American Four-Door Hardtops: The First and The Last

Apologies to the late General Adolf Galland for borrowing the English title of his autobiography for part of this post's title.

Two-door "hardtop convertible" or "hardtop coupe" bodies with B-pillars truncated at the beltline entered mass-production on some 1949 model year Oldsmobiles, Buicks and Cadillacs.  Four-door versions appeared on 1955 Oldsmobiles and B-body Buicks.  These were soon followed by 4-door hardtop sedans from other General Motors brands as well as from Ford Motor Company, Chrysler Corporation and (briefly) American Motors.

Federal regulations regarding rollover integrity in the early 1970s ended hardtops due to their lack of a B-pillar extending up to the roof framing.  The last American hardtops, 2-door and 4-door, appeared on 1978 Dodge Monacos and all Chrysler Newports and New Yorkers.

Some first-and-last examples are pictured below.

Gallery

1953 Cadillac Orleans Concept Car - General Motors photos
GM was testing the hardtop sedan body type on this Motorama show car.  Also panoramic windshields on cars with fixed tops.  (Convertibles with wraparound windshields were offered for 1953, as my post "1953 Oldsmobile Fiesta and Cousins" describes.)

The Orleans had absolutely no B-pillar.  Doors were hinged on the A and C pillars with latches down low on the frame.

1955 Buick Century Riviera Sedan - BaT Auctions photos
The first GM production hardtop sedans were on 1955 B-body cars such as this Buick Century.

The forward side window area included a Ventipane.  Rear door windows were once-piece for nearly all hardtop sedans ever built -- with an exception pictured a ways below.

Note the fashionable three-tone paint scheme.

1955 Oldsmonile Ninety-Eight Holiday Sedan - car-for-sale photos
Buick and Oldsmobile 88 hardtop sedans had 122-inch (3099 mm) wheelbases.  Olds Ninety-Eights such as show here had 124-inch (3150 mm) wheelbases.  The result was a better proportioned design.

1956 DeSoto Firedome Seville hardtop sedan - BaT Auctions
Chrysler Corporation redesigned its line for 1957, so its '56 hardtop sedans were the result of what appeared to be a crash project.  Note the awkward-retraction rear door window.  My family owned such a DeSoto because I pestered my father into ordering it rather than a conventional sedan.  In retrospect, I was wrong, the sedan being more practical.

1978 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham hardtop sedan - BaT Auctions
The end of the line.

Michelotti's 1952 Jaguars by Stabilimenti Farina

Customized Jaguars designed by professionals are far from unheard-of.  Even industrial designer Raymond Loewy, whose firm dealt with production Hupmobiles and Studebakers, got in that game.

An unusual case, today's subject, is a set of three Jaguars styled by the prolific Giovanni Michelotti (1921-1980, Wikiperia entry here). The carrozziera building the bodies was Stabilimeni Farina.

The work was done in 1952.  The three Jaguar designs were named "Meteor," "Golden Arrow" and "Flying Jaguar."  Here is some background from the carrozzieri-italiani.com site -- commentary from different pages:

"The Meteor was based on the Jaguar MK VII chassis, a luxury saloon platform that provided a solid foundation for Farina’s elegant and aerodynamic design.  Alongside the Meteor, Stabilimenti Farina also created two other exclusive Jaguar models: the Golden Arrow and the Flying Jaguar.  The Golden Arrow was essentially a convertible version of the Meteor, sharing the MK VII chassis but featuring an open-top design that gave it a more stylish and grand touring appeal.  The third model, the Flying Jaguar, was built on the Jaguar XK 120 chassis, a sports car platform known for its performance and agility."

"These bespoke cars were commissioned by the Brussels Jaguar dealer, who sought to combine Jaguar’s engineering excellence with Farina’s distinctive Italian design.  Today, all three cars; the Golden Arrow, Meteor, and Flying Jaguar; still exist, each a testament to the collaboration between Jaguar and Stabilimenti Farina."

Comparisons of the production and custom designs are below.

Gallery

1952 Jaguar "Golden Arrow" Cabriolet - photo via carrozzieri-italiani.com

1952 Jaguar "Meteor" Coupé - photo via carrozzieri-italiani.com
The customized Mark VIIs are identical aside from their tops, as would be the case if they were production models.

1952 Jaguar Mk VII Saloon - unknown photo source
Production Mk VIIs were sedans (saloons), so the cabriolet and coupé body styles on this platform were speculative, perhaps prospective supplements to the basic Mark VIIs sold by the Belgian dealer.

