Peugeot 203 Walkaround

Peugeot is, and was for decades, one of France's three leading domestic automobile brands, along with Renault and Citroën.  World War 2 and its economic aftermath retarded development of replacements for its prewar line until the 203 was announced to the public in the Fall of 1948, the same time as Citroën's famous 2CV.  Renault's 4CV debuted in the Fall of 1946 and began production a year later thanks to development work done during the war..

Shown here is a Peugeot 203 displayed at the October 1948 Salon de l'Automobile in Paris, the 203's début.

The Wikipedia entry for the 203 is here, and my earlier post about the car is here.

I don't have a complete walkaround image set for the Peugeot 203, so below is a composite from two different cars.  The pale blue Peugeot is a 1949 model that was auctioned, though I don't have the exact photo source.  The wine-colored car is a 1958 model listed for sale.  As can be seen, exterior differences are trivial, despite the large model year difference.

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The license indicates that car was in the Bouches-du-Rhone département, where Marseilles is located.  My general impression is that it seems more American than sometimes quirky French designs such as Peugeot's own prewar "Fuseau-Sochaux" 202, 302 and 402 models.

What I see here is a scaled-down version of 1942-1947 General Motors styling.  Proportions are not the same due to its smaller size, but note some similarities.  These include the front fender overlapping the front door, the hood profile, the sides of the car flowing over the running board, the horizontal belt line (French ones usually dropped downward towards the rear) and the fastback profile.  A non- postwar GM feature is the front door's "suicide" hinging on the B-pillar.

Aft end styling reminds me of the Saab 92 that entered in production in 1949, its prototype appearing in 1947.  The two designs were likely developed independently of one another.

Rear styling was rather spartan in those days.  Note the shape transfer where the fastback meets the fender-aligned part of the trunk lid.

Wide C-pillar zone.  A three side-window arrangement could easily be called for from a practicality standpoint.  Perhaps the added cost of materials and assembly nixed the possibility.

Aesthetically, however, the two-window design seems more attractive than a three-window version would have been.

The flat windshield was old-fashioned from an American perspective, but practical from a postwar French one.

Simple grille, unlike the distinctive ones found on the prewar Peugeots mentioned above.  Lacks character and brand identity.  But it's practical, maybe a result of French logique.

1959 Pontiac Bonneville Hardtop Coupe Walkaround

Pontiacs and the rest of General Motors were redesigned for model year 1959 (aside from Cadillac's line-topping model 75 nine-passenger cars).

This was in reaction to Chrysler Corporation's sleek 1957 line that made GM's more rounded new 1957 (Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac) and 1958 (Chevrolet and Pontiac) designs seem dumpy.  Those designs were the final ones entirely developed under the direction of long-time styling chief Harley Earl.  His staff rebelled, being shocked and impressed seeing some pre-release Chrysler models.  The result was a crash redesign for 1959; those '57 and '58 designs normally would have remained in production for three or four years.

Earl did not reach retirement age until 1958, so the new '59 designs were technically created under his direction.  What I do not know is how much input was his and how much came from those rebellious staffers.

My guess is the the flat rooflines on the new cars (clearly influenced by Chrysler) and the tail fins on all brands save Oldsmobile (also via Chrysler) along with lower hoods were what the rebels wanted.  But the trim and other details were more in Earl's line of thinking.

That said, let's take a look at an example of Pontiac's most expensive model line.  Images below of a 1959 Pontiac Bonneville Sport Coupe are via Raleigh Classic Car Auctions.

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The general impression I get is fussiness.

GM's wraparound windshields introduced 1953-54 have mutated to "wrap-over" as well, a short-term industry fad.  The fussiest segment is the rear fender zone.  Here we see tail fins, the after segment of a chrome strip, teardrop-shaped wheel opening and four chromed horizontal dashes, three of which crowd the chrome strip too closely.

That fussiness seen from another perspective.

The V-shape dual tail fins are an odd touch that adds nothing positive to the design.  It's a "Hey, we're different!" kind of thing.

