"Airline" Bodied Triumph Gloria

Non- wind tunnel tested "streamlining" began to appear on automobile bodies during the 1930s.  (Since the early 1920s there had been a few essentially experimental cars whose body shapes were derived from wind tunnel test.)  The advent of the Great Depression of the 1930s spurred car makers to become more innovative than normal in order to sell cars, and adding streamline-appearing details became a fad, then a fashion until the 1980s when the need for improved fuel efficiency resulted in actual wind tunnel testing of most designs.

Often, front ends of cars were little changed, the somewhat faux-streamlining taking the form of rounded fenders and curved aft rooflines.  This was the case in England, where in the mid-1930s a number of low-production coupés were given this treatment.  This body style was known there as "Airline."

Airline styling is the subject of the book "Art Deco and British Car Design: The Airline Cars of the 1930s" by Barrie Down, Amazon link here.  I strongly object to the use of the term "Art Deco" in the title, as that usually refers to ornamentation and decoration rather than form.  (Yes, I know there are small sculptures of gazelles and even female dancers that might be so-classified.  But I draw the line at car shapes.)  However, aside from grinding my teeth every time "Art Deco" was used, I found the book both interesting and useful.

One example was the Triumph Gloria "Flow-free" that was first shown at the 1934 London Motor Show.  The designer was Walter Belgrove.  Due to a Lufwaffe bombing raid on Coventry, company records dealing with the Flow-free were destroyed.  Barrie Down notes that about 22 might have been built, and none are known to survive.

What exists today is a car based on a 1938 Triumph Vitesse chassis.  It seems that 50 Flow-free bodies were contracted, and one not used by Triumph was put on a 1931 4.5 lire Bentley.  This required some re-shaping.  In 1994 the Bentley's owner decided to restore it to its original condition, so the Flow-free body became surplus.  Restorer Rob Green brought the body, restored it to the original shape and put it on the Vitesse, and that is what is shown below.  I have no information on original sources for the colored photos.

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Two views of the Free-flow displayed in 1934.  It has a trim, nicely proportioned appearance.  But the most interesting details are obscured.

I might be mistaken, but his seems to be from a brochure or other promotional item.  The centerline crease running down the top to the faux- boat tail is revealed.

Here is the "restored" Triumph Flow-free.

Side view.  The rear fender profile and its wheel opening do not relate well towards the upper-left as seen here.  But there's no such problem on the 1934 show car.

This is the interesting part of the design with its boat-tail shaping and central crease.  The backlight windows are large for the mid-30s, and are deeply inset because their glass is flat and the roof is curved.  Note the cut-line for the trunk lid. Well done, Walter Belgrove!

General Motors' Redesigned Four-Door Sedan Bodies for 1940

Aside from limited-production eight-passenger/limousine bodies, in 1940 General Motors had three mass-production automobile bodies named A, B, and C.  The redesigned for 1940 A-Bodies were used by the entry-level Chevrolet brand as well as some Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles.  C-Bodies, also new for 1940, were for Cadillac's new Series 62 and LaSalles' Series 52, along with some Buicks and top-of-their-lines Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs.  By 1942 some Chevrolets used C-Bodies.  B-Bodies in 1940 were carryover from a 1939 redesign.  They were found on mid-range Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles, Buick Specials and Centurys, and entry-level LaSalles.

This post deals with four-door sedans of each of the body platforms.  It's part history and part spotter's guide.  Unless noted, images below are of cars listed for sale.

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C-Bodies

Cadillac 62 Sedan, Barrett-Jackson photo
C-Body four-door sedans are easy to spot because they are a four-window type.

LaSalle 52 Touring Sedan
LaSalles were the best-selling cars in Cadillac's line.  But the brand was replaced for 1941 by the Cadillac 60 Series that continued the use of C-Bodies.

Buick Roadmaster Touring Sedan, Hyman Auctions photo
This photo shows that trunks were now well-integrated into GM bodies.

Oldsmobile Series 90 Sedan, Barrett-Jackson
Line-topping 90 Series Olds' received C-bodies, mid-range 70 Series Olds' had B-Bodies and the entry-level 60 Series had A-Bodies.  This arrangement held for Pontiac's three lines.  C-Body sedans were attractive, but not exciting-looking.

Pontiac Torpedo Sedan
The Pontiac brand was the next-to-lowest on GM's totem pole, but its Torpedo line did get C-bodies.  Compare this photo with the one above, noting the comparatively stubby hood and front end of the Pontiac.  A casual viewer of this and the LaSalle pictured earlier might not realize that they shared the same basic body.


A- and B-Bodies

Chevrolet Special DeLuxe Sedan
A 1940 Chevrolet four-door sedan A-Body.

