“The ’59 Chevy, see, is actually going the right way. It’s just that the car is built backward, a statement of self-expression by Phil Garner, conceiver and executor. It required 250 man-hours of planning and labor, the aim being a fully operational, drivable car. ‘IPs a tribute to the American automobile,’ says Garner. ‘Also to the American public, whose demand for the unique makes such things possible.'”

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After studying automotive design at ArtCenter, Pippa Garner, formerly known as Phil Garner, began her art career in Los Angeles in the 1970s. The artist subsequently became known for her visionary parody of consumerism, and her drawings and sculptures of imagined future vehicles. “The Garner Car: Direction of Things to Come?”, published in Esquire‘s November 1974 issue and photographed by Jeff Cohen, featured Garner’s modified “backwards” Chevrolet.