General Motors' First-Generation "Hardtop" Sedans

As best I can tell, there's no really concise English term or even a word for that car body type.  What I'm talking about is the "four-door hardtop" or "hardtop sedan."  Well, maybe the latter term isn't too bad, considering that in the old days a four-door car with a fold-down canvas top was sometimes called a "convertible sedan" -- though other terms were also used.

The potential confusion is caused by the word "hardtop."  That's because the circa-1950 American sporty coupes lacking full-height B-pillar were called "hardtop convertibles" -- the idea being they were like convertibles, but with a fixed, metal top.  After a while, such cars were commonly called simply "hardtops."

But for the 1955 model year, General Motors introduced some four-door models that lacked a complete B-pillar.  For lack of a clear alternative, they were usually called "four-door hardtops."

The present post presents General Motors' first such bodies.  One appeared for 1955 and two others showed up for 1956.

GM dominated the US auto industry at the time, and could afford to invest more money into tooling than its rivals.  So these early -- experimental, from a marketing standpoint -- cars weren't just four-door sedans with sawed-off B-pillars.  Instead, they received tooling for altered passenger compartment greenhouses and other nearby details.  By the mid-1960s, GM's four-door hardtops were more similar to four-door sedans.

Below are images of GM's three new bodies along with comparative photos of sedans and two-door hardtops.  Selected brands are Buick and Chevrolet, though hardtop sedans appeared on every General Motors brand.

Gallery

1955 Buick Special 4-door sedan - via Hemmings
GM's B-body was redesigned for 1954.  The following year it became the basis for the 4-door hardtop.  Above is the 4-door sedan.

1955 Buick Century Riviera Sedan - BaT auction photo
And here is a 4-door hardtop on the same basic platform. Buick hardtops all featured full wheel openings.    Hardtop sedan differences include a wider rear door and reshaped after part of the slightly longer greenhouse.  The window profile differs near the C-pillar in conjunctions with the wider door (perhaps having to do with making room for rolling down the side window).  The backlight window wraps around farther and the C-pillar has a different shape than the sedan's.

1946 Buick Roadmaster Riviera - photo source not known
That C-pillar and backlight treatment seems to have been inspired by initial GM hardtop convertibles such as this 1949 Buick.

1956 Chevrolet Bel Air 4-door hardtop - Mecum Auctions photo
That C-pillar plus backlight shaping was even more similar for GM's 1956 A-body hardtop sedans such as the one pictured here.

1956 Chevrolet Bel Air 4-door sedan - Mecum
The standard Chevy 4-door sedan.  Like the Buicks, the rear side doors are narrower than on the hardtop sedan seen in the previous photo.  That's because it is a six-window sedan, the door sized for window roll-down.

1956 Buick Roadmaster 4-door sedan - car for sale
General Motors C-bodies also had hardtop sedans added to the lineup.  Like the Chevrolet, the sedan was a six-window affair.

1956 Buick Roadmaster Riviera Sedan - car for sale
Again, a wider rear side door and C-pillar plus backlight treatment.  The "French curve" aft pillar shaping was standard for GM C-body cars -- added elegance for upscale machines.

1955 Buick Special 2-door hardtop - car for sale
Now for photos of equivalent two-door hardtops.  Here the C-pillar and backlight differ from those on the four-door models.

1956 Chevrolet Bel Air 2-door hardtop - Mecum
The same applies for Chevrolet.

1956 Buick Super Riviera - Mecum
But the C-body hardtop backlights seem to the the same.

2005 Chrysler 300 and Siblings

Redesigning an automobile body is an expensive proposition.   For that reason, car makers world-wide for many decades have chosen to spread development costs over more than one of their brands.   I often present examples on this blog.

Today's post deals with the iconic 2005 Chrysler 300 and cars based on its body.   One is the 2005-2008 Dodge Magnum station wagon and its European variant, the Chrysler 300C Touring.  Another is the 2006 Dodge Charger.

There was a Lancia Thema version of the 300, but it was based on the 2011 facelifted Chrysler body, not the original design featured here.

Gallery

2005 Chrysler 300C - factory photos
The basis for all the variants.  It doesn't photograph well, but in real life it is rather seductive in a possibly inexplicable way.  I bought one.

2005 Dodge Magnum - Bring a Trailer Auctions photos
Although Wikipedia has it that the Magnum entered production about the same time as the 300, my memory is that I was seeing Magnums for a few months before I laid eyes on a 300.  The Dodge front end components are similarly configured to the 300's in terms of general shape, cut lines and such, though differ in detail.

2005 Chrysler 300 Touring - factory photos
The European version of the station wagon is pure-Chrysler so far as the front end is concerned.

