Cadillac's Slowly-Changing 75 Limousine Line

Believe it or not, the market for limousines is not large.  Never was, actually.  So even General Motors chose to economize on limousine bodies back in the days when it was huge and prosperous.

In the years leading up to the U.S. entry into World War 2, General Motors marketed limousines by Buick (the Limited, model 90) and Cadillac.  Thereafter into the 1950s, only Cadillac had production limousines in its Series 75 line.

From the 1940 through the 1956 model years, Cadillac offered only two different limousine bodies, whereas there were four generations of its basic car lines.  As a result, Cadillac limousines were often stylistically out of phase with the regular line even though many ornamentation cues were incorporated where possible.  For model years 1957 and 1958 it appears that the greenhouse of the 1950-vintage limousine was grafted onto regular Cadillac bodies.

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1940 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 Limousine
This advertisement shows the limousine body introduced for the 1940 model year.

1941 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 Limousine
It was given the same '41 facelift as the rest of the Cadillac line.

1948 Cadillac 62
Regular Cadillacs were completely restyled for 1948.

1949 Cadillac 75 Limousine - Barrett-Jackson photo
But the 1940-vintage limousine body was used through the 1949 model year.  No attempt was made to facelift it to mimic 1948 styling cues.

1950 Cadillac 62
The Cadillac line was restyled for 1950.

1952 Cadillac 75 Limousine - sales photo
So was the limousine, as can be seen here in its 1952 guise.

1954 Cadillac 75 Limousine - Auctions America photo
The Cadillac line was restyled for the 1954 model year.  The limousine body in the passenger compartment zone appears to have been carried over from previous years.

1958 Cadillac DeVille
Cadillac was restyled for 1957 and facelifted in 1958.

1958 Cadillac 75 Limousine - via Wikipedia
The 1950-based limousine upper body continued through 1958.  Compare the passenger compartment roof and windows to the 1952 limousine shown two images above.

Styling Variety: 1930s French Cars

During the 1930s General Motors' styling boss Harley Earl would travel to Paris to visit the annual Salon de l'Automobile.  It was a serious focus to what might seem to some a frivolous enjoy-Paris corporate junket.  That was  because fashion-conscious France was a hotbed of car styling ideas that Earl wanted and needed to be aware of.

And there were many automobile makers in France, even in the depth of the Great Depression.  For example, the mid-decade 1935 Paris salon had 27 firms exhibiting passenger cars.  Those 27 firms produced only about 170,000 cars that year, and 3/4 of those were from the "big three" -- Renault, Citroën, and Peugeot.  The remaining manufacturers averaged about 1,550 cars that year, which makes me wonder how they could afford to keep body designs even halfway fashionable.  The largest firm, Renault, produced around 58,000 cars that year, yet marketed ten lines of cars using what seems to be three basic bodies -- which also seems like a small basis for product renewal.

Regardless, French car styling from the 1930s was innovative and varied.  Admittedly, this was especially the so for custom-built bodies, but also was the case for factory models.  The images below are mostly of standard production cars.

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Bucciali Double-Huit - body by Saoutchik - Paris Salon 1931
This car was intended to astonish, something it still does 85 years later.  It has a underslung chassis, so it sits low.  The low stance is further emphasized by the large wheels and extremely long hood.  Not to mention the low-headroom passenger compartment.

Voisin C 20 - Paris Salon 1931
Many of Gabriel Voisin's designs also astonish.  His C 20 and C 22 models feature radically disaggregated components.

Voisin Aérodyne - Paris Salon 1934
This is a pre-production car, but essentially the same as the few that were built.  Here Voisin edges towards aerodynamic shaping on his way to the 1936 Aérosport.

Citroën Traction Avant - 1956
The Traction Avant line was introduced for 1934, and its design was virtually unchanged even by 1956, the year before it was replaced.  The body is low because it lacks a driveshaft and also a chassis, being of semi-unitized construction.  One French styling fashion in the late 30s was the belt line drooping towards the rear, as can be seen here.

1935 Renault Nervastella Grand Sport
Unlike the Citroën, this top-of-the-line Renault is tall.  And it also has a somewhat streamlined appearance that's negated by the formidable grille-hood combination.  Note especially the the highly-sloped, V'd windshield: advanced for 1935.

Peugeot 402 - ca. 1939
The 402 first appeared for the 1936 model year and, like the Renault above, featured a streamlined look.  The body aft of the cowling seems inspired by the 1934 Chrysler Airflow.  For me, the most intriguing feature is the headlamps buried behind the grille.

