Harm Lagaay (born Harm Lagaaij, 28 December 1946,

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

) is a Dutch automobile designer. Educated in the Netherlands he completed the studies at the IVA and went to work for a Dutch company Olyslager in Soest. In the late 1960s, Lagaay went to work for

Simca Simca (; Mechanical and Automotive Body Manufacturing Company) was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat S.p.A. and directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by Italian Henri Pigozzi. Simca was affiliated with Fiat and, after Simca bough ...

, then from 1971 for

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

. He worked in the team designing the

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in german: Neunelfer) is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and origin ...

and designed the

Porsche 924 The Porsche 924 is a sports car produced by Porsche in Neckarsulm, Germany,from 1976 until 1988. A two-door, 2+2 (car body style), 2+2 coupé, the 924 replaced the Porsche 912, 912E and Porsche 914, 914 as the company's entry-level model. Altho ...

. From 1977, Lagaay worked as Chief of Design for

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, and moved to BMW in 1985. Lagaay designed the

BMW Z1 The BMW Z1 is the first model in BMW's line of Z series roadsters (two-seater convertibles), and was produced in limited numbers from 1989 to 1991. The Z1 is unique for its plastic body panels and vertically sliding doors which drop into the ...

sports car, with electric doors hiding under the car's chassis and easily exchangeable body panels. This car was too advanced for its times and did not have commercial success, as only 8000 were sold. Today, the

is a collector's item. He returned to Porsche in 1989 as head of the "Style Porsche" department in Weissach.http://newsroom.porsche.com/en/products/one-icon-four-designers-10714.html''One icon, four designers'' As well as the Porsches of the period – the

Porsche 968 The Porsche 968 is a sports car manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Porsche AG from 1991 until 1995. It was the final evolution of a series of water-cooled front-engine rear wheel drive models begun almost 20 years earlier with the 9 ...

Porsche 993 The Porsche 993 is the internal designation for the Porsche 911 model manufactured and sold between January 1994 and early 1998 (model years 1995–1998 in the United States), replacing the 964. Its discontinuation marked the end of air-co ...

(also the

989 Year 989 (Roman numerals, CMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Emperor Basil II uses his contingent of 6,000 Varangians to he ...

, the stillborn four door Porsche) (the 1993-1997 generation of the 911 for which Englishman

Tony Hatter Tony Hatter is a British automobile designer originally from Yorkshire, United Kingdom. He studied Transport Design with first design job at Opel, before moving to Porsche's style department in 1986. Hatter worked along with his up-and-coming pee ...

is also credited),

Boxster The Porsche Boxster and Cayman are mid-engine two-seater sports cars manufactured and marketed by German automobile manufacturer Porsche across four generations—as a two-door, two-seater roadster (Boxster) and a three-door, two-seater fastba ...

Cayenne Cayenne (; ; gcr, Kayenn) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Oc ...

996 Year 996 ( CMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * February - Chotoku Incident: Fujiwara no Korechika and Takaie shoot an arrow at Retired Em ...

(the all-new 911 of 1997),

Carrera GT The Porsche Carrera GT (Project Code 980) is a mid-engine sports car that was manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 2004 to 2006. ''Sports Car International'' named the Carrera GT number one on its list of Top Sports Cars ...

– he also oversaw the company's work for external clients. He retired from Porsche in July 2004(September 2004)
Harm Lagaay - The Face Of Design
, ''European Car'' and has been followed by

Michael Mauer Michael Mauer (born 1962) is a German automobile designer. He is the Chief Designer at Porsche. He has previously worked for Mercedes-Benz and Saab. Career Mauer studied design from 1982 to 1986 at the Hochschule Pforzheim. His first job after ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

.Patton, Phil (7 June 2004)
Design; A Face, but Not the Look, to Change at Porsche
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

References

External links

OnlyPorsche.net: Porsche names new Design Chief; veteran Harm Lagaay to retire

An overview of automotive designers working for BMW. 1946 births Living people Dutch automobile designers Delft University of Technology alumni Engineers from The Hague {{automobile-bio-stub

See also

References

External links