Tuesday, December 03, 2019
CYBRTRK's origin
As I peruse old car mags while eating, I've been halfway watching for previous examples of Elon's idiot CYBRTRK. Nobody could have done something so stupid, even as a concept car.
But there is a predecessor. It wasn't a car or even an actual concept car. It was a concept of a concept car.
The '49 Ford had this emblem on the decorative chrome strip above the doorhandles. The strip was unnecessary and the emblem was even more unnecessary. It added another rattle to an already rattly car. It's not clear what the designers were trying to do. If they were stirring up anticipation for Ford's next product, it couldn't have worked. Nobody wanted to ride in this grotesque thing.
Ford made a few concept cars in the mid-50s, but none remotely resembled this thing. Why would anyone want a car with a gable roof? Houses have gable roofs.
In fact the CYBRTRK drawing was actually LESS modern and LESS trend-setting than the Ford itself. Most writers agree that the '49 was the main influence for the straight-through design of the next two decades. A few cars got there slightly earlier; Packard and Hudson and Kaiser had the flow in '48. But Ford did it right, with fenders above the hood and trunk, and taillights at the same height as the headlights. Ford's actual next product in '52 was even cleaner and sharper. Chrysler followed the trend in '53, then GM in '54.
I was thinking about citing earlier examples, but one of the excellent writers at CurbsideClassic did the whole job just now, starting in the '20s.
[The '50 Rambler seemed to follow the '49 Ford directly, almost a copy... but in fact the Ford was copied from Nash. George Walker had designed the Rambler, then moved to Ford and brought the idea with him. Ford was able to tool up and switch faster. Unethical but not illegal.]
Later: Another predecessor came from Ford. The 1966 'Magic Cruiser' concept car had a similar shape and a similar flip-up rear.
The '49 Ford had this emblem on the decorative chrome strip above the doorhandles. The strip was unnecessary and the emblem was even more unnecessary. It added another rattle to an already rattly car. It's not clear what the designers were trying to do. If they were stirring up anticipation for Ford's next product, it couldn't have worked. Nobody wanted to ride in this grotesque thing.
Ford made a few concept cars in the mid-50s, but none remotely resembled this thing. Why would anyone want a car with a gable roof? Houses have gable roofs.
In fact the CYBRTRK drawing was actually LESS modern and LESS trend-setting than the Ford itself. Most writers agree that the '49 was the main influence for the straight-through design of the next two decades. A few cars got there slightly earlier; Packard and Hudson and Kaiser had the flow in '48. But Ford did it right, with fenders above the hood and trunk, and taillights at the same height as the headlights. Ford's actual next product in '52 was even cleaner and sharper. Chrysler followed the trend in '53, then GM in '54.
I was thinking about citing earlier examples, but one of the excellent writers at CurbsideClassic did the whole job just now, starting in the '20s.
[The '50 Rambler seemed to follow the '49 Ford directly, almost a copy... but in fact the Ford was copied from Nash. George Walker had designed the Rambler, then moved to Ford and brought the idea with him. Ford was able to tool up and switch faster. Unethical but not illegal.]
Later: Another predecessor came from Ford. The 1966 'Magic Cruiser' concept car had a similar shape and a similar flip-up rear.Labels: $TSLAQ
¶ 5:29 AM
