AMC's 1970-1983 Hornet/Concord

Nowadays, some American automobile brands market the same car body for many years.  An example is the Chrysler 300 introduced for the 2005 model year, and still in production (to the best of my knowledge) as I write this (April, 2024).  That's 20 model years with only one major facelift.

Back in the 1970s and earlier, major manufacturers usually redesigned cars every three or four model years, sometimes even more often.  Some exceptions were Hudson (1936-1947 with three years off due to the war) and Ford (1952-1956 with a major facelift for 1955).

American Motors Corporation was much smaller than the likes of General Motors and Ford, so could not afford frequent redesigns.  And in the 1970s with its 1975-1980 Pacer that did not sell well after its introductory year, the corporation lost money and was purchased by Renault and, later, by Chrysler.

What this boils down to is that AMC's new for 1970 Hornet was facelifted and rebranded for 1978 as the Concord.  These cars were produced for 14 model years: 1970-1983.

I wrote about the Hornet here.  Today's post shows examples of two-door and four-door Hornet/Concord sedans (though the 2-door version looked like a coupe in many cases, and is ofter referred to as such).

Unless noted, images below are car-for-sale photos.

Gallery

1970 AMC Hornet 4-door sedan
The original Hornet was a clean, attractive design.  Not exciting.  So it probably had little of the "Must buy" factor that can be important for sales.

1977 AMC Hornet 4-door sedan
The final version before the re-branding.  The grille area had been facelifted, and this car sports the then-fashionable vinyl-clad passenger compartment roof.  Note the large bumper mandated by the government.

1978 AMC Concord 4-door sedan - factory photo
First-year Concord.  The forward-leaning front seen in 1970 now leads slightly backwards.  The grille is positioned so as to overlap that large bumper, reducing its visual impact.

1980 Concord 4-door sedan - BaT Auctons photo
A less-dressy Concord two years later.  A new grille flanked by rectangular quart headlights -- retrograde, in my opinion.

1983 AMC Concord 4-door sedan - via Hemmings
A final-year Concord.  Now the passenger compartment greenhouse is six-window, not four-window.  Note that the body rides higher off the ground, probably due to compatibility with AMC's 1980-1987 four-wheel-drive Concord-based Eagle.  The grille is little-changed from 1980.

1970 AMC Hornet 2-door sedan
Now for two-door sedans.  Again, the basic original body with entry-level lack of trim.

1977 AMC Hornet 2-door sedan
A final-year Hornet, also lacking ornamentation.

1978 AMC Concord 2-door sedan - BaT Auctions
The Concord version received a padded vinyl top that encroached on the after windows, creating the fashionable opera-window appearance.

1981 AMC Concord 2-door sedan
This rides high, Eagle-fashion.

1982 AMC Concord 2-door sedan
Model year 1982 was the final one for 2-door Concord sedans,  The car seen here has two-tone paint, along with the vinyl.  A far cry from the simple Hornets shown above.

1960s Chrysler Hardtop Coupe Passenger Compartment "Greenhouses"

Two-door cars offer stylists more freedom of expression than do four-door cars.  That's because those doors for back-seat passengers usually demand ergonomic and structural considerations that limit what stylists can do.  Two-door, four or six passenger cars, on the other hand, only have such restrictions for the single side-doors, leaving the after part of the passenger compartment greenhouse relatively free for design creativity.

Of course, there remain some styling constraints.  The most important is that the greenhouse profile abaft of the B-pillar must be high enough for back-seat passenger headroom.  Otherwise, treatment of windows and profile shaping can be pretty much up to the stylist, aside from structural and production-related factors.

The present post features 1960s hardtop coupe designs from Chrysler.  Those greenhouse designs show considerable variation due to the styling freedom mentioned above.

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

Gallery

1960 Chrysler Windsor
Chryslers were redesigned for the 1960 model year.  The greenhouse seen here is rather airy and curvaceous.

1963 Chrysler 300
The next redesign was more angular, reflecting the taste of Chrysler's new styling honcho, Elwood Engel.  Note the angular elements of the aft side-window area profile.  Also the wide C-pillar zone.

