"Form Follows Function" -- For Automobile Styling?

For more than a century a secular religion strongly held by many architects and designers is the idea that "form follows function," as mentioned in this link to Wikipedia.

The dean of the University of Washington architecture school, Arthur Herrman, was my instructor for a class on architectural history.  He was seriously hard-core when it came to form and function along with being true to one's building materials.  The following year I took first-year Architectural Design, where one student was gently, but firmly, told that his non-modernist apartment design was verbotten territory so far as the School of Architecture was concerned.

At that time I had been reading early books by American industrial designers (I was an ID major then). The goal of making designs where form was shaped by function was mentioned along with the need to streamline and simplify products.

I'm sure that this carried over to early automobile stylists, a number of whom had architectural backgrounds or had read some of those industrial design books.  Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that most stylists then and later tended to not practice "form follows function" to the nth degree.

That said, not long ago a Fiat stylist proclained himself a follower of the religion. The above Wikipedia link includes the following quote:

"If the design of an automobile conforms to its function—for instance the Fiat Multipla's shape, which is partly due to the desire to sit six people in two rows—then its form is said to follow its function." -- Fiat Multipla designer Roberto Giolito, via Automotive News Europe 19 July 2019 (link here).

I posted about my dislike of the Fiat Multipla design here.  Even if Giolito was correct in his statement (which I dispute to some degree), the result was not attractive.

But enough theorizing: The present post presents examples of designs that are fairly pure followers of the dictum.

Gallery

Gestetner duplicating machine - c.1929
The redesign of this device was important in launching Raymond Loewy's career as an industrial designer.  This is what a pre-Loewy machine looked like.

Gestetner duplicating machine - c.1930
And this is Loewy's version.  The functional parts are hidden by cladding that simplifies the appearance.  The main purely "functional" benefits are: (1) the machine is easier to operate, and (2) less dust will collect on the mechanisms, making it easier to maintain.

1926 Essex Coach
Now for automobile design.  Essex began making closed-body sedans of this style for the 1922 model year.  The car shown has a functional exterior design in that the main components are clearly seen: passenger compartment, doors and windows, radiator, headlights, bumper, fenders, running board.  However, the design seems awkward in terms of proportions -- especially the short hood that functionally houses a short, inline four cylinder motor.

1930 Packard Standard Eight Sedan
A luxury car of similar vintage.  Its functionality is of the same ilk as the Essex's.

1930 Packard Standard Eight Sedan
Note the separate trunk.  Thee are some decorative moldings below the windows that are non-functional in mechanical or layout terms.

1930c Audi Type T "Dresden"
The same can be said for this European design from the country that hosted the avant-garde Bauhaus design school.

1933 Tatra 77 prototype
Another function is aerodynamic streamlining which is related to fuel consumption efficiency.  For this function to dominate, components such as were mentioned with regard to the Essex are now merged  into a wind tunnel tested envelope shape.  Here the front fenders are not well integrated and the hood seems too stubby.  But the car is fairly attractive.

1939 Horch 930 S Stromlinie
The front fenders of this Horch are better integrated than those on the Tatra above.  However, the passenger compartment seems out of place.  That might be because it is functional in terms of passenger access, headroom and outside visibility -- not so functional in terms of streamlining.

1949 Nash
An American example of streamlining in the early post- World War 2 years.  The simple, slab sides cover what would have been wheel openings.  This streamlining contradicted the functional needs of easily accessing the tires and of a better turning radius.  The overall design seems too heavy looking.

1952 Saab 92
Saabs at the time were made by an aircraft company, so the body was wind tunnel tested.  This early Saab is attractive seen from this angle, though the back window seems to be placed too low.  Also, there is no trunk lid, making access quite inconvenient.  Two functional demerits there.

1951 Gutbrod Superior
Now for some designs that emphasize simplicity such as Loewy promoted.  The Gutbrod was a very small, inexpensive car.  Small cars can't carry much decoration, and the only decorative elements seen here are the simple grille bars and the nose crest.  All told, a fairly attractive design.

1952 Škoda 1200
This Škoda is larger than the Gutbrod, yet also has minimal decoration.  Although the exterior shapes are simple, they strike me as being awkwardly proportioned.

