Wheels (12 page)

The earthy
thought drew his mind to practicalities, of which one was the fact that
he had not yet had breakfast. In the design directors' dining room, several others were already
breakfasting when Brett DeLosanto came in. Characteristically, instead
of ordering from a waitress, Brett dropped into the kitchen where he
joshed with the cooks, who knew him well, then coerced them into
preparing Eggs Benedict, which was never on the standard menu. Emerging,
he joined his colleagues at the dining room's large, round table.
Two visitors were at the table-students from Los Angeles Art Center
College of Design, from where, not quite five years ago, Brett DeLosanto
himself had graduated. One of the students was a pensive youth, now
tracing curves on the table
cloth with a fingernail, the other a bright-eyed, nineteen-year-old girl.
Glancing around to make sure he would be listened to Brett resumed a
conversation with the students which had begun yesterday.
"If you come to work here," he advised them, "you should install brain
filters to keep out the antediluvian ideas the old-timers will throw at
you."

Brett's idea of an old-timer," a designer in his early thirties said
from across the table, "is anyone old enough to vote when Nixon was
elected
.”

"The elderly party who just spoke," Brett informed the students, "is our
Mr. Robertson. He designs
family sedans which would be even better
with shaf
ts and a horse in front. By the way, he endorses his paycheck
with a quill, and is hanging on for pension
.”

"A thing we love about young DeLosanto," a graying designer put in, "is
his respect for experience and age
.”

The designer, Dave Heberstein, who
was studio head for Color and Interiors, surveyed Brett's carefully
groomed but dazzling appearance. "By the way, where is the masquerade ball
tonight
.”

"If you studied my exteriors more carefully," Brett retorted, "then used
them for your interiors, you'd start customer stampedes
.”

Someone else asked, "To our competitors
.”

"Only if I went to work for them
.”

Brett grinned. He had maintained a brash repartee with the majority of
others in the design studios since coming to work there as a novice, and
most seemed to enjoy it still. Nor had it affected Brett's rise as an
automobile designer, which had been phenomenal. Now, at age twentysix, he
ranked equal with all but a few senior studio heads.
A few years ago it would have been inconceivable that anyone looking like
Brett DeLosanto could have got past the main gate security guards, let
alone be permitted to work in the stratified atmosphere of a corporate
design studio. But concepts had changed. Nowadays, management realized
that avant-garde cars were more likely to be created by "with it"
designers who were imaginative and experimental about fashion, including
their own appearance. Similarly, while stylist-designers were expected to
work hard and produce, seniors like Brett were allowed, within reason, to
decide their own working hours. Often Brett DeLosanto came late, idled or
sometimes disappeared entirely during the day, then worked through lonely
hours of the night. Because his record was exceptionally good, and he
attended staff meetings when told to specifically, nothing was ever said.
He addressed the students again. "One of the things the ancient ones will
tell you, including some around this table eating sunny side ups . . . Ah,
many thanks
!
" Brett paused while a waitress placed his Eggs Benedict in
front of him, then resumed. "A thing they'll argue is that major changes
in car design don't happen
anymore
. From now on, they say, we'll have
only transitions and ordered development. Well, that's what the gas works
thought just before Edison invented electric light. I tell you there are
disneyesque design changes coming. One reason: We'll be getting fantastic
new materials to work with soon, and that's an area where a lot of pebple
aren't looking because there aren't any flashing lights
.”

"But you're looking, Brett, aren't you
.”

someone said. "You're looking out
for the rest of us
.”

-Mat's right
.”

Brett DeLosanto cut himself a substantial portion of Eggs
Benedict and speared it with his fork. "You fellows can relax. I'll help
you keep your jobs
.”

He ate with zest.
The bright-eyed girl student said, "Isn't it true that most new designs
from here on will be largely functional
.”

Speaking through a full mouth, Brett answered, "They can be functional
and fantastic
.”

"You'll be functional like a balloon tire if you eat a lot of that
.”

Heberstein, the Color and Interiors chief, eyed Brett's rich dish with
distaste, then told the students, "Almost all good design is functional.
It always has been. The exceptions are pure art forms which have no
purpose other than to be beautiful. It's when design isn't functional
that it becomes either bad design or bordering on it. The Victorians
made their designs ponderously unfunctionat, which is why so many were
appalling. Mind you, we still do the same thing sometimes in this
business when we put on enormous tail fins or excess chrome or
protruding grillwork. Fortunately we're learning to do it less
.”

The pensive male student stopped making patterns on the tablecloth. "The
Volkswagen is function at-wholly so. But you wouldn't call it
beautiful
.”

Brett DeLosanto waved his fork and swallowed hastily, before anyone else
could speak. "That, my friend, is where you and the rest of the world's
public are gullibly misled. The Volkswagen is a fraud, a gigantic hoax
.”

"It's a good car," the girl student said. "I have one
.”

. Of course it's a good car
.”

