1958 Thunderbird's Jet Fighter Influenced Styling

The Ford Thunderbird first appeared for the 1955 model year as a two-passenger car.  This was about two years after the Chevrolet Corvette was launched.  General Motors considered the Corvette to be a sports car, even though it wasn't much of one at first.  Ford, on the other hand, shied away from that concept, never proclaiming the Thunderbird anything other than a sporty "personal car."

Ford also decided that the market for two-passenger cars was too small to justify competing with Corvette and foreign sports/sporty cars.  Rather than dropping the model -- one possibility -- it was decided to create a compact four-passenger Thunderbird for 1958.  The risk was that fans of the two-passenger Thunderbirds would be alienated by the change.  As it turned out, the new Thunderbird considerably out-sold the first version, as the link above states.

As for 1958 Thunderbird styling, it appeared at the height of the tail fin fad.  Also, Ford advanced styling studios during the early 1950s seemed to favor jet fighter or science-fiction space ship styling themes.  So did those of other makers, but I have the impression that Ford did more of this kind of thing than its competitors.  The result was that this practice influenced the design of the 1958 Thunderbird.

Gallery

Ford Muroc from the early 1950s, named after the experimental flight test center in California.

A similar vintage half-model (the mirror behind it creates the image of a complete car).

Note the airplane propellor motif at the front and the aircraft-type exhaust pipes in the wheel opening.  The theme here is derived from World War 2 fighter planes rather than jets.

The Ford Atmos non-functional concept vehicle of 1954.  Clearly influenced by jet fighters such as the F-86 Sabre.  Such was Ford's advanced styling a couple of years before the 1958 Thunderbird project was launched (probably no later than 1956, more likely 1955).

A 1957 Thunderbird, Mecum auctions photo.  This was the final model year of the original design.  Its facelift included a new grille and the low, canted fins. I always considered this the best Thunderbird design of all.

A "for sale" image of a 1958 Thunderbird.  Retained are the roof with blanked quarter panels (or wide C-pillars, depending on how one thinks of these things), along with modestly canted tail fins.  The nearly-oval grille and hood air scoop décor were also carried over.  The sculpting on the lower side is suggestive of aeronautical/spaceship concepts.

A North American F-100 Super Sabre, a supersonic fighter revealed in 1954.  Note its air intake.

One might argue that Thunderbird grilles for 1957 and 1958 were inspired by the F-100.

Side view, via Mecum.  The decorations on the lower sculpting are suggestive of air outlets, particularly those used for boundary-layer air control on jet fighters with side intakes.

Barrett-Jackson photo of a 1957 Thunderbird.  Round tail lights were a Ford image marker in those days, having first appeared on 1952 models.  Combined with the tail fins and the tail pipe exhausts immediately below, we find a definite jet-fighter feeling here.

1958 Thunderbirds stepped up this theme by adding a second set of round tail lights and housing them in what might be considered jet exhaust outlets.  A result was the rather cramped central zone where the license plate is housed.

View of the rear used for publicity.  The theme is certainly jet-fighter inspired with space ship overtones.  I consider the faux-outlets too large, and one tail light each as sufficient.  I suspect the use of quad tail lights was due to the presence of those awful quad headlights up front.

The Aerodynamic Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz

Gasoline shortage crises and increasing government regulations of the 1970s prompted Ford Motor Company to launch designs that had been subjected to considerable wind tunnel testing.  The first such, in the form of coupés, were the 1983 Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar.  Then for 1984 were launched the Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz, two-door and four-door sedans.  Some background can be found here.

The Tempo and Topaz sold well at first, despite their styling that seemed odd to some.  The 1970s were a time when styling fashion called for light, crispy boxy designs with large window areas and thin roofs.  The new Ford products were more rounded, of course, and had other features giving them a too-soft appearance.  That was my reaction at the time.  It still is, though to a lesser extent, as I'll discuss in the comments below.

Gallery

First, a few strong examples of the boxy fashion common before wind tunnel tested aerodynamic styling emerged.  This is a 1982 Chevrolet Celebrity.  Its windshield is at a strong angle and the hood curves down towards the front, but the rest of the car is angular with a vertical feeling imposed by the central and aft roof pillars, the upright backlight and squared-off rear end.  Note the thin roof and sharp angles of the window profiles -- these strongly contrast the equivalent Tempo and Topaz details.

1981 Dodge Reliant, an early Chrysler Corporation K car.  Again, angular with a thin roof.

A 1981 Ford Fairmont, the sort of Ford marketed before aerodynamics kicked in.  Again, we need to contrast the passenger compartment greenhouse with that of the new models.

Here is a 1984 Ford Tempo four-door sedan.  Like the Celebrity and Fairmont shown above, it is a six-window style.  The roof is slightly more rounded.  The window framing is also more rounded -- not much, but enough to be noticed.