1947 Kaiser Special - Mecum Auction photo
A post- World War 2 design from an essentially new carmaker.

1947 Kaiser Special - Mecum Auction photo
Again, simplicity of forms is stressed, but like the later Škoda, the overall effect appears awkward.  Simplicity itself does not seem to guarantee aesthetic success.

1957 Imperial Southampton Coupe
Another function of an automobile's design is being salable.  That usually means that a car's looks are in tune with current design fashions and the functions discussed above are sublimated to marketing prowess.  The 1957 Imperial is shown here because this design let to the brand's greatest production volume year in its history.

1957 Imperial Southampton Coupe
Another view of this successful in marketing terms design.

Cross-posted at Art Contrarian

Ur-Saab and Some Antecedents

In 1947 SAAB (Svesnska Aeroplan AB), builder of military aircraft, was exploring entering the automobile market.  The initial result was the prototype that some people nowadays call the UrSaab.  (In Germany and some parts of Europe probably including Sweden, the prefix "Ur" is sometimes applied to the earliest example of something.  The word Ur is the name of what some anthropologists claimed was the world's oldest city.)

A series of prototypes were built, details edging towards the first production model, the Saab 92 that reached the Swedish market in 1950.

Below are images of that car and another prototype along with two earlier cars with similar rear styling details.  Because Saab built aircraft and had a wind tunnel, it is no surprise that the new car was tested to enhance aerodynamic efficiency.  Whether or not the other streamlined examples actually influenced Saab designers is belong the scope of my source materials.  That said, I hope you might find the similarities interesting.

Gallery

The UrSaab.  There are no wheel openings.  The hood has "boat tail" sculpting on the part covering the high parts of the motor.

Lower level view of the front.

A later prototype featuring wheel opening spats similar to those on production cars.  The visual feeling is "teardrop" -- a common automobile aerodynamic solution of pre- World War 2 days.

Rear quarter view of the UrSaab in motion.  The plan view of the passenger compartment has the "boat tail" treatment.

Rear quarter view of the Phantom Corsair, a solitary concept car of 1938.  Although some details differ, it and the UrSaab are conceptually the same from this perspective.

The is a Tatra 97, marketed 1936-1939.  Unlike the UrSaab and Phantom Corsair, its engine was mounted in the rear.  It too has something of a passenger compartment boat tail.  The same was true of production Volkswagen beetles.

The front of the Phantom Corsair differed greatly from the UrSaab, which was a much smaller car.

The same can be said for the Tatra 97.

As it happened, production Saab 92s had a different rear end shape than those of the first prototype.  The boat tail plan view was abandoned, perhaps to simplify production or perhaps because more trunk space was desired.  The rear window is now one-piece, but it's mounted so low that I wonder how good rear vision was for Saab drivers.  This is a 1952 model.

Inside a 1935 Tatra T77a

Streamlined Czech Tatras of the 1930s fascinate, seeming more pure than their post- World War 2 successors.  I wrote about the first and last streamline models here.

The first production Tatra streamliner was the T77, only 249 T77 and T77a models being built over 1934-38.

Despite the small production count, a few T77s survive. I saw a 1935 T77a in May at the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum and took a few few photos of it in a state of preliminary restoration.

Gallery

Tatra T77 from about 1934.

Tatra T77a.  The main exterior differences are the placement of the headlights on the fenders and the addition of a central light.  The museum's 1935 Tatra T77a is in the images below.  Click on them to enlarge.

The car is in sad shape, but these views provide a sense as to its construction.

It has a steel "turret top," but the doors are wood-framed.

Czech cars drove on the left sides of roads until the 1939 German occupation when German right-side practice was dictated.

Hub caps differ from those in the period photos.

First and Last: Tatra Streamliners

Czechoslovakia between the World Wars had an automobile industry that featured low production and high creativity.  Probably the best known firm from that era was Tatra, which built lines of cars with motors at the rear draped in streamlined bodies.   These features were considered in the 1930s to be the wave of the automobile design future.  Today, streamlining is a very important consideration in automobile design, whereas the rear-engine concept is considered a false path.

This post contrasts the first and last Tatra models with that combination of features.  Prague and Belin auto shows early in 1934 saw the introduction of the Tatra 77, the first of the breed.  Other models with similar styling followed, including the post-war Tatraplan.

