1959 Oldsmobile Panoramic Backlight Window Walkaround

In the late 1950s General Motors launched a crash-redesign program in response to the redesigned 1957 Chrysler cars.  Given automotive development timelines, those new cars did not appear until the 1959 model year.  I wrote about one aspect of the new styling in the post "General Motors' 1959 Four-Door Hardtops" here.

"A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design" by Michael Lamm and David Holls on page 180 mentions two innovations for the 1959 General Motors models.   One was Pontiac's two-segmented grille pattern.  "The second was the 'flying wing' or 'cantilever' roof on the 1959 GM four-door hardtops.  Credit for the design goes to a young Japanese-American stylist named Bud Sugano, who proposed it in early 1957.  Carl Renner, under Clare MacKichan in the Chevrolet studio was instrumental in 'productionizing' the flying wing for 1959.  Renner ... extended the flying wing not only to all five GM lines but also to the 1960 Corvair sedan."

I happen to be less enthusiastic about the "flying wing" roofline that incorporated a panoramic or wraparound backlight window.  It didn't fit well with the rest of the styling for 1959-1960 models nor with redesigned 1961 GM cars that retained that feature before abandoning it on 1962 facelifts, the Corvair aside.

That backlight window, in combination with all the other windows yielded glass all around the passenger compartment "greenhouse" except for the slender A, and C roof support pillars and B-pillar zone window framing.  On paper, that seems like a swell, futuristic concept -- eliminating all barriers to exterior vision for the driver and passengers.  But a moderately wide C-pillar doesn't significantly restrict exterior vision under nearly all ordinary driving situations.  And for stylists, it provides a location for creative designing and product identification.  So the flat roof and its panoramic backlight soon disappeared.

The featured car is a 1959 Oldsmobile Super 88 Sport Sedan listed for sale on the Internet.

Gallery

This roofline appeared only on some GM 4-door hardtop sedans for models year 1959 and 1960.  Panoramic backlight windows were added to various 2-door and 4-door sedans for 1961, but slow sales of these models saw them facelifted away for 1962.

We see panoramic/wraparound front and rear of the passenger compartment greenhouse.

Although an interesting concept, the C-pillar area seems awkward in its execution here.

Rather than the overhanging slab seen here, I wonder if blending the roof with the backlight might have been an improvement.

Again, what might blending have done?

By the early 1960s, GM stylists opted for wider C-pillars.

Lots of glass visible here.

Instrument panel and dashboard.