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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Apr 3, 2012 23:05:47 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Kooky Kar #2- Firebird Trans-am Monster car[/glow] Ugly and tacky in the same car, well, I guess someone liked it Attachments:
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Apr 13, 2012 14:34:17 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]THE CAR THEY BUILT IN REVERSE[/glow]- THE CHRYSLER/DESOTO AIRFLOW (1934-37) If you've seen Mythbusters lately, you might have caught a story about the myth that the Porsche 928 was more aerodynamic in reverse; it wasn't of course, but, as it turns out, this myth has a grain of truth, in that it's true origins came from an actual event: 1933 Chrysler; a brick on wheelsIn the late 20s, an engineer at Chrysler took a close look at the (2 box) cars of the day, and imagined that they were more aerodynamic going in reverse, so, just to prove a point, the company built such a car (And sent it on a publicity trip) and, it turned out that the engineer was RIGHT, the car was more efficient in reverse! Below, reverse Chrysler:This led the company to invest in windtunnel testing and soon, a series of prototypes were built: All of this testing eventually led to the most advanced car of it's time, the Chrysler Airflow; a totally new design in both looks and safety, it was a great car, but, sadly, it would go all wrong. cont....
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Apr 14, 2012 20:36:39 GMT -5
THE CHRYSLER AIRFLOW (1934-37) PART 2- [glow=red,2,300]The car of Progress[/glow] Once the engineering and design were finalised, the car needed to be promoted; and the 1933 Chicago World's Fair (A Century of Progress) seemed like a perfect fit: A car of the future at the fair of progress; with that, the car's unveiling would come during the fair; and all looked rosy. The car's debut at the fair was a sensation; it was totally modern (Art-deco) looking, was faster, handled better and was much stronger than any other car of the age and, unlike the new Art-Deco cars from GM; which were all flash and little of anything new UNDER the skin. Admittedly, the fact that the Chrysler was designed specifically for improved aerodynamics (Or streamlining, as it was called at the time), meant that the styling might not please everyone, however, enough people were impressed that Chrysler took so many "pre-orders" (Orders to buy the car, before any were actually produced) that they might not be able to fill them for several months...and this may have sowed the seeds of it's failure (But, I'll come back to that later). GM Art deco LaSalle, beautiful outside, but, "old hat" under the skin:The early ads stressed the car as the car of the future, in keeping with the Century of progress theme:The car was built with a steel tube space frame (Something like those in a Volvo) which gave it amazing strenght; something the company was promoting heavily, going so far as to set up a "test track" on the fairgrounds where they would show the airflow outrunning several "old style" cars , and for a finale, they would purposely roll the car in a horrific crash, only to show that both the car and the driver were ready to go again! Film of the track at the World's Fair and Airflow rollover:www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nug-8jCi8O0&feature=player_embedded#! Super strong space frame:World's fair medallion commemorating 10 years or Chrysler (past & present):Part 3 [glow=red,2,300]Styling[/glow] It has often been claimed that the styling was what killed the car, but, while it may have played some part, the styling was more of a scapegoat; what killed the Airflow was, as with most cars, it's reputation. The Airflow was very much in tune with it's time, featuring a waterfall grill motif (stylised Waterfalls were very much an art-deco motif, seen on everything from cars (Pontiac Silver Streaks) to bedroom furniture), clean flowing lines (Professor Porsche's VW would show more than a little Airflow influence) good details, such as the lovely swooping hood mascot, wings on the rear fender skirts and seats surrounded by chrome (Much in fashion as industrial decoration at the time). While it might be called ugly by the more conservative car buyer, the car was surely attractive to the man who was "up to date". Original Chrysler "winged helmet" mascot:Swoopy new Chrysler Airflow "winged" mascot, Art-Deco style:Airflow and Zephyr passenger train diesel locomotive at '33 World's Fair:Other similar contemporary Art-Deco designs:Stout Scarab A-D motorcycleA-D tricycleA-D riding lawn mower! o.0 Airflow fastback and VW Beetle... kissin' cousins?To recap, the Airflow might not have been everyone's cup of tea, but, it certainly wasn't "ugly" in the 30s, and looks totally classic now! cont.... (Next time, what REALLY killed the Airflow)
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Apr 17, 2012 16:39:22 GMT -5