1952 Jaguar "Meteor" Coupé - photo via carrozzieri-italiani.com
Side view of the Coupé -- compare to the Mk VII below.

1952 Jaguar Mk VII Saloon - Bonhams Auction photo
The Jaguar design combines prewar, traditional English styling touches with postwar elements -- the flow-through fenders seen here.  Michelotti's design is classic 1950-vintage Italian, though built on a larger platform than usual.

1952 Jaguar "Meteor" Coupé - photo via carrozzieri-italiani.com
Simple shapes, subtly thought out.  The blue car in the background is a Bentley Continental, a contemporary.

1953 Jaguar Mk VII Saloon - Mecum Auctions photo
Again, the considerably different character of the production Jaguar.

1952 Jaguar "Flying Jaguar" Coupé - unknown photo source
Now for the "Flying Jaguar" based on the classic XK120.  Its design strongly echoes elements of the sedan-based customs.  For instance, compare the front ends.

1953 Jaguar XK120 Fixed-Head Coupé - Mecum
XK120 coupés first appeared in model year 1951, and this was the design Michelotti was commissioned to alter.

1952 Jaguar "Flying Jaguar" Coupé - photo via carrozzieri-italiani.com
Although proportions differ, the fenderline here closely resembles those on the sedan-based customs.  A noticeable difference is the placement of the side chrome strip.

1951 Jaguar XK120 Fixed-Head Coupé - car-for-sale photo
Despite -- because of? -- the passenger greenhouse, the XK120 seems to be a more interesting design than Michelotti's clean, classic Italian version.

1952 Jaguar "Flying Jaguar" Coupé - unknown photo source
Rear end closely matches that of the black coupé shown earlier.

1951 Jaguar XK120 Fixed-Head Coupé - RM Sotheby's Auctions photo
Yes, the Jag design looks pretty fussy when seen from this perspective.
An interesting feature of the Michelotti cars is that the designs are so similar, even though two platforms were used.  Was this a specification given to Michelotti?  Or did Michelotti decide to economize his workload by coming up with one theme to apply to all three cars?  I wonder if some documentation regarding this still exists.

Pontiac Aztek and Buick Rendezvous Revisited

The Pontiac Aztek SUV is often the butt of criticism regarding its styling.   Back in 2013, I posted "Aztek Rendezvous" about the Aztek and the Buick Rendezvous that shared its basic body.

Now that more, and often better, images are available on the Internet, I thought we should revisit those designs.  What is interesting is that the Rendezvous' styling suffered less criticism, even though its design also had some quirky features.  Plus, its sales were much better than Aztek's: 198,000+ (data seem to be incomplete) versus 119,000.  This was despite that its base price (around $25,500) was greater than Aztek's (around $22,000).

Those designs were developed while Wayne Cherry was Design Vice President at General Motors.

Gallery

2001 Pontiac Aztek - BaT Auctions photos
Aztek's grille was a split-level version of Pontiac's signature vertically split grille theme.

2002 Buick Rendezvous - factory photo
Rendezvous's grille was similar to those on other recent Buick models -- ovaloid with vertical bars.

The gray side scheme adds visual bulk due to its shaping.  The horizontal character folds are an echo of Pontiac's Silver Streak theme of the mid 1930s to mid-'50s.

2003 Pontiac Aztek - car-for-sale photo
It is not found on this later Aztek.  Sales probably weren't helped much, because the memory of the earlier theme might have lingered in the minds of potential buyers.  The rear quarter window's shape is logical, but it seems too large.  Chrome trim linking window tops and bottoms across the C-pillar might have reduced the effect by creating a unified window profile.

2003 Buick Rendezvous - car-for-sale photos
The C-pillar zone differs here, though the swath from the roof through the tail light assemblies with the dark window overlay is as quirky as some of the Aztek's details.  Side sculpting is fussy, but less so than the original Aztek's.

Not beautiful, but logical.  The relationship to the unfortunate quarter window and the "D" post degrades the theme.

The scoop cutline and how it ties to the rear is interesting, but not attractive.  Too large, too bold on this relatively small vehicle.

1952 Dodge Hardtop: Its Competition and a Walkaround

Chrysler Corporation's postwar designs were announced during the 1949 model year and the basic bodies remained in production through 1952 -- a four-year run.