Brett ate some more of his breakfast while
the two young, would-be designers watched him curiously. 'When the
landmark autos of this century are added up, the Volkswagen will be
there along with the Pierce-Arrow, the Model T Ford, 1929 Chevrolet 6,
Packard before the 1940s, Rolls-Royce until the '60s, Lincoln, Chrysler
Airflow, Cadillacs of the '30s, the Mustang, Pontiac GTO, 2-passenger
Thunderbirds, and some others. But the Volkswagen is still a fraud because
a sales campaign has convinced people it's an ugly car, which it isn't,
or il wouldn't have lasted half as long as it has. What the Volkswagen
really has is form, balance, symmetrical sense and a touch of genius; if
it were a sculpture in bronze instead of a car it could be on a pedestal
alongside a Henry Moore. But because the public's been beaten on the head
with statements that it's ugly, they've swallowed the hook and so have
you. But then, all car owners like to deceive themselves
.”

Somebody said, "Here's where I came in,"
Chairs were eased back. Most of the others began drifting out to their
separate studios. The Color and Interiors chief stopped beside the
chairs of the two students. "If you filter Junior's output
the way he
advised to begin with-you might just find a pearl or two
.”

"By the time I'm through"-Brett checked a spray of egg and coffee with
a napkin-"they'll have enough to make pearl jam
.”

"Too bad I can't stay
!
" Heberstein nodded amiably from the doorway.
"Drop in later, Brett, will you? We've a fabric report I think you'll
want to know about
.”

"Is it always like that
.”

The youth, who had resumed drawing finger
parabolas on the tablecloth, looked curiously at Brett.
"In here it is, usually. But don't let the kidding fool you. Under it,
a lot of good ideas get going
.”

It was true. Auto company managements encouraged designers, as well as
others in creative jobs, to take meals together in private dining rooms;
the higher an individual's rank, the more pleasant and exclusive such
privileges tec-e. But, at whatever level, the talk at table inevitably
turned to work. Then, keen minds sparked one another and brilliant ideas
occasionally had gene
1 sis over entree or dessert. Senior staff dining rooms operated at a loss,
but managements made up deficits cheerfully, regarding them as investments
with a good yield.
"Why did you say car owners deceive themselves
.”

the girl asked.
"We know they do. It's a slice of human nature you learn to live with
.”

Brett eased from the table and tilted back his chair. "Most Joe Citizens
out there in community
land love snappy
looking cars. But they also like
to think of themselves as rational, so what happens? They kid
themselves. A lot of those same Joe C.'s won't admit, even in their
minds, their real motivations when they buy their next torpedo
.”

"How can you be sure
.”

"Simple. If Joe wants just reliable transportation-as a good many of his
kind say they do
all he needs is the cheapest, simplest, stripped economy
job in the Chev, Ford, or Plymouth line. Most, though, want more than
that-a better car because, like a sexy-looking babe on the arm, or a
fancy home, it gives a good warm feeling in the gut. Nothing wrong with
that
.
But Joe and his friends seem to think there is, which is why they
fool themselves
.”

"So consumer research
"Is f or the birds I Okay, we send out some dame with a clipboard who
asks a guy coming down the street what he wants in his next car. Right
away he thinks he'll impress her, so he lists all the square stuff like
reliability, gas mileage, safety, trade-in value. If it's a written
quiz, unsigned, he does it so he impresses himself. Down at the bottom,
both times, he may put appearance, if he mentions it at all. Yet, when
it comes to buy-time and the same guy's in a showroom, whether he admits
it or not, appearance will be right there on top
.”

Brett stood, and stretched. "You'll find some who'll tell you that the
public's love affair with cars is over. Nuts! We'll all be around for
a while, kids, because old Joe C., with his hangups, is still a
designer's friend
.”

He glanced at his watch; there was another half hour until he would meet
Adam Trenton en route to the proving ground, which left time to stop at
Color and Interiors.
On their way out of the dining room, Brett asked the students, "What do
you make of it all
.”

The curiosity was genuine. What the two students were doing now, Brett
had done himself not many years ago. Auto companies regularly invited
design school students in, treating them like VIPs, while the students
saw for themselves the kind of aura they might work in later. The auto
makers, too, courted students at their schools. Teams from the Big Three
visited design colleges several times a year, openly competing for the
most promising soon-to-be graduates, and the same was true of other
industry areas-engineering, science, finance, merchandising, law-so that
auto companies with their lavish pay scales and benefits, including
planned promotion, skimmed off a high proportion of the finer talents.
Some
including thoughtful people in the industry itself -argued that the
process was unjust, that auto makers corralled too much of the world's
best brainpower, to the detriment of civilization generally, which
needed more thinkers to solve urgent, complex human problems. Just the
same, no other agency or industry succeeded in recruiting a comparable,
constant flow of top-flight achievers. Brett DeLosanto had been one.
"It's exciting," the bright-eyed girl said, answering Brett's question.
"Like being in on creation, the real thing. A bit scary, of course. All
those other people to compete with, and you know how
3 good they must be. But if you make it here, you've really made it big
.”