Chevrolet Special DeLuxe Sedan, auction photo
Now for a comparison with the B-Body introduced in 1939.  The A-Body Chevy pictured here is a six-window type, and all the windows' corners are radiused.

Buick Century Sedan
A 1940 Buick sporting a B-Body.  It also has six windows, and at first glance might seem the same as the Chevrolet in the previous image.  But there are differences. The trunk of the B-Body is more squared-off, less gently curved.  The B-pillar and C-pillar window corners along the beltline are sharp, not radiused.

Pontiac Special Sedan
Entry-level '40 Pontiac showing the curved A-Body trunk lid.

LaSalle 50 Touring Sedan, auction photo
This shows a top-of-the-B-Body-line four-door sedan with its more squared-off trunk.

Another Look at the MG Magnette

I wrote about the 1953-58 MG Magnette sedans (saloons) six years ago.  Now that I've found more images to illustrate the design, it's a worthwhile time for another look.

I maintain a soft spot in memory for the ZA version because I did a long ride in one years ago while at university, as the previous post mentions.

Color images below are of cars offered for auction or direct sale unless otherwise noted.

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Apparent factory photo of a ZA Magnette that was announced in October 1953.  It's a trim, sporty four-door designed by Gerald Palmer.  Body shaping approximates late-1940s American designs, while the hood and grille are in the traditional British vein.  The grille design is a rounded version of what MG sports cars of the time wore.

The lack of chrome trim on the front fender suggest that this car might have been a pre-production model photographed for publicity or brochure purposes.

Production ZA in British Racing Green.  Wheels seem the same as those on MG TF sports cars.

The instrument panel and other interior items were trimmed in warm colored wood.  The framing of the speedometer echoes the MG badge octagon motif.

Light green was common on ZAs.  The one I rode in while recovering from my hangover was that color.

Side view of that ZA.  The curves of the aft roofline and side window are echoed in the profile of the trunk lid.  The faint extension of the front fender and the low-relief rear fender line help to soften what otherwise would be too much slab-siding.

ZA rear view.  The backlight window is small for its time.  However, it reasonably suits the overall design of the car -- though it would look better if it were very slightly larger.

Now for the later ZB Megnette.  Its main style difference is the greatly enlarged backlight.  I think this enlargement was too extreme and didn't blend well with the original design.  The new chrome strip served as a paint color delimiter.

Side view of a ZB.  MG marketers called two-tone paint jobs "Varitone."  The Varitone scheme makes the car seem longer than ZAs, but destroys the purity of Palmer's design.  As can be seen here and the previous image, the C-pillar seems too pinched, while the shapes of the backlight and adjoining side window do not relate as well as they might due to the large radius curves on the former.

Another view of the same ZB Magnette.

Voisin C28 Aérosport and Nissan A34 Maxima

The image above is a cropped scan of page 92 from the French publication Automobila Hors-série No. 1, Toutes les vouitures françaises 1936, featuring the Salon de l'Automobile, Paris, 3-13 octobre 1935, published by Groupe Histoire & Collections, 15 October 1996.  The featured car is the Avions Voisin C28 Aérosport.

The author, René Bellu, complains in the second caption: "Ci-dessous. L'Aerosport vue de face (à gauche) et la plain profil.  Sous cet angle, on distingue parfaitement une erreur de courbure intervenue en tôlerie lors de l'elaboration de ce prototype: la ceinture de caisse forme une bosse disgracieuse à hauteur de la portière."  He refers to the break of the fenderline/beltline curve continuity at the A and B pillars as being disgraceful, even though he concedes the car is only a prototype.

Actually, the design was sensational, Gabriel Voisin's final, typically quirky, triumph before ceding control of his firm.  A bit of background can be found in this Car and Driver article dealing with an Aérosport to be auctioned by RM Sotheby's -- but withdrawn before the event.  It mentions that ten of these cars were built, but only two are said to survive.

Also dealt with in this post is the 2004-2008 Nissan Maxima A34 (scroll down).  I contend that its curved rear profile echoes the C28 Aérosport design.  Whether or not there was conscious borrowing, I do not know.

I do not have source references for the color images of the not-auctioned Aérosport.  Some might have been commissioned by RM Sotheby's or the prospective seller, others seem to have been taken at an outdoor car display.  Unless noted, images of Maximas are of cars offered for sale.

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Another view of the Aérosport at the 1935 show.  The awkward door shaping is evident the this side of the car too.

This "V 12" Aérosport briefly appeared at the 1936 Salon, then disappeared.  Only two photographs of it are known to me.  Its motor, which might have been more conjectural than actual, was two in-line six cylinder engines placed in tandem -- hence the long hood on the car.

