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Five cool pictures… and a WTF?
You can’t see the photographer’s reflection in the Taurus?
“Five cool pictures… and a WTF?”
That’s like during a Powerpoint presentation, the presenter slips in a nekkid lady to see who’s still awake.
I think the Taurus picture is the best. The classic cars are all vehicles that were commonplace, then fell out of favor and rotted away/were just crappy used cars. Then, they became rare and a throwback to yesteryear. Right now, that second-gen Taurus is a crappy used car. But someday, little Taurus. Someday.
It’ll be sitting in a museum.
Also, I like the color theme. That was once a popular color, but you can’t get that on anything anymore. The Taurus that mismatched bumper came from (’92-96) was one of the last cars a color like that came on.
I actually had 3 different Tauruses (Tauri) of that vintage as company cars (we got a new car every year). They really weren’t bad cars, but I always hated that mismatched bumper thing – it was like they ran out of paint at the factory or something.
I do agree with KalapanaBlack that the classic cars were commonplace cars. I think my initial surprise was more of the “one of these things is not like the other thing” thing :)
The photo of the 55 Fairlane in the side of the Nash Rambler is particularly fascinating. And who couldn’t love a turquoise Studebaker Hawk?
My favorite feature of 50s car design is that they were NOT afraid of color. Pink & gray, yellow & lime green, and of course, glorious turquoise. I understand the manufacturing reasons behind the current limited selection, but I am so sick of the modern sea of silver, white, champaign, gray, red and black, with one other real color thrown in (blue, currently). These colors, with tan, gray or black interiors, is a really limited selection. Even into 70s, a dozen real color choices was not unusual, and with 5 or 6 interior colors.
As to the collectibility of the Taurus, who knows. They sold an awful lot of Chevelle,
Fairlane and Satellite sedans in the 60s, but nobody collects them. Everybody wants the cars they couldn’t get their parents to buy when they were 12 years old, or the ones that they lusted after as teenagers. Under this theory, the Taurus will never make it. Everybody will be collecting BMWs, GTIs, Cherokees and Explorers. We shall see.
My favorite feature of 50s car design is that they were NOT afraid of color. Pink & gray, yellow & lime green, and of course, glorious turquoise. I understand the manufacturing reasons behind the current limited selection, but I am so sick of the modern sea of silver, white, champaign, gray, red and black, with one other real color thrown in (blue, currently). These colors, with tan, gray or black interiors, is a really limited selection. Even into 70s, a dozen real color choices was not unusual, and with 5 or 6 interior colors.
+1
I’d like to be able to get real colors on cars again. I’d like a turquoise CRV. I could live with a limited selection of interior colors, but please give us some interesting choices on the exterior. Then again, I wouldn’t half mind a turquoise and white interior in my turquoise CRV.
If the D3 would go back to real colors, I’d consider them. I’d trade some reliability for the sake of not being bored to death.
jpcavanaugh: Agree totally on the color thing.
But:
People do collect those Chevelles, and Fairlanes and more pedestrian models. Ever picked up a copy of Hemmings Classic Car, Cars& Parts, etc ?
Not everyone is into automotive exotica and many find the price of admission too high with the most desirable models. Go on to some of the marque fan sites and see what you find: lots of wagons, 4 doors, ordinary family stuff everyone else overlooked but that someone is now cherishing.
People collect or seek what reminded them of their formative years.
Yes, there is even a club for the K Car started here in Los Angeles that made it’s first appearance at the Mopar Spring Fling a couple years ago @ Woodley Park. How much more “uncollectible” than an early 80s Aries can you get , but there they are.
My 63 Valiant would take exception to that “nobody collects them” statement.
Happy Motoring, All
I included the Taurus because I think it’s a nice piece of styling, and definitely by far one of the best family sedans of its era (the 90s Caprice would be another).
And who couldn’t love a turquoise Studebaker Hawk?
Maybe someone who’s seen the ’53 Studebaker coupe, on which the Hawk is based, because it’s a much, much cleaner design.
The Hawk has never appeared on any “greatest car designs” list, while the Starliner Coupe, by Raymond Loewy’s studio, is a perennial favorite.
Still, if someone gave me Hawk in decent shape, I wouldn’t turn it down, particularly if it had the supercharged V8.
Speaking of classic classics, classics from the 50s, and modern day classics, I’ve been asked to come up with a name and a logo for a new Camaro/Firebird club. So far I have Car City Camaro Club (it’s in SE MI and I like alliteration), or F-Bodies Forever.
Any other suggestions?
Dynamic88 – Nice to see another turquoise fan out there. In the late 80s I spent 4 enjoyable years in a white 66 Fury III with turquoise interior. In high school, one of my favorite cars was a 63 Newport of a friend’s. His dad had bought it new and proudly told us kids that it was Holiday Turquoise!
DweezilSFV – point taken. I am a veteran of more than one C-body mopar sedan. But every car show I go to, I trip over Mustangs, Camaros, Mopar muscle cars, and a periodic Impala SS or GTO. It is a rare occurrance that someone brings out a nice, original 67 Belvedere sedan or a 4 door Cutlass or something like that. I enjoy them, but they do not seem to be very common at the shows. Perhaps if more people like you and me were active in the old car hobby, we would see a lot more of the old sedans appreciated.
If the D3 would go back to real colors, I’d consider them. I’d trade some reliability for the sake of not being bored to death.
I worked for DuPont Automotive. There are two ways colors are selected, which typically takes place about 2 or 3 years before the model year. The automaker specifies a particular color (think the high impact colors on muscle cars, like Camaro Grabber Orange) and the various car paint companies formulate their version, the test panels go through a “paint show” and a winning company is picked.
