Buick Wildcat III as Predictor of 1957 Line

When it came to dream cars, I think the best General Motors Motorama years were 1953-1956.  Buick Division featured three different show cars called "Wildcat" over 1953-1955.  Each car was distinctly different from the others, so despite the same name, there was no consistent Wildcat theme.

Hemmings has an article dealing with all three here, and the General Motors historical site has this to say regarding the subject of this post, the 1955 Buick Wildcat III concept car.  My take on the Wildcat III is in the captions below.

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To set the stage, here is a photo of the 1953 Buick Wildcat I.  It's a two-passenger convertible with some styling features soon to appear on the redesigned 1954 Buick line.

The 1954 Buick Wildcat II is a sports-type car with a wheelbase two inches (49 mm) less than that of the Chevrolet Corvette that looks somewhat similar from the cowling aft.  Aside from the front bumper design (used in 1955) it did not influence styling of future production Buicks.

Unlike previous Wildcats, the 1955 Wildcat III show car could accommodate four passengers.  It was clearly more conventional than the Wildcat II.  Generally speaking, its design is pleasing, though the car's rear has some problems, as we'll discover below.

The windshield is doubly curved with a vertical A-pillar -- features not found on the upcoming 1957 Buick redesign.  The wide wheel openings would collect and display highway dirt and grime, so they too would not see production.  What did come to pass are the fender line, the design of the side Sweepspear trim and the termination angle of the rear fender.

Even though the Wildcat III was theoretically a four-passenger car, the back seat had little room for people.  The detailing on the trunk lid and rear is confused.  We find rounded bumper blobs with nearby thinly squashed oval exhaust pipe outlets that in turn have circular backup lights placed above them.  These items do not relate to one another.

Rear three-quarter view.  Items adapted for '57s include the chromed strips on the trunk lid, the aforementioned fender angle, and those large bumper stubs are the corners.

This is a 1957 Buick Roadmaster two-door hardtop.  As mentioned, the fender line and Sweepspear are like the Wildcat's.  The windshield here is a simpler curve and the A-pillars slant.

A '57 Buick Roadmaster four-door hardtop (Classic Car Auctions photo).  Its taillight assembly differs from the Wildcat's, but the fender termination angle is similar.  The bulbous bumper guards below the taillights are nearly the same shape as those on the Wildcat.  The chromed strips on the trunk lid are not inset liners as on the show car.  But they also relate to other aspects of the design -- in this case, the backlight segment separators.

Duster: Plymouth's Sporty 1970 Valiant

Chrysler Corporation's large sedans were redesigned for 1969 and given what was termed "fuselage" styling, a more rounded-off appearance than the previous "three-box" angular look.  Other models carried on with the older style, among them the compact (in the American context) Plymouth Valiant.

The decision was made to freshen the Valiant line by adding a sporty looking coupe with semi-fastback styling.  This became the Plymouth Duster of 1970-1976 (Wikipedia entry here).  As the entry mentions, the Duster was a sales success to the point that Dodge launched its Demon model the following year as a facelifted Duster.

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Here is a 1970 Plymouth Valiant.  Everything from the cowl forward was used on the Duster.

Rear three-quarter view of a Valiant four-door sedan.  The character line on the lower part of the rear door was used on the Duster as was the rear bumper (minus the cut-outs for the backup lights).

Front three-quarter view of a 1970 Duster.  The windshield framing seems slightly different than the Valiant's (more rounded corners) and the greenhouse and upper fender line are new.

Side view of a 1970 Duster 340, the muscle car version of the Duster (Barrett-Jackson auction photo).  The Duster shares the Valiant's rear overhang, which helps visually reduce the size of the greenhouse to the point where it seems too small.

This rear view shows most of the Duster-specific styling.  Given that it is a major facelift of a design with considerably different character, it's hard for me to criticize the result, which is distinctive and fairly pleasing.  Were this a from-scratch design, I would criticize proportions and the front end's differing character.

Mercedes-Benz Postwar Type 220 (W187)

One error I made while writing How Cars Faced the Market was calling the 1951-1955 Mercedes-Benz 220 (W187) a facelifted pre- World War 2 design.  It was actually a new design that happened to look that way given the angle from which my reference photo was taken.

My comment was to the effect that the "facelift" was an effective modernization of an old design.

On the other hand, the 220's styling was a lot like that of some other prewar Mercedes', so I just possibly might not have been that far off the mark.  Let's take a look.

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1951 Mercedes-Benz 220 brochure cover, illustration by the great Walter Gotschke.

Here is the photo I used in the book.  From the cowling aft, it really does look like a prewar Mercedes -- basically a mid-1930s appearance.  The teardrop shaped front fenders with integral headlights are on par with most 1939-vintage American cars (aside from General Motors which retained detached headlight housings).

