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AS THE OWNER OF A 1958 Edsel Citation convertible, I always enjoy seeing these orphans in your magazine. The 1960 Edsel that graced the cover of the November 2022 issue, and was commented on in the January issue, shows that this Edsel was based on the ’60 Ford body. The placing of the ’59 Pontiac grille in the ’60 Edsel was not just a result of designers being influenced by other manufacturers’ designs, but a direct order by the CEO of Ford, Ernest Breech. The Edsel was on the way out and Ford needed to make the ’60 Edsel as cheaply as possible.
Robin Jones was the designer just under, Jones explains that the original design for the ’60 Edsel had a vertical bar coming out of the front bumper and the hood was molded up and around this bar. They thought this design was the final product. One evening, just before the official okay for this design, Ernest Breech stopped by the studio and looked at the product. He told Jones to change it by getting rid of the vertical bar and to replace it with a piece like the one in the center of the grille of the ’59 Pontiac. He said he was flying out of the country the next morning and would be stopping by before he left to see and approve the new design. Jones says that the whole crew stayed up all night to address the change. At 8 a.m. Breech showed up, looked at the model and said “OK.” The Edsel had a side sweep of chrome that was just like the ’59 Pontiac. That was not part of Breech’s order, but part of the ongoing design. It was hard to tell any Pontiac fan that it wasn’t stolen, too.
