Were 1961 Chevrolets Actually a Huge Facelift?

The late 1950s were a time of styling turmoil at General Motors.  Long-time Design Vice President Harley Early was nearing mandatory retirement as well as running out of ideas.  Then the redesigned 1957 Chrysler Corporation line with thin, flat roofs and daring tailfins shocked GM stylists and proved to be a huge market success.  The result was that Chevrolets and Pontics used their new 1958 model year bodies only for that year because all GM brands got redesigned bodies for 1959.  And Oldsmobiles, Buicks and Cadillacs used a new body for 1957 and 1958 only.  Those short production runs were expensive for General Motors: the normal production cycle in those days was three or four years in order to amortize tooling costs.

It is generally held that those 1959 bodies were continued only through two model years -- 1959 and 1960, while 1961 represented yet another redesign.

But was it?

There is a faint possibility that 1961 Chevrolets, Pontiacs and Oldsmobile 88s were actually major facelifts such as I wrote about here.

Below are comparative images of 1959 and 1961 Chevrolet models for our examination regarding this matter.

Gallery

1959 Chevrolet Impala 2-door sedan
As usual when I write one of these facelift posts, I feature side views because door cut lines and other structural details are easier to consider.

1959 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan
Four-door hardtops had the same door cutlines, but the passenger greenhouses differed aside from the windshields.

1961 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan
The '59 and '61 Chevys had the same 119-inch wheelbase, which makes comparisons easier.  Similarities include front door cutlines, wheel openings and the leading edge slant of the C-pillar. Also, the slopes of the windshields seem the same.

1961 Chevrolet Impala 4-door sedan
As for 1959, 1961 four-door sedans had the same door cutlines as hardtops.  Again, passenger greenhouses differed.

1961 Chevrolet Biscayne 2-door sedan
A 1961 2-door sedan.  Fuel filler doors are on the car's left side, unlike 1959 models.

1959 Chevrolet Impala hardtop coupe - Mecum auction photo
Now to examine 2-door models more closely.  Ignore the non-stock stance of this car.

1959 Chevrolet Biscayne 2-door sedan - Mecum
Two-door sedans shared the door's main cutlines, but the greenhouse extends slightly farther towards the rear.

1961 Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe - Mecum
Like the four-door models, this '61 two-door hardtop's driver's door has the same cutlines as comparable '59 models.  Note the odd little curve of the windshield near the base of the A-pillar.  It makes me wonder if there was some technical reason for this related to possible use of a cowling based on the 1959 body's.

1960 structure
The cowling and other body structure for a 1960 hardtop coupe: it's the same as for 1959.

1961 structure
Structure of a wrecked '61 two-door sedan, sans firewall.  The cowlings and such are similar, but not identical.  I'm not a structural engineer nor am I in the automobile restoration business.  So I can't say for certain if some structural parts where shared.

1963 structure
To provide a bit more context, here's a 1963 hardtop coupe's structure.  The part of the cowl below the windshield is the same as for 1961.  That's because '63 marked a major facelift of the 1961 design.  The main difference here is the A-pillar.

1958 structure
And the structure of a 1958 four-door sedan, showing earlier GM thinking.

Bottom line: The 1961 design was mostly different. But there seems to have been some carryover from 1959 in terms of front doors and some sheet metal shaping in lower side panels (those wheel openings).  Knowledgeable readers are encouraged to set me straight in comments.

Saoutchik's Delahaye 175 Coupe de Ville

I used to think that most postwar designs by Saoutchik were outrageously decadent.  Actually, I still do.  But the overly-sculpted bas-relief décor on many recent cars and SUVs tends to make Saoutchik's work more mainstream.

Today's post presents some images of a 1949 Saoutchik-bodied Delahaye 175.

Because it is a closed (or semi-closed) car, its proportions are more normal than Saoutchik roadster and cabriolet designs of the same vintage.  As noted below, my main complaints about the featured car are its fussy chrome swaths on the front fenders.  And the grille / front end design is fussy as well, though that's due to Delahaye, not much to Saoutchik.

As best I know, the car is unique.  However, the Barrett-Jackson auction web site does not mention that the car they were featuring was displayed at the Bay Area's Blackhawk museum.  Yet the Blackhawk site has photos of what seems to be the same car, though information about it is deleted because the car seems to be no longer in its collection.  Might there have been two such cars?  Or did Barrett-Jackson miss the Blackhawk detail?

Gallery

Photo by Gooding auctions.

Side view.  This image and the next two are from Barrett-Jackson.  An interesting feature is the low-relief hint of a rear fender that extends forward over the door: both details were unusual.

Low front quarter view showing the standard Delahaye grille along with flanking intakes that Saoutchik seems to have styled.  And there are those chrome fender accents.

This rear quarter view shows a simple, nicely-shaped fastback in contemporary General Motors mode.  The chrome rear fender accents are modest compared to at the front, yet still are more bold than necessary.

