General Motors' 1964 New York World's Fair Show Cars

Now for something a bit different.  New York City held a World's Fair 1964-1965 (information about it here).  As it did for the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, GM had a Futurama exhibit.  But it was not as exciting as the '39 version of the World of Tomorrow.

GM did display some concept cars that featured crisply-streamlined shapes of the sort its styling group was playing with under Bill Mitchell's direction.  I'll probably get around to treating some of them in detail in a future post.

For now, I thought I'd post some photos I took when I visited the fair in June of 1965.

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Fairgoers crossing over Grand Central Parkway with the General Motors pavilion in the background.

Inside, we find this abstract shape illustrating the long-range theme GM stylists focused on in the early 1960s when the concept cars were being designed.

GM photo of the three-wheeled Runabout -- an "urban car" 30 or 40 years ahead of its time.

Two photos of the Runabout that I took.

Firebird IV.  This was supposedly to be gas turbine powered like previous Firebirds, but actually was a "pushmobile." GM photo.

My photo of the displayed Firebrid IV.

GM-X Stiletto, another of the three non-functional concept cars.   GM publicity photo.

The Stiletto as I saw it in 1965.

Saab 99: The Quirky Swede's Second Act

Around 20 years after Saab's first car, the 96, was being developed, the company finally got around to adding a newer, larger model.  The Saab 99 was produced 1968-1984, and introduced in the USA in 1969.  Although they don't seem large today, the 99s looked big at the time they were first seen when compared to the fairly small Saab 96s people were familiar with.

The Wikipedia entry for the 99 is here. It mentions that it was designed by Sixten Sason who was responsible for the styling of Saabs up to that point.  He died in 1967 while the 99 was being readied for production.

Saab 99s eventually appeared in a four-door version, but the first ones only came with two doors, as this site mentions.

The Saab 99 was not good looking.  This wasn't because it was one of those stark, by-the-book "functional" designs.  Instead, while aspects of its appearance might have been rationalized in functionalist terms, it was simply quirky-looking.  Rather like a number of French designs.

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This is a 1966 prototype 99, called Padden (Toad) by Saab staff.  The Wikipedia link above states that these early prototypes were cobbled from Saab 96s.

Here is a later, four-door Saab 99 as seen in a publicity photo.  The comparatively shorter front door's B-pillar and the post for the rear quarter window (needed so that the main rear door window could be rolled down) resulted in a busy appearance for the passenger greenhouse.  Two-door Saab 99s had a cleaner look in that area.  Saab 99 windshields were long, shallow curves when seen in plan view.  I'm not sure whether this was for aerodynamic reasons or had to do with reducing distortion found in conventional panoramic windshields.  Maybe for both reasons.  The hood (hinged at the front) had its cut line part way down the front fender.  A character line extended this mark to the rear of the car.

Just for fun, here is a publicity photo intended to show how roomy the back seat of a 99 was.

The side character line beginning at the hood transitions to the trunk's rear cut line, a touch that helps to integrate slightly a somewhat confused overall design.  Tail lights and rear bumper are spartan, and have a tacked-on appearance.  On two-door models such as this, the rear side windows do not roll down; instead, they are hinged at the front and can be unlatched and pivoted out a short distance.

This side view is of a 1972 Saab 99 EMS.  It's included to further demonstrate the quirkiness of the design.  Front overhang is considerable, but that is the norm for a front-wheel-drive car.  Due to its curve, the very front of the windshield is about even with the rear of the wheel opening.  This helps make the front look stubby.  What looks to be a cabin air outlet, that louvered patch below the C-pillar, is oddly shaped, not fitting into the overall design.  If it had to be there, the louvers should have slanted in the opposite direction, reflecting the angle of the C-pillar.  Another odd feature is the quasi- sail panel ensemble of the C-pillar, back window, and trunk -- a scooped out look.  This helps make the 99 look distinctive and also lightens the appearance compared to, say, a conventional three-box with bustle-back design.  But it seems quite unrelated to the rest of the car.  Some of this is because the backlight is concave and the windshield is quite convex, giving the greenhouse a disjointed look.

Plymouth's 1st-Generation Barracuda

April 1964 saw the introduction of the first so-called "pony car," a relatively inexpensive, sporty, compact (by American standards) automobile  No, it wasn't the Ford Mustang, whose name gave rise to the pony car label.  It was actually the Plymouth Barracuda (Wikipedia entry here).  The far more successful -- in terms of sales -- Mustang was introduced two weeks later.

The first Barracuda generation was produced model years 1964-1966, the final third generation car ended production in 1974.  The first two Barracuda generation models were reworked Plymouth Valiants, the Valiant being Plymouth's compact line.

