Robert Cumberford
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Robert Wayne Cumberford (born August 4, 1935) is a former automotive designer for
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
, author and design critic – widely known as Automotive Design Editor and outspoken columnist for ''Automobile'' magazine. Examples of Cumberford's critiques: :*The Dream cars of the 50s: "''myths'' created to make people dream about the future." :*The $2,500
Tata Nano The Tata Nano is a compact city car that was manufactured and marketed by Indian automaker Tata Motors over a single generation, primarily in India, as an inexpensive rear-engined hatchback intended to appeal to current riders of motorcycles a ...
: "perhaps the most significant car since the Ford Model T was introduced 100 years ago." :*The
Jeep Cherokee The Jeep Cherokee is a line of SUVs manufactured and marketed by Jeep over five generations. Originally marketed as a variant of the Jeep Wagoneer, the Cherokee has evolved from a full-size SUV to one of the first compact SUVs and into its curr ...
: "One of the 20 greatest cars of all time." :*the
NSU Ro80 The NSU Ro 80 is a four-door, front-engine executive sedan manufactured and marketed by the West German firm NSU from 1967 until 1977. Noted for innovative, aerodynamic styling by Claus Luthe and a technologically advanced powertrain, the Ro ...
: “A handsome, modern-looking car with much cleaner lines than anything of the time.” :*The
Jaguar E-Type The Jaguar E-Type, or the Jaguar XK-E for the North American market, is a British sports car that was manufactured by Jaguar Cars Ltd between 1961 and 1974. Its combination of beauty, high performance, and competitive pricing established the m ...
"Elegant, extremely phallic and a great middle-aged man's compensation," and "the ultimate automotive expression of phalliform perfection." :*The
Ford Five Hundred The Ford Five Hundred is a full-size automobile that was manufactured and marketed by Ford from 2004 to 2007, and debuted as a 2005 model year vehicle. Deriving its nameplate from the ''500" suffix used by Ford on the Custom 500, Fairlane 500 an ...
:"It's a pretty good trick to make a brand-new car look old, bland and boring right out of the box. No doubt it's a good car, but one fundamentally uninteresting visually." :*The 2016 Acura NSX: It's "very hard to mess up the styling of a mid-engine sports car... but Acura has managed it." :*The
Tesla Model S The Tesla Model S is a Battery electric vehicle, battery-powered liftback car serving as the flagship model of Tesla, Inc. The Model S features a dual-motor, all-wheel drive layout, although earlier versions of the Model S featured a rear-moto ...
: "I would happily own one." :*The
Tesla Model 3 The Tesla Model 3 is a compact executive sedan that is battery powered and produced by Tesla. Limited production of the Model 3 began in mid-2017, with the first production vehicle rolling off the assembly line on July 7, 2017. The officia ...
: "It is an excellent design." On the automotive industry, Cumberford wrote in 1998 that "a lot of automotive enthusiasm is based on what is undoubtedly immature excitement over excess." In 2014 he wrote that there is "no foreseeable future for the Italian coachbuilding firms," referring to the storied design houses of
Bertone Bertone is an Italian surname meaning "descendant of Roberto". Notable people with the surname include: * Alicia Bertone, American academic, researcher, and veterinary surgeon * Catherine Bertone (born 1972), Turkish-born female Italian marathon r ...
,
Zagato Zagato is an independent coachbuilding company and total design centre located northwest of Milan in Terrazzano, a small village near Rho, Lombardy, Italy. The company's premises occupies an area of 23,000 square metres (250,000 sq ft)- 11,000 of ...
,
Ghia Carrozzeria Ghia SpA (established 1916 in Turin) is an Italian automobile design and coachbuilding firm, established by Giacinto Ghia and Gariglio as "Carrozzeria Ghia & Gariglio". The headquarters are located at Corso Guglielmo Marconi, 4, Turin ...
,
Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (short for Carrozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 December 2015, the Indian mu ...
and
Giugiaro Giorgetto Giugiaro (; born 7 August 1938) is an Italian automotive designer. He has worked on supercars and popular everyday vehicles. He was born in Garessio, Cuneo, Piedmont. Giugiaro was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted ...
. On prominent automotive figures, Cumberford described
Alec Issigonis Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis (18 November 1906 – 2 October 1988) was a British-Greek automotive designer. He designed the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, and voted the second Car of the Century, most i ...
, who received a knighthood "in recognition of his engineering genius," as "not terribly innovative in a mechanical sense." He wrote in 2004 that intensely controversial car designer
Chris Bangle Christopher Edward Bangle (born October 14, 1956) is an American automobile designer. Bangle is known best for his work as Chief of Design for BMW Group, where he was responsible for the BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce motor cars. Early life Bangl ...
is "a man with the courage of his convictions and of solid character, and he is worthy of our admiration for that alone." Noted automotive cartoonist Stan Mott described Cumberford as "an intellectual automotive enthusiast." ''Automobile'' editor Jean Lindamood Jennings said Cumberford "is highly opinionated, as every working car designer in the world today knows, sometimes painfully," adding that his design reviews have become "wildly popular." At the 2013 LA Auto Show, Jennings said Cumberford "tends toward a certain cantankerous crustyness just shy of curmudgeonly." Cumberford won the 2013 ''Best Article of the Year Award'' from the Motor Press Guild for his article, "GM's Road Not Taken" about the '' LaSalle II Roadster'', published in ''Automobile'' magazine in March 2013.


