Ralph Gilles Put Chrysler Back On The Map

Ralph Gilles is one of the most influential people working in automotive design today. He’s been working for Chrysler since 1992, and in that span, he has led design efforts on cars like the 300, Charger, and Viper. But his impact goes well beyond the surface. Ralph Gilles has been the definition of stability in an industry defined by change.

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Ralph Gilles was born in New York City in 1970. Shortly after this, his family relocated to Montreal, Quebec. That creative spark would manifest itself in his formative years. He recalls drawing cars from the age of 8 years old. He only went further down the rabbit hole when he laid eyes on the Porsche 928. He went through the impression the car made on him when he spoke with automotive website Driving.ca.

“As a designer, I love how it was ahead of its time; it was the first car with true pop-up headlights, fascias instead of bumpers, extremely aerodynamic shape, aluminum doors, flowthrough cockpit … I forget the name of the designer [Wolfgang Moebius], but it was really ahead of its time. It didn’t so much inspire my designing, but the “idea of designing” and how one car could look so different from another. Back then, the ’70s was a pretty tough time for car design. I had models of it, a telephone of it … I was obsessed with that car.”

Porsche 928. Porsche Pressroom

He spent his summers living with his aunt in Syosset, New York. She took note of his interest in automotive design and urged him to take the next step. She gathered a few of his drawings along with a letter of interest and sent them directly to Lee Iacocca, who was then the head of Chrysler. His aunt didn’t know much about cars, but she did know about Iacocca because he often appeared on television and was a bit of a celebrity in his own right.

Gilles was certain that he wouldn’t hear back from them, but he received a letter in the mail a few weeks later. It was written by Neil Walling, then the company’s director of advanced design. He gave the young Gilles some actionable advice, including scholarship opportunities as well as information on several transportation design programs. He ended with some words of advice, saying that he hoped to pursue automotive design as his portfolio showed immense promise. 

This is a common thread in the careers of many industry stalwarts. A starry-eyed youth that has aspirations of becoming a car designer writes to the head of a car company. The boss then finds the time in his hectic schedule to send correspondence back. This gives them the confidence to pursue their dreams. Ralph’s story is one notable exception, at least to start. 

Despite his aunt’s insistence, he put car design on the backburner. Instead, he took the advice of his high school counselors and pursued a career in engineering. He enrolled in a program at Vanier College in Montreal, but only made it six weeks before he couldn’t take it anymore. He dropped out and picked up a job at a hardware store. He stayed in his parent’s basement and spent whatever spare time he had watching television with a bowl of cereal in his lap. Some in this predicament would pivot and try to find another way in, but Ralph found himself becoming content with his situation. He earned a promotion and thought that it could be a viable career path. 

Meanwhile, his brother Max was going to college for pre-med studies. He came back home to visit in the spring of 1988 and confronted Ralph. He demanded to know what he really wanted to do with his life. Was he going to toil away at that hardware store or was he going to pursue his true passion? He didn’t have to think twice about it. They dug up that letter, partly because it provided moral support, but mostly because it contained critical information.

This was in the pre-internet age. They couldn’t simply go to Art Center’s website to find enrollment information. He and his brother had to comb through the Yellow Pages, dial up the schools, and request information the old-fashioned way. The good news is that the College for Creative Studies was accepting applicants. The bad news was that the enrollment deadline was hardly a week away. If that wasn’t enough, Ralph learned that he would have to reconstruct his portfolio from the ground up in order to comply with their submission guidelines.

College For Creative Studies

Even with all of this in mind, he still decided to take the leap. His parents caught wind of the situation and it soon became a family affair. They bought a drafting table and placed it in the basement, turning his man-cave into a makeshift studio. After 4 sleepless nights, the Gilles family got it done by the skin of their teeth. They then had to sit on pins and needles as they awaited a response. The last-minute bid worked; Ralph was accepted into their transportation design program.

Compared to that chaotic admission process, his time at CCS was much less eventful. He gained his first bit of professional experience during his sophomore year when took an internship with Heuliez, a French coachbuilder. He didn’t know very much about them, but he jumped at the opportunity to pay France a visit.

He made a full-scale interior mockup for his senior thesis. This is of note for a few reasons. Most people with an interest in car design want to create exteriors, but Gilles took this chance to focus on the inside. He was taken by a “human factors” class that he took. Here, students got a crash course on ergonomics and learned about the ways in which people interacted with their surroundings. 

