1957: Chrysler Corporation returns to One Body Platform for All Brands

Chrysler Corporation redesigns used a single body platform for all its brands from the mid-1930s through the 1952 model year.  For 1953-54, Plymouth and Dodge were given a new platform, while DeSoto and Chrysler had massive facelifts.  Then for 1955 those makes were again given separate platforms.

That ended with the 1957 redesign, where all Chrysler brands again shared a single platform.  Brand differences were carried out for the cars' front ends, especially.  Rear ends also differed.  In the 1930s and '40s, such differences might have been as trivial as taillight shapes, but rear end styling gradually became more distinctive thereafter.  For 1957, styling supremo Vergil Exner decreed that tail fins would be a signature Chrysler Corporation feature.  The result was that most brands had distinctive fin shaping, as seen in side views.

Below are side views of a four-door sedan from each of Chrysler's five brands.

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1957 Imperial - BaT Auctions photo
Chrysler Corporation's luxury brand received touches not found on lesser brands.  The windshield wraps at the top as well to the sides.  Also, the C-pillar in slanted, not vertical as seen in all the images below.  Imperials' wheelbases were three inches (76 mm) longer than Chryslers, for example, and this length was in the form of a stretched passenger compartment for greater rear seat legroom.

1957 Chrysler New Yorker - car-for-sale photo
From here down through the Corporation's brand-prestige ranks, the passenger compartment greenhouses are the same.

1957 DeSoto Firedome - Daniel Schmitt photo
Same wheelbase as the Chrysler New Yorker.

1957 Dodge Custom Royal - car-for-sale photo
Four inches (102 mm) less wheelbase than the Chrysler and DeSoto above.  The cut is in the form of a shorter front end.

1957 Plymouth Belvedere - BaT Auctions
Another four-inch (102 mm) wheelbase reduction here.  Note the various distances between the forward front door cutline and the front wheel openings.

1949 American Quasi-Fastback Designs

By "quasi-fastback" (A technical term that I just conjured up from mostly thin air) I'm referring to 1949-vintage cars having passenger compartment rooflines that taper downwards to fairly short trunk lids.  That concept might be clarified in the Gallery images below.

In the early, pre- entry of the USA to World War 2 years, fastback designs were thought to be the wave of the future.  (By "fastback," in that era, it's where the aft roofline essentially smoothly tapers downwards to the rear bumper.  Not all examples did exactly that, the curving terminating perhaps a short distance above the bumper.)

Fastback cars were popular in the early postwar years, so General Motors, especially, along with Nash, Packard, Plymouth, and Lincoln had some or all (Nash had all) fastback models in their portfolios.  But by around 1950, fastback cars rapidly fell out of favor with the buying public.  The last example from that era that I'm aware of is the 1952 Chevrolet Fleetline two-door sedan.

As I've mentioned in other posts dealing with fastbacks, I think the main reason why notchback designs became dominant was because they provided more room in their trunks than did comparable-size fastbacks.

The "quasi-fastbacks" discussed here featured notchback-size trunk capacity along with above-the-beltline fastback-style rooflines.  This style too was abandoned, the last in production were on 1954 Hudson Hornet and Wasp 4-door sedans.

Unless noted, images below are of cars listed for sale.

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1949 Hudson Commodore Six
Husdons were redesigned for the 1948 model year, but 1949 models were nearly identical.  Here the trunk lid is quite short and not boxy.  Nevertheless, the effect is that of a fastback whose profile had been interrupted.

1949 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Sport Sedan - Mecum Auctions photo
The passenger compartment profile is less fastback than Hudson's, though the sense of it is still clear.  The trunk profile is much more notchback here.  Despite detail differences, this car and the Hudson above echo one another to some degree.

1949 Lincoln Sport Sedan
This is the entry-level Lincoln.  Its profile is more similar to the Hudson's than is the Cosmopolitan's.  However, this is a four-window greenhouse, not a six-window as in the previous two images.

