Alfa Romeo's 1995 Speedster

In 2018 while touring north-central Italy, I came across this car during a lunch break.  A little Googling allowed me to identify it and refresh my memory of it when the design was new.

As the title of this post states, it is an Alfa Romeo Spider, likely a 1995 or 1996 model.  Wikipedia indicates that the stylist was Enrico Fumia who was working at Pininfarina.  This Spider (pronounced like the English word "speeder") series was marketed model years 1995-2006 and experienced a minor grille facelift during that period.  There also was a coupé version, the GTV.

The Spider has a 100-inch (2540 mm) wheelbase, but its overall length is 168.7 inches (4285 mm), the latter dimension similar to that of the early, classic Porsche 911.  This suggests that the car potentially had reasonable proportions.  But the styling makes it seem stubby, rather than graceful or purposeful.

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German publicity photo.

Probably a factory image of a 1995 model.  The grille has the traditional Alfa triangular shape that blends into hoodtop character lines.  The hood cut line is atop the front bumper / air intake ensemble and continues along the side abaft of the front wheel opening.  I like the small headlights -- they minimize the "quad" format that I greatly dislike.

Now for several photos of a for-sale 1996 Spider for a walk-around experience.

The side hood cut line is continued upwards as a character line and wraps across the upper part of the car.  It's echoed by the rear bumper assembly's side cut line angle.  Such echoing can be good styling practice, but those angles give the car that stubby look I mentioned above.  The wheels/tires are too small, in my opinion.  If they more closely matched the wheel openings the car might not seem so tall.

This shows the character line wrapping around the retractible top's cover.

The Spider has a nice, high trunk, which makes for practicality.  Rear detailing is simple by today's standards.  The tight radius atop the rear fender is a nice touch.  Not so nice is the relationship of the side cut line of the bumper assembly to the tail light / reflector panel.

Another high view.

A UK Spider.  Even though the aft fender line is defined by the tight-radius fold, the convex side panelling below it gives the car a puffy, sort of bloated look that the wraparound character line reinforces.
Conclusion: the 2005 vintage Alfa Romeo Spider merits the criticism given above.  That said, it was a good enough sports car that British car commentator Jeremy Clarkson really liked the GTV version, according to Wikipedia.  And the odd, distinctive styling did set Speeders and GTVs apart from more conventional designs, perhaps being useful from a marketing/sales standpoint.

The 3-Platform 1951 Oldsmobile Line

During the 1940s and 1950s General Motors marketed five brands while using three body platforms.  How this was done for its two larger platforms was in a Special-Interest Autos magazine article I referenced here.  The subject of the present post is Oldsmobile's use of all three platforms on its 1951 line of models.

Due to its intermingling of body segments, sometimes it can be difficult to identify the plaform a given GM car might be based on.  For example, this Wikpedia entry on the B Platform indicates the 1951-vintage Oldsmobile 88 and Super 88 models used that platform.  Yet the images below strongly suggest that the 88 line used the A Platform also used by Chevrolet and Pontiac.

Let's take a look.

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Fold-out showing many examples of the 1951 Oldsmobile line.  Click on the image to enlarge.

First, some images of a for-sale 1951 Oldsmobile 88 four-door sedan.

Along with one of a beat-up for-sale A-Platform 1951 Pontiac four-door from a similar point of view.  The main difference from the firewall aft is that the Olds has a one-piece windshield.

Note the distinct rear fender, a holdover from GM's first-generation post- World War 2 styling.

The rear backlight window is comparatively small.

Factory photo of a 1951 B-Platform Oldsmobile Super 88 four door sedan.  Front and rear fenders are blended.

Front quarter view, unknown photo source.  Super 88 grilles are new for '51 whereas 88s retained the 1950  Olds design.

Rear quarter view of a for-sale Super 88 showing its three-piece wraparound backlight.

A for-sale 1951 C-Platform Oldsmobile 98, the top of the line.  The wind buffers atop the side windows are accessories, and the wire wheels were added later.

The C- based body is different in most details from the Super 88 B-Body.

What unites the three models is the grille and related frontal detailing along with brand symbols such as the hood ornament, the ringed planet fore and aft, and the Olds coat of arms on the hubcaps..

Razor-Edge Lagonda V12s by Freestone & Webb

I wrote about a 1939 Lagonda V12 Drophead Coupé with a factory body designed by in-house stylist Fred Feeley here.  Since I believe design of convertibles is less taxing to a stylist than cars with hard tops with all the possibilities of forms, window shapes, and other rquired deatils, I tend to focus on such cars on this blog.  Therefore, I owe readers something about Lagona V12 Saloon styling to compensate for that post about a convertible.