But seen from the side, the 220's design doesn't seem quite so antiquated.  Note that the trunk is integrated with the main body and not the sort of attachment common in the 1930s.  The roof of the passenger compartment has large-radius curves in the C-pillar area.  This heaviness is nicely offset by the thin A and B pillars.

Another view of a 220.

The 220's rear seen in a for-sale photo.  This shows the integral trunk.  It also shows that this 1951-vintage design has a number of archaic features.  These include a "suicide" rear-hinged front doors and external door hinges.  The body tucks under slightly, partly exposing running boards.  The rear fenders are definitely pre-war styling.  The windshield (see previous image) is a flat, one-piece affair common on early-30s cars.

Compare the 220 to this 1940 Mercedes-Benz 230 (W143).  The spirit of its design from the cowling aft was retained on the 220.

The same might be said regarding this 1938 M-B 260 (W138).  The passenger greenhouse is not far removed from that of the 220, even though its top is not all-steel.  The trunk is not visually part of the main body.

The Aggressive Siata 208SC Berlinetta by Stabilimenti Farina

Siata automobiles can fetch more than one million dollars at auctions.  A snippet about the company is here.  In brief, Siata was a maker of hop-up equipment for Fiats that branched into making cars after World War 2.  Serious sports cars were built 1948-61 and all production ended by 1975.

I think the most interesting Siatas from a design standpoint were the 208SC barchetta and, especially, the berlinetta.  Fairly detailed information on Siata and the berlinetta can be found here and, especially, here.  The second source, the Bonhams auction house, has it that the actual designer is unknown, though it has been speculated that it was Giovanni Michelotti.

Siata 208SCs were initially built by Stabilimenti Farina (free translation: Farina Works) that ceased doing business in 1953 after many years as an important Italian coachbuilder.  Following the demise, 208 production was continued by Carrozzeria Balbo, another old Italian firm that folded soon after.  According to Wikipedia, only 56 208s were built.

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Here is a 208SC at the 1952 Mille Miglia start platform.  It failed to finish -- nothing unusual for the Mille.

Probably the same car seen a few days earlier at the Turin auto show.

A 208 barchetta from 1953.  Note the different grille pattern, the air vent on the front fender and the chromed patch on the rear fender.

Gooding auction photos of a 1953 berlinetta.  The grille is larger and has a grid pattern.  It too has a front fender air vent.  The chrome strip above the rear wheel opening is gone.  The front of the car has been slightly reshaped.

Front view showing the headlights when exposed.  This, and the images below are Bonhams photos of the Mille Miglia car.

Siata 208s are most interesting viewed from the front.  Especially striking is the composition of the grille and hidden headlights.  I can fantasize that this theme is an Italian take on the 1942 DeSoto frontal design that also featured hidden headlights and vertical grille bars.  Whoever did style this car really knew what he was doing.

The rear is more bulky looking, but aerodynamically useful.

1940 Dodge's Segmented, Dual-Symmetrical Grille Design

While gathering images for my book How Cars Faced the Market, I noticed an unusual characteristic of the Dodge grille for the 1940 model year.  It was doubly-symmetrical with its four segments clearly defined.

Of course, simple geometric shapes can be symmetrical along two orthogonal axes.  A circle, for instance.  Or ovals, squares and rectangles.  Grilles with these shapes can be found -- especially the non-circle variety.

But the 1940 Dodge grille does not have a simple outline.  That, and the segment dividers are what make unique, or nearly so.

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Just for scene-setting fun, here is an advertising spread illustrated by Arthur Radebaugh (1906-1974), a guy who made many World of Tomorrow type images from the 1930s into the 1960s.

And here is what seems to be a factory photo of a '40 Dodge.

Now for that grille.  There is side-to-side symmetry if the axis of rotation is the prow of the car.  That is, the left and right sides have the same two-dimensional design.  Most automobile grilles can make this claim.  But then there is that painted metal running across the middle of the grille.  The parts above and below it (again from a two-dimensional, flattened perspective) can be pivoted on that axis bar.  This and the non-geometric outline of the grille are the unusual features.  Photo from Mecum auctions.

When Giovanni Michelotti Might Have Been Inspired by Detroit

Giovanni Michelotti was a prolific Italian stylist, as is attested here.  In the 1950s he teamed with Enrico Nardi, helping to create two Lancia-based and Vignale-built concept cars, both named Raggio Azzurro (Blue-Ray).  Some information regarding the second car is here.

What I find interesting about both the 1955 and 1958 versions is how much they were influenced by American concept cars and styling fads of the time.  Not clear to me is how much Michelotti actually contributed in the way of design features.  That is because the American-inspired details are largely out-of-character for him.  I suspect that Nardi greatly influenced the completed designs.