2006 Dodge Charger - factory photos
Dodge sedan sales were higher than those of station wagons, so the Charger's body cladding was considerable changed from Chrysler's in the expectation that its development costs wold be recovered.

Now for some side views.  Pay the most attention to the door cuts, wheel openings and A-pillars.  Note the short front and rear overhangs, important details for the design's character.

The Magnum's doors and side windows are the same as the 300's, as are the wheel openings.

The Touring has the 300 front end, using only the Magnum's passenger compartment greenhouse's aft section.

The Charger's shared structure includes the front door and wheel opening shapes.  The rest is unique, including the greater rear overhang.

Rear quarter views.  The 300C's design is only mildly sculpted, and that is in  a consistent manner, unlike current rear end décor fashion.

Obviously, station wagon tailgate zones will differ from sedan rear ends.  Again, sculpting is consistent, holding various elements together visually rather than being arbitrary and clashing as we find today.

The Touring uses most of the Magnum's rear, though a few details such as the brake lights are unique.

Different, as expected, but the aft sculpting is in the same spirit as the other cars.

1940 LaSalle B-Body, C-Body Comparison

Cadillac's LaSalle companion brand (Wikipedia entry here), received a redesigned General Motors B-body platform for the 1938 model year.  This was produced through 1940.  But for 1940 GM introduced a redesigned C-body, and that too was used by LaSalle.

So LaSalle's styling problem was to create as much brand consistency as possibe, given the two body platforms.

Some considerations: The B-body wheelbase was 120 inches (3048 mm) for 1939, raised to 123 inches (3124 mm) for 1940. The new 1940 C-body cars had the same wheelbase.  I could not find width specifications for 1940 B and C body LaSalles, though the C-body version had wider seats.

The Gallery contains images of LaSalles built on the two platforms. B-body LaSalles were Model 50s, and C-body based cars were Model 52 Specials.  All images below are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1939 LaSalle 50 4-door sedan
This is on the 120-inch wheelbase.

1940 LaSalle 50 4-door sedan
The 3-inches (76 mm) added length was placed just forward of the cowling.  Compare front door forward cutlines to the aft edges of the front fenders.

1940 LaSalle 52 Special 4-door sedan
An example of the new C-body LaSalle.

1940 LaSalle 50 4-door sedan
Comparing the sedans from a right-front quarter viewpoint.

1940 LaSalle 52 Special 4-door sedan
These images suggest that the 50s and 52 Specials shared the same front ends.  Actually, that was not quite so.  The extreme fronts -- grilles, headlight assemblies, bumper and such appear to be identical.  So do the air vents on the side of the hood.  The next two images indicate some differences forward of the cowling.

1940 LaSalle 50 Coupe
Compare the front fender profile with that of the car below.

1940 LaSalle 52 Special Coupe
The C-body LaSalle front fender is more rounded at the rear than on B-bodies, though their fronts seem to have the same profile.

1940 LaSalle 50 Coupe
Now consider hoods.

1940 LaSalle 52 Special Coupe
LaSalle 52 hoods have greater-radius side curves.  Side air vents seem the be the same in size, shape and placement.  But the B-body car's hood has flatter sides and its horizontal cut line appears to be slightly higher; the 52's cutline is atop the air vents and intersects the vertical grille at a lower point.

Touring's Alfa Romeo 1900C Sprint Coupé

A fine, Golden Age example of Italian corrozzeria design is the Alfa Romeo 1900C (C for Corto: short) Sprint Coupé.  Approximately 800 were built by Touring 1951-1953.  A link dealing with Alfa's 1900 series is here.

As of the time I drafted this post (December, 2022), I could not find information regarding who did the design.  Likely possibilities include Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni (son of Touring's founder) and Federico Formenti who was head designer at the time.  Possibly both had a hand in it.

Below are some images of the design.

Gallery

Alfa Romeo 1900C Sprint Coupé by Touring - factory or Touring images
An attractive design as viewed from this perspective.  But not an exciting design.

The V'd hood relates to the narrow Alfa grille shield shape.

1951 Alfa Romeo 1900C Sprint Coupé by Touring - Gooding Auction images
This Alfa was the personal car of Formula 1 racing legend Juan Manuel Fangio.

This is the least-attractive aspect of the design.  From the C-pillar aft, it seems old-fashioned for 1950, about the time it was designed.

1952 Alfa Romeo 1900C Sprint Coupé by Touring - images of for-sale car
Front quarter aspect as seen from a normal viewing height.

The rear end seems less old-fashioned from this perspective.

