1954 Mercury XM-800 Concept Car

A concept car (or "Dream Car" as we called them in the 1950s) serves several potential purposes.  Some concepts deal mostly with wild, "futuristic" styling department ideas serving to show the public that the carmaker has The Right Stuff.  Others are thinly disguised versions of designs in the preproduction pipeline, intended to prime potential buyers to accept forthcoming new features.  Then there are concept cars that explore potential future production styling themes and features.  Such was the case of today's subject, the Mercury XM-800.

The book "Ford Design Department — Concepts & Showcars" by Jim and Cheryl Farrell devotes a section to the XM-800.  It seems that by the early 1950s Ford Motor Company was aware that it needed to fill an upper-middle price range slot that its Mercury brand was not covering well.  (This is further explained in Thomas E. Bonsall's book "Disaster in Dearborn: The Story of the Edsel", especially pages 73-74.)

At first, the idea was to launch a more luxurious Mercury, making more use of the name of its brand-topping Monterey line.  The sources seem to hint that Monterey or Mercury-Monterey might become more distinct from ordinary Mercurys, perhaps a quasi-new brand.

As it happened, a new brand was created, the famous (to car history buffs and folks my age) Edsel.

Below are images of the XM-800 that provided early design thinking on the project as well as details later used by production Lincolns.

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Publicity photo of the XM-800.

Front quarter view, same setting as the previous image.

A 1956 Lincoln.  Compare the front wheel opening, "frenched" headlight assembles, as well as the general feel of the front end to the XM-800 in the previous image.  Nothing identical, but suggestive that this design theme was in the back of stylists' minds circa 1954 when the '56 Lincoln's basic features were largely set.  However, Ford's 1953 X-100 concept car (some background here), featured the same sort of detail influence on the '56s Lincoln.  And likely influenced the XM-800 as well, being a slightly older design, though the rest of the X-100 was quite different.

Now for some RM Sotheby's auction photos of the restored XM-800.

Very early-mid 1950s thinking.  Panoramic windshield.  Long fenderline thrusting fore and aft to enhance both visual and actual length.  The rollbar-like C-pillar was chosen because it added freshness.  The semi-covered front wheels were retrograde, despite being carried over to the '56 Lincoln.

Rear quarter.  Hints of tailfins a few years before Chrysler featured them on its cars.  The heavy, chromed rear centerpiece strikes me as being Dream Car fluff, not likely to be retained in full on a production version.  An actual production car line would surely include four-door sedans, so the massive C-pillar would have to have been modified or eliminated with respect to that body type.

Creative Mid-1950s Aft Window Designs

I think the period 1948-1961 was the most interesting in terms of American automobile styling.  That's interesting -- not best; other time frames might have produced more outstanding designs, though I haven't yet given such comparisons much thought.

Today's post deals with creative -- not standard, large-volume production -- approaches dealing with the C-pillar - backlight window zone of "bustleback" cars.

Three of the three examples chosen are drawings, and one is a low-production car (fewer than 20,000 examples).

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I wrote about this 1953 Wayne Takeuchi design here.  It's a sort of Old Switcheroo on early-mid 1950s hardtop coupes.  Such cars lacked a B-pillar extending from the aft of the door to the roof.  Instead, the side windows when raised were simply joined by thin chrome frame pieces.  Takeuchi's design features a conventional B-Pillar, but the C-pillar is a thin chrome join between the quarter windows and the backlight.  Analogous to the hardtop's missing B-pillar, this minimal C-pillar is non-structural.  A clever design that to my knowledge never saw production.

Another view.  The target car was a Lincoln, though Takeuchi was an Art Center student and not employed by Ford Motor Company.

This 1956 sketch by General Motors' Pete Wozena is one of the many wild idea concepts encouraged by styling executives over the years.  The objective was to create a large number of design possibilities, a few of which might be useful for production.  Here, the wraparound, wrap-over backlight is surely different, but impossible to manufacture reliably at the time.  Not to mention the visual distortion it would generate.  Plus, the shape of the wraparound windshield is different as well -- note the silly and structurally questionable A-pillar.  Credit Wozena for being highly imaginative.

This drawing and the following are by Carl Cameron when he worked at Ford.  These designs were made during the "Quicksilver" project -- planning the restyled 1960 Ford.

Both cars are "hardtop" sedans.  Note the aft side windows that have strongly stated shapes and provide an interesting transition from the side windows to the backlight.  That said, those designs strike me as being structurally flimsy.

The production example is the 1956 Lincoln Primiere sedan -- Mecum Auction photo.