Near side-view of a 1985 Tempo four-door.  Its sides are slightly pushed out compared to the Fairmont and Reliant, and its fender transitions to the hood and trunk are more highly radiused than on the Celebrity and Reliant.  These differences are not large in themselves, but in combination with the window framing they give the design a soft appearance.  At the time I thought that more angles were needed to make the car less flabby seeming.  I still think so, and would concentrate on the window framing.  Since the mid-1980s stylists have leaned to add such contrasts to aerodynamically shaped bodies.

1985 two-door Tempo.  Its fewer window pillars help lighten its design.

Now for the Mercury Topaz.  This low-quality image of a 1984 four-door sedan reveals that such sedans had four windows, not six.  The result is a cleaner, less-fussy design.

A for-sale 1984 Topaz showing its grille.

And an image of a beat-up, for-sale '84 Topaz included because it shows the rear styling that is more angular than that of the Tempo.

Finally, a sporty two-door Topaz from 1987.

2007 Chrysler Nassau Concept Car

The Chrysler Nassau concept car was introduced at the Detroit auto show in January 2007, about four months before DaimlerChrysler was dissolved, spinning Chrysler off from Daimler-Benz.  It is possible (though one can't always be sure of the intent of some concept cars) that the Nassau explored what Chrysler stylists were thinking during its development in 2006 regarding a replacement for the successful 2005 Chrysler 300.

A three-page Google search regarding the Nassau turned up mostly short, contemporary reactions following its introduction.  A more lengthy reaction piece is here.

The Nassau had a lot of the expected flashy features concept cars seem to be doomed to carry.  These included a dual-panel moon roof, four-door hardtop convertible body structure, and seating for only four people on a platform that would have held five were it a production car.

For the purposes of this post, the focus will be on the car's external appearance.  Some of the images below, all originating from DaimlerChrysler, seem to be heavily retouched views of a styling model.  That does not matter much because there also are photos of the actual roadworthy car.

Gallery

The design from the B-pillar forward represents a plausible Chrysler 300 successor.  In the context of today's over-sculpted Japanese designs, the Nassau's composition is tasteful and would still be appropriate today.  However, most cars now have low front air intakes and the Nassau's grille is in a traditional position.

The rising character line along the side echoes that on the Chrysler 300.  That and the 300-ish grille suggest that the Nassau indeed was intended to test features on a next-generation 300 (that hasn't yet appeared and might never be realized).  Abaft of the B-pillar the car looks bulky and stubby as seen from this angle.

The aft roof design strikes me as being more show-car jazz than production-prototype.  That highly curved (in plan view) backlight would reduce a trunk lid to impractically small size.  On the other hand, the final image below hints that the back window might be part of a hatchback arrangement.

This side view indicates that the side window profile abaft of the B-pillar is too sharply curved for good rear-seat passenger viewing.  The aft part of the roofline reveals a curve inflection that's part aerodynamic spoiler and part potential hatchback.  Regardless, it makes the rear part of the car seem bulky and out of character from the rest of the design,  A little more rear overhang might have improved matters a bit.

Overhead view of the unconventional roof design.  I think a production version of the Nassau would have had a normal roof, more rear overhang, and a wider trunk lid (not a hatchback).  Of course, for rollover safety reasons, the B-pillar would have reach the roof.

Bertone's 1934 Fiat Ardita With Panoramic Windshield

One of the projects that helped carrozzeria Bertone survive the depressed 1930s was its version of a 1934 Fiat 527 Ardita.  Its full title seems to be Fiat 527 Ardita 2500 Superaerodinamica 900.

As best I can tell, only one of these cars was built, and it no longer exists.  Worse, there are few photos of it to be found on the Internet as of the end of January 2019.  And the majority of those are of poor quality.  All are presented below.

Gallery

Bertone's Superaerodinamica was a quattro porti, quattro/cinque posti type car not as aerodynamically advanced as the contemporary Chrysler Airflow, but with many modern (for the times) features.

The front as seen from this angle was basically 1934 vintage styling aside from the headlight assemblies.

Rather than being separate units, headlight assemblies were blended into the hood in a manner similar to that of the 1934 Hupmobile.  The vent design on the side of the hood is the same as found on the 1934 DeSoto Airflow.  I do not know when during 1934 Bertone built this car, but it is possible he was aware of those '34 Hupps and DeSotos.  Airflows were announced at the start of the year and Hupmobile advertisements were appearing by April of the year.

Rear fender spats first appeared in the USA on the 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow and were found on all 1934 Chrysler and DeSoto Airflows and began to appear on European custom bodies about the same time.  The passenger compartment greenhouse design was advanced for its time.  Note the graceful roof profile and the thin pillars that provided a light, airy character.  The most unusual feature was the three-piece "panoramic" windshield.  It predated Panhard's three-piece Panoramique design by a year.