1949 Mercury Sport Sedan
Mercury and the basic Lincoln shared the same bodies for model years 1949-1951.  The Mecury's wheelbase was a bit shorter (compare the distances from the front wheel openings to the forward door cutlines)

1949 Dodge Wayfarer - BaT Auctions photo
There were no 4-door Wayfarer sedans.  The wheelbase is shorter than that for standard Dodges.  The rear profile is more similar to Mercury/Lincoln than to the Hudson and the Cosmopolitan.

1950 Plymouth XX-500 Concept Car's Inspiration

Chrysler Corporation's first postwar "concept car" was the Plymouth XX-500 of 1950 that wasn't actually a true Concept Car.  I wrote about it here in 2015.

I put the term "concept car" in quotation marks because the design was never an attempt to test styling features for future production consideration.  Instead, its main purpose was the evaluation of the assembly skill of its Italian coachbuilder -- Carrozzieria Ghia.

Also evaluated at the same time was Pinin Farina, whose work was judged marginally less excellent than Ghia's.  As David Holls and Michael Lamm explain in their essential book "A Century of Automotive Style," page 192:

"Both coachbuilders received chassis through Chrysler's overseas branch, and both fabricated sample bodies on them.  [Chrysler chairman] Keller didn't care what the designs looked like, but he wanted [Virgil] Exner to compare Ghia's and Pinin Farina's craftsmanship and standards of quality."

Based on what I've read on the internet and publications in my library, Chrysler supposedly included a body design along with those chassis, and Ghia opted to ignore it and build a body of its own design.  Another possibility is that both firms used in-house designs.  Unless there exists documentation in an old Chrysler Corporation archive, this matter probably will never be resolved, because the relevant events are now more than 75 years old.

Today's post presents images of the XX-500 along with a few of Ghia's 1949 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport Berlina designed by Giovanni Michelotti, who worked at Ghia at that time.  As images below indicate, the Alfa Romeo design abaft of the cowling/A-pillar was directly borrowed for the XX-500.

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Front quarter view of the Plymouth XX-500 that was first displayed at the March 1951 Chicago Auto Show.  Photos below show the car in a lighter paint scheme,  The above image might have been taken in Italy and the car repainted in Detroit.

Rear quarter view.

The Alfa Romeo Sport Berlina.

Another view.  Compare to the XX-500 shown below.

As noted, from the windshield aft, the design is essentially the same as that of the Alfa Romeo.  The passenger compartments and windows are almost the same.  The wheel openings are circular in both cases.  Door handle positions appear to be identical or nearly so.  The only difference is that the XX-500's front end is shorter and features a different grille, bumper and headlight ensemble.  Compare the distance from the front door's forward cutline to the front wheel opening.  Since Ghia already had experience with most of the design, it doesn't surprise me that build quality was better than that of Pinin Farina's who was building a new body design.  No wonder Ghia opted to ignore a possible Chrysler design.  If that actually happened, it won the firm many years of work for Chrysler.

1965 Chevrolet Corvair Coupe Walkaround

By the early 1930s, the concept of rear-engine automobiles became something of a fad that lasted for decades.

For example, the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress fair included the Briggs show car designed by John Tjaarda, as well as Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion car.  Then in 1934, the Czech Tatra 77 entered production.

A long list of rear-engine vehicles can be found here.  Included are such familiar names as Volkswagen, Porsche, Fiat, and Renault.  Also listed is the Chevrolet Corvair -- I deal with its second-generation design in the present post.

In the late 1950s, VW Beetle sales in America were rapidly increasing, and Renault's 4CVs and Dauphines were also fairly common on US streets.  So Chevrolet General Manager Ed Cole  launched the air-cooled rear-engine Corvair project.  When the original Corvair appeared for model year 1960, Cole was hailed by a number of auto industry observers as being a brave innovator.  College-age me agreed with that idea, and I still do.  He was brave and innovative in the context of his times.

However, despite the vibe that rear-engine cars were the rational wave of the future, it turned out that they had noticeable problems.  Some were relatively minor, such as likely reduction in trunk space if the trunk was up front where width was constrained by the need for front wheels to turn for maneuvering.

More serious was the fact that when driving on slippery surfaces, the heavier rear end of the car had a  strong tendency be pulled in a forward direction, that being nearer the car's center of gravity.  I have experienced that when driving VW Beetles in wintery Upstate New York.  Ditto even my "mid engine" Porsche 914 in the snowy Catskill Mountains area.