The interior study caught the attention of several automakers. He had several offers on the table when he graduated in 1992, but in the end, he decided to go to the company that set him on this road all those years ago. Things truly did come full circle. The man that hired him was Walling, the same man that wrote that inspirational letter.

EARLY CAREER

He began his career at Chrysler working on interiors. The very first assignment he had was to sketch a speedometer needle. Things quickly ramped up for him, as he contributed to the interiors of several show cars. He worked on the interior of both the Dodge Intrepid ESX and ESX2 concepts. These were iterations in a series of design studies. The company wanted to see how much it could maximize fuel economy while still maintaining the practicality that buyers in the mid-size segment needed.

The interior of the 1998 ESX2 takes inspiration from the world of technology. The bulky shift lever that would normally be there has been replaced with a unit that bears a strong resemblance to a computer mouse. These influences can also be seen with the infotainment system. The whole thing looks like a personal digital assistant of the day. Photographs of the interior are hard to come by, but it also appears to have the ability to fold into the dash. This reveals horizontal pinstriping that reinforces the east-west momentum. 

1998 Dodge Intrepid ESX2 Concept Interior

This motif also dominates the upper third of the interior, seamlessly flows from the IP to the door panel. A vertical variant of this can be seen around the center console, where it provides some much-needed contrast.  During the early stages of his career, Gilles also worked on the interiors of the 1998 Jeep Jeepster concept and the Dodge Viper GTS-R concept from the year 2000. 

His hard work and dedication paid off. In 1999, he was selected to manage Studio 3, a DaimlerChrysler satellite studio in Auburn Hills. He oversaw a staff of 6 designers, 11 clay modelers, and 5 engineers. He also found himself representing the interests of designers during board meetings. Colleagues from other departments were more concerned with numbers and business cases than aesthetics. Many of the topics went over his head, but he didn’t shy away from the challenge. Instead, he sought to immerse himself in a new side of car development. He enrolled in Michigan State University and earned his Master’s of Business Administration in 2002. In addition to becoming a more well-rounded designer, he could now also see things from the perspective of his peers and pitch his ideas more effectively. 

300/CHARGER/MAGNUM

The team at Studio 3 was pegged to create follow-ups to the cab-forward Chrysler 300M and Didge Intrepid. This wouldn’t be a mere nip and tuck. These new cars would utilize the front-engine, rear-wheel-drive LX architecture as well as the third-generation HEMI engine. The resulting package presented them with a bevy of issues.

Studio 3 tried to apply the elements of the cab-forward design language, but it just wasn’t a good match. Instead, they leaned fully in the other direction. An orthogonal form language, upright grille, and towering profile made the 2004 Chrysler 300 a clean break from its predecessor. It wasn’t completely detached from the company’s roots, however. Gilles said they brought a 1955 C-300 into the studio to get them in the right headspace.

Chrysler 300

When the car saw the light of day, some thought that it bore more than a passing resemblance to cars like the Rolls Royce Phantom and Bentley Continental. Gilles felt that these comparisons were overblown. In an interview with Toyznation, he went on to say:

“We never had a Bentley in our studio and said, “let’s look at that,” you know what I mean. What the irony is, when you come up with the proportions, I mean if you look at a Bentley frontally, it carries five people, it has a big V8 engine, the people sit upright. So all of a sudden, yeah, you have a similar overall silhouette.

But I dare you if you put the cars next to each other, there’s nothing in common. Absolutely nothing. But it was one of the problems when we did the research and people said the same thing. The Bentley is easily a 20% bigger car than ours in every measure. It’s much longer, much taller, much bigger. I mean, it’s just the presence.

I think that’s a beautiful compliment because I think the 300 definitely has presence, and presence is what a Bentley has, that’s what a Rolls-Royce has. When you see one of those rolling down the road, you’re like “Oh my gosh, there’s somebody important in that car,” you know what I mean? And the 300, at a wonderful price point, has that same respect. And that’s the magic of the car. For $25,000 to $30,000 you can feel like royalty.”

He was held in high regard in automotive circles before, but he was catapulted into superstardom as soon as the show car was unveiled at the 2003 New York Auto Show. Black enterprise placed him on their “Hot List” while NV Magazine gave him their Innovation Award. The car itself was named MotorTrend’s 2005 Car of the Year.

He shied away from the spotlight, saying time and time again that auto design is rarely a solitary effort. He led the overall development of the project, but likened his efforts to that of a movie director, melding the ideas of his colleagues and putting them in the best position to succeed.