Background

Cumberford grew up in Southern California, the son of a Texas-born housewife and a Scotsman from Chile who worked for L.A.'s streetcar company, the
Los Angeles Railway The Los Angeles Railway (also known as Yellow Cars, LARy and later Los Angeles Transit Lines) was a system of streetcars that operated in Central Los Angeles and surrounding neighborhoods between 1895 and 1963. The system provided frequent loc ...
. He began sketching cars at age 15 and developed a strong interest in aircraft design as child, later saying that he preferred aircraft design to automobile design. He had wanted to study aeronautical engineering on scholarship at Caltech but attended instead the Art Center of Pasadena, then known as the Art Center School, working in a grocery store and cleaning the classroom floors to help pay tuition.


Career

Cumberford eventually dropped out of school, but inadvertently started a writing career when a rendering of a
pogo stick A pogo stick is a device for jumping off the ground in a standing position, through the aid of a spring, or new high performance technologies, often used as a toy, exercise equipment or extreme sports instrument. It led to an extreme sport named ...
he'd designed in the style of a
Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
was shown to John Bond, editor of
Road & Track ''Road & Track'' (stylized as ''R&T'') is an American automotive enthusiast magazine. It is owned by Hearst Magazines and is published 6 times per year. The editorial offices are located in New York, New York. History ''Road & Track'' (often ab ...
 – and Cumberford was invited to write a review to go with the rendering. He had already designed two automobiles, the Parkinson Jaguar Special and the Ken Miles Flying Shingle. In 1954 at age eighteen, his race report on the
12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second round ...
was published. At age 19, Cumberford sent 118 renderings personally to GM's Harley J. Earl, who hired him as a professional car designer. At GM, he worked on six models of the
Chevrolet Corvette The Chevrolet Corvette is a two-door, two-passenger luxury sports car manufactured and marketed by Chevrolet since 1953. With eight design generations, noted sequentially from C1 to C8, the Corvette is noted for its performance and distinctive ...
including the 1956-57 four-headlamp
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model as well as the 1955 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham and 1957 Buick Special. At GM Cumberford also worked the company's layout standards for instruments and controls. And at GM he purchased his first car, a
Volkswagen Beetle The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...
, moving soon to a
Porsche 356 The Porsche 356 is a sports car that was first produced by Austrian company Porsche Salzburg, Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH (1948–1949), and then by German company Porsche, Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH (1950–1965). It was Porsche's first ...
. Leaving GM, Cumberford studied philosophy for one year at UCLA, drove across Mexico and then the United States in a VW Microbus, subsequently moving to Mexico and working as a freelance design consultant to various industries. In 1959, he was design assistant to noted automotive and industrial designer Albrecht Goertz. In 1962 and 63, Cumberford was chief designer with the racing team
Holman Moody Holman-Moody is an American racecar manufacturer, marine engine manufacturer and former auto racing team. The company currently operates out of Charlotte, North Carolina, but is no longer a race team. Holman-Moody continues to manufacture racing ...
. In the early 1960s, Cumberford would also have a series of satirical renderings along with a fictional story published in
Motor Trend ''MotorTrend'' is an American automobile magazine. It first appeared in September 1949, and designated the first Car of the Year, also in 1949. Petersen Publishing Company in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles published ''MotorTrend'' until 19 ...
featuring his and childhood friend Stand Mott's work – forecasting possible designs for the much discussed forthcoming "small Chevrolet," what would become the Corvair. He has lived in France, Mexico, and Switzerland – and has designed automobiles (including the Saab 850 and Renault Arquitectonicaro) race cars, trucks, aircraft, boats, and hovercraft with his companies ''Cumberford Design International'' (with offices in New York, Mexico City and Northampton England) and ''Cumberford Creative'' – working in the suburbs of Paris from 1996 to 1999 on projects for
Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...
and
Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...
. In 1986 Cumberford began contributing to the then new ''Automobile'' magazine at the request of editor David E. Davis, joining the magazine in its sixth issue with his column ''By Design'', which was expanded to two full pages in 2006. He was the European Editor for ''Air Progress,'' magazine, continues to contribute to ''Automobile and Design'' magazine, and is a noted author – participating in a wide spectrum of forums, design competitions and events related to the automotive, aeronautical and design industries. Cumberford authored the 2006 book ''Auto Legends: Classics of Style And Design''; the 2001 book ''Chris Bangle: BMW Global Design'' and the 2008 book ''Cars'', the latter printed in Italian. He contributed to the 2013 book ''Automotive Jewelry, Volume One: Mascots, Badges.'' Cumberford was keynote speaker at "The Italian Avantgarde in Car Design" as part of the September 2002 exposition on Italian design in New York, and moderated the 2007 Classic Car Forum at the Pebble Beach Concours with
Moray Callum Moray S. Callum (born 19 November 1958) is a Scottish automobile designer who was Vice President, Design for Ford Motor Company, having retired on 1 May 2021. His elder brother Ian Callum was the Design Director of Jaguar from 1999 to 2019. Ea ...
, Andrea Zagato,
Shiro Nakamura is a former Japanese car designer and company executive. Nakamura served as Senior Vice President of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. From 2006, Nakamura had been Nissan's Chief Creative Officer. He was Chief Creative Officer of Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun ...
, Ed Welburn, and
Ian Callum Ian Stuart Callum (born 30 July 1954) is a Scottish car designer who has worked for Ford, TWR, and Aston Martin. In 1999 he became the Director of Design for Jaguar Cars, later Jaguar Land Rover, a position he held until mid 2019. In 2019, ...
. He contributed to the catalogue for the
North Carolina Museum of Art The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. It opened in 1956 as the first major museum collection in the country to be formed by state legislation and funding. Since the initial 1947 appropriation that e ...
2013 show "Porsche by Design: Seducing Speed." As a judge, Cumberford participated in the 1988 Automobile Quarterly Car Design Contest; the second annual (2003) World Automotive Design Competition and Design Forum hosted by the Canadian International AutoShow (CIAS); the Best Design School 2003; the 2005 Canadian International AutoShow; and the fourth annual (2005) World Automotive Design Competition.