The interesting detail is that small, triangular window with its adjoining triangular chrome panel.  That little window could easily have been eliminated because it had no functional value.  As a matter of fact, it was eliminated for the 1957 facelift.

Amos Northup Designs

In February 1937 Amos Northup, a leading stylist from the mid-1920s to mid-1930s, slipped on ice, fell, and died two days later.  He was 47 years old.  Had that accident not happened, he might easily have been designing automobiles as late as the mid-1950s, probably at a major carmaker rather than for a bodymaker, as those firms were extinct by that time.  Some background is here.

Michael Lamm and Dave Holls on page 77 of their classic book "A Century of Automotive Style" note of Northup: "Designers called him a designer's designer, and he had more impact on the [automobile] industry than he's ever been given credit for." 

Given the time of his career -- the years when professional styling was taking hold and the beginnings of the transition from boxy cars with distinctly separate features to more integrated shapes -- it today can be difficult to appreciate what Northup wrought.  In this post, "Styling Transition: Amos Northup's 1931 REO Line" I compare his 1931 design to the firm's 1930 models.  Differences might not seem great to us, but at the time they were significant.

Below are some, not all, of Northup's designs.  Unless noted, color photos are of cars listed for sale.

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Mid-1920s Wills Sainte Claire, body by Leon Rubay, Amos Northup stylist

1929 Hupmobile
Northup styled the 1928 Hupp: this 1929 model is essentially the same.  He also had a hand in the Raymond Loewy 1932 and 1934 Hupp designs due to his work at Murray.  Although the general appearance is 1920s, Northup's design is tidier than most.

1930 Willys Knight 66B, photo via Willys Overland Knight Registry
Northup's touch is mostly seen forward of the cowling.

1931 Reo Royale
One of his noteworthy designs.  The rounded body edges, slanted windshield and V'd grille were coming into play with the 1929 Cord, but Northup used them elegantly here, helping to set the trend to streamlining.

1932 Graham Blue Streak (1933 model shown here)
This car is posed in front of the home of Amos Northup (photo via Historic Vehicle Association).  The front fender valances were innovative.

1933 Willys 77
A short car, Northup having to make its front end as trendy as he could.  The curved hoodline and partly integrated headlights were advanced features.

1938 Willys 37
This is Northup's 1937 Willys redesign.  Note the thrusting hood-grille prow.

1938 Graham "Sharknose"
Northup died before the design was finalized, though his concept is largely intact, especially the thrusting hood-grille prow carryover from the '37 Willys.

Ford's 2021 Non-Mustang Mustang Mach-E

This is a Ford Mustang.  The original 1964 1/2 model.

This too is a Mustang, 2015 model year.

This is not what I would call a Mustang.  But officially, it's a 2021 Mustang Mach-E, a battery-powered SUV.
I saw my first one 20 March 2022.  Didn't know what it was at first because any nameplate it might have had was either obscure or missing entirely.  I did see outlines of Ford Mustang ponies here and there, finally realizing that this car was one of those electric Mustangs that I had read about months before.

What were Ford's marketing people thinking?  My guess is that since the Mach-E and its GT variant were performance-oriented electric cars, why not slap Ford's performance-oriented Mustang brand name on it to make things clear to potential buyers.

Regardless, I believe a price was paid.  Brand-extensions (putting a brand name on increasingly diverse products) eventually cheapen the value of a brand.  An electric SUV, despite its capabilities, is not a sporty gasoline-powered coupe or convertible.  Short of being a pickup truck, it's about as far from the traditional Mustang image as a marketer could get.

Below are some Ford publicity images of the 2021 Mustang Mach-E GT.

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Lacking a conventional motor, the hood is low.

The profile is curved towards the rear in the manner of upscale SUVs from the likes of Jaguar and Alfa Romeo rather than a more conventional SUV station wagon- like aft area.

Most of the design contains the usual over-done, rather themeless metal sculpting.  The three vertical elements on each taillight assembly do harken the traditional Mustang taillight theme.  Which is about as Mustang-like as the Mach-E gets.

1963 Pontiac Grand Prix in Context

What was the most attractive Pontiac design?  My vote goes to Jack Humbert's 1963 Grand Prix.

Those clean, lightly Coke-bottle sculpted cars appeared during the Permanent PFC phase of my Army enlistment (that's how I beat the Draft).  I would have bought one, but alas, my monthly across-the-army-blanket pay was far too meagre to afford one.  By 1965, I was out of the Army, but the Grand Prix had a new, lesser design ... and I still couldn't afford one, being in grad school.

Today's post presents the '63 design and related designs for your consideration.  All images below save one are of cars listed for sale.

