INTERVIEW
A CAP OF TEA WITH ...
In January 1968, Harris Mann started out at BMC as senior designer. The next 15 years were extremely eventful…
This in-depth interview was originally published in 2019 and was a typical example of how Harris dealt with people – friendly, open and always enthusiastic. His passion for design and for cars in general was always apparent. We have cleared the decks in this issue of PC for this tribute, the best tribute we could imagine… Harris Mann, in his own words. Rest in peace, sir.
Q. Where did it all start?
A. ‘In 1954, I joined Duple Motor Bodies as an apprentice draftsman and five years later I became a bus body stylist. Later that year, in 1959, I moved to America for a few months to spend some time in the Raymond Loewy design studios, which was an incredible experience. I spent eight months in New York, but by the summer of 1960 I had joined the Royal Artillery on my National service. I returned to Duple for 1963, but at the end of that year I moved to Commer before jumping ship to Ford in March 1964. My apprenticeship with Duple had been in engineering, so when I joined Ford it was as a product design engineer. But within six months I’d moved into vehicle design and soon got involved in the styling of the Cortina MkII. In the four years that I was with Ford I progressed to one level below management, and when my boss (Roy Haynes) moved to BMC he took me with him – along with quite a few of the team from the Ford studios.’
Q. Why did you switch from Ford to BMC?
A. ‘Roy gave me the opportunity, but I moved because I wanted to make a difference. Ford was an incredibly slick operation that knew how to cost everything so each car was profitable. It was great at benchmarking against its rivals, whereas BMC was old-fashioned. I felt I could improve things at BMC as I’d learned so much at Ford. But the BMC management couldn’t see that there was a problem with poor planning and communication, so making changes to the working practices wasn’t easy. I joined as a senior stylist, working at Cowley. My job was to head up the exterior design team while Vic Hammond, also ex-Ford, was in charge of interior design. The initial plan was for me to work under Phil Clark who had designed the mid-engine Mustang I concept, and came up with the Mustang logo as well as the name. He was a brilliant designer who came from the US to work in Ford’s UK design studios; I learned a lot from him. He was recruited to go to Cowley, but he developed a serious illness and died in 1968 aged just 32. If Phil had moved over to BMC, who knows how different my career might have been.’
Q. How did the switch from Ford to BMC go?
A.