1965 Chrysler Newport
Chryslers were redesigned for 1965, receiving a more pure Engel-style lower body.  The entry-level Newport model's C-pillar is V-shaped -- something found on a number of Chrysler Corporation cars in those days.

1965 Chrysler New Yorker - Mecum Auctions photo
But line-topping New Yorkers got a more conventional C-pillar.  Wide, evoking Ford Thunderbird styling from the 1950s.

1967 Chrysler Newport
Chryslers were given major facelift for 1967.  This greenhouse design was found on both Newports and New Yorkers.  The window profile is of the dog-leg variety.

1969 Chrysler Newport - Mecum
The next redesign was for the 1969 models.  The theme was a not-very-Engle rounded, "fuselage" (as it was called) shape.  The greenhouse is more rounded than before, though a wide C-pillar is retained.  Thin rooflines are gone.

1938 American Cars With Rounded Body Styling: Front-Quarter Views

This is the third post of a three-part series.  The first post, featuring side-views is here, the second, featuring rear-quarter views is here.

Around the mid-1930s, American carmakers launched new designs incorporating (in most cases) all-steel tops and all-steel framing.  And where these features were not in place, competing designs had similar appearances to those that did.

Presented below are views of 1938 models that had bulbous kinds of bodies with windows that featured noticeably rounded framing.  An important reason for this kind of styling had to do with sheet metal stamping and automobile glass forming states of the art in those days.  And of course, there was a fashion component, where other brands made use of style-leader General Motors cues.

I selected the 1938 model year because most mid-priced brands were using such styling at the time -- just before GM redesigned some models for 1939 in a less-rounded manner.  By "mid-level," I used 1938 Oldsmobile list prices for four-door touring sedans as benchmarks -- $995 for the Six, and $1107 for the Eight.  Competing sedans had list prices within about ten percent of that range.

Brands are pictured below in alphabetical order.  Photos are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1938 Buick 40 Century
General Motors designs were transitioning to classic 1941-vintage styling.  Here we see the front fender beginning to assume the later "suitcase" form (a more vertical after end).

1938 Chrysler Royal
Chrysler Corporation styling for 1938 was more rounded than the norm.  Even the grille framing is curved.  Note the flat, one-piece windshield and how high the roofline is relative to the its upper framing.

1938 Nash Ambassador 8
The hood is pretty rounded, though the grille is not.

1938 Packard Six Touring Sedan
Packard retained its traditional lean hood-grille theme, even though the rest of the car was pretty rounded.

1938 Pontiac DeLuxe Eight
The hood is rather rounded, as are the grille bars (in plan-view).

1938 Studebaker Commander Cruising Sedan
Another rounded snout.  But note the angular headlight housings sunken into the fenders -- a gathering American styling trend.  Also, unlike the other cars shown here, there are no air outlets on the side of the engine compartment -- a step into the styling future.

Morgan AeroMax Walkaround - and More

I wrote about the Morgan AeroMax here.

Considerable AeroMax background information is here, and general information on Morgan Aero 8 cars from Wikipedia is here.

Below are walkaroud images of an AeroMax along with those of succeeding models that made use of the basic AeroMax rear-end design.

Gallery

2009 Morgan AeroMax - Gallery Aaldering photo set
Morgan sports cars are not entirely modern when it comes to styling and some body construction details.  That provides the brand's distinctive charm.  Unlike, say, Jaguar, the hood/grille combination (that looks somewhat Jag XK120-like) has been retained far beyond vintage-1949.  Or even 1961 for the last of Jaguar's XK150 line.

As noted in the previous AeroMax post, the hood is about one-half the body length.  Drivers who prefer to have their heads positioned at the 50 percent point might not like that detail.

Note the large-diameter wheels and low-profile tires.

The similarity of the split-backlight on a boat-tail platform to Corvette's 1963 Sting Ray feature was stressed in my previous AeroMax post.