By the early 1950s, Communist planners decided that Tatra would concentrate on building trucks and that Tatra cars would be assembled by Škoda.  Also around that time it was further decided that Tatras needed a complete restyling that would continue the engine placement and streamlining features.  Thus was born the Tatra 603 line.

Tatra 603s were reserved for Czech government and Party officials -- the general public had to make do with Škodas (though there might have been a few exceptions).  On the other hand, some 603s were exported as part of an effort to bring in foreign currency.

Allowing for the state of sheet steel shaping and glass curving technologies in the 1930s, I consider the 77 line to be logical and fairly attractive.  The 603s, on the other hand, look more modern, but are garish, awkward designs.  So the commissars got what they deserved.

Gallery

1933 Tatra 77 prototype or early 1934 production car
I think this is a prototype because it has air scoops towards the rear of the roof and lacks a rear bumper.  The front is necessarily stubby, but the rest of the car has nice lines.

Tatra 603 - ca. 1957
This is the initial version, produced 1956-1962.  Odd features include the three headlights, the tacky airscoop on the "hood," the awkwardly-placed turn indicator lights at the front of the fender and the Cadillac-inspired "Dagmar" bumper guards -- just to mention a few.

Tatra 2-603 - 1963
The main styling change for the 1962-1968 2-603 model is the replacement of the three-headlight arrangement with quad headlamps.  Unfortunately, the assembly is ugly even though it is somewhat dictated by the rounded nose shaping.

Tatra 3-603 - 1968
The final 603 series (1968-1975) got a better looking quad headlight assembly and lost the airscoop and Dagmars.  The chromed side trim was also cleaned up.  Nevertheless, it was impossible to eliminate all the awkward features, so the next Tatra redesign kept the rear motor but abandoned streamlining.

Gem of an Automobile Museum

A version of his article was originally posted on the Art Contrarian blog 11 May 2012.  I am re-posting it because I believe it will be of interest to readers here.

Automobile museums are all different, yet in many ways similar -- especially the Important Museums.   By that I mean car museums with large collections here in America seem obliged at have at least one Duesenberg, one Cord, a Ford Model T, an early 1900s antique of some description, a Packard from any era plus at least one car from the 1930s with either a V-12 or V-16 motor.

So it was with surprise and pleasure that I recently visited the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, a gem filled with cars seldom seen here in the United States.   Moreover, the collection is built around a theme, whereas most car museums strike me as being filled with whatever nice-to-have vehicles that pop up on the market, creating a sort of random effect.  But the Tampa Bay museum's collection core is built around two poles.  One is cars with engines in the rear, the other is cars with front-wheel drive.  And those cars had to be from the era 1920-1950.  Because most cars with those characteristics were built in Europe in those days, I saw many cars that I've never encountered in person before.  (Sadly, I've visited few European Automobile museums; one does have to make travel compromises with one's spouse, after all.)

Let's take a look at some photos from my visit:

Gallery

Ruxton - 1929
Ruxton was an American front-wheel-drive car that reached the market when the Great Depression hit; only a few hundred were made.  The four-tone paint scheme was designed by Joseph Urban who also created a similar scheme based on blue.

Tracta E - 1930
Another low-production fwd car, this by Jean-Albert Gregoire (1898-1992) of France, father of numerous automobile engineering innovations.  I confess not to have heard of the brand before.

Aero - 1937
Another brand previously unknown to me. This fwd car was built in Czechoslovakia.

Tatra T87 - c.1942
The Czech Tatra firm built several series of rear-engined cars from the mid 1930 to the late 1970s. The one shown here is to me the archetypical version.

Tatra T97 - 1938

Tatra Tatraplan - late 1940s

Voisin C7 - 1927
The power train layout is the traditional front-motor-rear-drive. I include it because it's a Voisin and its body is constructed of wood and doped fabric of the Weymann type.

Panhard Dynamic - 1938
Some (many?) French cars are rather ugly, and this Panhard is near the top of the list.  The drive train is conventional.   But note the covered wheels and three-piece wraparound windshield.   And if you look closely, you'll find that the steering wheel is mounted at the middle of the dashboard -- neither right nor left.   In the 1930s, luxury French cars had right-hand steering while mass-market cars mounted the steering wheel on the left.   Traffic in France followed the German and American pattern, so expensive French cars were better suited for driving in Britain or Czechoslovakia.   Apparently Panhard wanted to split the difference.