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1963 Pontiac Grand Prix - factory photo
Here it is.  A far cry from American styling fads and excesses of the late 1950s such as three-tone paint jobs, mounds of chrome trim and tail fins.

1962 Pontiac Grand Prix
Here is the first Grand Prix model, based on 1961 Pontiac restyling.  1963 Pontiacs were facelifted from this.

1963 Pontiac Bonneville
The Grand Prix's companion is the Bonneville hardtop coupe.  Its passenger compartment greenhouse has the faceted roofline seen in the previous photo.  Side sheet metal shaping is simplified down to the horizontal character line running from the top of the front wheel opening aft to the end of the fender.  Above the crease is a grooved chrome strip that harkens to Pontiac's once-traditional Silver Streaks that were found on hoods and elsewhere from 1936 through 1956.

1963 Pontiac Grand Prix
That Silver Streak evocation is missing on the Grand Prix.  An addition is horizontal bars in the grille.

1963 Pontiac Bonneville
Bonnevilles had 123-inch (3124 mm) wheelbases and their basic price was $141 less that the Grand Prix's.

1963 Pontiac Grand Prix
The shorter (120-inch, 3048 mm, wheelbase) and more expensive Grand Prix's out-produced Bonneville Sport Coupes 72,959 to 30,995.  It seemed superior styling sold better.

1963 Pontiac Bonneville
More detail on the greenhouse roof shaping.

1963 Pontiac Grand Prix
The Grand Prix lacked the roof faceting and its backlight window was, unusually, concave.  Tail lights are by the trunk lid, not the ends of the fenders.

1963 Oldsmobile Starfire
Oldsmobile's Starfire was that brand's version of the Grand Prix, sharing the same basic body.

1963 Oldsmobile Starfire
Note the concave backlight window.  1963 Starfire hardtop coupe production was 21,148 units.  They were more than $600 more expensive that Grand Prix's (that's perhaps a $6,000 difference in today's dollars), which was a factor of some kind.

1963 Oldsmobile Starfire
Starfire styling had far more elaborate ornamentation and detailing that the Grand Prix.  Note the large side strip and the small tail fins.

The 1939 Hudson 112's Different Face

I wrote here about Ford's 1938-1940 practice of passing the basic grille design for its De Luxe series down to its entry-level Standard series the following model year.

It seems that Hudson was doing something similar for model year 1939. (My post dealing with Hudson facelifts is here.)

Hudson's 1939 facelift included a new grille and front fenders that housed the headlights.  But the company's low-priced 112 model didn't get those integrated headlights.  Instead, separate streamlined headlight assemblies atop the fenders were carried over from 1938 Hudsons.

Images below are factory sourced or are of unknown (to me) origin.

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1938 Hudson Six
Headlights are nested on the catwalk area on senior '38 Hudsons.

1938 Hudson 112 Standard Brougham
But the 112's headlights are mounted by the grille.

1939 Hudson Pacemaker Six
This shows that new front fender with its headlights.

1939 Hudson 112 Touring Sedan
The 1939 Hudson 112 retained the 1938 headlight mounting.

1939 Hudson 112
Seen from another viewpoint.  The grille is that same as those on other Hudson models.

1933 LaSalle Walkaround

The LaSalle brand (model years 1927-1940) was a lower-priced companion brand to General Motors' line-topper Cadillac.

To my mind, there were three standout model years for the marque in terms of styling.  The introductory 1927 model was styled by Harley Earl (1893-1969) in a project to evaluate Earl's capabilities and the market's reaction to a professonally styled design.  It turned out well becasue the car sold well and Earl became head of GM styling for the next 31 years.

The next noteworthy LaSalle design was the 1934 model styled by Julio Andrade.   It featured a clean, somewhat rounded "streamlined" look that saved the brand from extinction.

Then there was the 1940 swan-song LaSalle, another fine design.  It and the others are pictured below.

But the main subject of this post is a LaSalle sedan from the model year before Andrade's creation.  It is a nice design that appeared just as the American automobile industry was staring to launch its design evolution to integral body shapes.  The car is a LaSalle 345 C photographed for Mecum Auctions.

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1927 La Salle, Harley Earl at the wheel, his mentor Larry Fisher standing - via General Motors

1934 LaSalle Coupe, unknown photo source

1940 LaSalle Touring Sedan, car listed for sale

1933 LaSalle 345 C - Mecum
Dramatic overhead view.

Modern features for 1933 include the skirts on the front fenders and slightly V'd grille.

Plus, the windshield is ever-so-slightly raked back.

This was at a time when trunks were add-on items or (here) absent.

The large windows give the car an airy appearance.  V12 and V16 engine Cadillacs had similar bodies, but longer, more elegant hoods.