1933-37 Airflow, part 4[glow=red,2,300]What REALLY killed the Airflow[/glow] As I said earlier, when a well-established car maker has a real lemon, it's usually a case of a bad reputation; and in the case of the Airflow, the seeds of it's downfall were likely sown at it's debut at the 1933 World's fair; when the company took many more pre-orders than they could build for some time coming...the Airflow was a victim of it's own (early) success. As a rule, it takes 3 years for a new automobile to be designed, tested and built, however, the company rushed the program some, so that they could have drivable prototypes for the fair, meaning they had only a year to develop the car; and this was the first nail in the coffin. Even then, given more time, the bugs could have easily been worked out; however, that left the company with the problem of pre-orders that were piling up; would all these customers want to wait another year or two for their new cars? (Don't forget that 1933 was right in the middle of the worst economic depression the World has ever known; and car makers were practically begging for customers! As it was , car companies were already falling dead by the dozens, like flies in a can of Raid.) So; with that in mind, the company decided to bring the car out in late 1933 as a 1934 model (The fact that Chrysler spies had likely pointed out that all the new GM cars would ALSO be art-deco styled, may have also influenced the decision to speed up the car's introduction, into the showroom) Even then, things could have worked out, it's not unknown for cars to be created as "crash programs" << Sped up development<<, to be huge successes (The Ford Mustang, being a pretty good example); however, the 3rd and likely largest nail in the coffin was the car itself: The problem here was that the Airflow WAS something completely new, with it's tubular space frame, attached to it's ladder frame chassis, it was basically a primitive form of the "unibody" chassis that is prevalent today; add to that a car that was re-engineered top to bottom and you had a quality problem; not that the engineering was bad, but, that the workers hadn't been given enough training to build the car (After all, this car was nothing like what they had built previously), as everything was so rushed, to get it into production! This meant that the cars were going out with squeaks and rattles, mainly caused by the space frame, which often broke at the welds; other related problems were water leaks or doors that wouldn't close properly; of course, all these problems were easy to fix, but, the car's reputation was seriously taking a nose-dive. Below:First year (1934) Chrysler Airflow Custom 8 sedan, that I found in the used car lot of a Chrysler dealer in 1987; it had been off the road for 20 years at the time (The plates were dated 1967); It looks ok in the pics (despite the 20 years of dust settled on it); but was even more impressive in person (It was complete and apparently running)! The fourth nail in the coffin was a nasty campaign by GM claiming that Chrysler's steel body frames were weak ; Annoyingly, GM was still building car bodies the old fashioned way, sheet steel stretched over a wooden frame; which was of course, a lot weaker; in a serious collision; these wood-framed bodies litterally flew to pieces! Below: Wood body frames would often have catastrophic failures in serious collisions To be fair, here's a 1934 Airflow (The same model as above) that was in a similar head-on collision; any questions?: Unfortunately, all the "Bugs" in the Airflow made GM's "Attack ads" that much more effective; and soon, people began to cancel their orders for the new car! by 1935, all the bugs were fixed, but, it was already too late, the car had been struck a fatal blow to it's reputation; and sales plummetted. In 1937; the car was given a more conventional nose & tail, to try and boost sales; but now, only DeSoto* was still building the Airflow; Chrysler bowed out after 1936: The 1937 DeSoto* version of the car was more conventional than the Chrysler version had been, but, this would be the last year of the first truly modern car. The Chrysler company would limp on, but, after nearly having been destroyed by the World's most advanced autos, Chrysler cars would now change direction and become the most conservative cars on the road! Below: 1937 DeSoto Airflow End *DeSoto was a Chrysler division, until 1961
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Apr 17, 2012 17:06:57 GMT -5
Another lovely Art-Deco fastback car; this one a Studebaker Land-Cruiser (Yes, before Rover revived the name on a Jeep clone)
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Apr 20, 2012 19:34:55 GMT -5
THE CLASSIC '55 CHEV! With this car, Chevrolet went from a dowdy, slow, 6 cylinder car for Grampa, to a V8 powered whirlwind that suddenly made Chevy into a smart looking and fast "factory hot rod"; but, the '55 Chev's most famous contribution, was it's iconic, finny, 1957 facelift; arguably the most beloved Chevy of all time. Attachments:
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Apr 20, 2012 19:42:53 GMT -5
By the way, just a little note to say that anyone can make a post on this thread and feature ANY car or small truck of ANY year; post your OWN car if you like; I happen to love writing about the classics, but, you can post any car (or cars), or car art; painted or made on the computer etc. that you like! Below: Derelict Model A Ford ; photo by ME Attachments:
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Apr 23, 2012 21:30:52 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Kooky Kar #3[/glow] 1952 Chrysler D'elegance Did you know that the VW Karmann-Ghia sports car was actually designed as a Chrysler? Well, it's true: Virgil Exner, the new head designer at Chrysler, needed to do something to bring people back into the company's showrooms; unfortunately, since the Airflow debacle, the cars from Chrysler, Dodge , DeSoto and Plymouth had religiously avoided any kind of flashiness or forward looking styling or engineering; and frankly, by the early 50s, their cars looked/drove old fashioned and boring; looking more like 42s than like 52s! As it was, since it takes about 3 years to design a production car, Exner really couldn't do much about it until 1955; he could however design a few "Show cars" to drum up interest in the cars from Auburn Hills, Michigan; so, since he needed them quickly, he decided to farm them out to the Ghia studios in in Turin, Italy. During the early to mid 50s, Exner would design and Ghia would build several show cars for Chrysler, of these, arguably the nicest was the 1952 Chrysler D'elegance; unfortunately, Chrysler decided the car was just too "European" and decided not to make a production car out of it. Ghia, believing the car had potential with another car company bought the rights to the design, and when Volkswagen came to them, looking for a sportscar design, Ghia happily adapted the D'elegance styling (much reduced in size) to the VW Beetle chassis and created a German icon....with the heart of a Bug and the body of a Chrysler! Judge for yourself:
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Post by naoko1960 on Apr 25, 2012 8:31:58 GMT -5
The Reactor is more my speed. Later called the Jupitor 8 This car was Eartha Kitts Cat woman Car on Batman Its been seen on Star Trek, Bewitched and other shows. Based on on Front Wheel drive Citroen D...Doesnt Show its French underware in any way ! Attachments:
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Apr 25, 2012 22:23:19 GMT -5
The Reactor is more my speed. Later called the Jupitor 8 This car was Eartha Kitts Cat woman Car on Batman Its been seen on Star Trek, Bewitched and other shows. Based on on Front Wheel drive Citroen D...Doesnt Show its French underware in any way ! Can't remember seeing the car on any of those shows, but, I will take your word for it; actually, the roof and that aluminum plate on the sail panel look like stock Citroen items... well, half of the roof, anyway OK, it was in disguise but, deffinately the same car: Attachments:
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Post by naoko1960 on Apr 26, 2012 10:48:26 GMT -5
The Reactor is more my speed. Later called the Jupitor 8 This car was Eartha Kitts Cat woman Car on Batman Its been seen on Star Trek, Bewitched and other shows. Based on on Front Wheel drive Citroen D...Doesnt Show its French underware in any way ! Can't remember seeing the car on any of those shows, but, I will take your word for it; actually, the roof and that aluminum plate on the sail panel look like stock Citroen items... well, half of the roof, anyway OK, it was in disguise but, deffinately the same car: Here It is on Bewitched....Daron's new ride... It was on the Star Trek episode where kirk and spock visited a planet based on Roman Culture but with Future technology. Attachments:
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Apr 26, 2012 23:11:35 GMT -5
Can't remember seeing the car on any of those shows, but, I will take your word for it; actually, the roof and that aluminum plate on the sail panel look like stock Citroen items... well, half of the roof, anyway OK, it was in disguise but, deffinately the same car: Here It is on Bewitched....Daron's new ride... It was on the Star Trek episode where kirk and spock visited a planet based on Roman Culture but with Future technology. Yup, that's deffinately Liz Montgomery in the passenger's seat
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Post by naoko1960 on Apr 27, 2012 6:51:51 GMT -5
Here It is on Bewitched....Daron's new ride... It was on the Star Trek episode where kirk and spock visited a planet based on Roman Culture but with Future technology. Yup, that's deffinately Liz Montgomery in the passenger's seat The whole episode was written about the car. Attachments:
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Post by naoko1960 on Apr 27, 2012 19:27:33 GMT -5
Yup, that's deffinately Liz Montgomery in the passenger's seat The whole episode was written about the car. Another car I love is the Corvair Based Piranha from the man from UNCLE Attachments:
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Post by naoko1960 on Apr 27, 2012 19:28:31 GMT -5
Here It is on Bewitched....Daron's new ride... It was on the Star Trek episode where kirk and spock visited a planet based on Roman Culture but with Future technology. Yup, that's deffinately Liz Montgomery in the passenger's seat Shatner with the Reactor ! Attachments:
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