In those days, a three-year run probably would have been considered more ideal, but material shortages in the USA due to the Korean War seem to have disrupted normal Detroit practices.  Besides Chrysler, General Motors' high-production A-body Chevrolets and Pontiacs remained unchanged for model year 1949-52.  And its B and C bodies had four-year runs 1950-1953.  Studebaker's new 1947 body set continued through 1952.  Hudson kept its 1948 body in production through 1954.  Kaiser was redesigned for 1951, and Nash for 1952.  But Ford Motor Company's 1949 designs were all replaced for the 1952 model year.

So there was some new-design competition for Chrysler's 1952 offerings, but not a lot.  That said, how did the Corporation's styling stack up against its 1952 rivals?  Today's post features the '52 Dodge hardtop and competing hardtops in its general price range.

Let's pretend we're in 1952 and shopping for a lower-medium price range hardtop.  A possible set of choices follows:

Gallery

1952 Dodge Coronet Diplomat - car-for-sale photo set
First, a brief walkaround of a Dodge hardtop.

The basic shape is not sleek.  But the intent of the 1949 Chrysler Corporation packaging was a car smaller on the outside, larger on the inside, presumably tall enough for a passenger to wear a hat while traveling.

Rear fender could be detached if repairs were needed.

The window design is essentially that first found on 1949 Oldsmobiles, Buick and Cadillacs.

Windshields are two-pane, flat glass.  Outdated.

Grille design is distinctive, but those segment above the main chrome bar seem odd.  Well, they seemed odd to me back in those days.

1952 Pontiac Chieftain 8 Catalina - car-for-sale photo
Passenger compartment greenhouse follows the '49 Olds-Buick-Cadillac theme that the Dodge borrowed.  The windshield is two-piece, but the glass is curved.  Lower body is not boxy, like Dodge's.

1952 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday - Barrett-Jackson Auctions photo
GM's B-body hardtop design.  The rear fender is not distinct, only indicated by the flowing fenderline.

1952 Buick Special Riviera - car-for-sale photo
Another B-body GM hardtop.  Much more rounded than the Dodge.  Also more side chrome in the form of Buick's trademark Sweepspear.  Plus the "portholes."

1952 Mercury Monterey - car-for-sale photo
A new design for 1952.  Boxy, but not as boxy as the Dodge.  Enlivened by fake air intakes on the hood and flanks.  Windshield is curved, one-piece glass.  Altogether a more modern design in early 1950s American context.

1952 Studebaker Champion Starliner - car-for-sale photo
The lower body is a facelifted version of a 1947 design.  But that design was advanced for its time.  The greenhouse is new for 1952.
The Dodge's styling is less attractive, less interesting than its competition.   A little old-fashioned compared to the rivals shown here.  However, Dodges had a reputation for reliability, which was important for many potential buyers.  Plus, a V-8 motor was available, unlike the Pontiacs and Buicks.

Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta Walkaround

Model 166 MM (Mille Miglia) was Ferrari's earliest car to see more than token production.  Some background is here, though slightly buried.

What is noteworthy from a styling perspective is the Barchetta version by Carrozzeria Touring, a design that set the image of Ferraris for years to come.  This was largely in the form of the grille -- a modified oval frame with eggcrate bars over the opening.

Images below are of a 1950 Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta by Touring.  Those showing a blue-dark green car are via Ferrari unless noted otherwise.   Photos of a red car are via Bonhams Auctions.  The black and white racing photo is via RM Sotheby's Auctions.

Gallery

The dark paint colors and shiny surfaces show off the design's form in stronger fashion than in the images of the red car below.  The grille on this car is eggcrate, but with chromed horizontal bars dominating.

The main body rises above the fenderline, front and rear.

A side character line drapes across wheel openings, fading away at the rear.

Photo via supercars.net.  The interior seems rather fancy for a car capable of Mille Miglia competition: something more industrial might be expected.

Dashboard and cockpit.  The Barchetta is a roadster, but I see no sign of side curtains for weather protection.

Now for a set a walkaround images.  This car has the classic Ferrari grille.

No front bumper to interfere with body-shape purity.

The fenderline is not far above the wheel openings.

No rear bumper, either.

The plaque above the trunk handle is Touring's logotype.

Tail lights are mounted on the trunk lid, not the fenders or other rear-end sheet metal.

Nice, pleasingly trim design on a 95-inch (2420 mm) wheelbase.

Not a classic, standout design, but one that strikes me as being very appropriate for its time.

The men in the car provide a sense of scale -- those Barchettas were small cars.  Photo taken at the Coppa della Toscana race, 1951.