“When I was promoted to vice-president,” he says, “the media described me as the guy who penned the 300C. That bothered me because at Chrysler nobody really pens anything, except concept cars. I'm just one designer in the Chrysler pack.”

The Charger also made waves when it was unveiled at the 2005 Detroit Auto Show, but for different reasons. Enthusiasts ripped the car for having another set of cars and thought it was a shameless attempt to cash in on an iconic nameplate.

The company vehemently defended the decision. Ralph Gilles said:

Well, actually, the Charger’s not necessarily about doors. And I guess we expected a little bit of angst when we showed the car with 4 doors. And I think as time goes on people will get it.

Dodge Charger

We already have some special things worked up for the car that you’ll see very shortly that will underscore the car’s attitude. I have nothing but positive thoughts about this car. I think it’s gonna blow up just as well as the others.

Again, it’s all about the attitude. It’s what I would call a 4-door coupe. It’s got a very rakish roof, it’s got a very rakish body/side, absolutely menacing front end – A very athletic body. You have to see it in person, just like the 300; you gotta be on the highway and see these things driving by you, and then people will be like “Ok, I got it now.” So, I’m pretty confident about that car.

The Dodge Magnum, meanwhile, was their attempt to bring the American station wagon back to prominence. It was a tall task to make one in the age of the SUV, but Studio 3 took it in stride. Gilles went on to say:

“…The design philosophy was to have something that was more steady. Ok, the typical wagon formula is almost like a shrunken down SUV, like a box basically.

And we wanted to make the car have some drama. The wagon in our mind was really an alternative to a sedan. A lot of people in our situation, a lot of young men in my studio that are just having young families, they kind of need a car that does everything. They like the handling of a sports car, they like the space of an SUV.

They like, you know, the functionality of putting the seats down to carry big stuff once in and go to Home Depot or whatever. So, this car is really a result of, “Hey, what would you do if you had a clean sheet of paper and you needed something that had all these attributes?” And a wagon was like the perfect formula. So, it combined functionality and style like no other. That was really what we wanted to do. And we love it!”

These cars made him one of the most talked-about designers in the industry. He received job offers from other companies to style cars for them. Someone else in his position wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Compared to General Motors and Ford,

Chrysler is a small player in the grand scheme of things. They also weren’t the most stable company at the time. Around this time, Chrysler run through 7 CEOs. Most people would’ve gone to a larger, more stable company, but Gilles believes that there is value in loyalty. In a 2011 interview with Forbes, he said:

“I’m a loyalist. Chrysler is a relatively small car company compared to the others.  I like that you tend to almost become a little more family-oriented, especially in Auburn Hills. Over the years, you get to know everybody. I value that a lot.  You build respect. You work at a company over 18 years and it’s kind of a lost art.

People move on and jump ship to get higher pay grades. I value more the relationships. If you go through a rough patch you know who to call. You’ve got someone who’s got your back because you helped them out three or four years ago on a project.  I don’t think our work is done here.

Even in the worst of times, I felt that we were actually working away on a lot of these projects that are now coming to light, like the Grand Cherokee, like the 300, like the Charger, the new Durango, even the Ram 1500. We had to reach a lot deeper and that was intoxicating. 

We had known for years we didn't quite get the best out of ourselves. Having that opportunity to be a part of the change of Chrysler, part of the evolution, the improvement of the company, for an industrial design that's what you live for — to be able to not only affect popular culture with your designs but also to help in the rebirth or the redevelopment of a car company. 

That’s huge. That’s actually more rewarding to me than jumping over for a pay grade hike. A big title means nothing to me. I’m more excited that hopefully in two or three years people will look back at this management team and say look what they’ve accomplished.

There are people a lot like me all over the company, where I come from that have the same mindset. The management is made up of exactly these kind of people. Sergio has sought us all out – the  Navy Seal live or die types., believers in the company.

He knows by doing that we'll never give up. When you meet as a committee and you look left and you look right and you trust that guy because they've been through a lot with you, it’s great.”

FIAT CHRYSLER AUTOMOBILES

The ensuing years would test this principle. The DaimlerChrysler marriage soured quickly. In 2007 they sold an 80 percent stake of Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management. The Great Recession gripped the industry shortly after and quashed whatever plans they may have had for the automaker.

There were some products that were well into development, but for the most part, work slowed down considerably. There just weren’t enough resources to dedicate to the new product. The outlook was just too uncertain. 