Both Raggi Azzurro were on display at the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, California when I was there in March.  Below are some photos I took.  Their quality is hampered by the fact that the cars were jammed close to others and because the lighting in the gallery consisted of many small spotlights that are reflected by the cars' surfaces.

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The 1955 Raggio Azzurro as seen in a photo found on the Internet.  Conspicuously American features include the greenhouse, the two-tone paint and jet fighter inspired rear fenders.

Here is the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car featuring the twin-bubble canopy theme that Michelotti seems to have borrowed for the greenhouse.  I have no information as to when in 1955 the Raggio was first displayed, but the Futura was announced around February (the March issue of Popular Mechanics Magazine, on news stands in February, has photos of it).  So there appears to have been time for the feature to be borrowed.

An interesting feature is the large headlamp mounted in the center of the grille.

The jet fighter (or space ship?) theme for the rear fender area is clearly seen here.

The bubble-type greenhouse viewed from the rear.  Note the right-hand drive, a feature of European luxury cars that was rapidly falling out of fashion in the 1950s.

The 1958 Raggio Azzurro probably photographed when nearly new.  No central headlight here; in its place is a Lancia shield.  The two-tone paint theme is close to that of the 1955 car, as are the character line above the rear wheel and the shape of the front fender.  The panoramic window is similar to those found on 1955-56 Chryslers.

Another early photo of the '58 Raggio Azzurro showing greater front end detail.

The '58 Raggio Azzurro has left-hand drive, making for easier driving in Italy and America.

The rear fenders are much more restrained than those of the 1955 car.  What we see here are fin-like extensions, yet another American cliché.

The main science-fiction aspect of the design is shown here.  I forgot to check if the apparent air vents at the rear of the B-pillar are functional.

1955 Oldsmobile 88 Delta Concept

What were called dream cars were exciting back in the 1950s.  Usually General Motors' annual traveling cars and entertainment show, the Motorama, could be expected to have a good crop of them.  As far as I'm concerned, 1953-56 were the best years for Motorama.

It's usually not wise to evaluate the significance of a dream or concept (today's term) car when first shown.  It can take five or more years before the concept design can be compared to features appearing on production cars.  The 1955 Motorama is long gone, so I thought it might be interesting to put one of its dream cars into a proper context.

The car I have in mind is the Oldsmobile 88 Delta, a hardtop (pillarless) coupe, a popular body type back then.  I last mentioned it here when writing about odd dream car wheel openings.  Oldsmobiles were redesigned for the 1954 model year and due for a 1957 restyling.  The 88 Delta was probably designed during 1954 when the production '55 facelift was largely established and the basic body forms (though not all details) of the redesigned 1957s were known.

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This is a 1955 Oldsmobile 98 Holiday Coupe, the model current at the time of the Motorama.  It shared its body with Olds 88s, though details varied slightly.  The top has a large-radius curve above the side windows, the grille opening is close to being oval, and the wheel openings are wider towards the rear, having a half-teardrop shape.

And here is a publicity photo of the 88 Delta.

Its grille is not not oval, but the headlight assemblies are.

The roof is very similar to that of the 1955 production car, though the A-pillar is vertical instead of slanted.  The hood is lower relative to the fender line which has a dip where it passes the passenger compartment.  The car's design has a theme of roundedness, something appearing on other '55 Motorama cars such as the Chevrolet Biscayne and Pontiac Strato-Star.

The rear of the 88 Delta continues the rounded theme.  Exhaust pipes are part of the bumper ensemble and are oval like the headlight assemblies.  If the too-large Olds ringed-planet symbol was eliminated, this would be a tasteful design.

Compare this view of the 88 Delta to the car below.

Here is a 1957 Oldsmobile 98 four-door hardtop with one of the redesigned GM bodies that did not sell well.  The A-pillars are thin like the 88 Delta's, but retain the slant of previous production Oldsmobiles.  The grille opening is even more oval than the 1955 model's and wheel openings are in the same spirit as before.  Another carryover from the 88 Delta is a low hood, and the car seems a  little more rounded looking than the '55 model.  But it also seems that the 88 Delta did little in the way of anticipating restyled 1957 Oldsmobiles.

This makes me wonder what the point of the 88 Delta dream car design was.  It wasn't way-out futuristic, one of those styling staff showoff jobs.  Instead, with some changes to make it street-practical, it was basically what a future GM production car might have been.

Perhaps it, the Strato-Star and some other '55 Motorama dream cars represent a direction Harley Earl had in mind as his final designs before his 1958 retirement.  Such cars would have appeared in the 1959 or 1960 model years.  But the taut, finned, commercially successful 1957 Chrysler Corporation line provoked a rebellion in Earl's staff and GM styling took a direction different from that of the 88 Delta.