Other more pedestrian colors are developed independently by the paint companies. They have people whose job it is to stay abreast of color trends in fashion, furniture, appliances and architecture. Colors are formulated and again presented for competition.
Tastes change. For a while earth tones were popular with lots of beiges, browns and golds. Greens were big for a while. White, though, is usually the big seller.
My favorite color was something one of the lab techs custom mixed for his own car. It was a very dark charcoal gray, almost black, with an intermediate coat with just a hint of blue pearl, followed by the clear coat. Great color for a luxury sedan. In direct light it was almost black but off angle you could see the blue.
Extreme color shifting paints, Chromalusion from DuPont and similar paints from competitors, should never, IMHO, be used outside of show cars.
The Hawk has never appeared on any “greatest car designs” list, while the Starliner Coupe, by Raymond Loewy’s studio, is a perennial favorite.
Actually, wasn’t it a Bob Bourke design while he was employed by the Loewy Studio? In my opinion, Loewy stole much of the accreditation in any styling creation.
I see this more of a circular photo essay. From the “Aerodynamic” Nash to the second generation Taurus. The rest are pulls and stretches to exemplify mass and motion, at least that’s what was purported by 50’s advertising. If a side-view of a 1957 Chrysler were included, it would have been too obvious; Mostly trapezoidal in side view, with the a very open greenhouse.
I guess that I’m luckier than some. Krause Publications has a huge car show in July in Iola, Wisconsin. Many a fine moment looking at, and enjoying very mundane metal at the “Park and Show” with-in their confines.
I still, somewhat get very frightened when I see a 1980’s Chevy Citation or the same vintage of Ford Fairmont with “Collector’s” plates on them. I really hate seeing cars that, “I could have bought new”; registered as collectibles. I prefer to think that it’s an evolution of the hobby, as opposed to my advancing age.
Love the color of that 55 Ford (hate the skirts and continental kit tho). They also offered a pastel green and a pastel blue, both similar to the turquoise. Where are they today?
Now about that Loewy Starlight. People loved ’em back in the day mainly for their lowness (not loewyness, hehe). It is far from a perfect design. That high cowl was a Virgil Exner idea. Adds nothing to the overall shape and makes the dashboard needlessly high. Notice, too, how far back the rear wheels are. It’s what happens when you try to do a coupe on a sedan chassis. And the door cove – would have been so much better if it extended back into the quarter panel (think 65 Mustang.) But the Brooks Stevens re-do of the Starlight into the GT Hawk was brilliant!
Thanks for the Taurus pic, David. Gives us youngin’s something to reflect on.
KalapanaBlack : Also, I like the color theme. That was once a popular color, but you can’t get that on anything anymore. The Taurus that mismatched bumper came from (’92-96) was one of the last cars a color like that came on.
And it coulda been ordered with a spinach green interior to go with the Grasshopper paint. Ford certainly had brass balls to produce those colors in the 1990s.
Maybe this is why we get Snickers tan, suicide gray and dungeon black today.
The ’53 Starliner and Starlight were primarily designed by Bob Bourke. They are credited to Loewy because at the time, Loewy was a consultant for Studebaker, and Bourke was one of his employees. It’s not really stealing credit any more than crediting GM designs to Harley Earl, who never drew anything after the establishment of Art & Colour.
The Hawk was also Bourke’s design, although that first photo looks more like an early-sixties GT Hawk. The late-model Hawks were redesigned by Brooks Stevens on a change-in-the-sofa budget.
Actually, wasn’t it a Bob Bourke design while he was employed by the Loewy Studio? In my opinion, Loewy stole much of the accreditation in any styling creation.
That’s why I said it came out of his studio. I was too lazy to look up the actual designer.
As I understand it, taking credit for your employees work is not that uncommon in the design (or advertising) business. Look at how many designers claim to be the “author” of the Lambo Miura. Marcello Gandini says it’s all his own work. Giorgetto Giugiaro, Gandini’s immediate predecessor as styling chief at Bertone Design, claims it’s based on some preliminary sketches he did for Bizzarrini while at the styling house. Nuccio Bertone, though, claims all the work was done at his direction. Gandini says that Bertone was entitled to say so, after all it was his company, but that it wasn’t the truth.
Did you know that the Loewy studio did the logos for Shell Oil, the US Postal Service eagle logo, and the livery of Air Force One? As either designer or businessman, Loewy had a hand in some of the most iconic designs and images of the 20th century.
Just blame Exner. Everyone else does. :)
The problem with those colours is that they’re enamels which chip like a bastard. Unless it’s a showcar these wouldn’t last in this environment with the thin layers they use today. Gimme clearcoat any day.
I had a chance once to sit in a ’53 Stude coupe. What I found was that you have to sit with your knees wide apart to make room for the steering wheel. The wheel is way too low. I realize ergonomics wasn’t part of the design process back then, but being able to get one’s lap under the steering wheel is pretty basic.
+1 on a better selection of colors for modern cars. I understand black and white will always be the biggest sellers, followed by red, silver, and blue. Trouble is, those ‘good’ old colors don’t sell worth a damn. There were recent Thunderbirds from a few years back that had a nice, old light green shade called ‘Mint’ that dealers had a hard time unloading.
And what’s with all the shades of grey that have a real bad habit of blending in with asphalt? Man, if there’s one dangerous color for a car, especially one that sits low to the ground, that’s it (unless someone is specifically looking for a camoflage, stealth color).