Things changed after Fiat entered the picture. Sergio Marchionne turned the company on its head. Gilles thought that this was just what the company needed.

"The people are so invigorated because they just witnessed a horrible existence during our private-equity existence. We were starting to look at the product as a commodity, which is disgusting,"

2011 Dodge Charger

Projects in the early 2010s included refreshed versions of the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger. These kept the brand mainstays fresh and bought the company time until new products arrived. One of these new cars was the resurrection of a legendary nameplate. The recession put the Viper in jeopardy. When Cerberus acquired Chrysler they put the sports car line up for sale. They couldn’t find a suitor before the company merged with Fiat.

Gilles thought that this was his best chance at a new Viper. He managed to get Marchionne in an outgoing Viper. He took off and came back about 15 minutes. He wasn’t impressed, but he also didn’t completely rule the idea out. Ralph then showed him a video of the Viper breaking the Nurburgring record and gave him a list of all of the cars that it put away.

Things didn’t get too much further than this, at least officially. Ralph began sketching on the project and then had a full-size model put together. He placed it in the styling dome and invited Chrysler personnel to take a look.

After this, the project became bogged down by the higher-ups. Ralph knew that he had to take things into his own hands if he wanted the Viper to see the light of day. They carried out extensive focus groups with owners of exotic cars and came away with some revealing insights. He also broke ground on a styling exercise. Projects like this are usually worked on by a select group of employees, but this was a special case. Gilles said:

“We opened the Viper to the whole office, and we had six finalists,” he says. “We had one guy lead it, but it was a combination of six designers, plus my work. It was a family project. It wasn’t fair to have one guy have so much fun.”

The dozens of proposals were whittled down to six. They didn’t have the money for full-scale, so they made scaled models of each in “Area 51,” a secret room in the studio that is locked down with two keys. The project wasn’t officially approved. When Sergio finally laid eyes on the car, he said “You son of a bitch. You went and did this car anyway!” He was impressed with their initiative and greenlit the car soon after.

Red SRT Viper GTS at NAIAS 2013 01 by Sarah Larson is licensed under CC BY 2.0 IT

The SRT Viper was shown at the 2012 New York Auto Show. It carries that visceral Viper DNA while keeping an eye toward the future. The design team went through the initial development phases with the mindset that it would be sold as a Dodge. SRT became its own department sometime later and the Viper went along with it. In an effort to visually separate it from Dodge, they toned the classic crosshair grille down considerably and painted it black.

Gilles wanted to give the car a face, so to speak. In an interview with Popular Mechanics, he mentioned that Vipers of the past used headlights with multiple bulbs. The new one made use of a smoked housing that really emphasized a single one. This helps the car look a bit more focused overall. 

It has the same exaggerated proportions as its predecessors. The A-pillars are pushed back as far as possible, making the already massive hood appear even larger. The car showcases a completely new interpretation of the organic Viper form language. Light and shadow slither across the curvaceous sheet metal. This is especially apparent in the sweeping motion along the body. It pushes the momentum of the car forward and draws attention to the side grille. 

The rear of the car pulls out all of the stops to make it look as low and wide as possible. The lights stretch out horizontally, and vents on either side pull the eyes across the area. This motion even stretches onto the profile view. The GTS adds to this effect by framing the entire area in black trim.

CIAS 2013 - 2013 Dodge Viper SRT GTS by Micheal Gil is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The SRT Viper also has a bubble roof. This interpretation is more extreme than what you’ll find on the BMW Z07 concept, for instance. It works to draw attention away from the rear window. It dips into the rear glass a bit on some models to draw out the wheel arches on the plan view.

Projects throughout the rest of the 2010s weren’t as aspirational. He oversaw design efforts on the Dodge Dart/Chrysler 200 siblings. They were distinctively styled compact sedans that were let down by pretty much everything else. The Chrysler Pacifica, meanwhile, was the company’s first new take on the minivan in nearly a decade. They’ve remained dedicated to the segment even in the face of shrinking market share as well as the dominance of the crossover. 

The company has seen yet another major shakeup with the creation of Stellantis. A host of other brands have come into the mix, and with the murky economic outlook, their future is as uncertain as ever.  Still, Gilles looks forward to the challenge.

Chrysler has been shaped by the winds of change, but he’s been one of its rare mainstays. He conquered his self-doubt to chase true passion, brought the brand to the minds of the masses, stuck with them through the turbulent recession, and reimagined a motoring icon. Ralph Gilles personifies the motor city and is definitely an industry icon.