Fiat 8V Berlinetta: Postwar Streamlining

For me, the high point of Italian sports car styling was reached during the early 1950s.  Most famous are the automobiles designed and built by famous coachbuilding firms such as Zagato, Ghia, Pinin Farina and such.  But even Italy's largest automobile mass-producer Fiat got into the act in the form of its 8V version produced 1952-54.  Before World War 2 and for a while after, Fiat was active in racing, especially in events such as the famed Mille Miglia where racing versions of sports cars sped through ordinary streets and roads from Brescia to Brescia over routes that varied over the years that the Mille was run.

The 8V, called by some Web sources a Berlinetta, was an in-house affair, designed and built by Fiat rather than the coachbuilders. Its shape was wind tunnel tested, so to some degree styling considerations had to take second place to aerodynamic efficiency. Nevertheless, I find the design attractive, particularly the original version pictured below.

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A factory image showing the initial front end design. Later versions had the grille-mounted headlamps repositioned to the fenders in an early version of "quad" headlights. I suspect this was done because the original configuration might have reduced airflow to the radiator, though it's equally possible that the move improved illumination coverage.

Another factory photo, this showing the profile. Rear fender skirts have been removed.

This is the only photo I could find on the Web showing the rear as well as the wheel housing cover (the bulge was probabaly to provide clearance for the knock-off wheel hub).

The weakest part of the design is the rear quarter panel area.  It strikes me as being a little too bulky looking.  Cures might include a crisper fast-back roof profile, a larger back window, side windows extending a little farther towards the rear (though use of flat glass panes probably prevented that) and perhaps making the rear fender line a trifle higher and more rounded.  But such changes would have added a little weight and might have affected aerodynamic efficiency for a car intended to be raced.  So I really can't complain about the design.

Styling Plymouth to Death

The term "badge engineering" is used in automobile circles to refer to car models that are marketed under different brand names, yet are identical save for small details including differing nameplates.  This practice is often found when a manufacturer is running low on money, yet wishes to keep its various brands of cars on the market.

An example is the Plymouth, Chrysler's entry-level brand that saw production for more than 80 years until it was discontinued in 2011.  For many of those years, Plymouth ranked third in sales in the American market.  Unfortunately, beginning in the early 1950s, Chrysler Corporation entered a seemingly never-ending period of boom and bust sales levels.  The long, complicated story is summarized here.

From around the middle of the 1930s through the 1952 model year, all four Chrysler brands (in ascending price class order: Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler) shared the same basic body, differing mostly in grille design, trim and length of hood.  However, the differences were strong enough to make each brand visually distinctive.  For 1953 and continuing into the early 1960s, Chrysler fielded two bodies for its standard size car lines.  DeSoto and Chrysler shared one, while Plymouth and Dodge shared the other.

Chrysler was profitable enough during most of the 1960s that its various brands could share bodies while maintaining distinctive looks, in part due to economies resulting from the elimination of DeSoto in 1961.  But the 1970s were increasingly difficult for Chrysler, and Plymouths and Dodges soon became almost indistinguishable.  Below are some examples of how this played out.  Plymouths are shown in the upper image of each pairing, Dodges below.

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1953
Even though the basic body was the same, stylists were allowed to create a number of fairly expensive differences.  Examples include the profiles of the rear side windows, trim on the body sides, a rear fender micro-tail fin on the Dodge, and different grille details (though the grille openings seem identical).

1978
Shown here are two compact-car models, the Plymouth Horizon and the Dodge Omni.  Price differences were small, the Dodge's interior trim might have been very slightly ritzier and the exteriors featured different grille bar patterns and placement of side chrome trim.

2000
We are now a model year away from Plymouth's demise.  Above are Neons, Chrysler's compact-car line at the time.  Differences between Plymouth and Dodge are insignificant.  Badge engineering at its finest.

Chrysler 300C: An Unexpected Preview

Some concept cars are intended to test public reaction to various styling ideas.  Others are thinly-disguised versions of cars scheduled for production within the next year or two.  The latter are often easily identifiable and commented upon in car buff magazines.  Readers are left to wonder which features are production-bound and which are camouflage.

It turns out that the show car conceptualizing Chrysler's iconic 2005 300C didn't have a speck of teasing to it.  People at Chrysler probably were mostly interested in exposing the public to a design that would take some getting used to, due the fact that it was a strong break from current Chrysler designs as well as from most other designs on the road.  I certainly thought the 300C was odd-looking when I saw the first photos of it.  Actually, it wasn't until I began seeing 300s on streets and highways that the design began to appeal to me; about a year later, I bought an entry-level 300.

What is odd is that the real disguised "teaser" concept car for the 300C came from Ford, not Chrysler.  Let's take a look.

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2003 Chrysler 300C Concept Car
The concept 300C is virtually identical to the 2005 production version introduced in 2004.

2001 Dodge Super 8 Hemi Concept Car
This concept car from Dodge contains some hints regarding the future Chrysler 300C design.  Those hints include the general brick-shape of the lower body, the fender shape (forget the grooves on the doors) and the wheel housing treatment.  Inclusion of a 1954-vintange General Motors style wraparound windshield is a cute diversion.

2003 Ford 427 Concept Car
This makes one wonder if Ford and Chrysler stylists were hanging out at the same bar in the early 2000s.  In reality, probably not.  That's because Joseph Baker, the 427's designer, was working at Ford's Irvine California studio, whereas I'm pretty sure that the 300C was styled in Detroit.  But aside from the front and rear ends, the two cars closely resemble one another.  Could the Irvine facility staff have included one or two recently hired stylists from Chrysler?