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Here is a two-door 1964 Plymouth Valiant, the basis for first-generation Barracudas.

And this is a 1964 Barracuda.  It has a different grille and the V-slash on the front fender is tighter.  The major difference has to do with the passenger greenhouse aft of the windshield and wing-vents.  The trunk and other rear-end details were changed as well.

Here is general view of a first-generation Barracuda that shows the grille design better.

This side view is a sales photo of a 1965 Barracuda Formula S "performance" variation.  Barracuda's most distinctive feature is the huge backlight (styling jargon) or rear window.  In profile, it doesn't seem particularly massive.

But from any other angle aft of dead center, the backlight looks quite large.  Moreover, it seems heavy looking, something of a surprise for an area of glass; one would ordinarily expect glass to lend visual lightness.  In fact, when seen in person, Barracudas looked a lot heavier than competing Mustangs, perhaps a factor in their relative sales performances.

Barracuda rear seat backs could be folded down to increase hauling capacity.  This photo that seems to be from Motor Trend magazine shows the small trunk lid that nevertheless allowed shallow objects to be loaded.

Honda's Prettiest Preludes

Honda's Prelude was a sporty line produced 1978-2001.  A Wikipedia entry about Preludes is here.  That article mentions that there were five generations of Preludes.  The second (1983-87) and third (1988-91) generation Preludes are those that interest me.

Those Preludes were very attractive coupés in an angular variation of the so-called "three-box" style.  Besides having distinct, nearly flat body surfaces, these cars had plenty of glass area -- their greenhouses being a little less than 40 percent of their total body height.

The overall visual effect of these Preludes was that of lightness and grace, something lacking in prior and later generation Preludes.

Second and third generation Preludes have a very similar appearance, even though the third generation cars were slightly longer and details differed subtly.  In the paired mages below, second generation Preludes are shown first, third generation cars below.

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The second generation Prelude has a character line running near the top of the fender, and the third generation Prelude lacks this.

Third generation Preludes have lower hoods.  They also lack a grille above the bumper, though below-bumper treatment is similar for both cars.  The third generation car's appearance is cleaner from this point of view.

The third generation car has a slightly longer greenhouse.  Also, the windshield and backlight are raked a bit more.  Differences in hood height are also apparent, the third generation car having a more pointed nose.

The main difference in these rear quarter views is the subtle spoiler-like sculpting around the top of the trunk.  C-pillars are thinner, making the greenhouse even airier.

1940-1941 Packards: Tradition's Last Stand

Packard was America's leading luxury automobile brand before, during (especially), and for a while after the 1920s.  All premium brands were hit hard by the Great Depression of the 1930s, but Packard was able to survive.  In part, this was because it added a more mid-range model, the One-Twenty, in 1935 and then went further mid-range with its Packard Six (later 110).  The price the company paid for its survival into the 1940s was a lessening of the brand's prestige.

While becoming more competitive with Buick than with Cadillac, Packard made sure to retain its highly distinctive grille design on all its models from the lowly Six to its luxury V-12 line (dropped after the 1939 model year).

But a price had to be paid here too.  While competing brands began to feature more streamlined  looking front ends and horizontal rather than vertical grill formats, Packard's retention of traditional details made its cars increasingly old-fashioned looking.  Finally in the spring of 1941 Packard introduced its non-traditional Clipper whose body became the standard for all 1942 model year Packards.

The images below show some 1940 and 1941 pre-Clipper Packards along with competing Buicks that were far more up-to-date styling-wise.

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1940 Packard One-Twenty Sport Sedan - Barrett-Jackson photo
The body shown here dates from the 1938 model year.  Due to Packard's styling conservatism, the area from the front axle line aft is no more advanced than the same parts of General Motors' 1935 Pontiacs and LaSalles.

1940 Buick
The body on this Buick was new for 1940.  The grille's layout is becoming horizontal, and door hinges are now hidden by body panels, as is the running board.  Its overall appearance is sleeker than the Packard's in the previous photo.  The most out-of-date feature is the positioning of the headlights; they are not quite fully integrated into the front fenders.  GM was slow to follow other brands in this regard even though it otherwise was the auto industry style leader in those days.The 1940 Packard has exposed running boards and free-standing headlights, not to mention exposed door hinges and that tall grille.

