and even in aeronautics, see fighters XF-22 or YF-23 among others.