Pinin Farina's "Silver Streak" Alfa Romeo 6C Berlinetta

Automobile styling of the 1930s has always interested me because most of the transition from boxy cars with separate features such a headlights and fenders to "envelope" or highly-integrated shapes took place then.  War-shortened 1940 production and the postwar seller's market yielded the final touch circa-1949: "through-fenders" and slab sides such as found on the iconic 1949 Ford.

Today's featured car was designed in the mid-1930s.  Features such as headlights and front fenders were still separate from the main body, but they were rounded, somewhat teardrop-shaped in the quasi-faux streamlined idiom of that time.  The angularities of 1930 and earlier were gone.

One detail that especially interested me about this car from a leading Italian coachbuilder was that a prominent detail seems to have been borrowed from a lower-middle range American brand.  This is shown in the Gallery below.

The car is a 1937 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300B Berlinetta with a coachbuilt body by Pinin Farina.  Ignorance on my part led me to believe that, in the early years of Farina's firm, Pinin himself did all the styling.  Not so.

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.  That was not all: this link (when it's working properly) features a gallery of designs he had a hand in for coachbuilders including Stabilimenti Farina, Viotti, Allemano, Balbo, Fissore, Moretti, Ghia, Boneschi, Castagna, and a few others.

Gallery

1937 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300B Berlinetta by Pinin Farina - Bonhams Auctions photo
A very pleasing design apart from perhaps one detail: that bold swath of parallel chrome stripes running along the centerline of the hood, then dropping down to the bottom of the grille opening.  It looks familiar to American eyes.

1935 Pontiac - unknown photo source
Aha!  Behold a 1935 Pontiac, the first featuring what was marketed as "Silver Streaks."   I described their evolution from 1935 through 1956 here.

1935 Pontiac Eight Deluxe - car-for-sale photo
Frontal view of those Silver Streaks that Ravelli surely was aware of.

1937 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300B Berlinetta by Pinin Farina - unidentified photo source
Why he borrowed so blatantly seems odd for such an accomplished designer.  Or could they have been added by Pinin himself, another very accomplished designer?  After all, it was his firm, and he must have given final approval to the design.  We will never know for sure.

1937 Alfa Romeo 6C 2300B Berlinetta by Pinin Farina - unidentified source of photos
A poor-quality front quarter view.

It seems Ravelli was quite interested in aerodynamics.  Note the strong curve of the aft body.  Plus the tiny tail fin on the trunk's door.

Strong, harmonious shaping.  Note the thin, chromed glass pane divider on the backlight window here, as well as on the windshield.

Very nice sculpted composition.  But those chromed circles on the hood venting seem as superfluous as the Silver Streaks.  I have a vague feeling these too were borrowed, and can't find an example... oh, wait!!

1935 Plymouth DeLuxe 2-Door Touring Sedan - Mecum Auctions photo
Another feature from another 1935 American car.

Marmon Sixteen Overhead Views

Photos of car designs from an overhead perspective can be interesting.  I find this particularly so for cars of the 1930s.  That's because body elements such as hoods and fenders had not yet become integrated with the main body.

The subject of this post is the 16-cylinder Marmon produced 1931-1933.  They were styled by pioneer industrail designer Walter Dorwin Teague.  LeBaron built nearly all of the bodies, but apparently did not do design work on most of its Marmon Sixteens.

I previousy wrote about Marmon Sixteens here.

Images below are via Mecum Auctions.

Gallery

1931 Marmon Sixteen Convertible Coupe
V-16 and inline-8 motors required longer hoods than did V-12s and inline sixes and fours.  Though the needed additional length wasn't very great.  The hood seen here and some other V-16s and I-8s is longer  than absolutely necessary, being more of a style or marketing feature.  Note the hood's aft cutline and the locations of the side air vents, indicating where the motor most likely was.

That long hood is complemented by a long section abaft of the passenger compartment.  This car has a rumble seat, as evidenced by the step near the right taillight.

1931 Marmon Sixteen Victoria Coupe
Teague's design is simpler, more austere than usual for the very early 1930s.  The grille seems rather architectural, perhaps because because some early car stylists and industrial designers had training in architecture, or like Teague, had a youthful interest in the subject.

The Victoria Coupe was rated as a five-passenger car, so there was no need for a rumble seat.  Built-in trunks, as seen here, were rare on multi-passenger cars in those days.