Activist leftist lawyer Ralph Nader published a book titled "Unsafe at Any Speed" in 1965 that effectively killed the Corvair brand.  Ironically, VW Beetle sales continued to flourish.  And, of course, classic rear-engine Porsches continue in production to this day.

I wrote about the 1965 second-generaton Corvair here.  An excerpt from that post is included in a Walkaround photo caption below.

The 1965 Chevrolet Corvair Monza Coupe shown below is a car listed for sale.

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In my previous Corvair post, I wrote: "Styling is consistent with General Motors practice at that time during the Bill Mitchell design supremo era.  Pleasant looking with no obvious major flaws.  Impressive, actually, considering the need to deal with a rear-engine layout."

Four-door Corvairs were slightly more conventionally proportioned than coupes due to their larger passenger compartment greenhouse.  Even so, in those days many front-engine American cars had long trunks and rear overhang coupled with proportionally short hoods.

Air-cooled engine air intakes abaft of the backlight window seem surprisingly small.

From this perspective, one could hardly tell that the car's motor was in the rear.

The flowing fender line is similar to that found on standard-body '65 Chevrolets

Somewhat stubby front end with limited trunk space.

The front bumper looks delicate, and its face isn't far enough forward to do a good job of protecting frontal bodywork.

Like today's electric cars, there was no need for a grille -- not even a fake one.

The dashboard.  Simple, functional.

Count Mario Revelli di Beaumont: Independent Stylist

When researching this post dealing with the 1937 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300B Berlinetta by Pinin Farina, I discovered that the car's stylist was a member of Italy's nobility -- Conte Mario Revelli di Beaumont, and not Pinin Farina himself.  In that post I noted:

"According to the carrozzieri-italiani.com web site, the stylist was Conte Mario Revelli di Beaumont, an independent designer who produced designs for a variety of coachbuilding firms.  Background on Ravelli in English is here.  His Italian language Wikipedia entry is here, and his entry in French is here, noting that in the second half of the 1930s he worked with Pinin Farina and Bertone."

He was highly competent, working for major Italian coachbuilding firms (though apparently not Touring) as a freelance designer.  I haven't found why he seemingly never was exclusively employed by a single Italian firm.  (Though postwar, he spent some time at General Motors.)  Perhaps, due to his ancestry and status, he already had sufficient outside sources of income to offset inactive periods between design gigs.

As for me, I'm a bit embarrassed that I wasn't aware of him, though I must have passed over his name when researching various designs.  Because now, researching him, I find all sorts of mentions of him on the internet.  C'est la vie, I suppose.

By the way, another useful reference on Mario Revelli (1907-1985) is "Mario Revelli: The Most Prolific Car Designer You’ve Never Heard Of" here.

Below are some 1934-1950 designs with which Revelli is associated.

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1934 Lancia Augusta Coupe Aerodinamica by Stabilimenti Farina - photo via Lopresto Collection

1938 Fiat 1500 Berlinetta Aerodinamica by Ghia
Headlight assembles seem similar to those on the "Sharknose" 1938 Graham.  The grille design also has an American feeling.

1941 Fiat 1500C Coupe by Bertone, completed c.1945 - photo via Museo Nicolis

1936 Lancia Astura III Tipo Bocca Cabriolet by Pinin Farina- RM Sotheby's photo
One of Revelli's most outstanding designs.

1942 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS by Bertone - photo via Montesquieu-Volvestre
Variant of the Fiat 1500 above, but completed earlier.

1950 Simca Huit-Sport Cabriolet by Stabilimenti Farina - photo via carrozzieri-italiani.com
Revelli had no trouble adjusting to postwar styling trends.

1937 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300B Pescara Berlinetta by Pinin Farina - unidentified auction photo
Subject car of the post mentioned above.

1938 Fiat 1500 Berlina - RM Sotheby's photo
Unlike some of the cars pictured here, the Fiat 1500, launched in 1935, was produced in large numbers.   Note the aerodynamic features that were nearly contemporaneous with those of the ill-fated (in terms of sales ) 1934-37 Chrysler Airflow.  Revelli had a strong interest in Aerodynamics.