What just maybe, possibly, be chromed rear bumpers can be seen at the aft ends of the rear fenders.

The fenderline is very 1930s -- a Morgan tradition.

I'm not keen on those headlights.  Also the lack of a front bumper.  But note the three !!! windshield wipers.

Higher-angle view of the AeroMax rear design.

2008c. Morgan AeroMax - photo source not determined
Finally, from an overhead perspective.

2010 Morgan Aero SuperSport - Broad Arrow Auctions photo
A later styling variation where the split backlight window design is eliminated.  Replaced by a sunken, more conventional, backlight.  Between the A- and B-pillars is a removable top section, making a "Targa" effect.

2015 Morgan Aero Coupe
Here the top section is integral, not removable.

1938 American Cars With Rounded Body Styling: Rear Quarter Views

This is the second post of a three-part series.  The first post, featuring side-views, is here.

Around the mid-1930s, American carmakers launched new designs incorporating (in most cases) all-steel tops and all-steel framing.  And where these features were not in place, competing designs had similar appearances to those that did.

Presented below are views of 1938 models that had bulbous kinds of bodies with windows that featured noticeably rounded framing.  An important reason for this kind of styling had to do with sheet metal stamping and automobile glass forming states of the art in those days.  And of course, there was a fashion component, where other brands made use of style-leader General Motors cues.

I selected the 1938 model year because most mid-priced brands were using such styling at the time -- just before GM redesigned some models for 1939 in a less-rounded manner.

By "mid-level," I used 1938 Oldsmobile list prices for four-door touring sedans as benchmarks -- $995 for the Six, and $1107 for the Eight.  Competing sedans had list prices within about ten percent of that range.

Brands are pictured below in alphabetical order.  Unless noted, photos are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1938 Buick 40 Special
General Motors redesigned some of its models for 1939, and were less rounded than this '38 Buick.  Car glass panes were mostly flat in those days, accounting for the two-segment backlight window on that curved passenger compartment.  Note that they are set quite high -- not very useful for viewing to the rear.  The trunk is somewhat blended into the main lower body, but still a distinct element.  The same can be seen on the cars pictured below.

1938 Chrysler Royal Touring Sedan - BaT Auctions photo
As can be seen in the Chrysler side-view in the first post of this series, Chrysler cars were even more rounded than GM's.  For what it might be worth, note the similarity of the trunk opening, the tail light placement, and that of the gas filler-cap on this car and the Buick above.

1938 Nash Ambassador 8
Nash window outlines were less-rounded than on the Buick and Chrysler.  The backlight window is placed lower, making it more useful.

1938 Packard Six Touring Sedan
The passenger compartment profile is very high towards its rear, creating an awkward relationship to the side windows.  The backlight is high.  Ditto the Chrysler caption regarding the trunk lid and placement of the tail light and gas cap.

1938 Pontiac DeLuxe Eight
Another GM car.

1938 Studebaker Commander Cruising Sedan
Extremely high backlight.  Side window framing is less rounded.  Interesting that all cars shown here have door latches on the B-pillars.

Jaguar XK150 Walkaround

Back in 1957 when the new Jaguar XK150 (Wikipedia entry here) first appeared, I was graduating from high school.  Jaguar XK120s and XK140s were fairly common in the Seattle area in those days, so the appearance of the 150 was shocking to me: What on Earth happened to Jaguar?!?  From lean and mean, Jaguar sports cars were now ... tubby.

I seem to have mellowed a tiny bit over the succeeding decades.  In 2016 I posted "What Were They Thinking?: Jaguar XK150" and concluded, stating:

"From the perspective of nearly 60 after its announcement, the XK150 doesn't irk me as much as it did when new.  Much of that has to do with the fact that the 120 has also receded from view (they're seldom seen on streets and roads these days) dulling my sense of comparison.  That said, the 150 is not a good design. Bulky, with awkward detailing.  William Lyons surely abandoned his good taste with this one."

In 2019 I compared one aspect of Jaguar XK series designs in my post "Jaguar XK120 to 150 Fixed Head Coupe Evolution."