1937 Hotchkiss 686 Coupé Modane
By the mid-1930s Hotchkiss' were solid looking cars.  Attractive, slightly conservative styling for its bourgeoise clientele.  I am especially fond of the grille design that relates well to the fenders.

1937 Panhard Dynamic
The ancient firm Panhard et Lavassor developed styling senility in the early 30s with its Panoramique three-piece windshield design that progressed to the strange Dynamic model shown here with its central driving position.  "Creativity" does not necessarily produce good results.

Talbot-Lago T 155 SS by Figoni & Falaschi - ca. 1938
Finally a fabulous "Goute d'eau" (teardrop) Talbot-Lago custom that's marred by having spats over the front wheels.  Most similar Talbots had exposed front wheels.

Renault Fuego: Streamlining Disguised

Renault's Fuego (1980-1986 in Europe) was a four-passenger sporty car whose shape was refined by wind tunnel testing into a fairly low drag coefficiant, a relatively uncommon practice in those days.  More background can be found here.

Aerodynamic efficiency is problematic for stylists because many potential shapes are ruled out.  Furthermore, aerodynamic shapes tend to be rounded, yet there is a strong school of styling thought holding that cars should appear trim, crisp, taut.  One compromise is to have the overall shape aerodynamically efficient while including trim, crisp, taut details in places irrelevant to aerodynamics.

This was done when the Fuego was designed.  Otherwise, it might have seemed somewhat dumpy, as was the case of the 1993 Ford Mondeo that had plenty of rounded details including windows and grille.

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1982 Fuego advertisement by American Motors
Fuegos were sold here in the USA thanks to an agreement between the Régie and American Motors.

Fuego - side view
The strong black trim emphasizes tautness and distracts from what actually is a rather bulky passenger compartment shape.

1983 Fuego - front 3/4 view
If you click to enlarge, you should be able to see that the black strip running along the car's shoulder is ribbed and thereby attracts the eye more than a flat piece of plastic might -- further distracting from the fundamental body shape.  But the body itself has some crisp features including the sharp folds on the top and edges of the hood.

1983 Fuego - rear 3/4 view
The ribbed black strip runs around the back of the Fuego, helping to pull the eye from the massive backlight.  The character line along the middle of the side takes a dip at the rear wheel opening.  This is a subtle detail because an unbroken horizontal line would not meet the intersection of the bumper and tail light assembly.

Curiously Impressive 1948-50 Packard Convertibles

Packard (history here) did not market a complete post- World War 2 redesign until the 1951 model year.  Instead, an unfortunate facelift of its Clipper design was put in place for 1948-50.  I'll write about this facelift in another post.

One model the Clipper lacked was a convertible, so Packard added them as part of the 1948 facelift project.  Packard sedans of that era were massive and bloated-looking.  Due to their lack of large, fixed tops, the convertibles appeared less massive than the sedans, though they were still more ponderous than competing cars.

The primary styling flaw is the pontoon fender and the slab-sided look it produced.  A crisper fender line and separate rear fenders such as were found on 1947 Studebakers and 1948 Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs would have been a major design improvement.

Seen from nearly 60 years after their introduction, the postwar Packard convertibles possess an impressive kind of charm despite having a mediocre design.  Something due to nostalgia, perhaps.

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1948 Packard Super 8 Victoria Convertible - Jay Leno Collection, NBC photo
Jay can afford the best, and this is pretty much it so far as '48-50 Packard convertibles are concerned.

1948 Packard 8 Convertible - sales photo
A lower-priced '48 convertible.  Differences include a simpler grille theme and one less side chrome strip.  The wire wheels were not production items.

1949 Packard Custom 8 Convertible - Auctions America photo
A top-of-the-line convertible with its top retracted.

1949 Packard Victoria Convertible - Barrett Jackson photo
Rear aspect of the less expensive convertible.

1950 Packard Custom 8 Victoria Convertible
Top-of-the-line Packards echoed the grille's egg-crate theme above the rear bumper.  Side chrome and tail lights were redone for 1950.

1950 Packard Custom 8 Victoria Convertible - Mecum auction photo
Another fine example.  But here, too, the wire wheels were added later.

1950 Packard Custom 8 Victoria Convertible - Mecum auction photo
A nice view of the egg-crate grille found on the most expensive Packards.

Cars Seen in California, March 2016

Time for a brief break from styling critiques.