1979 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz

Following the 1973 Yom Kippur war and resulting oil price increases, American carmakers began serious planning to reduce the sizes and weights of their offerings in the name of increasing fuel economy.  By the early 1980s, in response to governmental actions, automobiles began to appear whose shapes were wind tunnel tested to increase aerodynamic efficiency and help improve fuel economy.

General Motors' large, luxury-oriented models were beginning to be resized towards the end of the 1970s.  For example, the 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham wheelbase was 133 inches (3378 mm) and the 1977 wheelbase was 121.5 inches (3086 mm).  The 1978 Eldorado wheelbase was 126.3 inches (3208 mm), then reduced to 114 inches (2896 mm) for 1979.

Today's post deals with the 1979 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, the Biarritz being the top-of-the line Eldorado.  Some background on various Biarritz iterations can be found buried in this Wikipedia entry about Cadillac Eldorados.

Although Irv Ribicki took over as GM's Design Vice President in August 1977, the 1979 Eldorado line was largely styled when Bill Mitchell had the job.   Which is a reason why the design was basically pleasing, competently done.

1979 Biarritzes were Eldorados with fancier trim.

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1979 Cadillac Eldorado Coupe - car-for-sale photo
The basic Eldorado design shown here is a "three box" affair.  The wide C-pillar was a fashionable feature dating back to the likes of the 1958 Ford Thunderbird.  Its major shape components are subtly curved, helping reduce visual boxiness.  The only fussy part of the design is the grille-headlights-bumper ensemble at the front.  Rectangular headlights were common in those days, so they were used and supplemented by rectangular auxiliary lights set below them.  The grille shape is rectangular as its grid pattern.  Note the lack of Vinyl on the roof.

1979 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Coupe - GAA Auctions photo
Now for Biarritz images.  Here is one with a two-tone effect in the form of roof Vinyl of a different color from the main body color.  (What appears to be darker body color below the side character lid is probably the base color at a different angle from sunlight.)

1979 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Coupe - BaT Auctions photo
Regular Eldorados had chromed swaths along the lower body, but Biarritzes got a thin, horizontal chrome strip along the body's side crease.  For some reason this for-sale car is "riding high."

1979 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Coupe - car-for-sale photos
This car's top is different.  Vinyl on the cars shown above covered the entire top metal.  The variant shown here featured Vinyl no farther forward than the front edge of the C-pillar.  The front two-thirds of the top were covered by what appears to be an aluminum panel.

Rear design is the same as basic Eldorados aside from the word "Biarritz" on the right side of the trunk lid.

The white pattern seen along the beltline and front edge of the C-pillar is actually shiny chrome reflecting the sky.

1979 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz Coupe - car-for-sale photo
Rectangular instrument panel detailing was also a styling fashion in those days.

1939/1940 BMW 328 Mille Miglia ‘Büegelfalte’ Fender Design

One aspect of the rapid evolution in automobile styling of the 1930s was shaping of fenders.  At the start of the decade, fenders typically were thin (in profile) and ogive-shaped, aft ends blending into running boards.  Then fender skirts appeared while fenders became more rounded in cross-section.  Profiles became teardrop-shaped.  Then some General Motors cars began featuring "suitcase" profiles.  Towards the end of the thirties aft ends of front fenders began creeping over front doors, while lurking in the background during the decade were "tank" bodies, where there weren't fenders at all -- wheel openings being cut into the body's sides.  These few cases mostly were racing cars.

By 1939 those creeping fenders finally touched forward edges of rear fenders in a few instances.  But not in "flow through" style as seen on American cars circa 1948-49.

Today's post features an attractive example: the rebodied 1937 BMW 328 Mille Miglia rennwagen -- racing roadster.  Some background is here:

"In autumn 1939, the car was dismantled at the BMW factory’s racing division in Milbertshofen before being extensively re-engineered and used as the basis for even more streamlined bodywork in preparation for the 1940 season and the Mille Miglia in particular.  To that end, BMW built both an aerodynamic coupé and this lightweight open roadster.