In that post I commented that Feeley's frontal design, the basis for both factory and custom bodies, was more rounded than, say, the angularity of Rolls-Royces.  Which made me wonder if there were examples of Logonda V12s with angular bodies and how such bodies might relate to the rounded frontal design.  It happens that the Freestone & Webb coachbuilding firm (brief Wikipedia entry here) built some "razor-edge" bodies (F&W initiated that style) on V12 Lagondas.  Some these are shown below.

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First, three images of a for-sale 1938 Lagonda V12 Short Chassis Saloon by Freestone & Webb.  From the side, the contrasting curved and sharply-defined elements work well together.

Perhaps camera lens distortion affects this image, but the curved frontal elements appear cramped while the flat windshield makes the after part of the car seem too wide -- a contrast that doesn't seem to work well here.

This rear quarter view suggests the Razor-Edge part of the body is too delicate, given the robustly rounded front fender and spare tire cover.

This is a 1939 version in a "for sale" photo.  The spare tire is missing, but that serves to lighten the front, making the curved and angular elements work better together.

The following three images are of a 1939 Lagonda V12 Sport Saloon with a Razor-Edge body by Freestone & Webb.  I don't know the source of this photo.  This camera angle and lens combination lessens the contrasts noted for the second image from the top.

That car was later up for auction by Bonhams, the source of this and the following photo.  Again, the design holds together fairly well, but not perfectly.

This rear quarter view angle diminishes the effect of the front fender and spare tire cover combination.

I am forced to conclude from these photos (and not by viewing one of these cars in person) that Feeley's frontal identity features and Razor-Edge styling do not work very well together.

Styling a New Luxury Brand: Infiniti

I wrote here about the 1990 Lexus, a successful new luxury brand.  In this post, the subject is Infiniti, another new Japanese luxury brand launched around the same time.  Specifically, the model Q45 (marketed model years 1990-96). Its Wikipedia entry is here.

As mentioned in the earlier post, stylists and management surely paid attention to potential competitors.  Below are cars in the American market that were in production during the time Q45 styling was developed.  They were selected on the basis of having wheelbases fairly similar to that of the new Infiniti.  Their designs are compared to that of the Q45.

Most of the images below are factory-sourced photos.

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1985 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
Basically 1970s-'80s "three box" angular styling featuring large glass areas.  The main concession to aerodynamic efficiency is the slanted windshield.

1981 Lincoln Town Car
This model remained in production during the 1980s.  Its design is even more extreme three-box than the Cadillac's.

1987c. BMW 7 Series
Three-box styling is softened a little on this car.  It was new around the time Infinity stylists were at work.

1981c. Mercedes-Benz SE W126, unknown photo source
In production for most of the 1980s.  The Infiniti would almost surely have to compete with a redesigned S-Class soon.  And ditto Lincoln and Cadillac.  So what should Infiniti stylists come up with?

1991 Ininiti Q45
It turned out that Infiniti's marketing concept was that the car was different.  Therefore, features from its primary competition are absent.

1986 Jaguar XJ6, for sale image
It seems that the competing car closest in design to the Q45 was the Jaguar XJ6.  Both cars have a lithe appearance and six-window passenger greenhouses where those windows are less tall than on the three-box designs seen above.  Oddly, Jaguars were not strong competitors for the proposed Infiniti.  Perhaps that's why they were "different" enough to inspire a "different" new luxury car.  Oh, and the wheelbases are nearly identical.

Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera -- 1982-1996

Recently while I was taking my morning walk in the town near where I live, I spotted and photographed the car shown above.  It's an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, probably from around 1990.

Back when I was buying General Motors cars because I qualified for a supplier discount, a Ciera would have been more affordable than the GM car I actually bought.  But I knew that Cieras had been in production for what seemed ages, so I disregarded it because I wanted what I hoped was a car with newer technology.

As the title of this post indicates, Cieras lasted through 15 model years, all using the same platform and body.  This was remarkable for GM in those days.  The cars apparently filled a strong market niche.  Better yet for corporate beancounters, Cieras were quite profitable because tooling costs were amortized during the first few years of that long production run.

The Ciera's Wikipedia entry is here, and a link with perhaps more information is here.

Some images of Cieras are below.

