Rendering by Chrysler stylist Gil Spear - 1941
Many American cars were redesigned around 1940-1941. Absent the USA's December 1941 entry into World War 2, the next redesigns might have appeared around 1944. What would those cars have looked like?
Some clues are offered in design models by
Chrysler Corporation stylists made in the early 1940s. A few of these are shown below. Other models made around 1943 suggest postwar cars that might have been launched around 1947: these also are shown.
As it happened, there was great pent-up demand for new cars in the early postwar years, so most American manufacturers profitably produced facelifted prewar designs until around the 1949 model year when the redesigned Chrysler Corporation line appeared. Thanks to that delay, the projected circa-1947 designs pictured here never materialized.
Regardless, I find these stillborn designs fascinating, and hope that you do too.
Gallery
Design for a Chrysler Windsor, May 1941.
Chrysler New Yorker design, February, 1942 -- around the time wartime car production ceased.
Design with postwar Dodge sort of grille -- December 1941.
Rear quarter view of the same model. This seems to be a stock 1940-42 Chrysler Corporation six-window sedan body with flow-through fenders and other detail changes added. I will have more to say about that in a future post. Note that its right side fenderline differs from that on the left side shown in the previous photo. Perhaps Chrysler management was considering a major facelift for 1944 rather than a complete redesign.
Speculative design model, July 1943. This reminds me of such models prepared around the mid-1940s by General Motors stylists. According Collectible Automobile magazine, the date on the plaque is incorrect.
Rear view. It's not clear to me where the motor would be placed.
Chrysler model with February 1943 date plaque in the photo. This appears to be a continuation of the themes from 1941-42 shown at the top.
Same model from another viewpoint.
Another 1943 study.
This might be a hardtop roadster or hardtop convertible. If the latter, visibility from the back seat would have been limited. Not a great design, but the best of the lot, given my 2020 perspective.
The final design uses hidden headlamps a la the '42 Desoto. Perhaps suggesting that Chrysler was looking at rolling that concept into its other car lines?
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I suddenly want a 1949 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Town Sedan. With a modern drive train, disc brakes, air conditioning and power steering of course. Now, where did I put that $100K I had lying around?
ReplyDeleteThat July 1943 design looks like the beginning of the Forward Look and its windshield is compound curves and side panels seem like the 1955 Dodge.
ReplyDelete