Awards

In 2013 Cumberford won the 2013 ''Best Article of the Year Award'' from the Motor Press Guild for his article, "GM's Road Not Taken" about the LaSalle II Roadster, published in ''Automobile'' magazine in March 2013. His work in ''Automobile'' magazine has won numerous International Automotive Media Awards, including: 2000, (Gold) for his article on
Bob Gregorie Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places *Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname) ...
; 2005, article about the 1935
Stout Scarab The Stout Scarab is a streamlined 1930–1940s American car, designed by William Bushnell Stout and manufactured by Stout Engineering Laboratories and later by Stout Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan. The Stout Scarab is credited by s ...
; 2007 for his article "Best of Show"; 2010, for the ''By Design'' column (Silver); and 2013 (Gold), for the ''By Design'' column.


Cumberford Martinique

In 1982, with backing from a computer company, Cumberford designed a flamboyant front-engine, rear-drive two-seater of which two examples were crafted as development prototypes – with body of cast and sheet aluminum; African Mahogany fenders; a 3.2-liter, in-line, BMW-sourced, six-cylinder engine; as well as steering and suspension components from a Citroën CX. Two prototypes were constructed in Stamford, Connecticut, with one displayed in a San Diego museum for a period and another kept in Cumberford's garage in France. With the two-seater appearing on the cover of
Car and Driver ''Car and Driver'' (''CD'' or ''C/D'') is an American automotive enthusiast magazine. In 2006 its total circulation was 1.23 million. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased prior owner Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in 2011. It was fou ...
magazine in April 1982, the intention had been to market as many as 300 of the cars (as the – to ''Cumberford Martinque'') but only the prototypes were manufactured – with an overall investment of approximately $3.5 million. Funding dried up after
John DeLorean John Zachary DeLorean (January 6, 1925 – March 19, 2005) was an American engineer, inventor, and executive in the U.S. automobile industry, widely known for his work at General Motors and as founder of the DeLorean Motor Company. DeLorean mana ...
was indicted in a completely unrelated automotive scandal. Cumberford later drove one of the Martiniques from Austin,
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
to
Pebble Beach Pebble Beach is an unincorporated community on the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey County, California. The small coastal residential community of mostly single-family homes is also notable as a resort destination, and the home of the golf course ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
in 1985, and both still exist today.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cumberford, Robert People from Los Angeles Motoring journalists American magazine editors American columnists People in the automobile industry Writers from Los Angeles General Motors designers American automobile designers Living people 1935 births Journalists from California