Chrysler Pacifica Minivan

Chrysler Corporation introduced the minivan body type to the American market in 1984 (Wikipedia entry here).  The current iteration is the Pacifica, a 2017 redesigned van the was called the Town and Country, a name used by Chrysler for "woodie" convertibles and other body styles since the 1940s.  The name Pacifica itself was previously used for an early crossover SUV-like design.

This post features the Pacifica's side-window profile design for reasons to be made more clear in captions for the images below.

Gallery

This is a 2011 Chrysler Town and Country minivan.  Its purpose is to haul people in three rows of seats or stuff when seatbacks are lowered.  That is, it is shaped to maximize carrying capacity rather than to look attractive.

The vehicle was redesigned for the 2017 model year and renamed Pacifica.  Its windshield is raked back at a greater angle and the roofline is more curved in order to improve aerodynamic efficiency.  Note the "dogleg" shape of the aft side window, a major visual change from the Town and Country.

In recent decades that shape has been associated with BMW sedans, but was previously found on various production cars including 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air hardtops.  An early example is the 1936 Delage D6-70 Coach Panoramique by Letourneur et Marchand pictured here.

Rear quarter view.  What might seem to be a wraparound/panoramic backlight window actually isn't.  The triangular area bordered by the hatch cutline, taillight and C-pillar sheet metal is actually some molded black material placed over more of the C-pillar sheet metal.  In other words, the wraparound backlight is phony.

Side view.  Another design problem with the C-pillar as defined by gray painted sheet metal in this photo is that it strikes me as being too narrow.  I prefer that it be twice as wide (or thereabouts) than it is now.  That would make that part of the body seem less delicate.

A 2021 Pacifica -- a facelifted 2017.  The major change is frontal styling, though the upper side character line was slightly altered as well.

No change for the window treatment.  Probably the facelift budget was tight, but I would have pushed for widening the C-pillar or even have the aft window element lean forward rather than backwards as it is here.  And the fake wraparound might have been changed too.

Rear quarter view with the hatch opened.  This offers a better understanding of the body structure at the car's rear, something the facelifters could have used as the basis for some improved styling.

Last-Ditch Styling

Sometimes there's a last spurt of flame before the candle dies, or so I recall hearing it said.

True or not, something similar sometimes happens with automobile companies that are about to flat-line.  In this instance it's a final roll of the dice, betting what money the company has left on a flashy model that is either brand new or (more likely, given the cost factor) a major styling facelift.

Where money is totally lacking, little gets changed and the brand dies with nothing but a whimper.  Badge-engineered British makes that died in the 1960s might be a case in point.

This post deals with some American brands that went down fighting with regard to styling.  They are: Hupmobile, which was gone by 1940; Graham, that ceased production in the 1941 model year and had a curious afterlife (see the link for details); Kaiser, the only halfway successful post- World War 2 new brand; and Studebaker which built the Raymond Loewy designed Avanti for a few years before dying in the mid-1960s while trying to sell its Lark-based sedans with facelift after facelift after facelift.

Here are these companies' last (or nearly-so) gasps:

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1939 Graham "Sharknose" coupe
The "Sharknose" (a popular name, not the official company version) Graham was largely designed by Amos Northup as an attention-getting style in the pseudo-streamlined fashion of the 1930s.  For some reason I rather like it, though it was not a sales success and the company continued its slide out of the industry.

Surrealist Man Ray in his 1941 Graham Hollywood
Not a publicity shot: he actually bought one when he returned to the USA after France fell and was living in the Los Angeles area.  Aside from the hood and grille, the Hollywood used body panels from the Cord brand that failed after the 1937 model year.  The Cord 810 and 812 models of 1936-37 are not included here because they represented the revival of a brand that had been discontinued a few years earlier.

1939 Hupmobile Skylark
Hupp shared Cord bodies with Graham, though few of the Hupmobile versions were built.  The car depicted is a prototype with a front that looked Cord-like apart from the tacked-on headlights (the Cord had them hidden in the fenders).  Production versions looked almost identical to the Graham shown above.

