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Larry's designs

I mean there are so many other vehicles that he’s done. He did a multitude of concept cars for GM that some people might remember. He did the, there’s an experimental vehicle that they used for testing it was called the Serve One he did work on that. He did the...a lot of the Corvairs, some of the Corvairs designs, especially the later ones that were more sleek or more stylish. He did a lot of the, once again, concepts of that, the Mako Shark. That’s just in GM.

And then he moved on to, when he was at Ford, he did the Boss Mustang, the Boss 302, the Boss 429, which are basically the same body. He came up with the slats on the rear window of that car, that went on to a bunch of different other vehicles started using those things. Some times he gets credit for it. He designed the...some of the bodywork and wheels, especially the wheels on the Chaparral Race Cars.

And then Larry’s done beyond those racecars, cars, production cars, concept cars; he’s done motor homes. He did work for Monaco, he did work for Rectrans, designed a complete motor home assembly. That was one of the jobs after Ford when he worked for Bunkie Knudsen.

He did tractors, farm tractors; he designed a whole line of tractors for White. He’s done big-rig trucks, trucks and trailers, designed racecar transporters. He’s designed the graphic paint schemes on many racecars, all of Penske’s Marlboro racing cars; Larry had designed the paint scheme on that. He did the Goodyear blimp right now, he re-did Goodyear’s graphics for the Goodyear blimp.

So it’s kind of all over the place. He actually designed the, I believe it was probably two generations ago, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, which he didn’t get credit for which there is some legal issues out there but he actually designed that vehicle when it was still American Motors. So, I mean, there’s multiple car companies, he’s done multiple transport systems, and then graphics. As I said, I mean anything with design he did and could do. He was very, you know, just multi-talented.


automobiles design Larry Shinoda motor homes motor vehicles race cars recreational vehicles tractors

Date: September 14, 2011

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Akira Boch

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

After graduating from high school in Anaheim, Ron Kusumi earned his degree from Cal Poly Pomona, and worked in the automotive industry for 20 years with companies such as Nissan and Mitsubishi. It was while working on a project developing an aluminum alloy wheel at Nissan that Ron met famed designer Larry Shinoda, whose brief comments about the project impressed Ron with a keen eye and genius for knowing the essence of style and function. The two shared a mutual passion for sports cars and became friends. For the past fifteen years, Ron has run an independent film studio in Long Beach, California, writing, producing and directing programs for cable television. (September 2012)

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