Monday, March 18, 2024

General Motors 1948-1949 C-Body 4-Door Sedans

This post is one of a series dealing with General Motors' A, B, and C-bodies from the late 1930s into the 1950s.  Today's focus is the C-body used on line-topping models of three brands for 1948 and 1949.

I find it interesting that this C-body was so short-lived; typically, a GM body would be in production for three or four model years around 1950.  The subject C-body was used for 1948-1949 Oldsmobile 98s, 1948-1949 Cadillacs, and for 1949 Buick Supers and Roadmasters -- 1949 being an extended model year for Buick.

C-body wheelbases varied considerably.  The shortest was that of the Buick Super: 121.0 inches (3073 mm).  Next were the Oldsmobile 98 at 125.0 inches (3175 mm), Buick Roadmaster and Cadillac 61 and 62 at 126.0 inches (3200 mm), and finally the Cadillac 60 Special at 133.0 inches (3378 mm).  Side-view images below illustrate how these different wheelbases were dealt with in terms of bodywork.

Of design interest is how successfully Harley Earl's divisional styling teams were able to create visual brand personalities on that basic body platform.

Unless noted, images below are photos of car listed for sale.

Gallery

1948 Oldsmobile Futuramic 98
Oldsmobile design was one of the "cleanest" of the C-bodies.

1949 Buick Super - Mecum Auctions photo
Buicks featured hood sculpting, fender "portholes" and a wide, "toothy" grille.  Even more detail was in the form of turn-signal lights with trailing chromed strips atop the front fenders.

1948 Cadillac 62
Entry-level Cadillac 61s looked the same as 62s other than lacking the chromed panel abaft of the front wheel opening.

1948 Cadillac 60 Special
Also a "clean" design in terms of lack of chrome trim.

1948 Oldsmobile Futuramic 98
Simple rear styling in the form of cascading rounded shapes.  Modest tail lights.  The backlight window is in two sections because auto glass forming technology was not quite up to production of single-unit windows of that size.  The problem was probably production wastage rates, solved shortly later.

1949 Buick Super - Mecum Auctions photo
Even more cascading elements -- note the aft ends of the rear fenders.  Backlight is in three segments here.

1948 Cadillac 62
The 1948 model year marked the first appearance of Cadillac tail fins.  Cadillac had been using three-segment backlights since 1934, as I wrote here.  So it was as much a brand-identifier than only a technical feature.

1948 Cadillac 60 Special
Much larger trunk than on the other cars.

1949 Buick Super
Not a well-preserved car, but it's the best side-view I currently have of a car with the shortest C-body wheelbase.

1949 Oldsmobile Futuramic 98
The 98's longer wheelbase was accommodated forward of the cowling.  Compare the distance from the forward cutline of the front door to the aft edge of the wheel opining.  Abaft of the cowling the sheetmetal is almost identical.  (I don't have a good side view of a 1948 98, so this '49 model will have to do.)

1949 Buick Roadmaster
Wheelbase only an inch (25.4 mm) longer so little or no body adjustment for that.  Fender portholes and chrome trim help make this Buick distinct from the Oldsmobile.

1948 Cadillac 62 - Barrett-Jackson Auctions photo
Chrome trim detail and the tail fin help to differentiate the Cadillac.  But note that the passenger compartment greenhouses, doors, side window shapes, and basic fender shapes are the same on all these cars.

1949 Cadillac 60 Special - Mecum
Significantly longer wheelbase.  Greater length forward of the A-pillar.  Also some lengthening in the vicinity of the C-pillar, though it's difficult to specify exactly where, based on these images.  The greenhouse seems the same, but the rear axle line is closer to the backlight, and the rear fender leading edge is farther aft on the rear side door than on the other cars.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Merkur Scorpio and First-Generation Mercury Sable Compared

I noticed something, and it seems it also was noted here in Wikipedia's entry on the Merkur Scorpio.

Merkur was a Ford Motor Compay brand that briefly (1983-1989) existed in the USA.  The name was German for "Mercury" and the cars were imported from there.  It seems the idea was to climb on the American preference trend for European executive-class cars, hence the European origin and the foreign brand name.

