Monday, October 09, 2017
Instant atavism
UD has an item about supposedly atavistic features. It's a dubious idea in animals, but it definitely happens in cars. And I'm not talking about nostalgic or ironic retro designs that attempt to recapture or mock cars of previous generations.
Here's a simultaneous atavism by three different carmakers, returning partly to the old after two or three years of the new.
Between '37 and '41, everyone except Packard got rid of the vertical 'radiator', which hadn't actually been the radiator since '31 or so. It was a quick and broad change, merging both front fenders into a horizontal shelf and placing the grille below the shelf.
And then: Just after completing the vert-to-horiz change, three carmakers restored part of the verticality.
Left is '41, right is '42.
Olds brought back an upper part AND added a strange oval middle part between top and bottom. Robin Jones, who designed this bizarre mess, later moved to Ford and repeated the mess in the Edsel's full frontal presentation aka pussygrille. You'd think someone in Ford management would have noticed his previous work and kept him away from the grille. (Stop me! Don't let me grille again!)
Lincoln, which had pioneered the horizontal form, fell back to an attractive but perhaps overdone V+H combo.
Nash, after emphasizing the horizontal shelf, opened up the 'radiator' again. Not as pretty as the Lincoln to my eyes. Nash improved the proportions after the war, but would have done better to leave the '41 as is.
¶ 2:44 AM 
Left is '41, right is '42.
Olds brought back an upper part AND added a strange oval middle part between top and bottom. Robin Jones, who designed this bizarre mess, later moved to Ford and repeated the mess in the Edsel's full frontal presentation aka pussygrille. You'd think someone in Ford management would have noticed his previous work and kept him away from the grille. (Stop me! Don't let me grille again!)
Lincoln, which had pioneered the horizontal form, fell back to an attractive but perhaps overdone V+H combo.
Nash, after emphasizing the horizontal shelf, opened up the 'radiator' again. Not as pretty as the Lincoln to my eyes. Nash improved the proportions after the war, but would have done better to leave the '41 as is.
¶ 2:44 AM
