The world of car design lost one of its highest achievers last week with the death of Peter Horbury at the age of 72. Although you may not be too familiar with Peter’s name you will certainly know his designs which have included many iconic models. 

Peter was born in the North East of England and attended art college before joining the Chrysler design team in the 1970’s. He also worked for Ford twice, the Geely Group and Lotus plus doing freelance design work for Bentley, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Rolls-Royce, and Triumph among others. 

However, he is best known for three separate spells with Volvo. He is the man generally credited with taking the Volvo brand away from its traditional boxy design to produce the curvy premium luxury cars that have proved successful over the past few decades. Many in the industry say that it was Peter’s design inspiration that actually saved the company during its troubled years in the 1990s. 

Peter also played a key role in the design of the original Ford Sierra and the latest London Taxi.