Two types of Merkurs were imported.  A two-door hatchback XR4Ti (model years 1985-1989) entered the American market first, followed (1988-1989) by a four-door hatchback called the Scorpio.  The XR4Ti was an Americanized Ford Sierra XR4i and the Scorpio was an altered German Ford Scorpio Mk. I (UK Ford Granada Mk. III).

What was noticed, as hinted above, was the similarity of passenger compartment greenhouses of the Merkur Scorpio 4-door hatchback (launched in Europe for 1985) and the Mercury Sable sedan introduced for model year 1986.

I think I have a pretty good personal automobile reference library.  But it isn't good enough to let me know  the details of German Scorpio Mk. I styling process.  However on the Internet, Uwe Bahnsen's Wikipedia entry credits him with styling the Ford Scorpio Mk. I / Grenada Mk. III.  Not mentioned is the car's greenhouse.  The link to the Sable states that its design was created in the USA, but the window motif "borrowed design elements from the Ford Scorpio liftback sedan, using blacked-out B, C, and D-pillars for a 'floating roof' effect."  This seems reasonable, since the German Scorpio entered production slightly earlier and there surely were communication channels between Ford's German and American design operations.

Now let's look at those designs.

Gallery

1986 Mercury Sable - factory photo
The Sable and its stablemate Ford Taurus were the first "standard size" examples of Ford's 1980s aerodynamic design effort in America.

1988 Merkur Scorpio - photo via Haggerty
The Merkur's shape and detailing are remarkable similar aside from some frontal details.  This makes me wonder that there might have been more Transatlantic linkage than suggested above.

1987 Mercury Sable - unknown photo source
Sable sedans had conventional trunk lids.  So did non-hatchback German Scorpio sedans (that had C-pillars not clad by window glass).

1988 Merkur Scorpio - via Haggerty
Note the hatchback profile.

1992 Mercury Sable - possibly a factory photo
Now for the similarity.  The C- and D-pillars are fully clad by window glass, forming a smooth exterior.  Side window glass is positioned very far outward.  The combined effect is a smoothly shaped passenger greenhouse that seemed startling to many observers, including me, when first appeared.

1988c. Merkur Scorpio - unknown photo source
The same positioning for side glass and the glass-clad pillars are found on the Merkur Scorpio and its European sources.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud Walkaround

Rolls-Royce began building its own car bodies in 1949 when the Silver Dawn model was launched.  Of the in-house designs starting then, I think the best looking was the early-series Silver Cloud that appeared in 1955.

Here in America it gained attention by David Ogilvy's famous "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock" advertisement that I mentioned in my post "The Rolls-Royce with the Noisy Clock".

Wikipedia states that the lead stylist for the Silver Cloud was John Blatchley.  Two quotes of interest from Wikipedia (as of 21 May 2023) are:

"John Polwhele Blatchley (1 July 1913 – 16 February 2008) was a London-born car designer known for his work with J Gurney Nutting & Co Limited and Rolls-Royce Limited.  He began his career as designer with Gurney Nutting in 1935, moving up to Chief Designer before leaving in 1940 to join Rolls-Royce.  There he served as a draughtsman (1940–43), stylist in the car division (1943–55), and chief styling engineer (1955–69)."

"Development of new models continued but the designs presented to the board meeting which would decide on the new model to be introduced in 1955 were rejected as being too modern.  In the space of a week Blatchley produced a complete new concept to the board's requirements and it was immediately accepted... This became the Silver Cloud and S Type [Bentley], Rolls-Royce's last standard models based on a separate chassis."

Walkaround  images below are of a 1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud Sedan by Bring-a-Trailer Auctions.  The car has the standard 123-inch (3124 mm) wheelbase.

Gallery

The famous advertisement by David Ogilvy.  Click on the image to enlarge.

The classic Rolls-Royce Radiator grille design was retained -- but got increasingly altered in future redesigns.

It wasn't as easy at it might seem to combine the classic grille and hood with an envelope-type body where most element were integrated, rather than separate (as they were before the mid-1930s). 