The present post features a walkaround of an XK150 Fixed Head Coupe, photos via Bonhams Auctions.

I'm avoiding comparisons with earlier XKs, attempting to evaluate the XK150 design in isolation (though that's not necessarily an easy task, given my youthful imprinting by the classic XK120).

Gallery

The frontal aspect is classical, working well with one exception.  Even though there are many rounded features on the lower body, I find the top windshield framing (and the roof behind it) slightly too curved.

The cowling seems too high.  Perhaps there were engineering reasons for that.  Otherwise, the hood could profitably been lowered and inch or two (25.4-50.8 mm).  And made less rounded, along with the lower windshield framing.

The fenderline seems to sag in the middle.  Its rear fender zone looks odd because its peak is well aft of the wheel opening.  Ideally, the high point should be aligned with the wheel's hub.  The door's aft cutline and related metal stamping structure made a rising curve starting at that point potentially a little awkward.  A rise beginning on the door would interfere with the door handle, so there was no easy solution given the existing front fender design.  Still, a differently centered rear fender profile is needed.

The backlight window is too wide because the C-pillar looks too narrow.

As noted, a flatter, less-curved roof would be an improvement.  There are too many curves, roundings, on this design.  A touch of contrast would improve things.

A flatter, somewhat more angular passenger compartment greenhouse could yield a wider C-pillar and a more squared-off after side window.  That, along with a lower, flatter hood would improve matters.  So would a more curvaceous fenderline.

But the frontal aspect could be retained.

1938 American Rounded Body Styling: Side Views

Around the mid-1930s, American carmakers launched new designs incorporating (in most cases) all-steel tops and all-steel framing.  And where these features were not in place, competing designs had similar appearances to those that did.

This is the first part of a three-part series that presents views of 1938 models that had bulbous kinds of bodies with windows that featured noticeably rounded framing.  An important reason for this kind of styling had to do with sheet metal stamping and automobile glass forming states of the art in those days.  And of course, there was a fashion component, where other brands made use of style-leader General Motors' cues.

I selected the 1938 model year because most mid-priced brands were using such styling at the time -- just before GM redesigned some models for 1939 in a less-rounded manner.

By "mid-level," I used 1938 Oldsmobile list prices for four-door touring sedans as benchmarks -- $995 for the Six, and $1107 for the Eight.  Competing sedans had list prices within about ten percent of that range.

Other posts in this series will show rear-quarter and front-quarter views of the selected models.  Brands are pictured below in alphabetical order.  Unless noted, photos are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1938 Buick 40 Special
What General Motors was making and many other brands were following.  This '38 Buick is a lightly facelifted version of the 1937 redesign.  Rounded shaping is found nearly everywhere aside from the hood.

1938 Chrysler Royal
Plenty of rounding here, but otherwise unlike the Buick.  Fenders are especially bulbous.  The rear end is more compressed due to shorter overhang.

1938 Nash Ambassador Eight - photo via Nash Car Club
The windows on Nashes were less-rounded than on other cars shown here.  This was also true for '38 Hupmobiles (not shown).  Otherwise, the body shape generally conforms to the rounded fashion.

1938 Packard Six Touring Sedan
This was Packard's entry-level model.  Its profile is oddly high at the after end of the passenger compartment greenhouse.  Were back-seat passengers expected to be wearing hats, thereby requiring plenty of headroom?  This creates an awkward relationship with the after side windows and rain gutter line.  The hood is typically angular-Packard, a necessary marketing touch in those days.

1938 Pontiac Deluxe Eight
Another GM body for reference.

1938 Studebaker State Commander Cruising Sedan
Again, similar in spirit to GM's theme.  Like the Packard, the after side window and roof profile do not related well to one another.  GM and Chrysler stylists and engineers did a better job here, though not a great one.
Readers might wonder why no Ford Motor Company cars are shown.  That's because Ford did not have a brand in the price class used here.  Its Mercury Eight, introduced for the 1939 model year, filled that bill.