You never know what you’ll find at a garage or estate sale. One gearhead on the hunt for antique tractor parts in Western New York stumbled across a treasure trove of GM history, and all it cost him was two cases of Busch Light beer. What A Find! GMLast year, Josh Quick grabbed a pile of tractor components from a farm sale and thrown in with these parts was an old binder full of vehicle sketches. In total, this collection contains nearly 80 pages of historically significant pencil drawings, illustrations that are dated from way back in the summer of 1940, a golden age of automotive design.A glimpse into a future that never was, these sketches focus on upcoming Buicks that could have been introduced in 1942. Unfortunately for GM and millions of people across the planet, World War II got in the way, and none of these designs ever made it into production. An All-Star Lineup Of Designers GMThe drawings were created by a range of artists working at the Detroit Institute of Automobile Styling, something the automaker describes as “a General Motors-operated school that launched the careers of some of the greatest car designers in history.” This organization was founded by legendary designer Harley Earl, a GM icon that established the manufacturer’s Art & Colour division, yes, colour with a “u.”“[Earl] was looking for designers, but he had to train them as well, because there were no schools at the time that had a curriculum in automotive or transportation design,” explained Christo Datini, manager of the GM Design Archive & Special Collections in a media release.GMThese sketches are the work of many, many individuals, some of whom would go on to become automotive legends later in life. The binder includes drawings from Ned Nickles, who helped create the 1963 Buick Riveria; Gene Bordinat is represented here, too, who would rise through the ranks to become a vice president at Ford; Ed Glowacke eventually led Cadillac design; Clare MacKichan helped create the first-generation Corvette as well as Chevy’s legendary “tri-five” models, the 1955, ’56 and ’57 cars; even Elwood Engel is included here. He would become a world-famous designer, renowned for his work at Chrysler over the course of several decades. Still A Mystery GMObviously, this binder full of illustrations is an incredible find, a missing piece of Detroit’s storied history. The fact that these incredible sketches survived for nearly 90 years in atrocious storage conditions is amazing on its own, but that they were haphazardly tossed in with a pile of agricultural components and sold for a few cans of beer is even more astonishing. These drawings could have been lost to the ages countless times over the years, and yet, through a curious twist of fate, they persisted.GMWhat’s also a mystery is why these documents were found in New York, hundreds of miles from the Motor City. Regardless of the backstory, these drawings have been acquired by GM. Each page has been digitized, while the originals are stored in the automaker’s design archives.GM“All of these pioneering designers flowed through GM. You can follow that story from 1927 all the way up to today,” said Datini. “General Motors Design has always been a training ground,” and this treasure trove of illustrations gives us an unprecedented look at what things were like during the automaker’s earliest days.