Richard Howard Stout's Fascinating Article on 1950 GM B and C Bodies

A magazine I truly loved, especially when Michael Lamm edited it, was Special-Interest Autos, published by the Hemmings organization.Here on the Hemmings web site is a complete index of SIA articles, some of which have links, and other do not.

Those that are linked are where the Hemmings Daily posts SIA Flashbacks.  This is a fine feature since SIA is long gone, yet its content is often pure gold for automobile history buffs.  One article yet to appear on the Internet is from SIA #39 titled "Body Politics" by Richard Howard Stout.  The title seems a bit misleading because it goes into great detail regarding how General Motors B and C body elements in the early 1950s could be arranged and rearranged to yield designs with different impacts.  I found this fascinating, and I think it should be of great interest to readers of this blog.  Especially helpful are the fine illustrations by Harry Bradley.

By the mid-1950s Stout was working at Ford Motor Company and created presentation material largely like that in the article.  It opened management eyes to ways of making better use of body resources.  A byproduct of this revelation (that's what it was) was aiding people who were pushing a concept that resulted in the Edsel brand.

A big problem for me is that, even though the article appeared more than 40 years ago, it is surely still under copyright.  Yet due to its importance (as I see it) I'll risk presenting scans of it below in the hope that Hemmings will see fit to post their own, better scans on their site in the near future.

Be aware that if Hemmings asks me to delete this post, I will do so.

The images below can be enlarged, but the scan quality is such that the text can be hard to read in places.

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Concept to Production: Oldsmobile to Dodge ?!?

The 1992 Oldsmobile Anthem was a concept car that is little known today and was not very noteworthy in its time.  Supporting this contention, there are few Internet links dealing with it.

I came across an image of it while researching another Oldsmobile concept car and was struck by how closely its design theme reminded me of early 1990s Chrysler Corporation LH automobiles, especially the Dodge Intrepid that first appeared as a 1993 model.

Many concept cars are thinly disguised versions of soon-to-appear production models.  But the Anthem seems like a case where one company's concept car previewed another company's production job.

I don't think that's what happened intentionally.  But still ...

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1992 Oldsmobile Anthem side view.

1993 Dodge Intrepid side view.  The cars seem most similar when seen from the side.  The greenhouse fenestration is strikingly similar, minor details aside.  Even the front and rear designs are fairly close, though the Intrepid has more overhang.  Note the relationships of the backlights (rear windows) to the rear wheel openings.  Especially note how the rooftop interacts with the C-pillar on both cars.

Anthem front.

Intrepid front.  Concept car grilles often differ from production versions, so we see that here.  But the headlight housings are similar in spirit.

Rear view of the Anthem.

Rear 3/4 view of an Intrepid.  Again, differences can be expected here.  The quality of the Anthem image is poor in the area of the backlight, but the trunk/backlight design is not far from the Intrepid's.

Concept to Production: Alpha Alero to Oldsmobile Alero

Some concept cars are pure fantasies intended to keep styling staff juices flowing.  Back in the 1950s, they were appropriately called "dream cars."  In recent decades, many concept cars displayed on the auto show circuit are thinly disguised versions of cars due to be marketed in another year or two.  One reason for their existence is to condition the buying public to new design features.  Another might be to get the buying public's negative reactions to details that might be easily modified in the months before introduction of the production car.

Currently, both concept cars and production cars usually are, in my opinion, overly-decorated in terms of both body sculpting and angular, sometimes spikey shapes for grilles, headlight and tail light assemblies, and even window profiles.  With all that happening, sometimes it can be difficult to evaluate differences between the styling of a concept car and the production car it is intended to "predict."

Back in the late 1990s, General Motors' styling emphasized shape rather than ornamentation.  Because of this comparative (to present times) simplicity, I though it might be interesting to examine the Oldsmobile Alero, introduced for 1998 and how it differed from the 1997 Alero Alpha concept car that previewed it.

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A 1998 Oldsmobile Alero coupe.

Side view of the Alpha.  Although it differs from the Alero in every detail -- especially note the front overhang -- the two designs are clearly related in spirit.  Examples include the side window shapes, the trunk area's relationship to the curve of the top, the side parts of the tail lights, and the sense of the fender line (despite the Alpha's stubbier nose).

Alero front end treatment.

Here the Alpha is much closer to the production Alero.  Details of the hood cut, the headlight assembly outline, the shapes of the three openings below the bumper strike panel, the strike panel itself -- all differ, but not greatly.

This frontal theme was already in place for Oldsmobile in the form of its Aurora sedan introduced in the spring of 1994.

In turn, the Aurora's front design evolved from a 1989 concept  called the Tube Car.

Rear 3/4 view of a 2000 Alero.

The Alpha's rear design is close to that of the production car above the bumper -- note the shapes of the tail lights and license plate zone.  Sub-bumper styling differs considerably.  For what it's worth the Alpha's gas cap is on the left side, whereas the Alero's is one the right.

