I met Count Goertz in the early 80s. I took some pictures of him but the
negs and prints are buried somewhere in my basement. I was planning to do a
story on him for DRAC but with my super busy work schedule during those
times, I never got around to doing it. His design studio was not far from
where I worked back then.
Very nice man and he was only too happy to talk about cars. He was also a
very gracious host. His most famous design, and the one which he was most
proud of, was the BMW 507. In a recent British magazine there was an article
about the design of the BMWs and the author concluded that the 507 was the
most beautiful of all the Bimmers. I agree.
We also discussed his role in the design of the 240s which Nissan had denied
for many years, but looking at the Toyota 2000 and the 240 you can see
several of the same design cues. From what I remember the head Nissan design
and Count Goertz did not get along and butted heads many times and I think
Nissan was POed that he took the design of the 2000 GT to Toyota. In
Nissan's favor I will say that they were very busy back then trying to
integrate their recent purchase of Prince and I think the 2000 was supposed
to be a Prince car.
Like Raymond Lowey, Count Goertz was an industrial designer and cars were a
fraction of his business, but a high profile part.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Zubkoff" <datsun65@hotmail.com>
To: <Brian_Hollands@adp.com>; <datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 11:03 PM
Subject: Re: FW: James Bond
> And it all ties back to the Datsun Roadster...eh, well the Silvia CSP311.
>
> Albrect Von Goertz, the chap who designed the Silvia CSP311, approached
> Nissan with the design for the 2000 GT first. Nissan declined.
>
> He next went to Toyota and they picked up the project.
>
> The rest is history...
>
> Dan Zubkoff
> San Mateo, CA
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