1954 Kaiser
This is how the last American-built Kaisers looked.  It was a major facelift of the 1953 version. Changes included the Buick-like grille, wraparound rear window and elaborate tail light housings.  Production continued in South America for a few years with another facelift style.

1962 Studebaker Avanti
Studebaker announced the sensational Avanti almost 60 years ago, yet the styling could just as easily be for a current model aside from a few details such as the windshield angle (today's cars would have greater slope).

This post is an adaptation of a 2011 Art Contrarian post.

Some 1927 Grille Designs

This blog deals almost exclusively with cars designed after styling departments began to be established by American automobile makers.  Specifically, the 1927 General Motors Art and Colour Section headed by the legendary Harley Earl.

Mid-range American automobile brand cars made before 1930 or thereabouts tend to look very similar to me.  To some degree, that's because I wasn't alive then and not that many were still on the road when I was old enough to begin paying attention to cars' appearance.  To a larger degree it was because their bodies looked similar -- very boxy if they were sedans or coupés, with similar fender shapes, headlight placement and such.  I might add that it was during the 1920s that basic mechanical features had become perfected enough that late in the decade the focus could begin to shift to appearance as means of product differentiation and sales appeal.

In the pre-styling era visual brand identification was almost entirely in the form of grille design, the main exception being Pierce-Arrow's fender-mounted headlights.  And those grille designs were often only subtly different between brands.

I define "grille" here to include its frame, which was the place where brand differentiation was placed.  Moreover, some of the photos suggest that there was little or no radiator protection via grilles: radiators might simply have been framed in chrome or nickel.

The images below are mostly of mid-range American brand cars from the 1927 model year, the time when Earl's first design (LaSalle) hit the streets.  Most are of cars listed for sale, and brands are listed in alphabetical order.

Gallery

1927 Chevrolet Landau Sedan - contemporary photo
All the grilles shown here are essentially the same shape -- a shape determined by the radiator they cover.  Chevrolet's grille frame is somewhat rounded with a tiny dip at the centerline.

1927 Dodge Brothers Four-Door Sedan - Swope Museum photo
Dodges had square-bottom frames and a simple, rounded top.

1927 Erskine - my photo taken at the Studebaker Museum
Erskine's frame is rather angular-looking with a flat front.

1927 Essex Speedabout by Biddle and Smart
Essex had a frame similar to Dodge's, but the radiator is protected by horizontal louvers.

1927 Hupmobile Coupe - H and H Auctions photo
The Hupp frame has some subtle sculpting around a medallion at the top.

1927 Nash Special Six Two-Door Sedan
Similar to Dodge.

1927 Oldsmobile - Silverstone Auctions photo
At least Oldsmobile had elaborate frame-shaping and therefore strong brand identification.

1927 Pontiac DeLuxe Landau Sedan - contemporary photo
Like Hupp, Pontiac had some sculpting.  But all around, and not just at the top.

1927 Willys-Knight Coupe
The upper part of Willys' frame has noticeable sculpting and shaping.
In general, differences between brands tended to be minimal and small-scale. Which is why I have trouble identifying brands from that era without resorting to reference material.

Cars With Broad Shoulders

An American styling fashion of the early 1960s was what might be termed "shoulders" -- a catwalk atop the fender.  According to something I read many years ago (perhaps in Automobile Quarterly, though I'm not sure), the concept was to "nest" the passenger greenhouse.  That wasn't the exact case, aside from a few instances.  But a number of car models did have fairly horizontal sheet metal areas extending outward from the window glass before bending downward as fender sides.

The examples I am aware of were cars introduced from the 1960 model year to the 1965 model year.  Thereafter, sides fell away from the bottom of the window glass in various more rounded or thinner fender forms.

Unless noted, images are factory-sourced or are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1960 Ford Galaxie
Ford stylists created a catwalk that also served as the top of a canted tail fin -- or perhaps a character fold.

