Mini Minor, Mini Styling

Although millions were sold over a production span of more than 40 years and it is considered by many to be an iconic car, few of the original Morris Mini Minors ever made it to the United States.  So that makes it somewhat surprising that the new Mini brand launched by BMW has done so well here; not that many American knew about the original Minis.  A comprehensive Wikipedia entry dealing with the first Mini series can be found here, so we'll mostly focus on the car's styling.

The Mini was conceived as a basic car that would cost little to build.  Where it innovated was the requirement laid down by management that its length should be 10 feet (about 3 m) long and that the passenger area measure six feet (1.8 m) long, a large ratio at the time (late 1950s).  The design task was handed over to Alec Issigonis who conceived the idea of using front wheel drive and mounting the motor transversely, rather than in a fore-aft orientation as was the industry norm.

Mini buffs probably know if or to what extent stylists were brought into the project.  Given 1957 vintage body stamping capabilities in Britain plus the "package" mentioned above and the need to have the car cheap to build, the result was a crude, stamped-out general appearance.  The only evidence of styling input that I notice is in the grille, its surrounding area and the shape of the taillights.

So the Mini counts in my book as one of the few post-1950 mass production cars whose appearance was actually designed rather than styled.

Gallery

A general view showing the awkward body panel joins, semi-exposed door hinges and other traits.

This rear view is positioned so the the sliding glass panels on the front door are visible; side windows did not crank down.

A better view of the front.  What struck me when I first saw Minis was how tiny their wheels were.  This was probably done for packaging reasons; larger wheels would have intruded too much into the passenger compartment.  But the result was definitely an aesthetic minus.  Automobiles generally look oddly proportioned if the height of the car is much more than about twice the diameter of the tires.

The Most Astonishing Pegaso

Not many Pegaso automobiles were ever built during the period 1951-57 when the brand was active.  Cars were a minor activity of what was essentially a Barcelona based truck manufacturer described here.

There is also some Internet-based information regarding the Pegaso automobile line here and here. However, there is very little other than photographs having to do with the Pegaso model that interests me the most.  In fact, there seems to be no agreement even as to its name other than it was one of the Z-102 series.  Besides Z-102, its name might have included "BS 2.5 Cúpola" or "Berlineta Cúpola" or just "Cúpola."

It is also unclear who styled it.  Some sources credit Italian coachbuilders, others suggest that Pegaso designed and built it in-house.  I have been saying "it" having for years assumed that it was a one-off, but several sources indicate that two cars of the design were actually built.

What matters is that the Pegaso under discussion has a design that was astonishing when it first appeared more than 60 years ago and that continues to astonish (me, anyway) even now.  This is not to say the design is a great one, but it's a good one with the ability to fascinate as well as astonish.

Let's take a look.

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The original car was painted yellow, as shown here.  The most serious design defect was that the backlight (rear window) shape failed to blend with the roofline curve, as is evident in this side view.

After being introduced in Europe in 1952 it was displayed at the 1953 New York Auto Show, where this photo was taken.

Here is another early picture.  For a while a red (I think) stripe decorated the top of the car.

This is a fairly recent picture, probably taken at a concours d'élégance.  The paint is now silver, but it might be that second car whose original paint color is unknown to me.

Another view, this featuring the front end.  The wheel housings are mostly covered by the fenders, probably for aerodynamic reasons.  This implies a wide side overhang beyond the wheels which would give the Pegaso an awkward appearance to our eyes in 2013 if seen from the rear.

This shows the Pegaso "opened up."  Well, not completely opened; the access panel covering the rear wheel remains closed.  Also note that the door windows do not roll down due to the extreme concave shape of the inner side of the door; instead, they swing out to open.

Frazer's Only Facelift

The only successful American automobile company established after World War 2 was Kaiser-Frazer Corporation.  (I'm not counting American Motors and Studebaker-Packard, that were the result of mergers of existing companies.)  And by "successful," I mean relative success in that the company survived in its initial form for the better part of a decade and built more than half a million cars.  (Kaiser bought Willys and its Jeep line in 1953 and soon ended Kaiser and Willys production in North America.)

Because Kaiser-Frazer was for all practical purposes a new company when production started in 1946 (technically it was created on the ruins of Graham-Paige), its cars had to make use of a new body design.  All other automobile companies marketed facelifted pre-war designs for varying lengths of time until the 1949 model year, when virtually every model was finally re-styled.  Kaisers and the more up-scale Frazers shared the same body and differed only in trim.  The initial 1947 design was "modern" in that it featured fenders that flowed from headlight to taillight, something anticipated pre-war, but not in production when car manufacturing ceased early in 1942 for the war's duration.

Besides the flow-through fenders, the other main styling feature was that no hood ornament was present.  This shocked some people because hood ornaments were an expected feature in those days.  Eventually Kaisers and Frazers had them added, probably in an effort to please potential buyers.

Overall appearance was awkward despite the modern fender line.  Kaisers and Frazers were fairly tall, so the nearly plain, slab-like sides helped emphasize their height, poor surface detailing and body panel fits.  But initial sales were good because there was strong demand for almost any kind of car after the war's production curtailment was over.

By the end of the 1940s the post-war seller's market had ended and potential buyers were becoming picky about styling and engineering details.  Kaiser-Frazer's styling was looking dated and other manufacturers, especially Studebaker, Ford and General Motors, were building cars that were sleeker and generally more attractive.  So it was time to do something.  K-F's main effort was the completely restyled 1951 Kaiser, a design that deserves to be the subject of a separate post.  As for Frazer, it had been decided that the brand would be scrapped.  But there were spare bodies that needed to be sold, if possible, so Frazer was given a major facelift for 1951.  I'm not sure how cost-effective this was, but the result was that Frazers looked to most people like they too had been given a re-styling.