1953 Oldsmobile Fiesta and Cousins

For 1953, General Motors marketed three convertibles that were significantly more expensive than ordinary convertibles.  The reason, I believe, was that two of these featured panoramic/wraparoud windshields for the first time on American production cars.  This required some retooling around the A-pillar and related door hinging.  Also, all three cars featured sculpted, rather than horizontal, beltlines -- again needing some new tooling or skilled handwork.  So those high prices created a prestige image, while helping to defray the new expenses.

I wrote about the Cadillac version here.

The present post deals with the other car with the wraparound (as we called it then) windshield.  This was the Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight Fiesta.  Production was 458, compared to the Ninety-Eight regular convertible's 7,521.  Respective prices were $5,717 and $3,229, a 77 percent markup.

The Fiesta is compared to the Buick Skylark and Cadillac Eldorado below.

Gallery

A Fiesta promotional item.

1953 Cadillac Eldorado - Barrett-Jackson Auctions photo
This is Cadillac's version.The windshield and beltline curving distinguish it from regular Cadillac convertibles.

1953 Buick Skylark - Mecum Auctions photo
The Skylark was the best-seller of the three, though its windshield is conventional, not panoramic.  It's difficult to be certain from these photos, but the beltline appears to be the same as the Cadillac's.

1953 Oldsmobile Fiesta - Broad Arrow Auctions photos
The Fiesta's beltline curve is far more subdued than those on the cars shown above.  Like the Buick, the trunk is higher than the Cadillac's.  Even though Olds ranked below the Cadillac and Buick in GM's prestige hierarchy, it got the wraparound whereas the Buick didn't, for some reason.

Although the 1950-vintage body wasn't designed with wraparound windshields in mind, GM's stylists did  good job of integrating it.

This two-tone paint scheme was unique for the 1953 Fiesta.  But it was used in 1954 on some Super 88 models and some Ninety-Eight sedans.

1933 Streamline Bentley Two-Door Saloon by Park Ward

The 1933 Bentley treated in this post is an early example of British "Airline" styling.

This term was applied to a comparatively easy means of giving existing designs some appearance of "streamlining" by creating curved aft body shape profiles.  While rear parts of cars seemed to be aerodynamically influenced, frontal parts retained "draggy" bits such as detached headlights and S-curved front fenders that could trap flowing air when the car was in motion.

I wrote about Airline designs here and elsewhere.

English automobile styling until recent decades was noted for being cautiously conservative, slow to adopt features found elsewhere.  For instance, the futuristic Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow appeared in America in 1933.  The truly aerodynamically-influenced Czechoslovak Tatra 77 appeared around the same time.

I don't know when the first British Airline design appeared.  But it probably wasn't much earlier than 1933 when our subject car was designed.  Its chassis number is B 41 AB, and was listed as sold to a G. A. Nicholson in February of 1934.  Its custom body was designed and built by the well-known Park Ward coacbuilding firm.

Unless noted, images below are via Gallery Aaldering.

Gallery

The front is actually cleaner than even some mid-1930s Airline cars, though the nearly-flat grille and distinct headlights are non-aerodynamic.  The rounded fender fronts help prevent airflow into the wheelwell.

The fenders also are skirted.  These on the front fenders are unusual for the time in England, and also the teardrop fender profile.  The windshield is raked, but not strongly so.  The beltline falls off abaft of the B-pillar, a fairly common Airline feature even later in the decade.

Some Airline backlight windows were placed too high for decent driver viewing to the rear.  But this one, while small by later standards, is somewhat useful.

Although the rear profile is curved, the car's sides are strongly vertical -- not important aerodynamically.  The body tapers slightly to the rear in plan-view, which can be aerodynamically useful.  Note the unusual, for the time, lack of running boards.

This, and the following image are via Bilweb Auctions.  The trunk arrangement is interesting, especially the placement of the spare tire and the trunk lid hinging.  The spare's wheel hub might potentially damage luggage as the lid is closed.

The dashboard and instrumentation.  Plenty of British woodwork.

1954 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible

I previously posted "1953 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible" (here), comparing the Eldorado to Cadillac's standard Model 62 convertible.  Today's post makes a similar comparison, but to the following model year's redesigned equivalents.

