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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
3 comments:
If the Kaiser (best ever bang for the bucks facelift, also award for best tail lights) counts then so should the 1955-56 Packard. No, the 1957 Packardbakers should not count as anything.
I must confess that I simply ADORE Northup's shamelss Buck Rogers Art Deco faux-streamlining on the Graham Sharknose - especially the Combination Coupe. If there ever was a car that looked like it was running fast when standing still it was the Sharknose. I really, really want one!
Northup and Graham also deserve praise for their Blue Streak trendsetter and their significant volume-production of supercharged cars.
Even for 1962 the Avanti windshield should have been more curved and sloped. This would also have been more consistent with the rear window. Maybe the bumpers extended farther on the sides. But a beautiful car (on ancient mechanics) anyway.
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