1952 Alfa Romeo 1900C Sprint Coupé by Touring - Gooding images
There are distinct front and rear fender shapes in line with 1950-vintage American practice.  (Think 1948 Oldsmobile 98, 1949 Pontiac, 1951 Packard, etc.)

The low J-curve helps reduce potential slab-side visual body height.

Two-Door Alvis Saloons by Vanden Plas

Alvis was a British carmaker whose luxurious, sporty automobiles attained the firm's style apex during the 1930s. Its Wikipedia entry is here.

The models featured here are the Speed 20, produced 1932-1936, and the Speed 25, made 1936-1940.   These cars had six-cylinder motors, hence their proportionally long hoods.

Alvis did not build its own bodies -- that task was handed over to coachbuilding firms.  The rare 2-door saloons presented here were crafted by the well-known Vanden Plas firm.

English cars of the '30s were behind the times compared to the design evolution going on in America.  Alvis vehicles as late as 1940 looked like slightly smoother and more rounded 1933 American cars.  But I don't see much wrong with that, provided the designs were attractive.  And the cars shown below are interesting, attractive examples from their homeland setting.

Gallery

1934 Alvis Speed 20 2-Door Saloon by Vanden Plas - RM Auctions photos
Note the extremely long hood.  It seems there is (cramped?) room for rear-seat passengers, but over-the-axle seating implies a rough ride for folks forced to sit there.

No rear bumper on this example, and the license plate is hung from the spare tire.  Compare the slope of the rear end to the later, Speed 25 version below.  Luggage space is questionable.

The perspective of this photo helps reveal the design's attraction.  I love the long hood and huge headlights.  Classic British. 

1937c. Alvis Speed 25 2-Door Pillarless Saloon, Vanden Plas drawing - via Alvis Archive
The Speed 25 was a slightly modernized Speed 20.  Most Alvis 2-door saloons had full-height B-pillars, but a few were pillarless, as shown in this Vanden Plan drawing.

1938 Alvis Speed 25 2-Door Pillarless Saloon by Vanden Plas
The spare tire was moved from the rear end to the left front fender, and away from the right hand drive piloting position.

1938 Alvis Speed 25 2-Door Pillarless Saloon by Vanden Plas
The "fastback" slope is slightly greater than on Speed 20 Vanden Plas two-doors.  Note the reversed-Packard style pen-nib side trim.  This was also seen on four-door Speed 25 saloons by other coachbuilders.

1938 Alvis Speed 25 2-Door Pillarless Saloon by Vanden Plas - unknown photo source
Photo of a survivor.  The spare tire can be seen peeking over the hood.

1965 Some Standard-Size General Motors 4-Door Sedans and Hardtops

Even wealthy carmakers -- which General Motors was in 1965 -- choose to economize where justifiable.

Consider the 4-door hardtop sedan body type that GM introduced for the 1955 model year.  Those cars did not share all the passenger compartment greenhouse tooling of the conventional sedans.  That cost extra tooling money.

For the 1965 model year, GM and other American carmakers were now familiar with 4-door hardtop technology, so GM built plenty of them while taking care to minimize additional tooling expenses.  Today's post presents some examples of 4-door hardtops that shared nearly all greenhouse tooling with their 4-door sedan counterparts.

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

Gallery

1965 Chevrolet Bel Air 4-door sedan
Standard Chevys had 119 inch (3023 mm) wheelbases.  Bel Airs were mid-range Chevrolets in 1965.

1965 Chevrolet Impala Caprice 4-door hardtop - BaT Auctions photo
Impalas were the Chevrolet prestige line.  Beside the faddish vinyl-covered roof and B-pilars, the main difference with the sedan in the previous image is the hardened profile of the rear-side window opening.

1965 Chevrolet Biscayne 4-door sedan
Now the same from a slightly higher point of view.  Biscayne were entry-level Chevys.

1965 Chevrolet Impala Caprice 4-door hardtop
Compare the door cut lines of the the sedans and hardtops: they are the same.  They only visible sheet-metal difference aside from door pillars on the sedans is that window profile.

1965 Pontiac Star Chief Executive 4-door sedan - Mecum Auction photo
Pontiacs shared the same body platform, though the wheelbase is 124 inches (3150 mm).  Much of that difference seems to be between the aft door cutline and rear wheel opening.

1965 Pontiac Bonneville Vista 4-door hardtop
Same story as for the Chevrolets, though this photos suggests that there might have been a slightly tighter radius on the the roof curve transitioning to the C-pillar.

1965 Buick Wildcat 4-door hardtop
The Wheelbase here was even longer, 126 inches (3,200.4 mm) befitting a more upscale car.  The added length appears to be a stretch in the rear passenger area -- note the longer rear side door.