1960 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight
1959 Oldsmobiles featured something akin to tail fins.  But all General Motors brands save Cadillac shed these for 1960, most having flat aft lower bodies.  This Olds has perhaps the widest shoulders of the cars shown here.  Mecum auction photo.

1960 Chevrolet Corvair
Even the new, compact Corvair received the treatment, though in more rounded form.

1961 Lincoln Continental
Elwood Engel's classic Lincoln Continental design has narrow catwalks.  But their outer edges are slightly raised and topped by chrome strips.  This is a clear instance of nesting the greenhouse.  Mecum photo.

1961 Ford Thunderbird
Thunderbird shared the Lincoln's platform and body structure.  So it too has catwalks defined by chrome strips.  Via Mecum.

1961 Oldsmobile F-85
One of GM's new "compact" cars.  It too has a catwalk above some body sculpting.

1963 Mercury Monterey
Another example of a Ford Motor Company catwalk design.

1965 Rambler Marlin
The catwalk is narrow, but a Lincoln-like chrome strip can be seen.  That, too was a 1960s American styling fad.

1965 Ford Thunderbird
No chrome strip here, but the catwalk feature is retained.

1965 Chrysler New Yorker
Engel moved from Ford to Chrysler Corporation whose cars now began to receive 1961 Lincoln features such as catwalk shoulders and chrome strips.

Concept Cars: Forward to the Past

Back in the 1950s, 1960s and even through the 1980s American car makers created show cars that supposedly pointed to new directions in automobile style.  One popular term for such a "concept car" (the term used nowadays) was "car of the future."

But things changed for a while around 2000.  Several concept cars appeared that were Retro, pointing to the past rather than the future.  Those show cars weren't strictly old-fashioned; rather, they were modern aside from styling cues borrowed from designs from decades earlier.

Why did this happen? In part, Retro was fashionable -- in production were such designs as the Volkswagen New Beetle and the Audi TT sports car.  Soon to appear were a Ford Thunderbird with styling cues based on the 1956 T-bird and the Chrysler PT Cruiser that hearkened to hot rods based on mid-1930s sedans.

Another factor might have been that the US auto industry was doing well enough that companies could afford to create a few show cars that diverged from the usual practice of presenting features planned or considered for production in the next few years.

Here are some of those Retro cars of the future:

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Chrysler Atlantic - 1995

Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantique
Only three Atlantiques were ever built, but the design is considered by many as one of the high points of Bugatti style.  The Chrysler version pulls the body elements into a more integrated package, the strongest holdover from the 57SC being the shape of the side windows.  The overall effect strikes me as being aggressively fussy, but nevertheless likeable.

Chrysler Chronos - 1998

Chrysler D'Elegance - 1953
The Chronos is inspired by early 1950s Chrysler show cars designed by Virgil Exner.  It comes closest to the D'Elegance: note the grille, the side window cutout pattern and the treatment of the rear fender and its extension forward along the side.  The D'Elegance also served as inspiration for the Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia sporty car produced from the late 1950s into the 1970s.  A significant difference for the Chronos is that it's a 4-door sedan rather than a 2-door coupe.

Ford Forty Nine - 2001

Ford - 1949
I'm not sure what J Mays and his styling crew were thinking when they came up with the Forty Nine.  That is, it's not clear to me if they had some sort of future production model in mind at the time; if they did, nothing seems to have come of it.  The Forty Nine is rather bland, but so was the 1949 Ford.  If I were in charge of the Forty Nine project, I would have insisted on putting a 1949-style spinner on the front, because that's what defines the original in my mind.

Buick Blackhawk - 2001

Buick Century - 1939
From what I read, GM styling supremo Harley Earl was disappointed in some of the visually weak grilles appearing on GM cars at the end of the 1930s.  Surely the 1939 Buick front end was one of the weakest.  So I'm wondering why the Blackhawk styling team selected that grille for their concept car.  My best guess is that they thought it blended well with the body shaping.  And they were probably right, though the addition of a front bumper would likely have diminished the grille's visual strength.
A slightly different version of this post appeared on my Art Contrarian blog in 2012.