1941 Buick
Buick's 1941 facelift finally integrated headlights into the fenders.

1941 Packard One-Twenty Sedan - Auctions America photo
Meanwhile, Packard had its own facelift that gave the old body style better front-end integration.  The front fenders were restyled and the catwalk raised to blend with them.  Headlight integration is about on par with the 1940 Buick, nevertheless a significant modernization from the previous Packard.  Speed stripes on the fenders are in line with current styling fashions.  The rest of the body looks old-fashioned compared to the Buick.

1941 Packard One-Twenty Sedan - Vaultcars sales photo
The extreme rear part of this Packard is not far out of line from 1939-40 competing brand styling.  But by 1941 several other makes were featuring streamlined-looking "fastback" designs.

1941 Packard One-Sixty Touring Sedan - sales photo
Here is a side view of a Packard One-Sixty, a luxury level Packard.  Despite the various old-fashioned (for 1941) details, I can see that a car such as shown here would appeal to a rich, conservative clientele not quite ready to buy a more trendy '41 Cadillac.

Toyota Prius Evolution: From Plain to Rococo

Toyota's Prius was the first successful (in the marketplace) hybrid-powered car in America.  As of now, it has gone through four design generations, the first of which I treated here.

The first Priuses were stubby and nondescript.  They might be considered a proof-of-concept design rather than a car more closely tailored to the automobile market.

It was the second-generation Prius that defined the brand.  Its body was given thorough wind tunnel testing that resulted in a basic shape that remains little changed.  What has changed over time are secondary, ornamental details.  The most recent Prius is a victim of Toyota's recent new styling policy moving from bland to ostentatious appearance for its various car and SUV models.

The comparative-image sets below have the second-generation (2004) Prius at the top followed by third generation (2010) and current (2016) generation examples.

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First-generation Prius
As I mentioned in the post linked above, the nose of the car is poorly related to the rest of the body.

Front Quarter Views

The second-generation Prius was a simple, clean design.  It was followed by a design with details giving the car a stronger wedge-shaped look than its basic shape actually warrented.  This can be seen in the treatment of the side windows and the character crease below their sills.  Current Priuses are decorated by fashionable spikes and other angular treatments of light assemblies, air openings and sheet metal in general.  One result is a return to the first-generation Prius' defect of the front end not being very well related to the rest of the car, a problem not found in generations two and three.

Side Views

Profiles of Priuses have changed subtly over the last three generations.  The second-generation car had a lower hood line and no aerodynamic spoiler at the rear.  The hood was raised for the third-generation car, probably in response to European regulations.  The current Prius has a rear spoiler as well as the Euro hood line.  Another difference is the roof curve.  Second and fourth generation cars have the roof peaking near the driver's head, whereas the third-generation cars have the high point noticeably farther aft.

Rear Quarter Views

Rear styling of second and third generation Priuses can be characterized as basically functional, though the second-generation car is more successful in this regard.  Current Priuses have highly contrived rear-end detailing.  The spiky tail light assemblies seem to dictate the body sculpting rather than the reverse.  So far as I am concerned, Prius styling is now a fashionable mess.

Cute: Giugiaro's Fiat 850 Spider

The Fiat 850  line (produced 1964-73) was comprised of its basic sedan, a sporty coupe and a convertible called the Spider ("Speeder").  The latter's body was a Bertone design and product, the designer being the now-famed Giorgetto Giugiaro who worked at Bertone early in his career.

The 850 Spider was small and underpowered, an impractical car for long-distance touring due to lack of luggage space.  On the other hand, it was nicely styled.  Being a tiny car, Giugiaro chose, consciously or otherwise, to have it look cute rather than pretentious.  He also was able to avoid being forced to decorate a cheap concept such as was the case of the Austin-Healey Sprite I wrote about here.

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To set the scene, here is a 1967 850 Spider's sales photo.

I don't know the source of this phantom illustration, though it looks like it was scanned from a book or magazine.  The Spider had plenty of overhang at the front, something common on front-wheel drive cars.  But the Spider's motor was in the rear and the frontal space was occupied by the spare tire and a small trunk.  This overhang, not present on other 850s, allowed Giugiaro to craft a longer, more graceful shape.

The Spider's graceful lines are apparent in this publicity photo.  An important detail is the headlight design which enhanced the cute appearance of the car.  The bumpers are quite flimsy by today's standards, but necessary for the design theme.  Note the subtle character fold along the side.

Rear view of a Spider for sale.  There are two lids at the rear, the forward one for the top and the other for engine access.  This shows how the character fold ties into the tail light ensemble.  The wire wheels on the slightly too-small wheels are probably not stock.

Part-way into the Spider's production run the headlight design was altered, probably due to government regulation in the USA and perhaps elsewhere.  This detail change largely destroyed the "cuteness" of Giugiaro's design.