General Motors' 1961 "Pointed" Fender Ends: Buick Front, Olds Rear

Designers of clothing have a profound constraint on their creativity: the human body.  Even so, the variations in design over the centuries in the West have been astonishing.

Automobile stylists have their own constraints.  Setting aside production economic considerations, there are engineering factors such as weight distribution (largely engine placement), front wheel turning angles, shipping size limitations, and others that serve as background.  Closer to the drawing board or computer terminal are packaging details.  Those include headroom, legroom, door shaping, and outside visibility (window placement and shapes).  Even so, there have been hundreds of distinct car designs since styling was professionalized in the late 1920s.

Thanks to such constraints, styling creativity often is a matter of details imposed and then discarded as means of making a new design or freshening it during a facelift.  This detail churn was strongest in the USA during the era of annual model changes roughly early 1930s into the 1970s (nowadays facelifts are less frequent).

Today's post deals with similar details that existed on two General Motors brands during model year 1961 only: "pointed" in profile front fenders on Buicks, and rear end profiles on Oldsmobiles.

Unless noted, images below are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1960 Buick LeSabre
This was a hardtop coupe facelifted version of a 1959 design.

1961 Buick Invicta - factory photo
It was replaced by a new design (or just possibly a major facelift) for 1961.  Note the front fender's leading edge.  It curves to a point that extends forward of the front of the hood.  Lesser pointing can be seen at the car's rear.  These yielded increased visual and actual length to the car as viewed from the side.

1961 Buick Skylark - factory photo
Even the new "compact" Buicks received the same treatment at the front.

1962 Buick LeSabre
But that feature was abandoned when standard size Buicks were facelifted for 1962.

1960 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight
The rear deck became a sort of horizontal tailfin with a narrow rear fenderline point suggested.

1961 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight
Here the rear fender's aft shaping is a curved taper to a point similar in feeling to the '61 Buick's front fender design.  Again, the concept was to increase the impression of length.

1962 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight
Like Buick, the 1962 facelift dropped the points and squared-up the design.  Apparently, GM styling honcho Bill Mitchell decided that visual length was now less a priority.

Audi's 2025 Concept C

On the left is a classic Audi TT.  On the right is Audi's 2025 Concept C car, its production version intended to act as a "halo" enhancing Audi's brand identity, as the TT did in 1998.

Audi's online press statement when the Concept C was revealed is here.  A Motor Trend article about test-driving it is here.

Concept C is electric-powered by a Porsche-designed system.  That availability is likely why the C was green-lighted for production despite the collapse of electric vehicle (EV) sales.  The sunk cost likely propelled enough inertia.  Also, because the car was a reputational "halo" not expected to make a profit, low sales levels were always expected.

In 2024 Massimo Frascella was appointed to lead Audi styling, and the Concept C is one of his earliest efforts on the job.  An online Auto&Design interview with him is here.  Frascella favors simplicity, something I think is needed,  given the current fashion for confusing sheet metal sculpting.  Some recent electric cars feature simple, curved shapes, and the Concept C abaft of its front end follows that theme.

The production C might appear late 2027.  Supposedly most of the design will be carried over.  That said, the after part of the passenger greenhouse seems unsuitable for a production car, and I've read that a Targa bar and retractible roof section will appear in showrooms.  We shall see.

Photos for this post are via Audi.

Gallery

Overhead view with part of its development crowd.  The aft part of the passenger compartment greenhouse offers almost no outside visibility, and is unlikely to see production.  Unless the driver is provided 180-degree rear television coverage on some kind.

EVs don't require radiator grilles, so Frascella's solution of reducing the Audi vertical grille to a reflective slab makes intellectual, if not aesthetic, sense.  However, the flanking vertical slots (I presume for frontal brake cooling) are aerodynamically problematical and might not reach production "as is."  Despite Frascella's desire for simplicity, the front strikes me as being too fussy and overly intellectualized.

Too-huge wheels and short overhang.  The roof profile is similar to that of the TT.  Body side sculpting is subtle.

The C looks best, most conventional, from this perspective.  The lack of rear visibility is obvious.

Artistic Styling Renderings in Bob Gurr's 1955 Car Styling Book

In 1955 when I was in high school, wanting to become an automobile stylist, R.H. Gurr authored a book on the subject.  I quickly bought it, and it remains in my library.   For more information regarding it, along with a gallery of the illustrations it contained, go to the Dean's Garage website link here.

As it happened, I never became close to designing cars, lacking the imagination and motor skills to create decent illustrations.  That is, I would have quickly washed out of any design school.

As for the book, as you will find at the link, it contained a large numnber of car design sketches and renderings.  A few of those greatly impressed me at the time, and still do.

I need to note that by the mid-1950s, most such illustrations were made using tools long-since abandoned by the profession.  They are not comparable to the current illustration style and technology.  The best might have been unnecessarily good, because their purpose was simply to display features of an automobile design.  Still, an impressive presentation might go far to "sell" a design -- depending on the taste of the executives doing evaluations.