The passenger compartment greenhouse hints of "razor edge" English coachbuilder designs of the 1930s and '40s.  

The trunks shape is rather bland, but that might have been necessary so as not to compete with and detract from other, more important details.

It doesn't even carry the Rolls-Royce logotype that's found below, on the bumper.

The character lines on the fender sides add interest and help reduce potential slab-sidedness.  Chrome trim in their place would have been disastrously undignified for "The Best Car in the World."

The fenderline is in line with post- World War 2 styling fashion.  The basic profile resembles that of the redesigned 1950 Buick Roadmaster line. 

But the rear fender retains a greater degree of separation due to its stronger front edge.  Besides the grille, frontal details that link the design to the past are the headlight assemblies and the rounded fender fronts.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

1938 Buick Y-Job Concept Car

Some folks call General Motors' Buick Y-Job (Wikipedia entry here, more information here) the first - or perhaps first American - concept car.

I dispute that, citing the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair where the Briggs-Tjaarda Sterkenburg, ancestor of the 1936 Lincoln-Zephyr, the Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow and Cadillac's more conventional looking  Aerodynamic Coupe were displayed.

Nevertheless, the Y-Job is important in the history of automobile styling.  That's because it was GM's first publicly displayed explicit concept, and that it indeed previewed features found on the corporation's production cars by the early 1940s.  I must add that it was far better-looking than the Sterkenburg and Silver Arrow (see the last link for images).

Below are some General Motors photos of the Y-Job taken in 1938 and 1940.

Gallery

The most important feature is the "suitcase" shape front fender that extends onto the door.  This first appeared on an American GM car for the 1941 model year, and was nearly-universal on the 1942 line.

Buick used a similar grille design for 1942.  The canvas top is not especially attractive, and most publicity photos have it retracted.

"Speed lines" on the fenders also appeared on future GM production cars.

The Y-Job's rear is not predictive of future production models, given the trunk lid's boat-tail shape.

The styling is basically attractive, though details such as the grill shape and rear end lights are not well integrated with the body sculpting.

Monday, March 4, 2024

Circa-1949 Packards - What a Difference a Chrome Strip Made


Above is a 1948 Packard Custom Eight Touring Sedan for sale in Finland.  It was the top-of-the-line sedan (excluding limousines) with a wheelbase of 127 inches (3226 mm).  Lesser 1948-1950 Packards had a wheelbase of 120 inches (3048 mm).  Both types are shown below.

Packard heavily facelifted its excellent 1941 Clipper design for the 1948 model year in order to present a "postwar" face to the buying public.  Noses were rounded, grilles placed lower and restyled, and -- most noticeably,  fenders were merged into featureless slab sides.  Given that Packards were large cars to begin with, those slab sides made Packards seem ponderous.  Nevertheless, they sold well for the first two years until the design looked dated.

Packard stylists and management were aware of the visual bulk design problem, so in the middle of the 1949 model year, Packard introduced a new series.

 Rather than designating its models by year, from the 1920s Packard referred to its cars by annual sequential series numbers, not by model years.  Some exceptions: There was No 13th Series.  And the 21st Series covered both the 1946 and 1947 model years.  This difference between series number and model year ended in the 1950s when series numbers coincided with model year designations.  During the 1948-1950 period dealt with in this post, the series business became a bit complicated.  The 22nd Series (1948 model year) was extended well into the 1949 model year.  Then the 23rd Series was announced, and it continued through the 1950 model year.  In the discussions in the Gallery below, 1948 Packards are labeled as such, but are understood to be 22nd Series cars.  And 1950 models are understood to be of the 23rd Series.  For 1949, series numbers are made explicit.

We are dealing with a 23rd Series feature added to 22nd Series models.  An inexpensive means of reducing the visual bulk of those slab-sided 22nd Series Packards was the application of a bold, horizontal chrome strip a bit above the midpoint of the fenders.  It was effective, though the ultimate cure was a redesigned set of bodies for model year 1951.

