The Tiny Honda Beat Sports Car

While walking around London this April I noticed this rather dingy Honda sports car.  I'd never seen one before, so I snapped this reference photo so that I could research it after returning to Seattle.

It turns out that it was a Honda Beat from around 1991-1996 (Wikipedia reference here).  The entry states that it was the last car Soichiro Honda approved before he died in 1991.  I'm a little skeptical because, given development timelines, it's possible that he approved other models that appeared a year or two later.  Let me know in comments if my skepticism is wrong.

The entry also mentions that the design was by Pininfarina and sold to Honda.

Beats were of the small-displacement Japanese Kei class, having a 3-cylinder 656 cc motor producing 63 horsepower (according to Wikipedia) that was mounted between the seats and the rear axle line.  The wheelbase was 90 inches (2,280 mm) and it weighed only 1,675 pounds (760kg).  Its speed was governed to 84 mph (135 km/h).

Wikipedia doesn't mention if Beats were exported when new.  United States allows used Beats to be imported, this having to do with the interval since they were built.  Given my uncertainty regarding exportation, I have no idea as to when the car I saw in London arrived in the UK.  Given its unkempt state, I would say it had been there for quite a while.

I rate its styling as very good for such a small package, though I'll also note that small sports cars are much easier to style than sedans of comparable size.

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Images of a 1991 Honda Beat up for bid: high right front quarter view.

Right rear quarter view.

1991 Honda Beat side view from Mecum Auctions.

Phantom view of Beat from Honda.

Cars' Facial Expressions

Perhaps this will end if electric cars ever take over, but due to headlights (eyes) and radiator air intakes (mouths) and central hood-related elements such as brand badges (noses), front ends of cars can seem to have faces.  Human faces can assume expressions reflecting emotions, and so it can be for some automobile front end designs.  For instance, I wrote about "eyes" here.

Nothing original regarding this idea, but just for some fun and a change of pace from usual topics, below is a collection of cars with expressions.

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Sad
I missed this when I was young, but other writers have pointed out that 1949 Lincolns such as this Cosmopolitan had a sad look that had to be changed for 1950.

Innocent, Naïve
This advertising theme ran when 1995 Dodge Neons were new.

Fishy
Oldsmobiles featured oval grille openings that could create a fish-mouth look.  This was the case for 1956 models such as the 98 Starfire Convertible seen in this RM Sotheby's photo.

Laughing
That's what this 2010 Mazda 3 seems to be doing.

Angry
The new 2019 Toyota Avalon has a fearsome expression.  I'd hate to meet one in a dark alley.

Insane
Equally sinister is the look of this 2018 Chevrolet Equinox.

Fussy Buick Envision Gets Fussier Facelift

The Buick Envision crossover SUV is noteworthy because they are assembled in China and exported to the USA.  Some background is here.

As is usual in these days of wind tunnel tested bodies with similar shapes, stylists relied on elaborate side and rear sculpting plus ornamentation to distinguish Envisons from competing cars such as Toyota's RAV4 and Ford's Escape.

The Envision was launched in China in 2015 and appeared in America for the 2016 model year.  For 2019 the Envision was given a facelift that adds clutter to an already fussy design.

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Frontal view of a 2016 Envision.  It is comparatively clean compared to current Toyota and Honda standards, featuring a grille with traditional Buick vertical bars.

But the frontal design is not simple.  The bulged fender over the front wheel opening coupled with the stubby hood creates a heavy appearance that contrasts with the straighter side character lines.

The 2019 facelift was minor for the front.  The lower air intake area was given a more horizontal trim theme.  The grille bar treatment has a horizontal backdrop (click to enlarge for a better view) creating a visually busy area.  This busyness in compounded by the horizontal chrome strakes added to the Buick badge ensemble.

Rear 3/4 view of the '16 Envision.  Side sculpting with a dip over the doors is a variation on a styling cliché.  Another cliché is the horizontal chrome bar above the license plate.  Otherwise, rear styling is fairly restrained.

The facelift jazzed up the rear in a messy, confused manner.