The designers featured below are Ron Hill and Richard Tatge.  Hill had a long, successful career at General Motors.  Tatge seems to have dropped out of sight in the car styling world, but he had the skill set to become an illustrator -- commercial or technical.  The images below, with one slight exception, appeared in Gurr's book.

Gallery

First are three racing car designs by Hill.

My interest here is the quality of the artwork, not that of the designs.

I've always really liked this illustration of a proposed Bugatti.  In reality, the Bugatti firm ceased car production in 1952, probably before he made this rendering.  So Hill was simply having imaginative fun here.

Now for some works by Tatge.  All are of a gas turbine propelled racing car and variations.  The top band show a transition from racing car to production convertible.  The lower image is of a coupe that might have evolved in the same manner.

Another view of the same turbine race car.  Note Tatge's skill in portraying the technician.  Many car stylists were very poor at depicting people, but nevertheless often included them in their renderings.

Not in Gurr's book, here is the original color rendering.  Very impressive.

More: Were 1961 General Motors Cars Facelifted 1959-60 Models?

For many years I had assumed that 1961 General Motors cars without panoramic windshields were a new design.  Finally, I began to have doubts.  In February 2022 I posted "Were 1961 Chevrolets Actually a Huge Facelift?"  It included photos of Chevrolet body structures in the firewall / A-pillar zone.

At the end of the post I stated: "Bottom line: The 1961 design was mostly different.  But there seems to have been some carryover from 1959 in terms of front doors and some sheet metal shaping in lower side panels (those wheel openings)."

The present post continues the exploration of the massive facelift idea.  The answer to the question in the title above is probably known by body restorers who have worked with General Motors bodies from model years 1959-1962 or a little after.  Few stylists, engineers and product planners active in those days are still with us, so that source seems to be closed absent published information I'm unaware of.

Cars shown in the Gallery are hardtop sedans, along with two regular sedans.  Unless noted, photos are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1960 Pontiac Ventura
Wheelbase 122 inches (3111 mm).  A Pontiac example of the 1959-1960 body.

1961 Pontiac Bonneville
Wheelbase 123 inches (3124 mm).  The 1961 body on a Pontiac with a similar wheelbase.  Pay most attention to the door cutlines and the passenger compartment greenhouse's window profiles.

1959 Oldsmobile Super 88
Wheelbase 123 inches (3124 mm) for this and the Oldsmobiles below..

1960 Oldsmobile Super 88
Facelift of the design in the previous image.

1961 Oldsmobile Super 88
The truncated B-pillar has been moved slightly forward, but otherwise the door cutlines seem the same (allowing for adjustments related to the reshaped rear wheel opening).

1959 Buick Invicta
Wheelbase 123 inches (3124 mm) for this and the Buicks shown below.

1960 Buick Invicta
The 1960 facelift.

1961 Buick Invicta
Aside from the A-pillar and beltline, the window profile seems the same.

1959 Buick Electra
Wheelbase 126 inches (3200 mm) for this car and the one in the following image.  Now for cars with a longer wheelbase.

1961 Buick Electra - unknown photo source
Again, a wider rear passenger compartment door.  Here the C-pillars and backlight windows are similar enough that some carryover structure seems possible.

1959 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
Wheelbase 130 inches (3302 mm).  Now for examples with the longest wheelbase.

1963 Cadillac Sedan DeVille - BaT Auctions photo
Wheelbase 129.5 inches (3289 mm).  Same general story.

1959 Buick Invicta - photo via driveshare.com
Conventional sedans had full-height B-pillars and six-window fenestration, so I thought it might be interesting for a comparison to a 1961 Buick sedan with the same wheelbase..

1961 Buick LeSabre - BaT Auctions photo
Again, the B-pillar is farther forward, enlarging the rear side door.  However, this is a four-window -- not a six-window -- design.  The shape of the greenhouse is different, unlike the case of hardtop sedans.  So the evidence of a possible massive facelift  is quite weak in this instance.

First-Generation Panhard Dyna Walkaround

I called the Panhard Dyna X a "styling crime" in a 2014 post.  Now that I'm older and more mellow, I'm tempted to take back that harsh assessment.  But yes, the design is indeed pretty ugly.

On the other hand, the circumstances of its creation in the chaos and aftermath of German occupation of France in World War 2 make the design more understandable.  Also, Panhard chose to accept the Pons Plan (scrolll down), a French government initiative to control its automobile industry.  Panhard was to shift its market to small-size cars, and the Dyna was the result.

As I mentioned in that post, "During World War 2, [the famous engineer Jean-Albert Gregoire] worked on a small sedan design that, among other features, weighed comparatively little because much of the body was made of aluminum.

"His AFG design interested the Panhard firm, but when Paul Panhard licensed the design from AFG and Grégoire in 1943, it was stipulated that Panhard had the right to modify the design.  And modified it was, as the images below indicate.  As best I can tell, the redesign was handled by Louis Bionier and Panhard staff."

