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.

Gallery

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.