Gaston Grümmer's 1934-Vintage Streamliners

Gaston Grümmer (1892-1965) was a member of a coachbuilding family who established his own firm in 1924.  He was a Great War aviator and teamed with another, Guillaume Buisson, to design bodies incorporating aerodynamic principles.

There is little English information on the Internet regarding Grümmer's firm and designs.   Some background is here on the French language Wikipedia site. 

I do not know if any of his "Aéroprofil" designs were tested in wind tunnels; I suspect their shapes were "eyeballed" based on the results of others such as Paul Jaray who did do tunnel testing.

Grümmer also incorporated smaller, narrow windows above the windshield and side windows, presumably to create a more "airy" passenger cabin.  These had no aerodynamic benefits.

Grümmer's coach building firm ceased operations in August of 1935, having made around 850 bodies during its 11 years.

Gallery

Grümmer's "Hirondelle" (Swallow) design, here seen on this promotional rendering showing a Hispano-Suiza 46 CV from around 1933.  This style was used on a number of cars his firm clothed.

Another promotional drawing, this of a Torpedo body on a Hotchkiss 620 Long.  Interesting positioning of the spare tire.

This has been called an Aéroprofil, though not in its classic form as seen below.  It apparently was the first of that concept.

Another view of the same car, an Alfa Romeo 6C from 1933.

Peugeot 601 with a four-door Aéroprofil body, 1934.

Two views of a classic Grümmer Aéroprofil body, this on a 1934 Renault Nervasport.

Same car, rear quarter view.

As best I can tell, the car is a 1935 Renault Nervasport, the body abaft of the cowling is Aéroprofil, the front seems to be stock Renault.

Italian coachbuilder Zagato made some bodies with an Aéroprofil flavor during the late 1940s.   This is a 1947 Fiat 100 Panoramica.

The Chrysler 200 Saga

Chrysler's new "compact" model for the 1995 model year was called the Sebring, harking to the central Florida airfield that became the site for important sports car races beginning in 1950.   I am not sure what connection Chrysler might have had to those races aside perhaps that its V-8 motors might have powered some cars.  The name most likely was selected by marketing staff to imply sporting qualities for the new car line, much like Pontiac's Le Mans line (Pontiacs never raced at Le Mans to my knowledge).

According to the link above, the final-generation Sebring was mildly facelifted and renamed Chrysler 200 for the 2011 model year.  The name 200 was tied to the market success of the 2005 and later 300 model -- the number 200 denoting a lesser (size-wise) car.

The present post deals with the last-generation Sebring and the two generations of the 200, final production ending early in the 2017 model year.

Gallery

This is the 2007 Chrysler Sebring.  It's not an attractive car, but was given some odd-looking decorative touches that at least made it somewhat distinctive.  For example, they're hard to see in this image, but the hood has a set of fore-aft grooves.

The aft end is stubby, thanks to the long passenger compartment greenhouse.  The triangular cover at the C-pillar is supposed to emphasize the roofline curve above the windows, but it strikes me as being something tacked-on instead.

Side view.  Compare to the image below.

Side view of a 2011 Chrysler 200.  From this perspective, the cars are identical aside from some details at the front and rear.

However, the facelift did give the ex-Sebring a new face.  And the hood lost its grooves.

The rear was modified as well.  We find here one of those cliché horizontal chrome strips and added fussiness for the tail lights.

Now for the redesigned 2015 Chrysler 200.  This car is attractively styled.

In profile, the 200 is similar to other wind tunnel tested sedans sold in America.

Rear view.  Not as nice as the front.  Even though there's a logic to it, I'm not comfortable with the aft end of the upper side character line -- the way it wraps down and around.  And I posted here comparing the aft end to that of the Ford Fusion, a similar design.

Du Pont Automobiles from Around 1929

Du Pont Motors was a luxury automobile maker founded by a member of the famous du Pont chemical company family of Wilmington, Delaware.  Its WIkipedia entry is here, which notes that between 1919 and 1931 only about 537 cars were ever made.

The present post mostly presents 1929 and 1930 models from early in the era of professional automobile styling.  However, I do not know if Du Ponts were ever professionally styled.

Gallery

1919 Du Pont Model A, Mrs E. Paul du Pont at the wheel.

1929 Du Pont Convertible Coupe with Rumble Seat.  Hoods were long and rather plain-looking, creating a heavy appearance.

Model G convertible coupe 1929 -- the factory designation was probably different.

Transformable Berlin, 1929.  The slanted V'd windshield was an avant-garde touch not seen on other American luxury cars that year.

Another view of a 1929 Du Pont Transformable Berlin.

Series G Special Sport Sedan for 1930.  Another raked-back windshield, but not V'd.  Note the integrated trunk.  The passenger compartment greenhouse and its windshield do not work well together.

1930 DuPont Model G Convertible Victoria by Waterhouse, photo via RM Sotheby's.  The slanted windshield looks better here.

1929 Du Pont Model G Roadster by Waterhouse - Hyman consignment photo.  Du Ponts would have looked better if they had a character line of some sort just below the hood opening and continuing to the rear: that plain hood design was a negative design factor aesthetically, but distinctive for marketing purposes.

Now for the  sporty 1929 Du Pont Speedster.  An ad showing the front quarter -- note the rounded grille with horizontal bars.

