Dirk van Braeckel (born 19 February 1958 in Deinze),[1] is a Belgiancar designer. He is known for the designing of various models for Volkswagen Group, especially for the Bentley brand.
Career
Born in Deinze,[1] after leaving school, van Braeckel studied electrical engineering,[2] before joining Ford as an apprentice car designer in Cologne, West Germany.[1] Ford then agreed to sponsor him undertake a degree in car design at the Royal College of Art, London.[3]
On graduation, he joined Audi in 1984, working on external design[1] including the Audi A8 concept and Audi A3.[4] In 1993, Volkswagen Group boss Ferdinand Piëch personally chose him to be the design head for Volkswagen's newly purchased Škoda Auto division, where he revised the entire model line-up,[3] designing the Octavia and Fabia models.[1]
After Volkswagen purchased Bentley in 1998 from Vickers plc, van Braeckel joined the British-based company in August 1999 as Director of Design and Styling. His brief was to design a car that could sell in higher volumes than the $240,000 Bentley Arnage model. Van Braeckel designed the Bentley Continental GT, which in 2004 sold 5,983 units, exceeding forecasts by 62%,[3] and in 2009 the Bentley Mulsanne which was designed by him was launched.[5]
In 2007, van Braeckel was awarded the laureate of Antwerp's Christophe Plantin Prize, which honours Belgian citizens whose cultural, artistic or scientific activities contribute to the country's prestige abroad.[2] In 2008, van Braeckel was awarded the European Automotive Design Award by Designers (Europe).[1]
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