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Factory image of a 1982 Ciera Brougham (four-door sedan).  Styling is a carryover from the "three box" squared-off look common during the 1970s.  Aerodynamically influenced shapes for dealing with fuel economy did not appear on American cars until the 1984 model year when Ford introduced its Tempo model.  Such shapes were common by 1990, yet Cieras sold well despite their now-oldfashion styling.

Here is a factory photo of a 1982 Ciera Coupe.  There also was a station wagon.

Now for a four-view walk around of a 1990 Ciera up for sale.  For this picture, the car was lowered closer to the ground for some reason.  The remaining photos have the car in a normal stance.

Side view.  Nothing really wrong with the styling, though it's rather bland.  Note the black plastic patch over what on the comparable Pontiac 6000 was a small third side window.

Rear styling was simple with a consistently rectangular theme, unlike the often themeless designs we find on current cars.

Ciera's styling is not distinctive, and therefore not exciting.  This, besides soon becoming dated in the new aerodynamic world, seems to have had no noticeable negative effect on sales.

Styling a New Luxury Car Brand: Lexus

So you want to launch a totally new luxury car brand.  One detail to be decided is the car's styling.  And surely Toyota stylists and management glanced at designs of the new car's intended or possible competition.  How different or similar should it look?

The Lexus (Wikipedia entry here) was launched in the USA for the 1990 model year and was a great success that has continued since.

The subject of this post is Lexus styling compared to some potential competitors in production while it was gestating.  Perhaps other brands were evaluated in addition to the set shown below, but those pictured were surly among those studied.  They tend to have similar wheelbases to that of the 1990 Lexus LS 400 (2814 mm, 110.8 inches).

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1985 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
Since the US market was key to Lexus market planning, Cadillacs were evaluated.  The current Caddy in the Lexus size range was the Sedan DeVille that appeared for the 1985 model year.  Its styling continues the angular "three box" theme popular during the 1970s and '80s.

1988 Lincoln Continental Sedan
The other major American luxury car with a similar wheelbase was the Lincoln Continental that was announced around the time Lexus styling was nearly locked in.  Ford Motor Company began introducing rounded styling a few years earlier, though this Lincoln retains the large glass areas of the three-box era.

1987c. BMW 7 Series E32
German luxury cars were selling well in the USA, so BMWs were probably evaluated.  The 7 Series sedan, like the Cadillac and Lincoln, retains three-box styling.

1985c. Mercedes-Benz W124
But the key potential competition was Mercedes-Benz.  The 1985 model year line of W124 cars were more beveled that the others and featured a wide C-pillar that gave a formal touch to the design.

1990c. Lexus LS 400
So perhaps is isn't surprising that the 1990 Lexus LS 400 sedans might have borrowed more from Mercedes-Benz than the other luxury rivals.  Perhaps the main difference was that it was more rounded.

Redesigned BMW 4 Series Coupé

The redesigned BMW 4 Series Coupé (Wikipedia entry here) is a few months from appearing in showrooms as I draft this post (July), but photos are available on the Internet.

Those images are of a car painted white, which means that subtle areas of body sculpting can't be seen clearly.  Nevertheless, I'm writing about the new 4 Series because of its grille design, a new variation on BMW's traditional two-element "nostrils" format.  Each element is seven-sided with angles softened slightly by sharp-radius curves.  Also, the size of the assembly is large.

Those two features -- rather geometric outlines and large size seem to be a new styling direction for BMW.  For example, the new 7 Series sedan has a large grille ensemble and the the concept version of the 4 Series as well as the Concept i4 electric car have large, angular grille shapes.

The images below juxtapose the previous 4 Series with the 2021 version.

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Previous 4 Series Coupé.  Generally a nice design, though I quibble with the linkage of the headlight assemblies and the grille frame.

The forthcoming 4 Series.  As mentioned, body sculpting isn't easy to understand, given the white paint job that virtually eliminates highlights.  The upper side character line is shorter and there seem to be subtle bulges at either end.

Seen from the side, there are differences, but the styling theme is carried over in the redesign.

Rear styling on the 2021 car is cliché-ridden like the earlier model.  But sculpting is more rounded off, creating a softer effect.

Front of the 2021 4 Series.  From this photo it's hard to tell how much of the "openings" are actually functional air intakes.  Note the nostril outlines, the "teeth" interior décor and the relationship of the BMW symbol to the ensemble.  My main complaints are the size of the ensemble and the tacked-on appearance of any license plates required at the front.  The nostril outlines are an interesting new variation on a theme that has had many such variations of the last 90 years.