Similar view via the Blackhawk web site.

Blackhawk side view.  The car is nicely proportioned.  Of course I like the long hood.  Nice touches are the angles of the A and B pillars, providing some visual tension.

Blackhawk front quarter view.

The rear, via Blackhawk.  Very simple indeed for a Saoutchik design.

1964 1/2 Ford Mustang

The Michael Lamm and David Holls classic book, "A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design" devotes several pages to the development of the Ford Mustang.  It seems that it was a crash project launched only two years before the April 1964 introduction.  A complicating factor was that Henry Ford II was gun-shy regarding speculative products due to the huge losses Ford Motor Company absorbed in its disastrous Edsel brand effort 1958-60.  The final styling concept persuaded him to okay Mustang.

The Mustang design was more of a committee effort than usual, but Lamm and Holls praised the unlikely success of that kind of venture known for yielding less-than-stellar results.  Mustang was an aesthetic success and, even better for Ford, a sales triumph.

That Mustang would sell 121,538 cars in model year 1964½, followed in 1965 by 559,451 was far beyond the imagination of Ford management.  So rather than create an expensive special body platform, it was decided to use the 1964 Ford Falcon compact car as the Mustang's basis.

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

Gallery

1964 Mustang Hardtop Coupe - factory photo
The original Mustang design seen on what seems to be a pre-production car.  As best I can tell, production 1964 1/2 Mustang grilles included a thin, horizontal chrome bar bracketing the pony.

1964 Ford Falcon Futura 2-door sedan - Daniel Schmitt photo
The Falcon, whose platform the Mustang shared.  Both had the same length, 181.6 inches (4613 mm).  But the Mustang's wheelbase was shorter, 108 inches (2743 mm) compared to the Falcon's 109.5 inches (2781 mm).

1964 Mustang Hardtop Coupe - Mecum Auctions photo
The Mustang probably shared the Falcon's cowling structure and perhaps the windshield.

1957 Continental Mark II - Barrett-Jackson Auctions photo
Lamm and Holls state that the Mustang's fenderline was inspired by that of the 1956-57 Continental Mark II.  The wide Continental C-pillar was often used in later Ford designs, including Mustang.

1964 Ford Falcon Futura 2-door sedan
Front quarter view of the Falcon.  Compare to the image below.

1964 Mustang Hardtop Coupe
Windshields appear to be the same, though Mustang's is slightly more raked.  That might explain the different relationships of the A-pillar and the door front cut-line -- the base of the Mustang's windshield is slightly forward of the Falcon's.  Note the front of the hood projecting forward of the headlights.  This helped provide the Mustang with a longer hoodline than would have been the case otherwise.

1964 Mustang Hardtop Coupe
Like the 1961 Continental, raised fenderline sculpting helped to visually "nest" the hood, trunk, and passenger compartment greenhouse.  Those three-segment tail lights became a visual trademark for some Mustang generations.

1949 Mercury Coupe Walkaround

For me and others, the 1949 Mecury was the most memorable pure design by Ford's head stylist E.T."Bob" Gregorie (1908-2002), Wikipedia entry here.  Gregorie was also responsible for the design of the classic 1939 Lincoln Continental, but that was a modification of the '39 Lincoln-Zephyr design and not a design from scratch.

I discussd the 1949-1951 Mercury series in terms of its final facelift here.

The 1949 Mercury Coupe was not squared-off like the 1949 Chrysler Corporation line.  Nor was it bulbous like contemporary Kaisers or 1949 Nashes.  Instead, it had a somewhat nautical appearance thanks to its stepped-down fenderline.  This might be understood given that Gregorie had a background in naval architecture.

Nineteen forty-nine Mercurys are rare in their original guise because many were given customized modifications ranging from backyard jobs to work by well-known body shops in California and elsewhere.  And coupes were probably more subjected to that treatment than were four-foor sedans.  For that reason, I was pleased to discover the Worldwide Auctioneers images presented below for your study and enjoyment.

Gallery

This frontal view reveals the high, rounded roof, a feature less obvious when the car is seen from other perspectives.  It was all that Ford sheetmetal shaping technology was capable of in those days.

The roof rounding is also fairly obvious in this photo.  In comparison, the front of the car seems somewhat pinched in part because of the 'floating" grille.

The side view is nice, given the context of what production metal-shaping was capable of in those days.  That is, we might prefer a thinner roof and a slightly larger rear quarter window.  The hood is fairly long even though it houses a somewhat stubby V8 motor.  And that Gregory fenderline!  Absent that, the car would have been rather slab-sided like contemporaries such as Kaiser-Frazer, Nash and Packard.

Production automobile glass forming in the late 1940s forced Gregorie to use a segmented backlight window design.  Brightwork is placed low, presumably in an effort to draw eyes downward and have the car seem lower.

