The
Nash Rambler, launched during the 1950 model year was the most successful American postwar "compact" car. Not so successful were the early 1950s Henry J from Kaiser, the Aero Willys and the Hudson Jet.
Eventually, a redesign was called for, resulting in the 1956
Rambler from American Motors Corporation (AMC, created by a merger of Nash and Hudson in the spring of 1954). Ramblers for the 1955-56 model years were badged as either Nash Rambler or Hudson Rambler. Beginning in 1957, Rambler became a distinct brand.
Given the lead-time required for the creation and production of a new design, it seems likely that styling of the 1956 Rambler line was started before AMC was created.
Edmund Anderson, a veteran of General Motors, joined Nash in 1950 and was responsible for Nash and AMC styling until his departure in 1961.
The previous link suggests that Anderson might have been more an administrator than designer, but was good at hiring talented stylists. Whatever the design situation was at Nash and AMC in roughly 1952-55, the resulting Rambler was an odd-looking car both in the context of its times and even today.
Unless noted, the images below are either factory-derived photos or are pictures of cars listed for sale.
Gallery
Setting the scene -- a four-door 1955 Rambler sedan.
And a 1955 Rambler station wagon. Its roofline theme was carried over to the 1956 redesign.
1956 Rambler 4-door hardtop. This design was significantly longer than previous Nash Ramblers. Its windshield is panoramic/wraparound in line with mid-1950s American styling fashion. The three-color paint scheme (usually black, white and an accent color) was also fashionable.
Front view. Headlights were set inside the grille frame, a feature found on 1955 and 1956 Nash full-size cars. I find this ensemble awkward, even incoherent. Perhaps a better solution using the same elements would place the vertical bars in the upper two levels, leaving the lower level blank.
Quasi-side view. The panoramic windshield design seems cramped, ungraceful. The dominant feature is the heavy C-pillar that is over-emphasized by having two colors pass over it. This paint scheme does relate somewhat to body elements, but mostly serves to disguise them. I suspect that the general form of the passenger compartment "greenhouse" was strongly influenced by engineering, rather than styling, considerations.
This isn't the best possible view of the rear end, but it was the best I could find at the time. It is a four-door sedan -- note the full-height B-pillar. The various details work together poorly for the most part.
Alternative three-color side trim for "Sedan Custom" model. Apparently the wrap-over-the-C-pillar paint scheme was criticized by potential buyers, so this revised pattern was offered. It is an improvement, and the wrap-over was only offered for 1956 Ramblers.
Rambler "Super" with its simplified two-color paint scheme. It too has that wrap-over, but provides us a better feeling for the body design. Besides the awkward grille design mentioned above, an improvement would have been to eliminate the panoramic windshield, replacing it with a conventional A-pillar (though that might have been risky from a marketing standpoint at the time).
1956 Rambler Cross Country station wagon, hardtop (pillarless) version. The stepped aft roofline is a carryover from the previous Rambler design: compare to the second image from the top.
Barrett-Jackson auction photo showing the station wagon's rear.
The 1956 Rambler's design is something of a mystery to me. Anderson and his staff were competent, yet the cars were not attractive: Why? I suggested above that engineering considerations and styling fashions might have been factors. Another possible factor was the need (as seen by Nash president George Mason) for Ramblers to be distinct from normal American styling and design practice. This was true of his original compact Nash Rambler that was first offered as a well-equipped convertible rather than a stripped-down compact sedan. The first Ramblers were reasonably successful in the marketplace, and so was the design discussed here. Apparently beauty isn't always everything.
5 comments:
That's not a wrap around windshield - it's a Scena-ramic wrap around windshield! Also, not a weird C column, but a Fashion Safety Arch! And not only the sedan but the station wagon was available in four door hardtop versions. A perfect one of those is worth a bazillion dollars today. They also had integrated air conditioning at a relatively low price for the time. Another thing that makes these look different from other cars is the very vertical sides. The body is flat and windows are not set in much from the body, resulting in maximum shoulder room in a narrower body, something they touted. Essentially a normal Big 3 greenhouse on a narrower body. Also power brakes standard on upper models and power steering optional. On the downside, the coil spring rear suspension used a lot of space resulting in a high rear floor in the wagons, something that continued in the new 1963's and did not go well spacewise with the lower rather than higher like some others rear roof section. This was an odd mistake for a car that was supposed to be super space efficient - they could have used leaf springs on the wagons, forgotten the lower roof, and gained half a foot of interior height.
The strange front end with narrowly spaced inset headlights was probably off-putting when all other cars had traditional grilles and headlights. They sold the headlight position as Safety-vu headlights, the lower position as cutting through weather. The (awesome) 1961 Lincoln really had a conceptually similar if way more successful front end design.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/AMC/1956_AMC/1956_Rambler_Brochure/dirindex.html
The AC system was introduced on the 1954 Nash and priced at $3200 in 2020 dollars, apparently cheaper than others. Probably about the same in these. Anyway I woulda coughed up the $$$. I always loved having the option of cool windows up summer highway travel. The wagon shown was about $22K in 2020 dollars.
Everything I've ever read about the 1956 Rambler tells me that it was George Romney's "baby", the car he threw the remainder of the company's money at in a last ditch effort to save Nash/Hudson AMC. It was also the reason the big Nash and Hudson cars died a quiet death in 1957. The styling was both harking back to older Nash products but also trying to pick up on the current trends to make it a seller against the Big Three, especially GM who were the style leaders at the time. Personally, I think the Rambler managed to look more modern then either of the Big Three's offerings for 1956, and a lot less gimmicky. The '56 Rambler has been called the car that saved AMC, and however awkward it may look now, it certainly did just that.
That's actually one of my favorite AMC models!
Perhaps it is 20/20 hindsight, but when Rambler came out with the American in 1958(?)- which was a repop of the early 1950s Rambler, why did they not also make a four door and a remake of the 1955 wagon (with unskirted front wheels)? The 1956 Rambler was facelifted and carried on until, if I recall, 1962. As I recall there were rust issues, and few were ever seen, say, into the 1970s when I recall seeing even some 1955 Plymouths. Great article as always.
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