1929 Speedster, side view.  The fender design might be logical, yet I find it awkward, unattractive.

Model G Speedster rear quarter view, photo via Philadelphia Free Library.

Miller 122 Indianapolis 500 race car from 1925.  It's quite possible that the Speedster's grille design was influenced by the Miller's.

1933 DeSoto Rumble Seat Roadster.  Its grill was also Miller-inspired.

Gardner -- Towards the End

Gardner (Wikipedia entry here) was a moderately successful 1920s American brand that became unprofitable by 1927 and ceased production in the 1931 model year.   The company was based in St. Louis, far from Detroit, and seems to have been an "assembled" car using mostly parts acquired from various suppliers.

The present post deals with some 1927 through 1930 model year cars that were attractive for their time.  But body designs probably did not benefit much or at all from professional stylists, a category that in those days was involved with custom body building and at General Motors' new styling group.

A surprise awaits at the end of the Gallery section below.

Gallery

A 1927 Gardner sedan.  A trim design typical of the times with a trunk to help balance it visually.

Roadster from 1927.  Most Gardners seem to have had two-tone paint schemes.  This one is simple, but elaborations appeared the following year.

Another roadster, probably a 1928 model photographed in San Francisco by a newspaper photographer.

Another 1928 Gardiner Model 75 Roadster.  This image is from a publication, possibly Automobile Quarterly.  The small, rectangular panel on the door has the main body color here, but was of the second tone in the the case of the image above.

Catalog side view of a 1928 Model 85 Sport Roadster.  Its two-tone scheme is more elaborate than on Model 75s.

Bob Gardner photo of his 1928 Model 85 Sport Roadster.

Factory image of a 1929 Model 130 four-door sedan.  Attractive for its time.

Clip from the February 1930 MoToR magazine showing a front-wheel drive Gardner displayed at the New York Auto Show.

Catalog side view of the front-wheel drive Gardiner.  I did not know that Gardner built front-wheel drive cars, but a few prototypes existed.  This was because Gardner was involved with the Ruxton project, and the body and running gear were that of the latter brand.  The hood, grille, headlights, fender-running boards and some trim differed.  Compare to the image below.

1930-vintage front-wheel drive Ruxton four-door sedan, Barrett-Jackson auction photo.  Ruxtons seem to have had longer wheelbases.

Early Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries K-Cars

By 1980 Chrysler Corporation was well into one of its periodic financial crises.   It was saved in part by a federal government loan.  A more concrete salvation factor was the 1981 model year launch of a line of front wheel drive compact cars (wheelbase: 100.3 in (2,548 mm)) that proved to be popular.  I wrote a general post about these "K-cars," as they were called, here.

For 1981, the K-cars were the entry-level Plymouth Reliant and the slightly more expensive Dodge Aries. A Wikipedia entry dealing with them is here

As my post indicated, variations of these basic cars appeared later.  The present post offers a brief look at some 1981 and 1982 models.

Gallery

Press release showing the four-door Dodge Aries.  Styling was the then-fashionable "three box" theme of angular main body elements where rooflines were flat and windows large.  Aerodynamically refined shapes began appearing in America a few years later.

PR release showing what has been termed either a two-door sedan or a coupé.  (It looks more like a coupé to me, but some of my reference materials call it a sedan.)  The thick C-pillar was another fashionable styling feature.

Rear quarter view of a for-sale 1982 Aries.  Very angular with rectangular details.  More coherent thematically than seen on many current cars and SUVs.

Its instrument panel was angular also, instruments being in square frames.

For some reason usable Plymouth Reliant images are hard to find on the Internet.  This might be from a 1981 brochure showing the basic models.  A station wagon was added for 1983.

1982 Plymouth Reliant with fashionable vinyl top covering.  Reliants and Aries mostly differed is their frontal styling -- grilles had different patterns and Reliants were squared-off in front whereas Aries fronts were slightly angled to the rear.

Chrysler's Forgotten Eagle Vision

I call it the "forgotten" Eagle because I myself had let it slip from my mind until I stumbled across an image while researching on the Internet.   The Eagle was a brand conjured up around the time American Motors Corporation was purchased by Chrysler: its general Wikipedia is entry is here.    I wrote about the use of a Renault as the basis for the 1988 Eagle Premier model here.

The subject of the present post is the Eagle Vision, a Chrysler LH sedan platform model marketed model years 1993-1997.  Its Wikipedia entry is here.

Images of the Eagle Vision are below, most being factory-sourced.

Gallery

A 1993 Eagle Vision.  They essentially badge-engineered variations of the Dodge Intrepid and Chrysler Concorde models.

Front quarter view.  An attractive design, with its distinctive "cab forward" posture.  But not an exciting design.

Rear quarter view.  In the spirit of American early-1990s aerodynamic styling.

Frontal view showing the bumper and air intakes.

Side view of a for-sale Eagle Vision.

Side view of a Dodge Intrepid.  The Vision and Intrepid had the same wheelbase and almost identical lengths, though the Vision appears shorter ahead of the front wheel opening  -- probably due to the camera lens used in its photo.

Dodge Intrepid front end.  It is a highly stylized version of the classic Dodge cross-gunsight grille pattern. I prefer the Eagle's styling there.