General Motors' New 1942 C-Body Two-Door Fastbacks

General Motors' essentially top-of-the line C-Body was redesigned for the 1940 model year.  Body types offered were a four-door sedan, a coupe, and convertible versions of those.

The line was expanded for 1942 as part of GM's push to add fastback styles to its portfolio.  This was in the form of a two-door fastback that marketers variously referred to as small sedans or coupes.

These were attractive cars, as the images below might suggest.  They were found on the Cadillac 62 Series, Oldsmobile's top-of-the-line Ninety-Eight Series, and on the Buick Super and Roadmaster series.  Image sources are of cars for sale unless noted.

Gallery

1942 Buick Century Sedanet
This is a B-Body two-door fastback, a type GM introduced for 1941.  Rear seating was fairly cramped, and the aft side windows were smaller than on the '42 C-Body equivalent.  Another car-spotter's tell is that the B-pillar leans forward here, but is vertical on the C-Body cars.

1942 Cadillac 62 Club Coupe
Cadillac's two-door fastback showing the longer side windows and vertical B-pillar.  All GM cars except for some limousines had front fenders overlapping front doors for 1942.

1942 Buick Roadmaster Sedanet, Mecum Auctions photo
The top-of-the line Buick version.  Here the front fenders touch the rear fenders.

1942 Oldsmobile 98 Dynamic Cruiser Club Sedan brochure illustration
I haven't been able to find suitable (known-source) images of the Oldsmobile version, so this brochure illustration and the doctored photo below will have to do.

1942 Oldsmobile 98 Dynamic Cruiser Club Sedan airbrushed publicity photo
General Motors marketers in those days relied heavily on retouched publicity photos.  This probably had to do with the poor quality of screened photos in newspapers -- the retouched images carried through better.