Robert has pursued parallel career paths for more than 50 years, first as a car designer, then as a writer specializing in design. The first car made to his sketches — a one-off known as the Parkinson Jaguar Special, which is still vintage-racing — was done when he was 15 years old. At 19, he was a General Motors designer, working chiefly on Corvettes, and he had been published in national magazin...