I recently returned from an extensive visit to California where from time to time I would encounter an interesting car.  On occasions where I had my camera handy, I took photos, a few of which are shown below.

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2016 Corvette
This was at The Gardens on El Paseo, a shopping area in the city of Palm Desert.  This part of California is where affluent people either winter or retire to permanently, so expensive cars are common.  The Corvette pictured here is on a place where car dealers display their wares for passers-by to contemplate.

McLaren 650S
Parked a few blocks away was this McLaren.  Dealers sometimes simply park a fancy car by a curb to entice potential buyers.

Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder
Not far away was this Lamborghini.  Its status is unclear.  Gallardos ceased production in 2014, yet this example has no license plate.  Perhaps a dealer still had it on hand and was hoping to find a customer for it.

2016 BMW i8
I saw this i8 on display at the Blackhawk shopping mall in Danville.

1932 Studebaker Dictator
Palm Springs has an aviation museum.  Under a B-17 bomber was this entry-level '32 Studebaker.

Fisker Karma
Back to the El Paseo street scene.  Here is a Fisker Karma, one of about 4,500 built from late 2011 to late 2012.

Renault's Conventional Post-War Frégate

The Renault Frégate (1952-1960) was the Régie's first post- World War 2 mid-market sedan.  It followed the small, rear-engine 4CV that I discussed here.

Background on the Frégate is here.  It seems that Renault was working on a rear-motor car larger than the 4CV, but the project was wisely abandoned and the conventional Frégate was initiated in 1949.  That meant Renault stylists were aware of the post-war 1948 Oldsmobile, 1949 Chevrolet and Chrysler line fender designs, and created their version.

The result was a bland, 1949-vintage design that was slightly behind the times when the first production models were announced for the 1952 model year.  Even so, the Frégate's styling was more advanced than the competing Peugeot 203 that I wrote about here.  But it was only on par with Ford SAF's Vedette that debuted in the spring of 1950 and which made use of the 1949 Mercury's design theme.

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These are publicity photos of 1951 pre-production Frégates.  The most noticeable differences from 1952 models are the shape of the bumpers and grille bar details.  Both of these images came from the same photo shoot: note the windows in the background.

The Frégate as seen from on high.  Again, the same car in both images.  I like the long hood, though front overhang is a bit long for its era, but common in modern front-drive times.  Frégate's layout was conventional front-engine, rear drive.

Another publicity photo of a 1952 Frégate.  The negative aspect of the long hood is a passenger compartment that seems a bit cramped despite Renault's claim that six passengers could be accommodated (see previous image).

For 1955, Frégate added the Amiral line shown here.  The grille was redesigned and a chromed stone guard was added to the rear fender.

The American baroque two-tone paint scheme disease struck the Frégate by 1958.  Yet another What Were They Thinking? moment.

Tesla Model X: Crossover SUV of Sorts

Tesla Motors, something of a cult car maker, finally got its new all-electric so-called "crossover SUV" Model X into production late in 2015.  I question the term "crossover SUV" for the Model X for the same reasons I wondered about the Honda Crossfit, Mercedes GKE Coupe and BMW X4 that I discussed here.

Sales of the Model X were slow during the first quarter of 2016, the company blaming suppliers for production problems, though extremely high prices also might have been a factor.  To date, I have only seen one Model X.

Like Tesla's Model S, the firm's primary product, the Model X features clean styling that carries over many Model S details on a taller body.  Model X fails to some degree because its aerodynamically curved roofline reduces potential carrying capacity.  A greater failure has to do with its gull-wing rear doors -- an impractical feature that happens to be related to those supplier problems noted above.

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Comparison photo of the Model S and Model X.  The X is so skillfully designed that it does not seem very bulky, even though it is so when compared to the low, slinky S.

Front view showing that the Model X lacks the faux-grille slapped on the front of the S.

At least Tesla has ignored the fad of wildly-sculpted body panels.

The Model X is graceful in profile, but this means it cannot carry tall objects or cannot hold large piles of luggage and other items that my wife insists she absolutely needs when we take long trips.

Here is a view of the infamous gull-wing doors as opened.  They are a fad for certain low-production sports cars attempting to bask in the glow of Mercedes-Benz 300 SL coupes of the 1950s.  The Model X gull-wings are the rear doors only, front doors being conventionally front-hinged.  I suppose the intention was that gull-wing doors at the rear would be helpful for loading cargo when the rear seats were folded down.  My experience with loading SUVs is that this would make little difference, hardly justifying the additional cost and complexity of that kind of door.