1946 Invicta Black Prince

Britain's carmaker Invicta (Wikipedia entry here) appeared and disappeared a few times over the last hundred years.  One reappearance was in 1946.  According to the Invicta Car Club:

"In 1946 a new company appeared using the name Invicta Cars and they produced the Invicta Black Prince.  The company was based in Virginia Water in Surrey, and the Black Prince was designed by William Watson, who had previously worked for the pre-war Invicta car company and had also been responsible for designing the very successful S type for Noel Macklin."

Numbers vary, but it seems that only 16 or possibly 18 Black Prince cars were built during 1946-1950, the company then being sold to Frazer-Nash.  Six drophead coupe (convertible) bodies were made, the rest presumably being saloons (sedans).

Surviving cars vary in condition from bad to excellent, if Internet image views are indicative.

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1947 Invicta Black Prince Drophead Coupe by Airflow Streamline - photos via deRivaz and Ives site
This car was exported to India.  Invicta did not build bodies.  Like luxury car makers of the 1920s and '30s, Invicta made only the frame, running gear and the hood, grille and fenders -- coachbuilders completed the work.

Styling is pre- World War 2.  The folding top was the three-position type: fully up, fully down, and partial -- open above the driver.

The spare tire resides behind the license plate panel.

1949 Invicta Black Prince 4-Door Saloon - Barnfinds photo
I include this image because it shows a roofline different from that of the car in the following photos.  Like the drophead in the previous images, this design is prewar style.

c.1946 Invicta Black Prince - photo via Invicta Car Club
Now this Invicta is elegant!  And not strongly prewar.  The front is the factory design, though the grille bars have a slight "shovel-nose" curve, unlike the drophead's grille.

Abaft of the cowling/firewall, the six-window fastback styling is similar to several late-1930s-early-1940s American cars as well as such designs that were carried over in production after the war.  So this Black Prince is in tune with its time.  I do not know the name of its coachbuilder.

High rear-quarter view.  That oval backlight window was a mistake: at odds with the rest of the otherwise fine design.

Further Thoughts on Early 1950s General Motors B- and C-bodies

A subject I keep returning to because I keep noticing more details to discuss is the matter of the early 1950s General Motors B-body platform.

An important article in Michael Lamm's Special-Interest Autos magazine raised the subject.   I wrtote about it in "Richard Howard Stout's Fascinating Article on 1950 GM B and C Bodies" here, a post that included scans of the original article.

More recently, I considered the matter in "What Were General Motors' Body Platforms in the Early 1950s?" here and "General Motors' Short-Lived 1950-1951 Lesser C-body Sedans" here.

My thesis, based entirely on images, and not on GM archival material or input from knowledgeable automobile restorers, is as follows:  The B-body Stout referred to was a variation of the new 1950 GM C-body.  That's because the true new B-body did not appear until the following model year.  That body was used on strong-selling entry level Buicks and Oldsmobiles, whereas the Stout B-body sold poorly after 1950.  So I see no strong reason to call it a B-body; it might be called a lesser C-body, but with noticeable passenger compartment greenhouse differences for 4-door sedans.

Today's post deals with some design details I haven't covered before.

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

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1950 Cadillac 62 sedan
This is the C-body on a 126-inch (3200 mm) wheelbase.

1950 Cadillac 61 sedan - BaT Auctions photo
The lesser- C-body on a 122-inch (3099 mm) wheelbase.  The difference in length appears to be in the passenger compartment.  Front doors seem slightly more narrow.  Another difference is windshield upper frames.  That of the lesser-C is more rounded, the C-body's is flatter.  The same applies for the side-window framing.  These lesser-C details are similar to those on the 1951 B-bodies, but not the same.

1951 Oldsmobile 98 sedan
Another lesser-C, this on a 122-inch (3099 mm) wheelbase.

1952 Oldsmobile Super 88 sedan - Barrett-Jackson Auctions photo
The new-from-1951 B-body on a 120-inch (3048 mm) wheelbase.  The windshield framing is similar to that of the lesser-C's, but the slant is less steep.  Also note the different shape of the front door forward cutline  Clearly this B-body is not the same as Stout's B-body despite the superficial windshield area similarities.

1951 Buick Special sedan - Mecum Auctions photo
Another B-body on a 121.5-inch (3076 mm) wheelbase.

1950 Cadillac Coupe de Ville hardtop - Barrett-Jackson
Now for some hardtop convertible comparisons.  This is the C-body version.

1951 Cadillac 61 hardtop coupe - Mecum
And the lesser-C: here the windshields are the same, unlike the sedan situation discussed above.

1952 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday hardtop coupe
The B-body hardtop's windshield setting is similar to the C-body's, but the slant is less, as on the sedans.

Triumph Renown-Type Saloons

The car pictured above is a Triumph Renown-type car.  There were three series, the 1800, the 2000 and the Renown, but for convenience, I'll just use the term "Renown" in this post.  Some background can be found here.