What Were They Thinking?: 1968 Olds Toronado Facelift

I wrote about the iconic 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado here and redesigned Toronados here.  This post deals with a facelifted version of the original design.  As I mentioned in the first link, the design was slightly compromised in 1967 thanks to a minimally revised grille.  It got worse for the 1968 model year, the focus of this post.  (For some background on Toronados, go to the Wikipedia entry.)

I titled this post "What Were They Thinking?" for two reasons.  First, there was a pretty obvious rationale for the revised grille that I'll suggest below.  Secondly, that and other changes completed the destruction of the purity of the 1966 design, and "What Were They Thinking?" expresses my horror.

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An advertisement for a 1968 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight (the top of the sedan line).  The '68 model year was when Oldsmobile introduced two-segment split grilles, a feature that continued for years thereafter (see my book "How Cars Faced the Market" for more about split grilles).

My conjecture is that Olds management wanted Toronados to conform to this new theme.  The resulting Pontiac-like grille and hood design is shown in this ad.

The rest of the car also received some unfortunate restyling.  This Mecum Auctions photo shows a Toronado Holiday Coupe.  The vinyl covering on the roof is a phony feature in the first place.  Worse, it extends down over the C-pillar zone destroying the original blending of the greenhouse and lower side in the area of the rear wheel opening.  The striping near the fender line of the car shown here further degrades the original concept.

Here is a publicity photo of a 1966 Toronado for comparison.

Powerful Styling: 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado

The mid-to-late 1960s brought forth many competently styled American cars, but few memorably outstanding designs, in my opinion.  However, one sensational design comes to mind: that of the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado.

Toronados shared General Motors' E-Platform with the 1966 Buick Riviera and the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado.  This sharing was invisible to the general public because the brands carried mostly unique sheet metal treatments, this making the cars appear distinctly different.

Toronados also were distinctive mechanically in that they featured front-wheel drive, the first U.S. application since the demise of the Cord brand in 1937.

As for the styling, a participant's account of its development is here (be sure to read it).

In the title for this post, I use the word powerful to describe the Toronado's styling.  That's an exaggeration because the general shape of the body -- especially of the greenhouse -- is rather refined, bordering on delicate.  That is offset by the large, bold wheelhouse rims connected by a wide, essentially flat panel.  So the lower part of the car stresses power, the upper part grace.  This is in contrast to American late-60s styling that tended to opt for grace.

All Cord automobiles including the 1936-37 810 and 812 models featured front-wheel drive.  The 810/812 Cords also featured horizontal grill bars.  The Toronado included both, so car buff magazine writers and others were quick to make a Cord connection.  The 1967 Toronado facelift added vertical grille bars to create a grid pattern, thus destroying the possible Cord styling echo.

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A GM publicity image of the front.  Toronados had hidden headlights, yet another feature found on late Cords.  Seen from this low angle, the front ensemble is strong.  It also shows the tumblehome above the low side panel and how this interacts with the more vertically-sided wheelhouse flanges.

Looking down on a Toronado auctioned by Mecum.  The design weakens a bit from this perspective.

MJC Classics auction photo presenting the play of light on various parts of the body.

GM side photo, perhaps of a matte-finish mockup.  Here the panel forms are clear, lacking the overlay of reflections seen in the previous photo.

Rear three-quarter publicity view.  This shows how the tumblehome effect blends with the C-pillar and rear quarter panel.  And, especially, how the wheel surrounds contrast with this.  Powerful styling here.

This is a 1936 Cord 810 for you to ponder any Toronado connections.

A High Point in Platform-Based Brand Styling Variation

It costs huge amounts of money to develop a new automobile design.  For decades, manufacturers with more than one brand have been spreading those costs by using basic parts of the new body for various models of designated brands.

At one extreme, there is what is derisively called "badge engineering" where brands are differentiated by a small number of details such as brand badges.  The opposite extreme is the use of large amounts of differing sheet metal to give the basic body distinctly different appearances for each brand used.  A classic, successful instance of the latter was 1966-67 bodies on General Motors' E Platform.

The brands and models involved were the 1966 Buick Riviera, the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado and the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado.  All were large, sporty coupes.  And they were made to look so different that casual observers were unlikely to realize that they shared a common platform.  Half a century ago, GM was rich enough to be able to do such things.

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From top to bottom are the Riviera, Toronado and Eldorado.  Similarities include the door cut lines, windshields, the tops as far back as the aft door cuts, and (to a large degree) the front and rear overhang.  Everything else seems different.

From the rear, there are no obviously shared parts.

GM's Similar 1964 Opel KADs and Oldsmobile F-85s

Ridding itself of a money-losing subsidiary, General Motors recently announced that it was selling Opel to the Peugeot firm.  There were times when Opel was profitable, but 50 years ago one Opel line that probably lost money was its KAD A-series trio of higher-priced cars marketed 1964-1968.

KAD refers to Opel models in ascending price: Kapitän, Admiral and Diplomat.  Less than 90,000 were built during their production run, which strikes me as being too few to be profitable, even if prices were high.  But perhaps I'm wrong: Opel management decided to continue the lines with a B series form 1969 to 1977 (though Kapitän production ended sooner).  Over this 8-year span, just under 62,000 KADs were built, continuing the pattern of low numbers on a model-year basis.  Some background on the A-series Admiral (55,876 built) is here.

