General Motors' 1950-Only C-Body Four-Door Fastback Sedan

"Fastback" designs where car roofs smoothly curved downwards toward the rear bumper were commonly found on American cars during the 1940s with some overlap at each end of that decade.  The last such fastbacks were 1952 model year Plymouth Concords and Chevrolet Fleetlines.  These were two-door models.  The last four-door fastbacks were 1951 Fleetline Chevrolets.

Those Chevrolet and Pontiac fastback models were built on General Motors' A-body platform.  GM also produced fastbacks on other platforms, the last of these being 1950 models using what I recently labeled the "lesser C-body."  These were variations of the GM C-body introduced for 1950 that were intended for use on Cadillacs and larger Buicks.

The so-called lesser version might also be called the "interim B-body."  It seems to have been called the B-body at GM at the time it was developed.  Yet it in practice served as a bridge between the previous B-body line and a new B-body introduced for 1951 and produced through 1953.  Most of those lesser or interim B-body cars appeared during the 1950 model year, followed by a few in 1951 and none thereafter, as best I can tell.

Cars using that temporary platform were Buick Specials (1950 model year only, and by far the most numerous produced), Cadillac model 61s (phased out during 1951), and Oldsmobile 98s for models years 1950 and 1951.  Fastback versions were offered for Buick and Oldsmobile, but not Cadillac.  And no fastbacks with that body were marketed for the 1951 model year.

General Motors' four-door fastback production for 1950 was 75,427 of which 73,035 were Buick Specials; only 1,778 were Olds 98s.

The Buick images below are of a for-sale car.  The Oldsmobile photos are via Mecum Auctions.

Gallery

1950 Buick Special Jetback 4-door sedan
1950 Buick grilles are famous (well, infamous for many observers) for those bars draping over the bumper.  I know they're kinda silly, but when I was a school-age kid I didn't mind them much.

Most '50 Specials had a fairly bold chrome bar along most of the side, positioned slightly above the rear wheel opening.  This entry-level model lacks it, but its appearance isn't degraded.

The backlight window is positioned high due to the effort to maximize trunk size.  Notchback designs were more practical in terms of both trunk capacity and driver rearward visibility, so they prevailed over fastbacks.

1950 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Town Sedan
The same basic car, of course, but with Olds 98 details.

This car is set lower to the ground than normal.