The Wikipedia entry for the Dyna X is here.  It mentions that its wheelbase was 84 inches (2130 mm).  Other, better-known, French postwar small cars included the Citroën 2CV with a wheelbase of 94.5 inches (2400 mm) and the Renault 4CV whose wheelbase was 82.5 inches (2096 mm).  Volkswagen's Beetle wheelbase was the same as the 2CV's.  So the Dyna sedan and the Renault were seriously short by 1948 European standards.

The image at the top of this post is a Panhard publicity photo.  Images below of a 1951 Panhard Dyna X86 are via Bonhams Auctions.

Gallery

General appearance is 1930s, not mid-1940s.

The main Dyna body type was the Berline 4-door sedan.  Four doors was the conformation preferred by French car buyers for many years.  Note how constrained the rear door is, thanks to the short wheelbase.

No trunk lid.  Access was by tipping the rear seat back forward.

The separation of the passenger compartment greenhouse and rear lower body is covered by a chrome strip.

Trunk space was enhanced by placing the spare tire outside.

Fenders are very 1930s.  The greenhouse's side windows are proportionally large, giving the car a lighter appearance.

Headlight assemblies are also typical of the 1930s.  The motor was air-cooled, so the grille opening was scaled to its cooling needs.  Frontal detailing is more decorative than related to body shape details.

By the way, the license plate code 42 signifies France's département Loire.

The instrument package décor echoes the grille's, and ancillary frontal lights framing theme.

General Motors' 1961 Y-Body Coupes

The title above refers to 1961 model year cars, but most 1962 versions had essentially the same styling as the '61s.  So I'll include 1962 examples in the Gallery below.

I compared styling of 1961 generation "compact" (Y-platform) 4-door sedans here.  Today's post deals with coupes.

This platform was noticeably smaller than the "standard" size cars produced by Detroit's three largest automobile makers. For example, Oldsmobile's compact F-85 had a wheelbase of 112 inches (2845 mm) compared to 123 inches (3124 mm) for its standard size 88 models.

This was in response to American Motors Corporation's Rambler compact car line that was rapidly increasing its market share in the late 1950s, while Studebaker introduced its compact Lark model for 1959.

Chrysler Corporation introduced its compact Valiant for the 1960 model year, and Ford Motor Company launches its Ford Falcon and Mercury Comet compact cars for 1961.

As was the case for brands and models sharing the same basic platform, Y-body cars shared many features in the interest of development/production economy as well as brand-specific differences needed for marketing purposes.

Unless noted, images below are of for-sale cars.

Gallery

1961 Pontiac Tempest - BaT Auctions photo
Model year 1961 saw the return of Pontiac's two-segment grille that was introduced for 1959, but abandoned for '60.  Thereafter, two-segment was a visual brand identifier for Pontiac.  The grille design seen here differs from two-segment grilles on 1961 standard size Pontiacs.

1962 Pontiac Tempest LeMans
For some reason, Tempests lost the two-segment theme for 1962, yet returned to it for '63.  An odd repeat of the 1959-1960-1961 pattern of the standard size line.

1962 Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass
"Cutlass" was used to denote F-85 coupes.  Later, it was applied across much of Oldsmobile's line.  The car pictured here has fancier trim than the Pontiacs shown above.  That would be expected becuase Oldsmobile was one notch ahead of Pontiac in General Motors' brand portfolio.

1962 Buick Special
Buick Specials featured the same projecting, tapered leading fender profile as standard size '61 Buicks had.  All 1961 Y-body coupes were just that -- Buick added a hardtop (pillarless) version for '62, as did Olds.  There were no compact Pontiac hardtop coupes until the 1964 redesign.

1962 Pontiac Tempest
Fronts and rears differed for reasons of brand identity.  Sides were more uniform.  The bold, near-beltline character sculpting is found on all 1961 Y-body coupes.  Tempests had a faux air exhaust vent abaft of the front wheel opening with an attached character line extending back over the rear wheel opening.

1962 Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass
No faux air vent, but the lower character line is the same as Pontiac's.

1962 Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire - Jay Leno Collection
The Jetfire hardtop coupe was added to the F-85 line for 1962.

1962 Buick Special - BaT Auctions
1962 Specials looked nearly the same as '61s from the side.  The lower character line and side sculpting differs from Tempest's and F-85's.  The line does touch the tops of the wheel openings, however.

1961 Buick Skylark
Buick's '62 hardtop coupe.

1962 Pontiac Tempest LeMans
Rear quarter views.  This car lacks vinyl roof covering, revealing the crisp metal sculpting.

1962 Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass
Similar to the Tempest.

1962 Buick Special - BaT Auctions
Buicks ranked above Oldsmobiles in GM's hierarchy.  So side sculpting takes a scooped-out form.  The backlight window is wider than on the other cars.