Renown-type Triumphs were in production 1946-1954, with 15,491 made.  The wheelbase was 108 inches (2,743 mm) for the 1800s, 2000s and Renowns, and 111 inches (2,819 mm) for TDC and limousine versions.

The design is decidedly pre- World War 2, with fancy British coachbuilder style Razor Edge shaping.  For 1949 Triumph introduced the smaller Mayflower, also with Razor Edge features.  Mayflowers were ugly, as I posted here.

On the Renown, Razor Edge didn't work well either, though the car wasn't as ugly as the Mayflower.

Images below are of cars listed for sale.

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1954 Triumph Renown
General Motors introduced futuristic Oldsmobiles, Buicks and Cadillacs with panoramic (wraparound) windshields for the 1954 model year.

Some sort of character line running front to rear just below the beltline would have reduced some of the visual stubbiness.

Note that the trunk (boot) lid has two handles.

1954 Triumph Renown
The passenger compartment greenhouse is tall, the windows large.  Some coachbuilt British cars had these features earlier, but the general fashion for airy tops didn't kick in until the 1960s and later.

A less-distorted view of the Renown's aft end.

Interiors were upscale, in line with the vintage Razor Edge exteriors.  Plenty of woodwork on and near the dashboard.

And a leathery, British-style interior.  My guess is that the class of the interior was what convinced people to buy Renowns, not so much the exterior styling.

Boano's "50s American Style" Alfa Romeo 1900 Primavera Hardtop Coupé

I consider the late 1940s and most of the 1950s as a "golden age" of Italian coachbuilding design.  Of course, not every design was outstanding or even above-average in the European context.  Some poor designs were strictly failures of the stylist.  Other substandard designs were due to the influence of others -- clients for one-off designs and corporate sponsors of limited-production designs.

Today's subject car's design includes several noticeable non-Italian features.  That suggests Alfa Romeo marketing managers might have "leaned on" the Boano firm to include such details.

This link provides some background on the Primivera:

"In 1953, Mario Felice Boano sold Ghia to Segre and in 1954 started his own firm.  Boano managed his firm, in conjunction with his son, Gian Paolo, until the end of 1957.  In this period of time, between 1955 and 1957, the Turin Coachbuilder Boano built the Primavera (Spring) two-door saloon.  The body of this coupé was built on a chassis of the 1900 Super Saloon, a completely new coachwork was done without changing the wheelbase of the four-door.  At a first glance, the front and the roofline seem similar but instead are different.

"The new car was offered as coupé although front bench seat, steering wheel-mounted gearshift, interior space and luggage compartment were comparable to the four-door.  Both front side windows without frames and rear side windows can disappear right down."  So it is indeed what we call a "hardtop coupe" in America.

"The Alfa Romeo 1900 Primavera production figures were as follows: 1955 4 cars, 1956 286 cars, 1957 10 cars."

Primavera styling reminds me of the Sunbeam Rapier, so a photo of one is included below.

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1955 Alfa Romeo 1900 Primavera by Boano - image via carrozzeria-italiani.com
Side view showing the two-tone paint job and associated chrome trim.  American cars with similarly arbitrary color patterns served as fashionable inspiration to Boano (or, as noted, more likely to Alfa Romeo management).

1957 Sunbeam Rapier - auction photo
This similar Sunbeam Rapier design also entered production in the late summer or fall of 1955, so is essentially contemporaneous with the Primavera.  Unless I discover otherwise, it can be assumed that the two designs were developed in ignorance of one another.  That said, the Rapier was styled by Raymond Loewy's organization, whereas the Primavera was likely influenced by Loewy's classic 1953 Studebaker coupes and 1950s American styling in general.

1957 Alfa Romeo 1900 Primavera by Boano - BaT Auctions photos
This would be a fairly attractive Italian design absent the chrome trim and paint scheme.

The C-pillar could be a tiny bit wider.

Rear fenders extend beyond the trunk lid.  This added visual length when seen from the side.

I would prefer a flatter trunk lid.  But there might have been glass-forming technology limitations on the size of the backlight.

I would have placed the tail light assemblies a little lower and rounded off the upper end of the fender.

If there absolutely had to been two-toning, having the other color only on the passenger compartment would have been more attractive that what we see here.

The windshield seems to be that of the 1900 sedan, giving it a slightly tacked-on appearance on the Primavera.

Frontal design is essentially stock Alfa Romeo 1900.

After I completed the first draft of this post I came across a photo of a Primavera with more sensible two-toning and chrome trim.  Most likely that image here (via carrozzeria italiani) is of a 1955 or early 1956 model.  This supports my supposition that the jazzy 1950s American stuff was at the behest of Alfa Romeo.

1930s Riley Six-Window Kestrel

During its days as an independent carmaker, Riley offered a large (for its size) range of motors and body types including the Kestrel, subject of today's post.

Kestrel saloon (sedan) designs came in two flavors -- four-window and six-window.  Except that British usage was "Four-Light" and "Six-Light."  Some information on six-window Kestrel models is here.

Six-Light Kestrels appeared in the 1935 model year, when there were several other British cars with visual streamlining in the form of rounded rear profiles.   I wrote about one example, the Triumph Gloria with its "Airline" body from 1934 here.