What interests me about 1964-68 KADs is how similar their styling is to General Motors' new-for-1964 Buick Skylark, Oldsmobile F-85 and Pontiac Tempest models.  I'll focus on the Oldsmobile in this post (background information here).

I have no information at hand regarding who styled those Opels.  In those days GM sent some of its design personnel to Opel, including the man who would be in charge of Opel's styling group.  So one could argue that was how Detroit design concepts also appeared in Germany.  But there are details on 1964 Oldsmobile F-85s and KADs that are so similar that I wonder if parts or tooling or some of each crossed the Atlantic.  Knowledgeable reader comments are most welcome regarding this.

It also needs to be mentioned that these cars were fairly similar in size.  KAD cars had a wheelbase of 112 inches (2845 mm) and were 194.8 inches (4948 mm) long.  Oldsmobile F-85s had a 115 inch (2900 mm) wheelbase and their length was 203 inches (5200 mm).

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A 1965 Diplomat four-door sedan.

For-sale photo of a 1964 Oldsmobile F-85 442.  Hoods and fender tops are similar, as are the grille outlines.

Side view of an Opel Admiral.

Side for-sale view of an Oldsmobile F-85 Deluxe.  The passenger compartment "greenhouses" are strikingly similar over their tops: note the windshields and the curve aft of the C-pillars.  B-pillars are very slightly different, as are door cut-lines.  Wheel openings are nearly identical aside from the aft slopes.

Opel Kapitän rear 3/4 view.

Same Olds F-85 rear 3/4.  Note the similarity of the backlights (back windows).  Also the similar character lines following the side windows that fade away after turning to the horizontal.  The Olds has greater rear overhang, and the Opel's side character crease is higher that the F-85s.

American Business Coupes

Wikipedia deals at some length here with the coupé (in America: coupe) body type.  A few lines of the link deal with the business coupe: "A coupé with no rear seat or a removable rear seat intended for traveling salespeople and other vendors who would be carrying their wares with them."

The American business coupe was part of the product mix for many brands from the late 1920s into the early 1950s.  Most were advertised as business coupes, but some coupes had more general names, yet could be used for business purposes.

The logic of using a coupe for traveling salesmen, consulting engineers and many other business activities requiring road travel was that coupes were: (1) usually inexpensive to buy; (2) had a usefully minimal seating capacity; and (3) had small cabins but also the long wheelbases of large-cabin cars so that there was room for a larger than normal trunk for carrying stuff.

Below are examples of this long-departed type of automobile body in chronological order.

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1929 Buick Master-Six Business Coupe
An early example.  The trunk is fairly small, so this body might also have had a rumble seat version.

1934 Hupmobile Aerodynamic Coupe
This is probably a rumble seat coupe.  I show it because of its very small cabin that seats two (or perhaps three in a pinch) and its long trunk area.  The rear-mounted spare tire would have made this an inconvenient business coupe because it would have interfered with loading.  A business coupe version would have been possible if the spare tire was repositioned.

1936 Oldsmobile Eight Business Coupe

1936 Buick Special Business Coupe
Two General Motors business coupes from mid-range marques.  I suppose these were offered for salesmen or business representatives requiring a more substantial image than that offered by entry-level brands.  The cars shown here used the same basic body.

1936 Packard One-Twenty Business Coupe
Another example of a mid-range business coupe.  Surprising, given that it was from the maker of luxury cars, but Packard had to enter a lesser market range in order to survive the Great Depression.

1937 Graham Cavalier Series 95 Business Coupe
A business coupe from a minor brand.  Note the illustration showing how the spare tire was stored, providing more convenient trunk space.

1939 Plymouth Business Coupe
A business coupe from Chrysler Corporation.  Like the Graham, it is a four-window coupe, something becoming common for business coupes by the late 1930s.

1939 Chevrolet Master Deluxe Business Coupe
This publicity photo shows a business coupe being loaded.

1939 Graham Combination Coupe
The text (click on the image to enlarge) mentions that a business version of this coupe was available.

1940 Chevrolet Master 85 Business Coupe
I include this brochure page image because it shows storage variations.

1941 Dodge Luxury Liner Deluxe Business Coupe
A nice example of a small cabin on a long-wheelbase car with the resulting large trunk.

1941 Oldsmobile Special Business Coupe
Yet another view of business coupe storage.

1949 Dodge Wayfarer Business Coupe
Business coupe production continued post- World War 2.  This one has Chrysler Corporation's redesigned postwar body style.

1951 Studebaker Champion Business Coupe - Mecum Auctions photo
Perhaps the flashiest business coupe of the lot, though that 1939 Graham comes close.  These small-cabin Studebakers have always fascinated me.

1950 Chevrolet Styline Business Coupe
Even General Motors continued business coupes into the early 1950s.

UPDATE: Further research shows that Chrysler Corporation's Plymouth brand offered business coupes as late as 1957.