This can be better appreciated in this near- end-view.  There is a needless curved, outer "frame" at the far edges.  At the center is a strong horizontal fold canted inwards toward the bottom that creates a confusing surface when compared to the rest of the car's rear.  The angled side folds of the license plate indentation relate to nothing else, adding to the clutter and confusion.  The chrome bar on the '16 Envision partly overlaps the tail lights, thereby creating a bit of unity.  Here, the bar simply touches the tail lights, eliminating such unity and creating yet another set of independent, clashing decorative elements.

TR7 - Triumph's Last Sports Car

The last of the Triumph postwar TR sports cars was the TR7, offered 1975-1982.  Its Wikipedia entry is here.

TR7s developed a poor reputation related to reliability issues, but our focus is on its styling.

Triumph's previous model was the TR6 that shared the same body as the TR4 of 1961, so the line was long due for upgrading.  Its styling theme was that of a wedge featuring a tapered hood profile, a high, squared-off trunk and a raked-back windshield.  This was before aerodynamic efficiency became a key element in body shaping, so the wedge concept was probably more a thematic notion than a science-based exercise.  That said, the windshield and the headlights, when retracted, were probably helpful.

Otherwise, the wedge shape was only marginally successful on the TR7 due to its short length: its features were too cramped.

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What appears to be a factory photo of an early TR7.  Unlike previous roadster/convertible TRs, the 7s usually came with a fixed roof.  Styling seems satisfactory from this high viewpoint.

From a rear quarter perspective, matters aren't so good.  The heavy front bumper (in compliance with recent US federal regulations) blends reasonably well with the wedge theme.  The rear bumper is massive and has more of a tacked-on look to it.  Black panels above the bumper and abaft of the rear wheel well are probably intended to break up what otherwise would be a massive block -- the blunt part of the wedge.  The latter panel strikes me as being too contrived and awkward.

Side view of that TR7 (Mecum auctions photos of this car).  Here the stubbiness shows clearly.  The wheels/tires are too small, making the car resemble a roller skate shoe.  The wheelbase (85 inches, 2,159 mm) is too short, as is the entire vehicle.  From the leading edge of the C-pillar forward, the design works fairly well, but abaft of there it's too stubby.  Moving the rear wheel aft about 6 inches (150 mm) and lengthening the car one foot (300 mm) at its rear might have been sufficient to save the design -- that and larger wheels.

Finally, three views of a convertible version advertised for sale.

1939 Chrysler, DeSoto and Dodge "Hayes Coupes"

Chrysler Corporation cars of the 1939 model year interest me for various reasons.  For instance, I wrote about the Chrysler brand's front end styling here.  And here I speculated on whether '39 Chryslers, DeSotos and Dodges were completely redesigned or rather were given massive facelifts.

Another 1939-only item was what many observers call the "Hayes coupe."  These were a kind of halfway proposition between small coupes with sideways seating behind the front seat for an extra passenger and normal two-door sedans.  They were built in small numbers by the Hayes Body Corporation of Grand Rapids, Michigan for Chryslers, DeSotos and Dodges.  A good background reference is here.

Hayes coupes were attractive cars, distinctive styling features being thin B-pillars and passenger compartment aft ends with a central vertical crease aligned with two-piece back window divider.

When the Chrysler line was redesigned for 1940, Hayes coupes were eliminated and Hayes left the business of providing car bodies.

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Side view of a Hayes coupe, this a Dodge.

Publicity material for the DeSoto version.  It features the rear seating.  Note the splitter crease above the windshield that is echoed farther aft.

Now for three "for sale" photos of a Hayes-bodied Chrysler, an attractive car of its time.

The passenger greenhouse is quite airy for 1939.  Chryslers had stubby hoods that year with front fenders and a catwalk projecting ahead, as seen here and in the previous photo.

It's hard to see from this angle, but try to note the crease aligned with back window split.

Bertone & Scaglione's 1952 Abarth 1500 Biposto Coupé

Possibly influenced by futuristic dream cars that were starting to appear in America, or maybe there was simply something in the automotive styling air in those days.  But, whatever it was, designer Franco Scaglione (1916-1993), working at Bertone, broke away from current Italian carrozzeria practices with his 1952 Abarth 1500 Biposto Coupé.