Those projections at the edges of the bumper mostly relate to the side profile of the car while negating the purpose of the bumper.  And the bumper's functional part is the narrow band along its top that partly frames the taillight assemblies.  From a practical standpoint, the car has minimal rear-end protection coupled with features (the projections) that could unnecessarily damage another car.

Note the sculpting on the upper part of the front fender.  As seen here, it does not seem helpful to the overall design.

In actuality, that sculpting is an extension of grille framing.  So it's somewhat logical, but not attractive.  The front bumper functionally is a narrow, upper band, as was the case at the rear.  At least there are no pointed projections to spear another car. 

Viewed from the front, the design becomes more simplified.  The two segment grille theme that became a Pontiac "trademark" appeared here for the first time.  It disappeared for 1960, but returned for '61 and beyond.

The dashboard features plenty of chrome that might yield blinding light reflections.
I didn't comment about the passenger compartment greenhouse design because it was the same as on other GM brands' hardtop coupes.  My focus was on Pontiac-specific features.

1942 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet Walkaround

The most distinctive classic first-generation Lincoln Continentals were the 1942 models.

That's because Lincolns were heavily facelifted for that model year, getting boxy fenders, a wider hood and a new grille design which Continentals shared.  World War 2 intervened for the USA with the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Car production was curtailed before March 1942 and not restarted until after Japan's surrender in 1945.  Postwar Lincolns and Continentals retained nearly all the 1942 styling features.  Except the grille.  1946-48 models had one with an egg-crate bar pattern.  Result: 1942 Continentals were few in number and featured a grille design not found on any others.

For some background on Lincolm Continentals, the Wikipedia entry is here (scroll down for information about the first, 1940-1948, generation.

I recently compared some 1942 models in my post "Lincoln's Rare 1942 Convertibles: Basic and Continental."  And in an early post, I wrote about "Lincoln's 1942 Facelift."  Today's post examines 1942 Lincoln Continantal design in more detail.

Images below are a composite of the same car (serial number H133783) auctioned by Mecum three different times.

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For context, a 1940 Continental Cabriolet, BaT Auctions photo.

The '42 facelift drastically changed the aesthetic "feeling" of the car from graceful to aggressive.  Continental-specific details largely disappear when viewed from this perspective: might as well be considered a new design.

"Suitcase" fenders follow General Motors' 1938-41 lead.  Side-view styling is thematically-consistent and attractive -- courtesy of the tastes of Edsel Ford and styling director Bob Gregorie.

The trunk and separate spare tire are carried over from previous Continental styling.

Tail lights were moved from the main body to the fenders.

The boxy original trunk design blends well with the new "suitcase" fender scheme: consistency.

Original low level chrome trim is retained.

The above-the-bumper bulge theme was used on '42 Mercurys too.

Grille design is logical, given the "bulge" just mentioned.  Nicer than the 1946-48 version, in my opinion.  Note the fashionable "whiskers" flanking/extending the lower grille element.  Headlight assemblies are massive and a bit odd-looking.  They do keep auxiliary lights from otherwise cluttering other parts of the frontal design.

Symmetrical design, the clock balancing the speedometer.  The central element is the radio/speaker.

Frontal overhead view.  Wider hood than before.  Wide fender tops: no catwalk connection.

Continental details are concentrated here.  Rear fenders are distinct from the main body, unlike at the front.

1962 Buick Skylark Walkaround

In my 10 September 2018 post "The Outstanding 1962 Buick Skylark Sport Coupe" I wrote:

"I suspect that most readers of this blog have warm places in their hearts for some of the cars their families had when they were young.  That's certainly true for me.  One of those cars was the 1962 Buick Skylark Sport Coupe with the body painted black and the top painted white.  Plus having a red interior."

Today's post is a Walkaround regarding that design.  Some Skylark background is here.

As noted in a caption below, subject car photos were taken using a wide-angle lens.  That made the car look longer, sleeker than actuality.  Yet I used that set because the expected eight viewpoints were available (decent images sets of 1961/62 Skylarks are still rare on the Web).  Also, because the car had monochrome paint, the photos provide a better feeling for body sculpting.