Those "Airline" cars were minimally aerodynamic at best, because their front ends were hardly streamlined at all, frontal streamlining being far more important than rear end streamlining in most cases.

Six-Light Kestrels were more attractive than their Four-Light kin.  They were longer, especially in the hood.  Passenger compartments for 1935 were similarly shaped for all Kestrel saloons aside from beltlines and side window designs.

In summary, they were attractive cars in the British context, yet behind the times compared to American styling.

Walkaround images below of a 1938 Riley 16/4 2.5-litre Kestrel Blue Streak Six-Light are via Brightwells Auctions.

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That's the traditional Riley grille frame shape -- less exaggerated than on some earlier models and even the Kestrel Four-Light.

Those large headlights provided a very British sporting touch.

A very nice, long hood.

The backlight window is on the large size for its time.

Tail lights were tiny in the mid-1930s.

The trunk is small -- typical of the times.

The aft side window is on a downward-sloping beltline.  But the beltline under the other side windows is horizontal.  So in theory, the aft window could have been plated over.  But never was, giving these Kestrels a distinctive appearance.

Ghia's Alfa Romeo 1900 Supergioiello: Looks Good from Only One Angle

I've been paying attention to automobile styling since I was a schoolboy.  In a trivial sense, even before that.  By the time I was in high school, I was buying Road & Track, Motor Trend, and other car fan magazines along with a few inexpensive books about marques and designs.  Among the photos I viewed in those sources was the one below of today's featured car, Ghia's Alfa Romeo 1900 Sprint Supergioiello.

This photo makes it seem really attractive, so for may years I thought it was a good example of postwar "golden age" Italian design.  But more recent images I've seen show that its poor proportions were largely disguised thanks to the flattering camera angle.

Some background on the design is here on RM Sotheby's web site.  Wikipedia's entry on Carrozzeria Ghia is here, and that for Alfa Romeo's 1900 line is here.

Let's see the design from more points of view:

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1950 vintage Alfa Romeo 1900 Berlina - unknown photo source
Alfa Romeo 1900s came in two wheelbases. Berlinas such as pictured here had the longer 103.5 inch (2630 mm) wheelbase, and Sprints had a shorter 98.4 inch (2500 mm) wheelbase.  Sedan bodies were unitary, and I'm not presently aware how carrozzerias dealt with this.

1953 Alfa Romeo 1900C Sprint by Touring - car-for-sale photo
This is an example of a custom design on the short wheelbase.  The "C" on 1900C stands for corto -- Italian for "short."

1953 Alfa Romeo 1900 Sprint Speciale Supergioiello by Ghia - BaT Auctions photos
For some reason, our featured design was based on the longer wheelbase. This created proportioning problems.  The short passenger compartment greenhouse did not help either.  A longer one would have reduced the visual bulk of the trunk area (compare to the Touring design in the previous image).

The car looks best as seen from the font, minimizing the large, rather square rear.  The grille-headlight ensemble is interesting.

The area abaft of the greenhouse is too long and too tall.  Perhaps a dropped or flowing fender line might have helped reduce the bulk.

The design is at its worst seen from this perspective.  The chrome side trim was probably intended to minimize the slab-sidedness a little.  Note that the pale paint scheme hides highlights, making body sculpting less visible than seen on darker paint.  So the car would have looked a bit better, more like in the initial photo from the 1950s.

DeSoto 1936 Airflow Walkaround

DeSoto Airflows were produced for model years 1934-1936.  As the link explains, they never sold well.   Although Airflows had advanced engineering features for their time, what most likely affected sales was their awkward-looking early aerodynamic body design.

Reacting to the disappointing 1934 sales, Chrysler Corporation began facelifting Chrysler and DeSoto Airflows to make them appear less aerodynamic and more conventional.  For example, I blogged "DeSoto Airflow Facelifts" here.

Today's post is a walkaround of a nicely restored 1936 Desoto S2 Airflow Sedan, photos via Mecum Auctions.

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All DeSoto Airflows suffered from having a stubby appearance.

That was due to a shorter wheelbase (115.5 inches, 2934 mm) than Chrysler Airflows.  The latter had inline-eight cylinder motors whereas DeSoto engines were inline sixes.  So DeSotos had shorter hoods that enhanced the appearance of stubbiness.

From this perspective, the car seems pretty typical of 1936 styling.

That integral trunk appeared for 1936.  Before that, Airflow sedans had sloped rear profiles, no trunk lid, and the spare tire mounted externally where the trunk lid might have been.

Integral trunks were common on American cars by the mid-1930s.  The original Airflow profile was also altered at the front beginning in 1935 with the appearance of raised hood lines.  The little wing-shaped air vents near the front fender strike me as being silly, but perhaps didn't in 1936.

The grille design was a wider version of that used on conventional Airstream DeSotos.

Doors wide open.

The dashboard and front seat.  In those days instruments were often placed in the center.  This made it easier to configure cars for sale in England and other tight-hand-drive countries.