Let's take a look:


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1948 Frazer four-door sedan

1950 Frazer ManhattanAside from the grille and a few other details, 1950 Frazers didn't look much different than earlier ones, as a comparison of the cars shown above indicates.

1951 Frazer four-door sedan

1951 Frazer VagabondThe facelift included a new front end design, some of this tooling shared with K-Fs new Henry J compact car.  The fender line was altered.  Changes included a wind split along the side of the front fender, a "kick-up" in the fender line starting behind the rear doors, and sharp, reverse-curve at the rear with the tail light positioned at the top.  These changes made the car look longer and more graceful.  If they had appeared in 1949, say, along with a V-8 motor, Kaiser-Frazer might have produced Frazer automobiles for several more years.

Buick Back Seats

If you were like me, your trips in cars as a child were spent in the rear seat.  Nowadays, I normally ride in front, even when I'm a passenger.  That's because my legs are longer than my wife's, justifying this arrangement.

It has gotten to the point that I've almost forgotten what back-seat riding was like.  Fortunately, a few months ago, someplace on the Internet (can't remember where), I came across some old publicity photos featuring rear passenger compartments of various Buicks, bringing back memories -- even though my family didn't own any Buicks when I was young.

Here they are:

 

This first image was captioned that this was a 1937 or thereabouts Buick.  Note the rounded windows and fuzzy upholstery.  The model is touching a grab-strap.  A robe holder cord is on the back of the front seat and a foot rest can be seen below the seat back.  The part of the armrest near the model's knee features an ash tray with a metal lid.  The overall package is fancier than what would be found on low-price or even many mid-price cars of that era, but it's a small step below what might be found in luxury cars.

These next three photos were captioned as from around 1941, though I think they are from the same vintage as the top photo (one has to be very cautious about accepting photo captions on the Internet).  The image above is of a two-door sedan.  Note that the front seat back folds forward to allow a passenger to enter and exit the rear.  Also note that it is still a small passageway near floor-level.  Visible features include grab-straps and a small light just above the opposite grab-strap.  The upholstery is spartan by today's standards in terms of design, but plush and comfortable to sit on.  And of course there were no seat belts.

The roof interior was covered with fabric; ditto the insides of the doors.  These practices were continued through the 1940s, though panels of leather or artificial material began to make their appearance.

The purpose of this photo was to dramatize interior room.  Earlier cars tended to be narrower, holding only two rear-seat passengers comfortably.

We conclude with a photo of the interior of a 1954 Buick Super or Roadmaster hardtop convertible.  Materials and styling are closer to current practices, but the seat remains a bench seat.  Many sedans of that vintage also featured bench front seats.  And still no seat belts.

2014 Chevrolet Impala Critiqued

The 2014 Chevrolet Impala is the latest redesign of a model that has been around since 1958 (the Wikipedia history is here).  Early reviews I've read suggest that it is a considerable improvement over the previous Impala generation, which has snidely been referred to as fit for rental, but not worthy of purchase.  We rented those Impalas on several occasions, and I found them to be okay.  I wouldn't have bought one, but could have tolerated it if one had been given to me.

As for styling, the previous Impala was rather bland, but the new version is now in line with the current flashy Baroque fashion.

Gallery

2014 Chevrolet Impala
The side view tells most of the story.  Front overhang is not quite as severe as was common in the 1990s nor is rear overhang as great as in the 1970s.  The passenger compartment greenhouse is proportionally long, ending in a semi-fastback shape; this approach has been in vogue for nearly ten years.  There is plenty of sheet metal sculpting, which is why I used the word "Baroque" above.  This too is a styling fad.

The various folds and creases forming the sculptural side composition are professionally done in the sense that there is follow-through between separated elements.  For example, the lower creases and indentations on either side of the rear wheel opening are continuations interrupted by a bulge around that opening.  More subtle is the continuation of the crease near the top of the front fender.  It begins with a fold aligned with top of the upper grille and headlamps and strengthens abaft of the bulge around the front wheel opening.  It fades away at the rear door handle, but is picked up again where the rising crease on the rear door becomes horizontal.  If these (approximately) horizontal elements had been offset rather than continuations, the result would have seemed comparatively cluttered and confusing, the work of an amateur stylist. 

The front is less fussy than the sides, though the hood has more than its fair share of sculpting.  A curiosity is that the upper and lower grille openings appear replicated in the photo above; they are stacked, rather than related using the sort of line continuations just mentioned.  

As for the rear, confusion ensues, especially where the trunk spoiler ridge, taillight assembly and upper bumper lip converge.  At least the taillight assembly blends with the upper side crease and panel cut-line.  Otherwise, the composition of elements at the rear of the car is fussy -- especially the relationship between the chrome strip and the taillights. In a nutshell, I think there is too much unnecessary activity in the design, too much busyness.  I would have preferred that a few areas of the car had been left plain to serve as relief from or in contrast to all the sculpting.

2013 Ford Fusion  I wasn't kidding when I suggested that the Impala design was in line with current styling fashion (but then, at any given time, most car designs follow current fashion; they almost have to).  Above is an Impala competitor, Ford's Fusion.  Note that their rooflines and side window treatments are nearly the same.  Both cars have similar sculpting along the lower part of the doors as well as a crease near the upper part of the lower body.

1973 Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Just for fun, I include these images of a Chevrolet from around 40 years earlier that might have served as inspiration for the rear door and rear fender area curved sculpting on the new Impala.  True, the shaping is different, but the slight suggestion of a rear fender on the Impala brought the '73 Monte Carlo to mind; can we call it a Retro touch?