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1961 Buick Skylark Coupe - General Motors photos
First-year Skylarks were coupes with fixed B-pillars.  For 1962 they became hardtop coupes with no visible B-pillars.

Most 1961/62 Skylarks were two-tone.  The 1962 model my parents owned had a black-and-while scheme such as the one shown here.

1962 Buick Skylark Hardtop Coupe - car-for-sale photos
Frontal styling is quite similar to that of standard-size '61 Buicks.  The main differences are grille bars and small pseudo-bumper guards on the larger cars.

This image is a test of the preceding one that was probably taken with a lens set in the wide-angle direction.  Nowadays many car photos seen via the Internet are wide-angle.  Sometimes that is necessary -- when the subject is in a cramped area where the photographer cannot stand away far enough that a normal setting can include the entire car.  The GM photo here was taken by a professional and can be considered essentially accurate.  The previous photo shows the car as being longer.  Try to ignore the distortion and focus on design details.

Buick's "compact" Special line included coupes with the same body as seen here.  Skylarks can be distinguished from mere Specials thanks to the wraparound tail light assemblies.

Rear detailing is horizontal-rectangular, unlike the multi-shaped sculpting on many of today's cars and SUVs.

The rear deck flares outward over the rear fender zone, a continuation of a form beginning at the front end.

That unifying sculpting is seen better here.  The lower sculpted line subtly hints at Buick's classic SweepSpear side-chrome motif such as found on 1953 Skylarks.  Front fenders sport rectangular echoes of Buick's 1949 "portholes."

The pointed fender fronts found here and all 1961 Buicks disappeared on standard-size 1962 Buicks, but were retained on Specials and Skylarks until 1963.

And an example of the red interior.

Renault Dauphine Walkaround

In the late 1950s, Americans became more accepting of small (by our standards) foreign cars.  British sports cars were appearing in noticeable numbers by the early '50s in Washington State, where I grew up.  By mid-decade, Volkswagen Beetles were on the scene, later supported by clever advertising.  So other marques decided to enter that expanding, potentially huge, automobile market.

One such entry was Renault, at the time owned by the French government.  Its car was the Dauphine, produced 1956-1967.  At first, Dauphines sold fairly well, buyers perhaps thinking they were a more modern, and therefore better, car than the VW.  Sadly for Renault, Dauphines proved to be under-powered and unreliable under American driving conditions and sales collapsed.  They sold better elsewhere, hence the long production run.

I wrote about the Dauphine here.  The post includes some French publicity photos.

The first link above notes that Dauphine's styling was derived from that of the Renault Frégate, produced 1950-1961.  Comparative side-views are presented below, along with a Dauphine walkaround set.

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Renault Frégate - photo via zorblogauto
Frégates had the conventional engine-front, drive wheels rear, layout.  The wheelbase was 110.2 inches (2800 mm).

1959 Renault Dauphine - BaT Auctions photo
The Dauphine's wheelbase was 89.3 inches (2267 mm), its motor and driving wheels at the rear, á la VW Beetle.  Aside from the backlight window and some door cut-lines, the passenger compartment closely resembles that of the Frégate.  Perhaps some components were shared.

1962 Renault Dauphine - Bilweb Auctions photo set
A rather awkward-looking design, not uncommon for Renault.

The side air intake for the radiator aligns with the aft door cutline, a useful simplification.

Additional air vents are at the rear.

The engine hood has some sculpting, and the profiles of those air vents have curved shaping.  I think that such a small car would have justified a slightly narrower, more rectangular, shape for the vents, relating better to the aft hood cutline.

By today's standards, the car seems too narrow.  But more width would have required more weight and more engine power, lifting the car from its intended market segment.

The passenger compartment greenhouse seems bulky due to its heavy window framing.  But that was probably the best Renault could do in terms of sheet metal forming at the time the Frégate was developed (late 1940s).

The lack of a front radiator grille made for a bland design -- a limitation of today's electricity-powered cars.

Like the rear engine compartment hood, the frontal trunk lid has some central sculpting.  The bumper is shaped to conform to maximal European license plate shapes.

Dashboard view.