First of the Dream Cars: Buick’s Y-Job

The first of the fabled GM dream cars sparked a Buick success story and changed the face of all the cars in the world. It also confirmed the eminence in the GM boardroom of styling chief Harley Earl.

That’s when it all began. We were climbing out of a depression and digging our way into a war in the late 1930s. Enrico Fermi was uncovering the mysteries of the atom; Gone With the Wind had just been made into a film and F.D.R. was well into his second Presidential term. In Roswell, New Mexico a college professor named Robert Goddard was experimenting …