Hudson's Not-So-Italian Italia

I've tagged this post "Concept Cars," but the Hudson Italia of 1953-55 vintage was one of those cases where it was sort of a concept car while also being a car produced in very small numbers for sale to the public.  Background information regarding the Italia can be found here, here and here, but some of the details are contradictory and questionable, though the general story is correct.

By the early 1950s, Hudson, along with the other smaller American car makers, was in decline.  It was beginning to lack the financial resources needed to develop new models and the cost-per-sale of advertising its current cars was higher than that for the Detroit "big three," General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.  Hudson's management placed their financial bet on a new smaller-size car.  Nash had done so already with its Rambler, which was profitable.  Willys and Kaiser also had new small cars, respectively the Aero and the Henry J, but these were not successful.

Hudson's entry, the Jet, was too tall and too narrow for its styling theme and sales were poor.  According to the links, Hudson management placated styling director Frank Spring, who felt that his Jet design had been ruined by making it taller and narrower that he wanted.  That came in the form of allowing him to create a design for a sporty car that became the Italia.

Although Spring and his team styled the Italia in Detroit, the cars were built by Carrozzeria Touring, an Italian coachbuilder noted for its stylish, light-weight bodies.  So to that degree the monicker "Italia" was legitimate.  According to the links above, it seems that the plan was to build 50 cars, but only 26 were actually completed.  The reason given was the early-1954 merger of Hudson and Nash into the new American Motors Corporation, wherein Nash interests prevailed and the Italia was ditched.

Here is what Italias looked like.

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It's too bad Hudson didn't let Touring create the design.  Although Spring began his career at a coachbuilding firm, most of his designs for Hudson were mediocre.  Perhaps some of that was because Hudson launched only three completely redesigned models after the early 1930s -- a 1936 Hudson that was heavily (and, to Spring's credit, inventively) facelifted until the new, nicely done 1948 Hudsons appeared.  The Jet was the third design.

The Italia is an awkward design.  In part, this might have had to do with the fact that the Jet, narrow as it was, served as the platform for the Italia, and even the Jet was a bit wide for early 50s vintage sports car designs.  Which might be why the fenders are a little too rounded.  Alas, the other surfaces are not well developed either; perhaps Spring didn't have the time to refine them.  The rear of the car is bland aside from the outrageous stunt of disguising taillights as exhaust pipes.  The side trim is 50s cliche, and doesn't relate well to the greenhouse, fender line and other side elements; more thought and development needed here too.  A particularly amateurish (for automobile design) touch is the shape of the opening in the rear fender where the taillight housings emerge.  The air intake "eyebrow" over the headlamps is an odd, not very functional feature that echos the long-time Hudson triangle theme, but otherwise is an intrusion on the fender line.  The grille opening shape is soft, flabby.

I could go on and on, ranting about the shape of the hood, the wheel housing openings, the form of the C-piller on the greenhouse, and more.  So I'll conclude by saying the the Italia's design is nothing more than a collection of poorly styled elements that do not relate well to one another.  It is incoherent.  Which is sad.

Perhaps three Italias were built as four-door sedans. This might have been an exercise to see if the design might be suitable for a future production Hudson.  I think this greenhouse style works a little better than the two-passenger version.  In fact, the overall design seems better because it is more compatible with its Hudson Jet platform dimensions.  Otherwise, my criticisms hold.

Here is a photo taken in Italy confirming that Italias were indeed made in small numbers.  Due to their rarity and history, Italias can commanded auction prices approaching $300,000.

Aston Martin Lagonda 2: Too Long, Too Low?

Lagonda was a British maker of sporting, luxurious cars whose products reached their apogee in the years prior to World War 2.  After the war, the firm was purchased by David Brown and then consolidated with his Aston Martin operation.  Production dwindled to an end in the late 1950s.

Nearly 20 years later, Aston Martin revived the brand in the form of the extremely expensive Aston Martin Lagonda (Wikipedia entry here).  A Series 1 design was soon replaced by the Series 2 styled by William Towns and produced in limited numbers from 1979 to 1985.  Later, facelifted series were then introduced, but production ended in 1990 following continued low sales.

The Aston Martin Lagonda (I'm referring to Series 2 and later) was controversial.  One problem was the incorporation of advanced (for the time) electronics that suffered from reliability problems.  Styling was also controversial, and I'll deal with that here.

During the 1970s a major automobile styling fashion was stark, nearly flat body panels.  Greenhouses featured large areas of glass, and roofs were thin.  The overall effect was a trim, angular, simple, rather classical appearance.  This fashion came to an end during the 1980s when automobile companies had to make their cars more efficient aerodynamically.

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Although the AM Lagonda has interesting styling details, in my judgment the design suffers because of the dimensions of the "package."   The car is simply too long and too low; its proportions would make almost any styling seem wrong.  This is most evident in the side view above, but also can be seen in the upper image.  Notice that top of the front wheel housing opening comes so close to the top of the front fender that the fender seems pinched off at that point.  This effect is exaggerated by the long front overhang that adds visual bulk to the front of the car.   If the fenders, roof, hood and trunk had been raised even two or three inches (5-8 cm) and the overhang was reduced perhaps six inches (15 cm), the car would have been better proportioned.  And it would have looked more conventional, less distinctive.

The Wikipedia entry states that only 645 of the Series 2-4 cars were built.  Given that even the newest ones are now nearly 30 years old, AM Lagondas are seldom seen.  Lucky me, I encountered one while driving on a motorway in England last summer between the Lake District and York.  Low and angular it was.