Wheels (41 page)

They remained at the teardown racks, studying the three cars in detail.
Later, the elderly technician let them out.
At the doorway he asked, "What's coming up next, gentleman? For us, I
mean
.”

"Glad you reminded me," Brett said. "We came over here to ask you
.”

It would be some kind of small car; that much they all knew. The key
question was: What kind?
Later, back at staff headquarters, Adam observed, "For a long time, right
up to 1970, a lot of people in this business thought the small car was a
fad
.”

"I was one," Elroy Braithwaite, the Product Development vice-president
admitted. The Silver Fox had joined them shortly after Adam's and Brett's
return from the teardown room. Now, a group of five-Adam, Brett,
Braithwaite, two others from product planning staff -was sprawled around
Adam's office suite, ostensibly doing little more than shoot the breeze,
but in reality hoping, through channeled conversation, to awaken ideas in
each other. Discarded coffee cups and overflowing ashtrays littered tables
and window ledges. It was after midnight.
"I thought the small car fever wouldn't last," Braithwaite went on. He put
a hand through his silver-gray mane, disordered tonight, which was
unusual. "I was in some pretty high-powered company, too, but we've all
been wrong. As f ar as I can see, this industry will be small-car
oriented, with muscle cars on the outs, for a long time to come
.”

"Perhaps forever," one of the other product planners said. He was a bright
young Negro with large spectacles, named Castaldy, who had been recruited
from Yale a year earlier.
"Nothing's forever," Brett DeLosanto objected. "Hemlines or hair styles
or hip language or cars. Right now, though, I agree with Elroya small
car's the status symbol, and it looks like staying
.”

"There are some," Adam said, "who believe a small car is a nonsymbol. They
say people simply don't care about status anymore
.”

Brett retorted, "You don't believe that, any more than I do
.”

“
I don't either," the Silver Fox said. "A good many things have changed
these past few years, but not basic
human nature. Sure, there's a ‘
reverse status' syndrome, which is popular, but it adds up to what it
always did-an individual trying to be different or superior. Even a
dropout who doesn't wash is a status seeker of a kind
.”

"So maybe," Adam prompted, "we need a car which will appeal strongly to
the reverse-status seeker
.”

The Silver Fox shook his head. "Not entirely. We still have to consider
the squares-that big, solid backlog of buyers
.”

Castaldy pointed out, "But most squares don't like to think of
themselves that way. That's why bank presidents wear sideburns
.”

"Don't we all
.”

Braithwaite fingered his own.
Above the mild laughter, Adam injected, "Maybe that's not so funny.
Maybe it points the way to the kind of car we don't want. That is
anything looking like a conventional car produced until now
.”

"A mighty big order," the Silver Fox said.
Brett ruminated. "But not impossible
.”

Castaldy, the young Yale man, reminded them, "Today's environment is
part of reverse
status-if we're calling it that. I mean public opinion,
dissent, minorities, economic pressures, all the rest
.”

"True," Adam said, then added, I know we've been over this a lot of
times, but let's list environmental f actors again
.”

Castaldy looked at some notes. "Air pollution: people want to do
something
.”

"Correction," Brett said. "They want other people to do something. No
one wants to give up personal transportation, riding in his own car. All
our surveys say so
.”

'Whether that's true or not," Adam said, "the car makers are doing
something about pollution and there isn't a lot individuals can do
.”

"Just the same," young Castaldy persisted, "a good many are convinced
that a small car pollutes less than a big one, so they think they can
contribute that way. Our surveys show that, too
.”

He glanced back at his
notes. "May I go on
.”

"III try not to heckle," Brett said. "But I won't guarantee it
.”

"In economics," Castaldy continued, "gas mileage isn't as dominant as
it used to be, but parking cost is.'
Adam nodded. "No arguing that. Street parking space gets harder to find,
public and private parking costs more and more
.”

"But parking lots in a good many cities are charging less for small
cars, and the idea's spreading
.”

The Silver Fox said irritably, 'We know all about that. And we've
already agreed w
e're going the small car route.-
Behind his glasses, Castaldy appeared hurt.
"Elroy," Brett DeLosanto said, "the kid's helping us think. So if that's
what you want, quit pulling rank
.”

"My God
!
" the Silver Fox complained. "You birds are sensitive. I was
just being myself
.”

"Pretend to be a nice guy," Brett urged. "Instead of a vice-president
.”

"You bastard I" But Braithwaite was grinning. He told Castaldy, "Sorry
I Let's go on
.”

"What I really meant, Mr. Braithwaite
"Elroy . .
.”

"Yes, sir. What I meant was-it's part of the whole picture
.”

They talked about environment and mankind's problems: over-population,
a shortage of
square footage everywhere, pollution in all forms, antagonisms, rebellion,
new concepts and values among young people-the young who would soon rule
the world. Yet, despite changes, cars would still be around for the
foreseeable future; experience showed it. But what kind of cars? Some
would be the same as now, or similar, but there must be other kinds, too,
more closely reflecting society's needs.
"Speaking of needs," Adam queried, "can we sum them up
.”

