Lancer Celeste　(1975)

Stylish Coupe Designed with Words

 

Kiyoshi Honda

The Lancer Celeste, which debuted in 1975, was a 2-door hatchback coupe based on the 1st-gen. Lancer. In Japan, it was the successor to the Galant Coupe FTO, while in North America, it was sold under names like the Plymouth Arrow through Mitsubishi’s then-partner, Chrysler. At that time, there was a demand in Japan for sporty cars that young people could use for dates and drives, while in America, there was a growing desire for affordable yet high-quality Japanese-made sporty cars.

The design of this car was carried out in a rather unconventional way. The main figure behind it was Masataka Nimura, 50 years old and then head of the design section. we can understand the unique process with reference to the book “Masataka Nimura and Celeste” (CAR DESIGN BOOKS 1) .

――　Initial Product Planning

The initial plan for Celeste was to use the Lancer 2-door sedan from front to doors to create a stylish coupe that young people wanted while keeping development costs low. As Nimura later recalled, “This was a very difficult task, as the planning department had a good reason for wanting to create a stylish car with little freedom in the design.” At the time, however, such planning was common for this class of car, and the 1st gen. Celica was the only sporty car with a dedicated body. However, things were not so easy in the case of this car.

――　Deadlock

At first, as planned, several models were made by modifying the rear of the Lancer 2-door sedan to a coupe style. However, the Lancer was intended to be a modest design, with no character lines on the sides of the body, so it lacked dynamic movement, and no matter how many ideas were created, it could not be made into a sporty design. Unlike product engineering, there is no numerical goal in styling, and the decision of whether a design is “complete” or not is left to the judgment of the executive who is in charge. Unfortunately, however, there were no executives who were experts in design at the time, and Nimura was not allowed to participate in the review process. However, there was no one who could make the decision to reconsider the project in order to get out of this deadlocked situation. It was against this backdrop that Nimura was given the opportunity to travel to Italy to visit the Turin Auto Show. This may have been what the executives thought of as a way out of the situation.

――　Striking Experience in Turin

The highlight of the 1972 Turin Auto Show was the concept car Lotus Esprit, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. His designs had evolved to become sharper with clean flat surfaces in the 1970s, attracting worldwide attention. After viewing the show, Nimura had the chance to visit Giugiaro’s studio and home. Mitsubishi had previously commissioned Giugiaro for work twice, and Nimura was greatly welcomed. Nimura described his experience as follows: “At Mr. Giugiaro’s home, there were some paintings he had drawn, each incredibly charming. I was shown that he had a broad talent, not just in car design, and I realized that top talent is indeed different.” He continued, “I left for Japan with the impression of Italian style I had received in his studio and at the Turin show still burned strongly in my mind!” Nimura’s experience in Turin must have been a vivid one for him, as he had been troubled by Celeste for a long time. On his way back to Japan, he decided what he should do.

――　Unconventional Design Work

After returning to Japan, Nimura proposed to Sadao Kobayashi, the head of the Technical Center, that he create an all-new body design, and asked for one week to design it freely, which he received approval. In those days, it took at least three months to create a 1/1 model from scratch with a completely new design, but to do it in one week was extraordinary. The trick was to skip the idea-sketching process and to make a 1/1 tape drawing right off the bat. Hiroshi Mizutani, one of the designers in charge of the project, described the situation at that time as follows.

On the day we started designing, Nimura san was quite excited. It was not surprising, since he had usually devoted himself to administrative duties as a section chief, but now, for the first time in a long time, he had a chance to design a car himself. He was so to speak, in battle mode. He said to us designers, “I’ll give you all the instructions from now on. I won’t let you guys design the body! In return, I’ll leave the equipment to you”. He straddled the chair backward with the tape drawing in front of him.

He would give instructions to the staff with hand gestures, such as, “Sleek it as hard as you can,” or, “Stop it right there”. In response, Furukawa san, who was the senior among us, drew tensional lines with his free hand in an excellent manner. Nimura san said, “This is recharging my mind!”, really enjoying the work.

In this way, Nimura controlled the designer’s every move with his words as he fleshed out the image. This approach was extraordinary. However, as the head of the design section, he felt that he had no choice but to take the lead in this situation. For the designers it was a somewhat pitiful role to simply draw lines as they were told, but they had no other choice then and all were convinced that they had to move forward as one with boss Nimura.

In a sense, however, designing a car using only words was groundbreaking. For Nimura, it was like necessity is the mother of invention, but now, more than half a century later, it would be the same as giving instructions to an image-generating AI system by prompting it. It can be said that the designer could come up with a very flexible idea at a time when such a convenient tool was completely unimaginable.

――　Style First

The design combined the flat surfaces, sharp edges, and strong tumblehome and turn-under that were typical of the Giugiaro designs of the time. The original layout, which was the premise for the design, was almost completely ignored, and the top priority was to make it stylish above all else. The windshield was set at 30 degrees, the steepest slope ever seen on a Mitsubishi car up to that time. This was done knowing that the reflection of the instrument panel’s upper surface on the glass would be strong and would generate opposition from the engineering side. The designer drew a rather long line on the nose and asked Nimura, “Do you want to extend it this long?” He was instructed to “Extend the nose by 200 mm as it would probably be shortened later anyway! ” This resulted in a very long nose, but the design was later approved as it was.

To proceed with the work promptly, the modelers would make the gauges for the modeling right after the designers drew the lines, and then immediately start forming the clay. About eight modelers, twice the usual number, worked so closely together on the model that their bodies were touching each other, and those who were free gathered to help with the surrounding works. The basic shape was completed in three days, and the clay model was finished in one week as planned. When the model was presented at the design review meeting, the design direction was easily approved.

At that time, Tomio Kubo was appointed president. Soon after assuming office he declared, “From now on, I will approve the design! “ and he started to direct the design direction. When he viewed the Celeste model, he ordered the rear quarter pillars to be changed to a line that would flow backward. In contrast, Nimura insisted on the original forward-tilted rear pillar, and both proposals were examined, but in the end, the president pushed the idea through, much to Nimura’s chagrin.

Detail Design

The young designers worked on the details as the car entered the finishing stage. Kokuhiro Shibuya was in charge of the front grille and the air outlet-like garnish on the rear quarter window, and Hiroshi Mizutani was in charge of the distinctive tail lights. When the first oil crisis broke out, the company was considering the use of sheet metal for the outfittings out of concern that the use of petroleum-based resins would become difficult, but the oil crisis soon subsided. However, there was no time left to redesign the outfitting, so the front grille was made of resin based on the sheet metal design, and the rear garnish was produced as sheet metal. It was a unique situation in this era.

Smashing hit

The Lancer Celeste was launched in Japan in February 1975, and later exported to Europe and Southeast Asia, and through its partner Chrysler, was also sold in North America and Australia under the name Plymouth Arrow etc. The total life cycle sales of over 300,000 units were the most successful ever achieved by a Mitsubishi two-door coupe. This success was due in part to the performance of the 1st-gen Lancer, which achieved brilliant results in rallies, but it was mostly due to its design. The design was the result of Nimura’s determination to turn the original product plan on its head. Some at Mitsubishi were willing to accept such out-of-the-box proposals and actions when they reached a deadlock.

September 2024