Austin Allegro in Rotterdam evening light

Harris Mann (born April 1938) is a British car designer. He took over from

Roy Haynes Roy Owen Haynes (born March 13, 1925) is an American jazz drummer. He is among the most recorded drummers in jazz. In a career lasting over 80 years, he has played swing, bebop, jazz fusion, avant-garde jazz and is considered a pioneer of jaz ...

as chief stylist at

British Leyland British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...

in 1970.

Biography

Mann was born in London in 1938, and attended engineering school in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

. His automotive design career started with the bus and coach building firm Duple, followed by a short time working in the U.S. with Loewy Consultancy. After a brief spell of

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

back in the UK, Mann worked for

Commer Commer was a British manufacturer of commercial and military vehicles from 1905 until 1979. Commer vehicles included car-derived vans, light vans, medium to heavy commercial trucks, and buses. The company also designed and built some of its own ...

, and then 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 ...

. Cars on which Mann was involved at Ford included the first Escort and the Capri. His boss at Ford,

, persuaded Mann to go with him when, in 1967, he moved to BMC to lead the design studio at Cowley. Mann worked alongside Haynes on the BMC Marina project and, when the design department they were working in was relocated to Longbridge, Haynes left the company, leaving Mann to lead the design team for, what was by then,

(BL). Mann took over the Allegro project, and then worked on the ''Diablo'' project, which became the

Princess Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subs ...

. That was followed by the work for which he is most famous, the

Triumph TR7 The Triumph TR7 is a sports car manufactured in the United Kingdom from September 1974 to October 1981 by British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), which changed its name to British Leyland (BL) in 1975. The car was launched in the United Stat ...

. His final project with BL was the

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urb ...

, after which he left and went freelance. In that capacity he worked for

MG Rover MG Rover Group was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Cons ...

on the MG "Z" series (the ZR, ZS, and the ZT). He was also a design consultant for BMW in the mid 1980s, for which he was required to submit plans for a new corporate style and, in particular, to work on bonnet and boot shut lines and lights. According to Mann, "BMW shut lines were all over the place at that time". He proposed several designs to the BMW board, including the double headlight design, very reminiscent of the

, which is still seen on BMW cars today. Later, Mann was involved in independent design consultancy in the automotive sector, and lectured in design at

Coventry University , mottoeng = By Art and Industry , established = , type = Public , endowment = £28 million (2015) , budget = £787.5 million , chancellor = Margaret Casely-Hayford , vice_chancellor = John Latham , students = () , undergr ...

References

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Notes

1938 births Living people British automobile designers {{UK-engineer-stub