As can be seen below, the differences were not made by modifying some of the bodywork as was done for 1953, but instead done by simply attaching panels on the rear fenders.  No doubt there were some interior differences as well, but our focus in on exterior appearance.

Gallery

1953 Cadillac 62 Convertible - Mecum Auctions photo
Reviewing 1953, here is the basis car for the Eldorado modifications.

1953 Cadillac Eldorado - Broad Arrow Auctions photo
The major differences are (1) a flowing beltline by the passenger compartment, and (2) a panoramic/wraparound windshield.  1953 Eldorado and Oldsmobile Fiesta convertibles were given panoramic windshields with the idea that these would help condition potential 1954 model year buyers that wraparounds were a desirable wave of the future.  Furthermore, those convertibles were priced much higher than ordinary convertibles -- Eldorado vs. Model 62: $7,750 vs $4,144; Fiesta vs Model 98: $4,453 vs. $3,229.  These higher prices were in part a statement of relative prestige over "ordinary" convertibles and likely also to help defray the added tooling expenses for such low-production cars: 532 Eldorados, 458 Fiestas, and 1,690 Buick Skylarks that featured the flowing beltline, but lacked the wraparound windshield.

1954 Cadillac 62 Convertible- car-for-sale photos
The basic Cadillac convertible for '54.

1954 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible - BaT Auctions photos
The Eldorado.  It was priced $5,738 vs. $4,144 for the Model 62 -- a much lesser ratio than that of the 1953 cars.  Eldorado production was 2,150 -- nearly four times more than for '53.

All 1954 Cadillacs had panoramic windshields.

The main exterior difference is that aluminum panel on the rear fender.

Internet images suggest that most or all 62 convertible tops had canvas covers when retracted.

Whereas Eldorado tops were housed under a solid cover.

Sir Roy Fedden's Park Ward "Streamlined" Bentley

This image above was scanned from my 1974 copy of "Bentley: Fifty Years of the Marque" by Johnnie Green, page 169, Amazon link here.

Its caption reads in part: "Sir Roy Fedden's specially built Park Ward streamlined saloon on chassis number B189AE, registration number AXM 19, from which valuable information was compiled on reduction of air resistance and decreased petrol consumption with increased speed..."

Roy Fedden (Wikipedia entry here) was the Bristol Aeroplane Company's engineer in charge of aero motors.

Bentley was acquired by Rolls-Royce in 1931.  Rolls acquired a stake in the Park Ward coachbuilding firm in 1933, eventually assuming total control in 1939.

Also during the 1930s a design fashion in England was the "Airline" style that I wrote about here and elsewhere.  Those designs usually retained non-streamlined normal production front ends that were coupled with rounded-off aft ends.  Those front ends considerably reduced any aerodynamic benefits the rear ends might have created.

Fedden's car Bentley 3 1/2 Litre is interesting due its design details and because it is a four-door Airline type, most Airlines being coupés or 2-door saloons.  It's also a comparatively early Airline design, the fashion seems to have peaked around 1936.   The car still exists, residing in Volkswagen's Autostadt museum.  The museum dates the car to 1935, but its chassis number mentioned above is from 1933-1934.  So presumably it took Park Ward half a year or so to create the body, completing it in 1935.

Gallery

This image via Deutsche Welle shows the size of the headlights.  They surely would have created a good amount of air turbulence, largely negating any front end aerodynamic features.

Another image via Deutsche Welle.  Note the gap between the front cycle fender and the forward door, and that it isn't filled with a running board.  Most cars of that era had S-shaped, ogive-shaped front fenders that blended onto running boards.  That said, running boards are only needed below doors, so the solution seen here worked just fine.  Presumably cycle fenders were used because conventional S-shaped fenders could trap flowing air in the zone abaft of the tires.

Martin Hesp photo taken at the museum.  Besides the rounded aft profile, the only other aerodynamic feature seen here is the slightly raked windshield.  I wonder why rear-wheel openings weren't covered by spats, a feature known at the time.  They might have improved airflow a little, but creating inconvenience when wheels needed to be removed.

A Wikimedia image.  Note the cutlines on the aft part of the body.  Presumably they are for access to an integral trunk and/or a spare tire.  Most saloon trunks in those days were either externally mounted or discrete shapes blended into the basic body form.  The small backlight window is placed so high that it probably was nearly useless for driver's rear visibility (note the frontal view above and compare the backlight opening to the driver's head).