One of General Motors' most interesting concept cars from around 1990 was the 1988 Cadillac Voyage (background
here).
Unlike some concepts, this wasn't a motorless "pushmobile." It even appeared in the 1993 Sylvester Stallone movie "
Domolition Man."
The Voyage's design was wind tunnel tested, though GM stylists used enough straight-edge and angular detailing to avoid the overly-rounded appearance seen on recent Fords. As shown below, some of the styling spirit of the Voyage found its way onto later GM production cars. The Voyage images are from GM.
Gallery
Front quarter view. Being a concept car, it has small bumpers. Windows are large, a carryover from 1970-80 "three-box" design practice. Note the cutline above the front wheel opening. According to the first link above, that panel pivoted when the wheel turning angle was large enough, thus fixing (with some complexity) a problem with designs such as 1950-vintage Nashes featuring skirted front wheels.
High rear quarter view. This shows the see-through roof, a feature I hadn't been aware of until writing this post. The rear has a nicely styled theme using straight lines that stiffen the design while serving as counterpoint to the swoopy greenhouse curves. I like the tail light design.
Front. I assume those green colored areas flanking the grille are sequential turn indicator lights.
Side view. Too bad this didn't emerge as a production Cadillac.
Here is a 1992 or '93 Buick Riviera that has some of the spirit of the Voyage.
Left side view. I include this for comparison to the views of production cars below.
1992 Cadillac Seville, photo source unknown. Its profile is similar to the Voyage's, but the wheel openings are large and greenhouse shapes are more angular.
1994 for-sale Cadillac Seville Concourse sedan. Wheel openings are more squared-off and the lower body faintly echoes the Voyage.
A stronger Voyage echo can be seen on this 1994 Chevrolet Impala SS (Mecum auction photo) -- especially in the region of the passenger greenhouse profile and detailing.
You've gotta find a way to eliminate the occasional limited English ("swallow"?) spammy comments like that one. Meanwhile, the original 1991 aero Caprice with the partial rear wheel cutouts and no Hoffmeister kink is much closer to the Voyage concept.
ReplyDeleteI'm back. Spam gone. Good job. I'll shut up next time. Still right about the original Caprice though. It's clearly the progeny of the Cadillac concept.
ReplyDeleteI can also see in the rear window shape an evolution of what would've already been greenlit at that point for the GM10 Olds Cutlass Supreme sedan and the original Saturn SL.
ReplyDeleteThat isnt a Riviera. And movie is Demolition Man.
ReplyDelete