New Model Gamesmanship

For auto buffs and newspaper photographers, the liveliest game at this time of the year is matching wits against carmakers to get pictures of new car models before company officials release them. To guard against premature snooping, automakers cover their latest creations with white shrouds, hide them on dealers' roofs and behind high fences, usually move them about after dark. But enterprising newsmen have hired helicopters to spot the new models, often wait on street corners in hopes of snapping one as it passes by on its way to a dealer. Automakers defend their summer secrecy on the ground that early pictures of new cars encourage customers to wait for the new models in stead of buying current models. They also hope to achieve maximum publicity impact by releasing stories and pictures in all newspapers and magazines on a set day. Last week the game was on, with new models in production but official debuts still weeks away.

The buffs scored two victories against Chrysler. While passing the Plymouth plant in Detroit, U.P.I. Staff Photographer Joe Marquette caught the company with its guards down, spotted a group of 1961 Plymouth sedans behind a chain-link fence. He jumped from his car, snapped several pictures inside the gate before plant protection men gave chase. In Queens, N.Y., a sharp-eyed auto buff spotted both a new Plymouth Fury and a 1961 compact Valiant on a dealer's roof, stopped long enough to photograph them. Last month a Lansing, Mich, photographer made the biggest score of the season when he was tipped that the new Oldsmobile compact, the F-85, would appear on the street briefly for final inspection and testing. He laid in wait, got the shots and sold them to U.P.I.

Automobile pressagents impose strict release dates on pictures they supply the press in advance, but some of them privately admire the enterprise of photographers who get pictures of the new autos elsewhere. In fact, while holding sternly to the rules of the game officially, some pressagents are not above dropping a few hints to favored photographers as to how they might beat their competitors to the presses. Besides, explains one Detroit executive, "we just run out of shrouds after the new models get into fairly good production."

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