Gallery

1948 Packard Eight DeLuxe Touring Sedan - car-for-sale photo
The short-wheelbase four-door Packard sedan.  Being shorter, it didn't look quite so bulky as the longer cars.  Not a good design, regardless.

1950 Packard Eight Deluxe Touring Sedan - photo via Hemmings
In all cases, the new chrome strips were place atop the front wheel openings and touched the redesigned tail alight assembles at the rear.  These unifying visual anchors helped to establish the desired increased visual length.

1949 22nd Series Packard Eight DeLuxe Club Sedan - Mecum Auctions photo
Two-door Club Sedans had a more racy appearance due to their fastback profile.  Working against that was the heaviness due to large sheet-metal areas on those passenger compartment greenhouses -- something added fender chrome strips could not alter.

1949 23rd Series Packard Eight Club Sedan - car-for-sale photo
That said, the chrome strip was helpful on Club Sedans.

1948 Packard Custom Eight Touring Sedan - Mecum
Long-wheelbase 4-door Packard.  22nd Series Custom Eights had two thin chrome strips low on the sides, but these did little to reduce the visual bulk.

1950 Packard Super Deluxe Touring Sedan - car-for-sale photo
23rd Series Custom Eight Packards retained those lower strips along with the new mid-level strip.  The Super Deluxe range shown here was given the 127-inch wheelbase for the 23rd Series, so this car is equivalent to the one in the previous image.  Again, the new chrome strip is helpful.  Note that the front of the strip includes that famous Packard pen-nib detail, a touch that was abandoned on 22rd Series cars.

1948 Packard Custom Eight Convertible Victoria - RM Auctions photo
Convertibles are intrinsically more racy than similar models with structured passenger compartment greenhouses.  For that reason, 22nd Series Packard convertibles didn't seem so bulky as sedans and have remained popular with car collectors.

1950 Packard Super Deluxe Convertible Victoria - BaT Auctions photo
As usual, the chrome strip enhances appearance.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Austin-Healey Sprite Mark I Walkaround


Austin-Healey Sprites (Wikipedia entry here) entered production in 1958, a run that lasted into 1971.  The best-known Sprite design (shown above) was what's now called the Mark I (of 1958-1961).  I posted about it here.

Today's post is a walkaround that offers more detail and evaluation than my previous effort.

The Sprite was an entry-level sports car where development and production costs were minimized perhaps more strongly than normal.  Maybe the best-known instance is the "Bug Eye"or "Frog Eye" headlight assemblies.

As I noted in my previous post: "... it was originally intended that the Sprite's headlights would be hidden when not in use.  They would pivot upwards when turned on in the manner of cars such as the Porsche 914.  However, this feature was rejected for reasons of cost.  Another solution would have been to place headlights on the front fenders, and this was done on the second-series Sprites."

With the passage of time, those headlights seem lovable for some folks.  But not me.  Yes, they made Sprites distinctive from a marketing standpoint, yet styling-wise, I consider them a negative.

Photos of the 1961 late-production Mark I Austin-Hearly Sprite featured below are via England's Historics Auctioneers.

Gallery

The face of the car has those prominent "eyes" and a grille in the form of a smiling mouth.  I don't know if that effect was intentional, but it might well have been.

The body has flat sides and rounded ends.  No sheet metal sculpting, no chrome trim on the sides.

Wheelwell openings are rounded, a simple and appropriate solution.

No trunk lid -- that didn't appear until the Mark IIs came along.  Note the attachment seams atop the fenderline above the tail lights.  Mark IIs were given new fenders similar to those later found on MGBs.

Rear bumper protection is skimpy.

Note the hood cutlines.  The entire body front pivoted upwards from hinges on the firewall -- a massive hood.  This too was changed on the Mark IIs.  Aside from the headlights, the side profile is simple.  But not totally so, as there is subtle curving of the fenderline/beltline.

The cockpit with its simple, Spartan dashboard.

The Mark I Sprite's design is basically pretty good, considering its intended price-point.  It would have been better if: (1) headlights were retractable as originally planned; (2) a different grille shape was used, perhaps a rectangular theme as found on the Mark IIs; and (3) there was a trunk lid for practical, not aesthetic reasons.