Production Hot Rod: Plymouth Prowler

I only worked in the automobile industry as a consultant providing market-related data.  So I have no idea whether unusual concept cars that graduate to production status were really intended to be production vehicles or if they went into production because of demand by auto show patrons waving checkbooks and credit cars.  Legend has it that the latter is the case.

And so it seems to have been for Chrysler Corporation's Plymouth Prowler, first displayed in 1993 and produced in 1997 and 1999-2002 (Wikipedia entry here).

In essence, the Prowler was a professionally styled take on classic hot rods that were based on 1932-34 Ford V8 roadsters.  One reason for that source of inspiration was that Chrysler styling chief Tom Gale (1943 - ) and some others on his staff as well a few people in upper management were hot rod fans. I didn't notice a decent reference to Gale via Google; for what it's worth, his Wikipedia entry is here.

Even the concept car version of the Prowler had to compromise hot rod details to accommodate current regulations required of street-legal autos.  Most noticeable are the large bumpers -- something many 'rods dispensed with.

All things considered, the Prowler was an interesting and successful design for a frivolous vehicle.  Nevertheless, I find it a bit surprising that nearly 12,000 were actually built and sold.

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Sales photo of a 1932 Ford V8 roadster-based hot rod.

The Plymouth Prowler.

Side view showing raked look.

The trunk and related detailing is similar to that of 1935 Ford coupes and roadsters.

Pontiac Silver Streak Evolution

Pontiac (background here) was for decades General Motors' second rung in its price/prestige hierarchy ladder, nested between entry-level Chevrolet and mid-range Oldsmobile.  For many years Pontiacs carried a strong visual identifier in the form of Silver Streaks -- bands of parallel chromed ridges running down the hood, sometimes over the grille, and for a while even along the center of the trunk.  I wrote about the initial Silver Streaks here.

Silver Streaks were found on Pontiacs for model years 1935-1956 inclusive, aside from 1943-45 when no cars were made due to World War 2.

One task Pontiac stylists faced was keeping the motif fresh-looking model year after model year.  What they produced is pictured below.

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1935
The theme started with a broad band containing many little streaks.

1936
No real difference for 1936.  Note that headlights are now attached to the main body rather than the catwalks.

1937
The streak band has been narrowed and emerges on the trunk.

1938
Minor streak changes for '38.

1939
For 1939 the motif is echoed by grille bars.

1940
Another new body, but the streaks retain their familiar form.

1941
The band widens for 1941.  The five streaks are now noticeably separated.  An echo of the previous streak design is seen below the headlights.

1942
Not much change for '42.

1946
The post-war grille had minor changes, but the streaks are as they were.  This is an interesting advertisement because it shows all the previous streak-bearing Pontiac front ends.

1947
Sales photo.  The grille is changed, but not the streaks.

1948
These Pontiacs have only three streaks, two narrow ones plus a larger central one.

1949
The redesigned '49s return to five streaks, but the larger central streak is retained.

1950

1951

1952
1950-52 Pontiac streaks are essentially the same.

1953
For the first time, we find split sreaks.

1954
Back to five streaks, but they are all the same size -- narrow.

1955
Another redesigned body.  There are two widely spaced streak sets.  Not visible are streak bands on the small rear fender fins.

1956
Barrett-Jackson auction photo.  The final model year for streaks.  They are essentially the same as the 1955 version.

The Long-Lived Morris Minor

Morris Minor automobiles were produced for more than 20 years (1948-1971) without a major styling change and sold well.  From what I read, my impression is that the Minor remains the most highly-regarded low-priced British car launched the first few years after World War 2 ended.  Background information can be found here.

As for its styling, the Minor falls into the evolutionary zone American designs reached in 1942.  Given that its body design was 1942-43 vintage (see here), the Morris Minor had up-to-date styling that was on the verge of being out-of-date by the time it was announced to the public in the fall of 1948.  But its warm marketplace acceptance eliminated the need for other than a few modifications over the years..

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Morris "Mosquito" prototype
The "Mosquito" name was discarded before production.  The styling theme seen here was carried over to production models that had slightly larger proportions.

1950 Morris Minor MM
The wheels seem too small for my taste, but the large windows give the car a light, airy look.

1950 Morris Minor - sales photo
The front fenders extending over the doors give the Minor a solid appearance without the potential bloat that flow-through or pontoon fenders might have yielded.  The doors are hinged at the front, unlike some cars with similar fenders that had to have "suicide" aft-hinged doors for engineering reasons.

1950 Morris Minor - sales photo
From the door aft, aside from the large side windows, the Minor reminds me of 1940-vintage American car styling.

1953 Morris Minor Series II
Minors were facelifted for a second series built 1952-56.  The main change was repositioning the headlights from the grille area to the fenders.  This might have been done to satisfy regulations in export-target countries.  Note that the car in the photo is a four-door model.

1957 Morris Minor 1000 - Classic Auctions photo
An example of the final revision with its new one-piece windshield.  The grille ensemble, including the sheet metal surround, is very close in extent to the ensemble seen on the earliest Minors.

1968 Morris Minor 1000 (never driven!) - via London Telegraph
Side view of a four-door Minor auctioned not long ago and noteworthy for its extremely low mileage.  Two-door Minors look better because they didn't have the cramped appearance of four-door models such as this one.

America's 1970s Opera Window Fad

I'm inclined to blame management rather than styling staff for the fad featured in this post.  That's because the feature in question was essentially a non-functional (aside from generating sales) frivolity.  It was what was called "opera windows," perhaps a reference to features of certain horse-drawn carriages.

For mid-1970s American cars, opera windows were small windows placed on C-pillars so that distinguished back-seat passengers on their way to cultural events presumably could discretely peek out at the unwashed masses along the way.  Actually, I doubt that was ever the intent; the real intent was to add a bit of retro-sophistication to certain car models.