"If you wanted a word," Castaldy answered, "I'd say'utitity
.”

'
Brett DeLosanto tried it on his tongue. "The Age of Utility
.”

"I'll buy that in part," the Silver Fox said. "But not entirely
.”

He
motioned for silence while gathering thoughts. The others waited. At
length he intoned slowly, "Okay, so utility's 'in.' It's the newest
status symbol, or reverse-status-and we're agreed that whatever name you
call it
,
it means the same thing. I'll concede it's probably for the
future, too. But that still doesn't allow for the rest of human nature:
the impulse to mobility which is with us from the day we're born, and
later a craving for power, speed, excitement which we never grow out of
wholly. We're all Walter Mittys somewhere inside and, utility or not,
pizzazz is 'in,' too. It's never been out. It never will be
.”

I go with that," Brett said. "To prove your point look at the guys who
build dune buggies. They're small car people whove found a Walter Mitty
outlet
.”

Castaldy added thoughtfully, "And there are thousands and thousands of
dune buggies. More all the time. Nowadays you even see them in cities
.”

The Silver Fox shrugged. "They take a utility Volkswagen without pizzazz,
strip it to the chassis, then build pizzazz on
.”

A thought stirred in Adam's mind. It related to what had been said . . .
to the torn-down Volkswagen he had seen earlier tonight . . . and to
something else, hazy: a phrase which eluded him . . . He searched his mind
while the others talked.
When the phrase failed to come he remembered a magazine illustration he
had seen a day or two ago. The magazine was still in his office. He
retrieved it from a pile across the room and opened it. The others watched
curiously.
The illustration was in color. It showed a dune buggy on a rugged beach,
in action, banked steeply on its side. All wheels were fighting for
traction, sand spewing behind. Cleverly, the photographer had slowed his
shutter speed so that the dune buggy was blurred with movement. The text
with the picture said the ranks of dune buggy owners were "growing like
mad"; nearly a hundred manufacturers were engaged in building bodies;
California alone had eight thousand dune buggies.
Brett, glancing over Adam's shoulder, asked amusedly, "You're not thinking
of building dune buggies
.”

Adam shook his head. No matter how large the dune buggy population became,
they were still a fad, a specialist's creation, not the Big Three's
business. Adam knew that. But the phrase which eluded him was somehow
linked . . . Still not remembering, he tossed the magazine on a table,
open.
Chance, as happens so often in life, stepped in.
Above the table where Adam tossed the magazine was a framed photo of the
Apollo 11 Lunar
Module during the first moon landing. It bad been given to Adam, who liked
it, and had had it framed and hung. In the photo, the module dominated;
an astronaut stood beneath.
Brett picked up the magazine with the dune buggy picture and showed it
to the others. He remarked, "Those things go like hellt-I've driven
one
.”

He studied the illustration again. "But it's an ugly
son-of-a-bitch
.”

Adam thought: So was the lunar module.
Ugly indeed: all edges, corners, projections, oddities, imbalance;
little symmetry, few clean curves. But because the lunar module did its
job superbly, it defeated ugliness and, in the end, took on a beauty of
its own.
The missing phrase came to him.
It was Rowena's. The morning after their night together she had said,
"You know what I'd say today? I'd say, 'ugly is beautiful.
Ugly is Beautiful/
The lunar module was ugly. So was a dune buggy. But both were
functional, utilitarian; they were built for a purpose and performed it.
So why not a car? Why not a deliberate, daring attempt to produce a car,
ugly by existing standards, yet so suited to needs, environment, and
present time
the Age of Utility-that it would become beautiful?
. I may have an idea about Farstar," Adam said. "Don't rush me. Let me
put it out slowly
.”

The others were silent. Marshaling thoughts, choosing words carefully,
Adam began.
They were too experienced-all of them in the group-to go overboard,
instantly, for a single idea. Yet he was aware of a sudden tension,
missing before, and a quickening interest as he continued to speak. The
Silver Fox was thoughtful, his eyes half-closed. Young Castaldy
scratched an ear lobe-a habit when he concentrated-while
the other product planner, who had said little so far, kept his eyes on
Adam steadily. Brett DeLosanto's fingers seemed restless. As if
instinctually, Brett drew a sketch pad toward him.
It was Brett, too, who jumped up when Adam finished, and began pacing
the room. He tossed off thoughts, incomplete sentences, like fragments
of a jigsaw . . . Artists for centuries have seen beauty in ugliness .
. . Consider distorted, tortured sculpture from Michelangelo to Henry
Moore . . . And in modern times, scrap metal welded in jumbles-shapeless
to some, who scoff, but many don't . . . Take painting: the avant-garde
forms; egg crates, soup cans in -collages . . . Or life itself 1-a
pretty young girl or a pregnant hag: which is more beautiful? . . . It
depended always on the way you saw it. Form, symmetry, style, beauty
were never arbitrary.
Brett thumped a fist into a palm. "With Picasso in our nostrils, we've
been designing cars like they rolled off a Gainsborough canvas
.”