"Its design is credited to Wilhelm Kaiser, a very experienced member of BMW’s new design department, headed by chief stylist Wilhelm Meyerhuber.  A 1:10 scale model was tested in the wind tunnel of pioneering aerodynamicist Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wunibald Kamm, with a long, tapered tail that took advantage of the lowered engine and profile.

"The stunning bodywork was hand-formed by “Blasi” Huber in Ernst Loof’s racing department and made from a lightweight aluminium-magnesium alloy (Al MG 3-4) frequently used in high performance aircraft construction.  Aside from its low silhouette and flowing fenders, the prototype roadster’s fenders had a pronounced ridge along their tops. It resembled the crease in a pair of ironed trousers and gave the unique car the name it still carries today, Bügelfalte or “ironing crease.

"Its panels were formed over an armature of small diameter tubing, preceding the similar superleggera system patented by Carrozzeria Touring in Milan years later."

Note that Touring's Superleggera (super-light) construction was patented in 1936, according to this entry in Wikipedia.  That is why the BMW rennwagen coupe mentioned above, along with some Alfa Romeo racing coupes had bodywork by Touring.

Images of the 1939-1940 redesign are below, along with some photos providing an interesting twist to the story.

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1937/1940 BMW 328 Mille Miglia - RM Sotheby's Auctions photos
Very attractive.  Curvaceous, but not bloated, thanks to comparatively flat lower fender sides.  The two-segment BMW grille blends well.

Especially keep this image in mind because it shows the fender profiles.  Especially note the transition from front fender to rear.  The front fender and body seem to merge immediately in front of the rear fender.  There is a suggestion that the front fender has a small upwards curve at that point, but that might be an artifact of the curved door cutline.

Again, a very fine design with no obvious flaws.  Though the front and rear would be less pure if bumpers were added.

Overhead view highlighting those fender creases.

1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS Cabriolet by Pinin Farina - Gooding Auctions photos
Mario Revelli, Conte di Beaumont has been credited with the design.  As best I can tell from limited Internet information, this design is slightly earlier than the BMW's.

Its fenders are almost identical with those on the BMW, allowance made for differing wheelbases.  There's even a slight flattening at the aft end of the front fender's curve.

The aft end is also similar to that of the BMW.  The main differences in the design are the grilles (less nice on the Alfa) and the cockpit zones.  The BMW was a racing car, the Alfa was a sports car, so seating and passenger requirements differed.

As mentioned, I am inclined to think that the Alfa Romeo was designed first, so its features were likely borrowed by the Germans.  And Revelli's long experience with aerodynamic design features makes the result consistent with his other work in the mid-late '30s.  That said, there remains the possibility of simultaneous invention due to the circumstances of the times, as in the apparent case of the Calculus by Isaac Newton  and Gottfried Leibniz.

1942 Buick 50 Super Convertible - Mecum Auctions photo
That kind of fender shape saw production on some of Buick's 1942 models, as shown here.

1949 Jaguar XK120 Roadster - unknown original photo source
A variation with a less-distinct rear fender is the classic XK120 Jaguar design.  Some other 1950-vintage sports cars had the fender concept discussed here.

Original Fiat 8V Berlinetta: A Photo Set

In 2013, I posted about Fiat's 8V (its Wikipedia entry is here).  A dozen years later, more images are available, so now might be a good time to pass them along.

The 8V's engineering was under the direction of Dante Giacosa, original styling was by Luigi Rapi.  Only 114 8Vs were made over the period 1952-1954.  Wikipedia notes: "34 of the cars had a factory produced bodywork by Fiat's Dipartimento Carrozzerie Derivate e Speciali ('Special Bodies Department')."  Their styling was via Rapi.  Others were by coachbuilding firms.   For example, I posted "Ghia's Fiat 8V Supersonic" here.

The images below of initial 8V styling seem to be originally via Fiat.

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A rare, early color photo.

Side view.

And what's inside.

Seems to be from the same photo shoot as the initial image.

More early color.

Looks like the car is in motion -- until you notice the wheel spokes.

Rear view of the same car.

Overhead view shows some results of wind tunnel body-shape testing.