One thing I find a little puzzling is that they appeared in classical form on 1973 Lincolns while in the same model year some General Motors cars introduced somethings fairly similar in spirit.  Those were small rear-quarter windows that could be interpreted as large opera windows.  I suspect the reason for this same-year introduction by two different firms had to do with the usual auto industry grapevine along with reports from stylists hired from competing companies.

By the late 1970s every American car maker was selling some models with some sort of opera window feature.  And opera windows rapidly disappeared on 1980s models.

Below is a gallery showing some of those opera windows.

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1973 Lincoln Continental Mk. IV - Barrett-Jackson auction photo
An early instance on Ford's luxury brand.  The small oval window can be seen on the C-pillar.

1978 Lincoln Town Car - auction photo
Five years later there is one on a Lincoln four-door sedan.  Most cars featuring opera windows or something similar were two-door models.

1974 Mercury Cougar XR-7 - sales photo
Here is a squared-off opera window.

1977 Ford Thunderbird Coupe
An unusual variation is the small window on this Thunderbird's B-pillar.

1977 Ford Granada Sports Coupe
And then there are the louvered slit windows on this small Ford.

1973 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
The same year as the Lincoln in the top photo General Motors placed small quarter windows on this body used by several of its brands.

1978 Buick Riviera Coupe
Five years later we find a smallish quarter window surrounded by vinyl.

1975 Chrysler Cordoba
Chrysler did the same thing for its Cordoba.

1977 Chrysler New Yorker
An interesting variation on this New Yorker.  Note the unusual shape of the roof vinyl covering and the large C-pillar zone.

1975 Dodge Charger - auction photo
This Dodge has slotted opera windows.  Stylists seemed to be working overtime to come up with distinctive variations on the concept, as these images indicate.

1977 Plymouth Gran Fury Brougham
Chrysler's entry-level brand got a scaled-down version of opera window and vinyl shape as compared to the New Yorker shown earlier.

1978 AMC Concord D/L
Even American Motors, the smallest car maker, felt the need to join the opera window rush.

Trabant: Theoretical Ideal Car?

There was a ideological mindset amongst architects satirized by Tom Wolfe in his book "From Our House to Bauhaus."  It was an amalgam of Louis Sullivan's "Form Follows Function" prescription and socialist-inspired deification of the "Masses."  These notions were in place to some degree the year I took a class in architectural design, and still persist in some architectural and industrial design circles.

From that point of view it follows that the East German Trabant, produced 1957-1991, theoretically had the makings of an outstanding automobile design.  After all, it was a basic, function-focused "people's car" served up by a communistic state.

Many theories have a kind of beauty and perfection -- until they are tested by reality.  The reality for the Trabant was that it was inadequate compared to most other cars of its era.  Trabants I saw in Hungary in the late 1990s seemed pathetic when compared to that other "people's car" the Volkswagen in its late-1950s guise.

Let's take a look.  The images below show the Trabant 601, produced 1963-1991.

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Trabants had a cage frame to which panels made from a kind of plastic were attached.  This was not the best surface for paint, so most Trabants had a dull appearance, painted in light colors that tended to disguise highlights that normally flatter a car's shape if the shape is a good one.

Combined front and rear views.  High-style features include headlights with slightly "frenched" bezels and fin-like rear fender extensions that in combination give the a car a bit more physical and visual length.

Two publicity photos.  This Trabant has chromed hubcaps and a chromed rain gutter strip above the windows.  Note the dull finish.  Wheels are small, but this is common to many small cars, even though it gives such cars a toy-like appearance.  The Volkswagen Beetle, on the other hand, had more normal wheels, giving it a purposeful look.

So much for Trabant's proletarian roots.

Chevrolet's HHR Retromobile

Aside from the need to pay attention to aerodynamic efficiency and the effects of improved metal stamping, glass-forming, and other technologies related to car body shaping, there has been little in the way of styling evolution since around 1950 (see my book dealing with this).  Shapes of automobiles are essentially a matter of style.  For that reason "retro" designs -- that recall style details from several decades earlier -- do not bother me much.  Or at all, provided the result looks interesting or even good.

This post deals with the retro Chevrolet HHR (model years 2006-2011).  A Wikipedia entry provides some background information including that its styling can be attributed to Bryan Nesbitt, who also had a hand in styling the Chrysler PT Cruiser.

As best I can tell, the PT Cruiser, a sales success with more than one million sold, inspired General Motors to launch the HHR.  However, the HHR was only a moderate marketplace success with sales less than half those of the PT Cruiser.

Styling was inspired by "Advance Design" Chevrolet trucks from the late 1940s and early 50s, though the HHR was in no way a copy.

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This is a PT Cruiser.  Not related to any historical design, but evoking customized hot rods derived from mid-1930s sedans with lowered front springs.  Chrysler's styling chief Tom Gale was a hot rod fan, which probably helped the Cruiser to reach production.  Very cute and very popular.  A number were assembled for the European market.

The Chevrolet HHR.  A scaled-down station wagon with truck-like styling cues such as the grille and heavy bumpers.  Not as cute as the Cruiser and lacking the PT's emotional impact.

1950 Chevrolet 3100 pickup truck.  The part from the cowling forward served as inspiration for HHR front end styling.  (Barrett-Jackson auction photo.)

Rear view of an HHR.  The license plate looks Belgian, though this is a factory promotional vehicle.

An HHR panel truck style.  Apparently HHRs were considered to have commercial appeal and some indeed were used in that capacity.

Publicity photo of an HHR as a recreational vehicle.  The only HHR I ever drove was on the Hawaiian island of Maui.  I didn't do water sports there, and the car seemed under-powered.