First published in the June 2004 issue of Street Machine

There’s plenty of lead in Jeff Haggarty’s pencil! You’re not reading The Picture — Haggarty’s pencil is
a high-tech Berol Verithin, and it drew some of the best modified cars ever seen in Street Machine.

Long-time readers will know Haggarty as a former Expression Session master, who turned average Holdens and Fords into mind-blowing concepts, and plenty of Street Machine readers have taken inspiration from Haggarty’s imagination.

These days Haggerty is a senior designer, exteriors, at Holden and is responsible for the exterior design of the recent SST ute show car and for the upcoming VZ Monaro. We caught up for a coffee at Fishermans Bend.

Were you the sort of kid who drew cars in your schoolbooks?

“Yeah, I was always drawing cars in textbooks. I’d watch films and ask my dad what the cars were. The first car I drew was a big American Pontiac. This big ugly Pontiac grabbed me one day and I drew something with a big split grille. I was about six or seven. It didn’t look much like a Pontiac but it did in my mind. I liked drawing cars and knew I was going to have a career in design or architecture, but getting through school was difficult; I wasn’t that motivated.

“When I got into Sydney College of the Arts to do Industrial Design, I saw a vocational spiel about industrial design — designing seats, toothbrushes, furniture — but it showed a Mustang and from then on I was motivated.”

So how did you get into the car design game?

“I really wanted to get into the industry in Melbourne and harassed (Holden’s) Phil Zmood until he had a look at my work. They weren’t hiring but six months later (1989) they rang with a job.

“I did two years at Holden then the hard times hit and I did a lot of stuff for magazines, like Wheels, Motor, Auto Action and Street Machine. I became the chief designer on the Hunwick-Hallam motorcycle but the project fell apart and I ended up in Melbourne working at (German company) EDAG on General Motors projects.

Eventually Holden Design rang me; there was so much happening they needed someone and I was happy to go back.”

Do you need formal qualifications?

“Yes. I got a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Design. You can’t get a job as a designer without some sort of formal qualification. It doesn’t make you a better designer but you learn a professional attitude at uni, I found.”

Were you on the cusp of the computer design revolution?

“I was there at the start and didn’t get any formal computer training until I got into the workforce. We used French curves and a lot of freehand — it was more just drawing pretty pictures. You’ve got to keep developing your drawing skills so you can work out proportions people like — that’s my main skill. At Holden we use a design program called Alias but I’m so flat-out in meetings and so on that I don’t get time to learn it.”

You were responsible for the SST ute show car. How did that design come about?

“It was a brainstorming session between marketing guy Rob Thorpe and I, trying to give our one-tonner an individual look, trying to sex it up. I don’t know who actually thought of doing a step-side but I said we had to do something more modern than an old ’55 F150 step-side, so I did a few sketches. They didn’t look very good but they sold the idea.

“It lay dormant until Steve Manson from Holden by Design saw it. Tony Stolfo, our design director, thought it would make a great show car. We had seven weeks to take it from a rough sketch to a fully working, driveable prototype. We did the clay model at VDA, which is a Holden-owned subsidiary down at HSV.”

It’s amazing, in this computer age, that clay is still used.

“That’s a big part of my job, directing clay and developing ‘surfaces’. You do sketches to get the job but they only sell the idea. The meat of the work is developing surfaces on a computer or on a clay model, or both. You’ve got to be able to walk around it and touch it.

“Normally we would validate the clay in CAD but because of the tight time (with SST) we didn’t. However, we’re doing that now because we’re hoping the car will go into production.”

SST looks a lot like some of the work you did for Street Machine‘s Expression Sessions. How much did that work help you with designs for SST?

“I’d say it helped me because it’s just a matter of developing ideas. A lot of the stuff I did at Street Machine could be made that was the idea. A lot of people said SST looks very American, but while I’m quite happy to have it tied in with that, it was just meant to be different. The one-tonner was a blank canvas; we had half a car so what do we do on that back? There was a bit of mixing and matching, like a turret swap, but there was a lot of work developing harmonious surfaces to get the result we wanted.”

So do you basically just do what you want until you get a defined brief from the boss?

“In the case of SST, yeah, but most jobs are a measured regime, like the VZ Monaro. I worked on the Pontiac GTO under direction from the US. We gave them different proposals and they went with what they liked. Perhaps the front is a bit long but that’s because we had to put a great big block of foam in front for US crash regulations. I think we made it look American and it’s doing very well.”

What do you think of the current state of street machining? Do you keep an eye on the scene?

“Absolutely. There are a few good cars out there; the ’54 Ford with the Magna roof was a nice thing. There are a lot of top cars being built, and there’s a re-emergence of customs. I’m very bored with Pro-Street. I was bored with it 10 years ago but I think there are some interesting customs being built and there is some interesting stuff coming out of the States, as always. The modified car business in general is looking for something new and different and I’m not sure what that will be but I think it’s got to be custom work, rather than just trying to make a racecar for the street.

“Custom body mods are coming back into their own because they can give a car more presence; everyone’s seen big wheels. The only problem with that is it relies very heavily on the skill levels of the builder to get a presentable result and they become expensive. But maybe that sorts the men from the boys.”

What would you build for Street Machine of the Year?

“I’d probably build a Mustang but SMOTY has to be a Holden or Falcon. I could think of a thousand things but the car I’d like to build would be… [long pause] It certainly wouldn’t have a blower though the bonnet I don’t think it adds to the look. I’d pick a VU or VY ute and do a semi-fastback, with maybe a Monaro turret on the ute body and try and create a two-plus-two so it still had a useable tray area but with little jump seats in the back.

“The shape of the ute lends itself to some nicely sculptured box- flared guards that sort of echo SST but integrated smoothly with the sides of the ute. And I’d probably do a removable targa-top roof. There are a lot of good things you can do with a ute – you can go over the top and no one would care.”

As an exterior designer, what are your favourite Aussie cars?

“I like the old VH Valiant Charger, I like its stubby V8 coupe look. I like XA-XB two-door Falcons, especially once they’ve got the right sized wheels under them; and the HG Monaro is probably my favourite Holden muscle car it’s absolutely sublime. They’re all coupes, I like two-doors. I think the HQ Monaro would be my top car; it just screams muscle.”