Poor-quality photo.

The aft end -- actually, everything abaft of the A-pillar of the Superaerodinamica -- is pleasingly styled and a few years ahead of its time.  A subtle touch is the slight downward slope of the hood, helping give the design its "aerodynamic" sense.

Brand Identity Continuity: Ford Mustang vs. Ford Thunderbird

Two of Ford's long-term models that essentially functioned as separate brands were the Thunderbird and Mustang.

Thunderbirds first appeared as two-passenger sporty cars in 1955, were redesigned as four-passenger cars for 1958 and continued in production through the 1997 model year.  Then for 2002-2005 the make was revived as a two-passenger car, and that marked its end, at least for now.

The Mustang debuted as a four-passenger sporty car in April 1964 and the marque continues to be marketed.  Its visual brand identity remained fairly (but not totally) consistent over the past 55 years.  The same could not be said for Thunderbird over its roughly 45 years in production.

This post presents the initial and most recent front-end designs along with some intervening versions.  Unless otherwise noted, images are via Ford or of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

The original 1964 1/2 Mustang.  Note the high grille opening and the shaping on either side.  The grille position, along with the sculpted pony, became consistent brand identifiers.  The shaping reappears decades later.

The first major redesign was in 1974 in the form of the small Mustang II.

The 1979 Mustang is one of the least- Mustang-like designs.  The grille opening remains high, but the pony is now a small element on the hood.

Another weakly identified Mustang is this 1994 model developed at the time Ford was heavily into aerodynamic styling.  Still, there is a high grille opening with a mustang in it.

The current Mustang, announced for 2015.  The high grille, its side shaping and the pony are all present.

Now for the Thunderbird, this initial 1955 model in a Mecum auctions photo.

For 1958, Thunderbird became a four-passenger car.  The earlier grille shape is retained, as is the blanked greenhouse quarter panel.  And there is an air intake feature on the hood, but otherwise the styling is different.

The next redesign was for 1961, as shown in this Mecum photo.  The only carryover features are the quarter panel and hood embellishment.

1967 saw the introduction of a four-door sedan to the Thunderbird line, a feature dropped for the next redesign.  The quarter panel is now something of a broad C-pillar.

The next new body came for 1972.  Aside from the winged Thunderbird badge, the C-pillar is retained in weakened form.

1977 Thunderbirds finally lost the C-pillar / quarter panel trait.  At this point, nothing is carried over from the 1955 model.

A 1985 Thunderbird showing the aerodynamic body introduced for 1983.  The fat C-pillar returns.

Model year 1989 saw the introduction of the final four-passenger Thunderbird.  No carryover but the bird badge.

Thunderbird's last gasp was this two-passenger car introduced for 2002.  Its design was an intentional harking back to the 1955 car.  Note the grille.  The "porthole" window on the greenhouse quarter panel recalls a similar item on 1956 Thunderbirds.

Renault 16, Ugly "Car of the Year"

Starting in 1964 there is an award called European Car of the Year determined by writers for a group of automobile magazines.  Scanning the lists found at the link kept the phrase "What were they thinking?" rattling around my brain.

My problem might be that my most important criterion is styling whereas those writers were more concerned with engineering and packaging matters.

For 1966 the winning car was the subject of this post, the Renault 16 (sometimes called the R16).

The R16 link is very positive regarding the car, quoting favorable remarks about it from notables such as race driver Starling Moss and (future) Renault design chief Patrick le Quément.  Apparently the R16 was an early hatchback or five-door design -- a hybrid of a sedan and a station wagon.  Perhaps that packaging feature was what won it the award.

It couldn't have been the Renault 16's styling, for it was an awkward, ugly thing by my reckoning.  Let's take a look:

Gallery

The R16's body features a tall, six-window passenger greenhouse with a downward-sloping beltline that recalls the classic Citroën Traction-Avants and Peugeot 402s from the 1930s.

To me, the R16's proportions seem almost totally off.  The greenhouse (large for its time) is nearly as tall as the lower body  The wheels/tires are a little too small -- about 40 percent of the car's height (near 50 percent tends to be better).  The character line on the side also works against the design, making the lower body appear even lower.

The aft end features sail-panel style C-pillars.  This reduces visual bulk as seen from this angle, but the C-pillars add a little bulk viewed from the side, as in the previous photo.  I think a better-looking solution would have been to eliminate the sail panel feature and make the C-pillars cover the rearmost side windows.  (Though French buyers probably would have preferred the traditional six-window style.)

The hatch in action.

Another viewpoint.

Front end.  The R16 has the word "Renault" on the hatch, but the only brand identifier here is what appears to be a tiny Renault diamond badge just above the license plate.