Designer spotlight - Ian Callum

You may not have heard of Ian Callum, who retired this week, but the prolific car designer is the man behind some of the most awesome cars you’ve never been able to afford, including the Ford RS200 and Escort Cosworth.

Callum joined Ford in 1979 designing "bits of cars, mostly steering wheels". It wasn’t long before his designs were making a huge impact though, the Ford RS200 and Escort Cosworth still stand out as design classics, even today. 

Callum progressed up the ranks to Design Manager responsible for the Ghia Design Studio, in Turin, Italy, where he worked on noticeable design studies, including the Fiesta-based Zig and Zag concept cars pictured here.

After eleven years at Ford, Callum joined forces with fellow designer Peter Stevens and racing driver Tom Walkinshaw to form TWR Design, and immediately caused a splash, jointly designing Aston Martin’s stunning DB7.

In 1999, Callum was appointed Design Director at Jaguar – a Ford subsidiary at the time – where he has spent the past 20-years sculpting some of the companies most memorable vehicles, including the one-off Jaguar C-X75 Bond villain car that starred in the 2015 film Spectre, the stunning Jaguar C-X16, and more recently the Jaguar F-Pace.

See more Ford heritage stories.

Follow @FordEU