Sable -- Mercury's Ford Taurus

Ford Motor Company introduced its mid-size aerodynamically-influenced Taurus for the 1986 model year. Also introduced was its Mercury version -- the Sable.

Neither car seems unusual nowadays, but when they first appeared they seemed startling to many people, me included.  That was because most cars then on American streets and roads had crisp, angular, "three-box" styling.  The more rounded Tauruses and Sables seemed a bit odd, out-of-place in comparison.

This post compares first-generation Taurus and Sable styling.  Although both cars used most of the same body components, the Sable at the time struck me as being noticeably more "extreme" than the Taurus.  As for why that seemed so, read the captions of the images below.

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1986 Ford Taurus, front quarter view.

Front quarter view of a 1986 Mercury Sable.  At a quick glance, the Sable appears to have a four-window passenger greenhouse, whereas the Taurus is clearly a six-window design.  Rear door cutlines are the same.

Taurus side view.

Side view of a Sable, source unknown.  The underlying passenger compartment greenhouse structure can be seen here, and it is the same as that of the Taurus.  Differences include the lack of a high fender character line on the Sable and its slightly more rounded trunk profile.

Taurus rear quarter view.

Although the Sable is a six-window design, it was often hard to notice that, as will be demonstrated by a photo farther below.

Frontal design was simple.  Those vertical air intakes are reminders of the vertical grille bars Mercury used during the brand's 1950s heyday.

If memory serves, the area between the headlights could be illuminated.  Vertical elements are there too.

Rear quarter view via Wikimedia.  The aft pillars are not covered by sheet metal as on Tauruses.  Instead, they are covered by side window and backlight window glass.  The overall effect of streamlining, the translucent front panel and the smooth, all-round passenger greenhouse glass provided a distinctly different, more futuristic appearance than the Taurus'.

Claveau Descartes Prototype

Claveau was a minor French car builder run by Émile Claveau, who seems to have been more interested in innovation than production and sales.   But he did exhibit at the Salon de l'Automobile "au Grand-Palais à intervals plus ou moins réguliers" as René Ballu put it in the next-to-final Gallery image below.

The first post- World War 2 Salon opened 3 October 1946, less than a year and a half following the end of the war in Europe and a little more than two years after France was liberated from the Germans.  Claveau had a small stand there, probably displaying a motor and a model of his proposed Claveau Descartes.  A prototype car appeared at the 1948 Salon.

Descartes' styling is of interest because it contains many "car of the future" features dreamed of during the late 1930s and wartime.  Also present were more archaic details.

The Descartes never entered production.

Gallery

The Descartes prototype as displayed at the 1948 Salon.  Noteworthy styling features include the curved front end and its tiny grille.  Headlights are behind transparent covers that blend with the frontal curve.  The windshield is panoramic (wraparound), consisting of four segments: two flat pales V'd at the center and flanked by small curved segments that follow the streamlined forward part of the passenger compartment greenhouse.  Aerodynamically, the car achieved Cx = 0.34, very good at the time.

Overhead view.  The fenderline is flow-through and slab-sided.  Thus the Claveau has the sort of "envelope body" predicted prewar, but not appearing on mass-produced American cars until 1946 when the 1947 Kaisers and Frazers were introduced.  What was not futuristic was the greenhouse segment abaft of the front door.  This six-window configuration and roof shape seem to be from 1937, in the American styling context.  This makes me wonder if Claveau made use of an existing car's passenger compartment structure on the Descartes prototype, though I can find no late-prewar French sedan that would qualify..

Here is Page 21 of Toutes le voitures Française 1947, Salon 1946 - Automobilia Hors-Serie No. 4. This is a large image, and you can click on it to enlarge.  It shows the status of the Claveau Descartes as of the autumn of 1946.

Two years later, another large clickable image.  This from Toutes le voitures Française 1949, Salon 1948 - Automobilia Hors-Serie No. 12 - page 20.  At the lower right is a photo showing the Descartes in side-view.  I have not been able to locate a photo showing the car's rear.