The Aérosport not auctioned.  Its story is sketched in the Car and Driver link above, but the history of its body is unclear aside from that fact that the car was given a thorough restoration.  In any case, the fender line that bothered Bellu appears smooth.

Side view.

Very nice curves, but a deceptive view making the body seem more integral than it actually is.

Here we see that the rear fenders are separated from the central part of the body.  The backlight is positioned so low as to make rearward views from the driver's seat difficult.

Nissan Maxima from 2004.  The aft strikes me as being in the same spirit as the Aérosport's.  The backlight is framed by small sail-panels that allow the side roofline curves to be smoother, less cramped that if the backlight curve was followed.

Lack of ornamentation highlights the simplicity of the body shaping.

Side view factory photo.  Far more pleasing to me than the current jazzed-up designs from Nissan, Toyota and Honda.

Cars with National Flag Color Motifs

Now for a brief change of pace.

From time to time cars appear with accessory or post-market color details related to the national flags of their country of origin.  Nowadays these are often in the form of decals rather than paint.

This post was inspired by a Maserati I recently noticed and photographed.  It and other examples are shown below.

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A few years ago some Fiat 500s appeared with thin Italian flag color stripes as seen here.

A factory option was a Gucci-themed 500.  Italy's red and green oppose one another on a standard artists' color wheel.  That is, when placed together the result can be a garish clashing.  Gucci colors are toned-down green and red.  This is done by mixing a little green into the red and a little red into the green.  This slightly neutralized result allows the colors to be juxtaposed without serious clashing.

Perhaps more often seen are Minis with British flag decals on their roofs.

Here is the Maserati that I saw and captured with my iPhone.  The only stripes are on the hood, the car's stern being stripe-free.

Besides hood stripes, this Maserati has three grille bars mimicking the Italian flag.

Sculpted Chrome Grilles: USA 1951

An automobile styling fashion in America from the late 1940s into the mid-1950s was large, often sculpted, grille bars.  Grille framing was often bold for many years before and after that time.  What I'm dealing with here is chrome-plated designs within the framing.

For the purposes of this post, I selected model year 1951 as representative.  If it wasn't the peak year for sculpted grilles, then it was close.  By the late 1950s the fashion turned to grilles featuring moderate-size grid patterns.

Not all American brands are shown below because not all brands had extreme designs.  Omitted here are DeSoto, Dodge, mainstream Chrysler, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Kaiser, Nash, Henry J and Studebaker.

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

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Chrysler Imperial
The bumper includes fat ribs that echo the bold, horizontal central grille bar.

Plymouth
Plymouth and all other Chrysler Corporation brands received front-end facelifts for 1951.  For some reason the downturned frame harkens to the similar "sad" expression on 1949 Lincolns that had been a source of shopper complaint and was quickly altered for 1950.  The horizontal central bar follows the shape of the framing.

Ford
Spinners was a Ford theme beginning in 1949 and lasting through 1954.  1949 and '50 Fords has a single, central spinner, but the '51s were given two of them.  The fog lights mounted on the bumper are accessories and not part of the grille design.

Lincoln Cosmopolitan
An example of a "not-sad" Lincoln frame.  The theme is strongly horizontal, but provided some relief by the raised "teeth" whose section is aligned with the hood cut lines and bumper guards.

Mercury
Not large sculpted bars here.  But the band of vertical bars is itself a large, sculpture element.

Buick Special - RM Sotheby's photo
For many years Buicks were identified by their sets of vertical grille bars.  The main sculpting here is the parking light assemblies at the edges of the grille.

Cadillac - Mecum auctions photo
Cadillac grilles carried a grid theme for many years.  Here the grid bars are few and bold.

Pontiac
Sculpting here is mainly in the form of a gull-wing for the main bars.  The gap is bridged by a cross pattern and Indian head symbol.  Also present are a few teeth below the gull wings.  Perhaps because my father bought a 1951 Pontiac, I'm inclined to think this was perhaps its best grille design during that era.

Hudson
I think this was a superior Hudson grille design.  Rounded elements of the license plate frame are nicely related to both the Hudson triangle motif in the central section and the curved sections of the frame and upper interior bar.

Frazer - unknown photo source
Final model year Frazers surprisingly were given a drastic facelift.  That included the large, bold element seen here that is part frame and part additional decoration.  Truly a sculptural design.

Packard 200 - factory photo
Packards were redesigned for 1951.  The 200 series was the marque's entry level and received a less elaborate grille than other Packards.  Most of the sculpting is found in the framing, a bold interpretation of the traditional Packard grille/hood interface.   Given the framing and central vertical splitter, the remaining details are largely logical.

Packard 250 - RM Sotheby's
Above the baseline 200 models, Packards were given sets of grille "teeth" that complicated the design.  This was not corrected until the 1953 model year when grilles were given a moderate restyling.