The one-off design was based on the Fiat 1400 with a motor souped-up Abarth-style to the 1500 cc category.  The body style is coupé, so the term biposto, meaning two-seater, is somewhat redundant.

The Biposto is seen by a number of observers as a precursor of Scaglione's 1953 Alfa Romeo Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica B.A.T. 5.  Given their timing, I can see how Scaglione's thinking might progress from one concept to another.  However, the three B.A.T. designs were exercises in attaining extreme aerodynamic efficiency, whereas the Biposto is something of a mixed bag in that regard.

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Very strong frontal stying featuring a Tucker-like central headlight.  There are no bumpers to dilute the theme.

The general body shape suggests attention was paid to aerodynamic considerations, though I haven't seen any references to it having been tested in a wind tunnel (but it might have been).  Those prominent scoops in the wheel opening ensembles strike me as being aerodynamically draggy, causes of turbulence.

The back window is boat-tailed, making the greenhouse teardrop-shaped in plan view -- another aerodynamic hint.  Note the small, curved tail fins: the B.A.T. cars have much more elaborate versions of these.  There are small, barely functional rear bumpers.

Head-on view of the aggressive front.  There is no lower air dam, but the B.A.T. cars also lacked them, and they were highly efficient.

A general view of the Biposto.  It has a panoramic windshield, but no dog-leg forward door cut-line such as were found in mid-1950s American cars with wraparound windshields.

The Rise and Fall of the Buick Riviera - Part 2

This is the second part of a two-part series about Buick's Riviera in the years it was a separate model and not, as it first was, a hardtop convertible sub-model.  Part 1 can be found here and a related post is here.

American cars reached a qualitative low point during the late 1970 due to two major causes.  First, there were increasingly stringent federal government regulations dealing with engine emissions and safety features that absorbed much engineering staff time.  The latter affected styling because bumpers were required to absorb stronger impacts, and due to their larger size had to somehow be incorporated into existing designs with smaller, better-integrated bumpers.  Also, to reduce injuries from rollover accidents, pillarless (hardtop) designs had to be replaced by designs having full-height B-pillars.  This was the case for the heavily facelifted 1974 Buick Rivieras.

And there was the post- Yom Kippur War oil crisis that resulted in noticeably higher gasoline prices and federal regulations regarding fuel economy.  The auto industry reacted by downsizing cars as quickly as feasible because less weight leads to better gas mileage.

By the 1980s, General Motors was experiencing increasing financial trouble, becoming less and less able to develop new cars at the pace of the 1960s and before.

The Buick Rivieras shown below could not escape these influences.

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1974 Buick Riviera - "for sale" photo
Setting the scene is the Riviera discussed at the end of Part 1.

1977 Buick Riviera
Rivieras were redesigned for 1977.  They were shorter, lighter, and had those massive bumpers that engineers and stylists had yet to learn how to deal with gracefully.

1979 Buick Riviera
Riviera's next redesign came two years later.  The fender line harkens back to the first Rivieras of 1963, though modestly.  The rectangular-themed frontal ensemble does not seem to fit the more fluid rest of the design.

1979 Buick Riviera - "for sale" photo
Rivieras had no real B-pillar, but rollover safety was accommodated by the large C-pillar.  The small windows abaft of the doors are fixed in place.  Styling features at the rear represent Buick brand identity of the times and were largely preserved in the next redesign.  Interestingly, Rivieras of this generation were the best-sellers.

1987 Buick Riviera
Rivieras were redesigned for the 1986 model year, and the '87 cars shown above are little changed.  Again the fender line undulates slightly, a distant whisper from 1963.

1987 Buick Riviera - "for sale" phoro
Styling is technically good, but the overall result was not very exciting for a supposedly sporty car.  Sales were far fewer than those for 1979-85.

1995 Buick Riviera
The final Rivieras shared the platform of the four-door Oldsmobile Aurora: I discussed them here.

1995 Buick Riviera
Rear view of yet another rather bland GM design.