Ian Cameron, the former Rolls-Royce design chief who, to the horror of the entire car world, died aged 74 on Friday in a knife attack and apparent robbery at his home in Bavaria, will always be remembered with respect and admiration for the way he led the Rolls-Royce design renaissance that created the seminal Phantom limousine in 2003.
That car, which initially shocked luxury car aficionados with its sheer size and the boldness of its angular lines, soon came to occupy the position its creators intended at the very peak of the automotive pinnacle.
Both its non-conformist design cues and its new interpretation of what Rolls-Royce means in the modern era have guided the company’s designers ever since.
Small wonder Cameron’s influence was prominent in every new Rolls model launched until he retired in 2014, as well as the years since.
British-born Cameron, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1975, designed the Lancia Monte Carlo during his early career at Pininfarina in Turin.
He spent much of his design life at BMW, taking charge of 3 Series and Z8 exterior design before being chosen by BMW styling supremo Chris Bangle to recruit a 20-strong Phantom design team – a task that began within hours of the agreement between automotive moguls in July 1998 that BMW would take ownership of Rolls-Royce and VW would acquire Bentley.
Ian Cameron was the ideal man for the job. As a designer, he repeatedly proved both his creativity and his strength of will, but was also an affable leader who could command respect.
He was helpful and friendly to journalists too, though he preferred to deal with people who “knew stuff” because he knew so much stuff himself.
His retirement was regarded by colleagues as a serious loss to the design business, but it was always clear he’d find ways to keep his hand in. Which he did on his own terms with lecturing and consultancy jobs.
To create the Phantom, Cameron drew design talent not only from BMW’s Munich and Californian studios, but also from the Rover and Land Rover teams who were on BMW’s books at the time.
Well known for bold thinking but a stickler for authenticity who swotted up on Rolls history, Cameron based his core team for five months in a former Barclay’s bank building overlooking London’s Hyde Park, the sort of territory already inhabited by Rolls-Royces.
Three teams produced two exterior proposals each. Then two finalists were chosen to be modelled in full size, whereupon the project moved to Munich for completion.
Cameron, along with his equally famous fellow BMW lifer, the late Karl-Heinz Kabfell, made it possible under extraordinary circumstances for Autocar’s to report on Phantom progress at least a year ahead of the horde.
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