This change took place during the 1950s, especially 1952-1955 as redesigned models got lower and lower bodies. Harley Earl, General Motors' styling vice president, had favored high hoods because they suggested powerful motors lucking under them. But even he, adept at trend-reversing, had his team lowering hoods by the 1954 model year.
What follows in the images below is not a fully-researched design history. It's simply suggestive of what was happening styling-wise in the USA at that time. Images are either factory photos or photos of cars listed for sale via the Internet.
A pre- World War 2 General Motors design featuring low, distinct fenders and a prominent hood.
Pinin Farina styled this iconic car. Most of the hood is lower than the front fenders. The highest part of the hood area is at the cowling, and about the same height as the fender peaks. This configuration was never quite duplicated in American designs aside from Chevrolet Corvettes, first-generation Ford Thunderbirds and perhaps a few other sporty cars.
By the late 1940s and early 1950s, style-leader General Motors cars retained prominent hoods.
I have considered this car as exemplifying the end of the styling evolutionary period that began in the early 1930s. This Ford's hood is above the fender line, but proportionately much lower than that on the contemporary Chevy in the previous photo.
The Ford Motor Company line was redesigned for 1952. Fender lines were higher and hoods were not much above.
Nashes were also redesigned that year with a small amount of input by Pinin Farina. In this photo the hood appears to be nested between the fenders. To some degree it was, though the highest parts of the hood along the centerline crest are actually slightly higher that the tops of the fenders.
If it weren't for the air intake- styled bulge atop the hood, the hood would be nested between the fenders aside from close to the cowling. This marks the most extreme 1950s USA example of this relationship. By the mid-1960s, in many cases hoods and fenders became blended shapes.
GM B and C bodies were redesigned for 1954. C bodies tended to have higher hoods, but B-body cars such as this Olds had hoods little higher than the front fenders.
The following model year GM A-bodies were redesigned. Like the Oldsmobile, this Pontiac's hood is close to fender level.
This year marked another redesign. Again, hoods are low, but not nested.
The redesigned '60 Fords featured a return the aft-slanting A-pillars. The hood and fenders are nearly blended.
Another iconic design, The central area of the hood is slightly higher than the fenders, but the fenders themselves are high. As a result, the side edges of the hood are very slightly nested by the tops of the fenders. Nevertheless, this configuration is a far cry from that of the Cisitalia due to differences in packaging the motor and other front-end engineering components.
"I have considered this car ('49 Ford) as exemplifying the end of the styling evolutionary period that began in the early 1930s." I consider it the beginning of the design period that continues to today. The only throwback bit was the split flat planes windshield. The GM ones were split but curved. Otherwise if you compare the postwar designs of Chrysler, GM, and Ford you can see that even though they were all more or less envelope bodies, the Chryslers were the most conceptually like the prewar designs, GM in the middle, and Fords were the most clean sheet postwar thinking. And that includes the hood shapes.
ReplyDeleteThat last photo: if I won the lottery (maybe I should buy a ticket?) I would spend $50K on one of those and then take it to some of those Jay Leno people and sink another $50K or whatever into it. I bet that with a modern drive train it might break 20 mpg like a Crown Vic! Also stop. Then of course hope I never got killed in a crash that you could walk away from with a Fiesta.
ReplyDeleteThe 1949 Mercury still has high hoods.
ReplyDelete