This rear quarter view shows how the roofline, trunk lid and stepped fenderline all fall off towards the car's rear -- consistent theme.

That falling-off is emphasized in part by its contrast to the horizontal hood line and the aggressive prow profile.  For once, the covered rear wheel opening is an asset to the design theme.

Like the previous front quarter view, the front seems a bit pinched compared to the bulk of the rest of the design.
All that said, the 1949 Mercury Coupe is a fine example of automobile styling.

More Pontiac SIlver Streak Echoes

A while ago I wrote about Pontiac stylists using a retro-ornamentation element in new designs.   Now for an elaboration of that post's material.

For model years 1935-1956 Pontiacs were given Silver Streaks as a strong visual brand identifier.  Those were sets of chromed parallel ridges on hoods and, from time to time, on trunks and on the car's prow.   I provided examples from each year here.

Then for 1957 they were abolished as part of an effort to move beyond what many considered the brand's stoggy image in order to reposition Pontiacs as sporty, performance cars.

Chrome Silver Streaks as such never reappeared on Pontiac hoods for the remainder of the brand's existence.  Yet from time to time Pontiac stylists applied parallel grooves or ridges on the sides of certain models.  These can be regarded as echos of, or homage to, Pontiac's Silver Streak glory -- assuming this was intentional and not accidental.  I think there was intent.

Below are a few examples of actual Silver Streaks along with post-1956 versions.  Unless noted, images are factory sourced or are of cars for sale.

Gallery

1936 Pontiac Master Six
Early Silver Streaks were massive.

1941 Pontiac Custom Torpedo
They soon were reduced to five (usually) streaks as on this '41 car.  But note the streaks on the sides of the fenders.  A harbinger of post-1956 streaks.

1951 Pontiac Chieftain DeLuxe
Ten years later.

1956 Pontiac Chieftain Catalina - Mecum auction photo
And the final version.  Now the streaks are ridges on chrome hood bands.  Smaller sets are on the rear fender bumps.

1963 Pontiac Bonneville
The bands reappear briefly on '63 Bonnevilles.

1989 Pontiac Sunbird LE
There are a few parallel grooves below the bumper on this Sunbird.

1992 Pontiac Bonneville
Here they are around the car below the horizontal rub strip.

1992 Pontiac Grand Am GT
And they are along the sides of the Grand Am in the foreground.  That's a Bonneville in the distance.

1996 Pontiac Grand Am
Same here in a Grand AM similar to one I once owned.

2003 Pontiac Bonneville SE
The final strong echo of Silver Streaks is found on this Bonneville.

Italian and Swiss Built Customized Jaguar XKs

The XK120 Jaguar is an iconic, classic design.  Why would anyone want to put a custom body on one?

There must have been reasons, because this post presents four examples of such modifications.  Each of the four cars shown below received a body by a non-British coach builder.  One was designed by an American and was based on the Jaguar XK140, a facelifted XK120.

In my opinion, none of the four designs was as interesting as the original XK120.  Their main justification might have been that their new bodies were more "modern" or "fashionable" than the production Jag.  Also, they might have been more practical regarding space utilization and ergonomic considerations.

Gallery

1949 Jaguar XK120 Roadster - Bonhams photo
Early 120s had roadster bodies.  The rear fender is spatted, the front end has carryover prewar features including a narrow, vertical grille.  Headlights are set close to it, rather than being mounted atop the fenders.

1953 XK120 Fixed Head Coupe - via RM Sotheby's
The fixed head coupe body was prototyped in 1951.  The tucked-in aft shape of the roofline was a carryover from Jaguar sedan designs.

1951c. Jaguar XK120 by Beutler - auction photo
Designed and built by Gebrüder Beutler of Thun, Switzerland, this strikes me as being the most attractive of the four.

The front end is less successful than the rest of the car due to the awkward placing of the headlights: they should have been moved inward.  A version of the XK120 grille was retained.

1952 Jaguar XK120 by Stabilimenti Farina - unknown photo source
In line with early 1950s Italian style, but poorly executed.  There is a curious, subtle bulge on the side abaft of the front wheel opening.  The grille is not Jaguar-like.

The aft shapes are simple, but slightly awkward.  The trunk could have been flatter or the rear fenders re-thought.

1954 Jaguar XK120 by Pinin Farina - via Goodwood
Not one of the maestro's better efforts. The grille is Jaguar-like.  Headlights are adjacent, but with awkward mountings.  The two-segment bumper shouldn't have those extensions bending upwards.

By contrast, the rear seems too simple, lacking character.

1954 Jaguar XK140 by Raymond Lowey and Boano
Famed industrial designed Raymond Loewy commissioned several custom bodies during his career.  This design offers no hint that it is a Jaguar.

Interestingly, the shaping seen from this angle suggests design features used by Chrysler's Virgil Exner a few years later in some concept car designs.