Saturday 21 May 2022
Wednesday 4 May 2022
Sunday 10 April 2022
Saturday 26 March 2022
“For driving in town, it’s the best car in the country.”
Successors of popular cars don’t have it easy, especially when they replace an automotive icon. In the late 1960s, Fiat began working on a successor for the famous Fiat 500 Nuova Cinquecento, the car that had mobilized Italy and made Fiat great again in postwar times.
Wednesday 16 March 2022
Monday 7 March 2022
Wednesday 23 February 2022
“Plenty of room, plenty of visibility, and plenty of all-around big-car comfort are built into the luxurious new Fisher Body of this Futuramic 4-Door Sedan. There’s greater smoothness in the ‘no-shift, no-clutch’ action of GM Hydra-Matic Drive, and greater safety in the swift, sure acceleration of that Hydra-Matic feature, Whirlaway!”
Tuesday 15 February 2022
„Like nothing you’ve ever driven before!“
Sunday 6 February 2022
“This year, more than ever, the luxurious styling of the new Plymouth complements its superlative performance. Take Plymouth’s rakish new lines, for instance. At the front end, hooded headlights thrust eagerly forward. Body lines are crisp and clean. And the distinctive rear fins mark this car as the fashion leader of its class.”
Saturday 29 January 2022
Sunday 23 January 2022
Sunday 16 January 2022
Monday 10 January 2022
First of all, a Happy New Year 2022 to all our readers! Thanks for your continuous support and interest.
Tuesday 16 February 2021
“You get a better, longer lasting return on the dollars you invest in a Chevrolet Advance-Design truck. You get quality, powerful performance, handling ease at their best — and at the lowest list price in the entire truck field. See your Chevrolet dealer. He’s got the right truck for you.”
Trucks aren’t the focus of this blog, but we think this Chevrolet COE, model 5703, is quite interesting, not only because of its unconventional look, but also in its historic context.
During the postwar years, all American car makers sold warmed-up prewar designs. The demand for new cars was huge anyway, and developing an all-new design was a vanity rather than a necessity. GM, back then the undisputed trendsetter in car styling, quite surprisingly choose commercial vehicles to herald its all-new postwar design direction: the “Advance-Design” series of trucks entered production already in May 1947, one full year ahead of the new passenger cars. It’s debatable why GM rushed out the trucks first. One theory suggests that truck production never stopped during wartime, and thus, the body dies were probably worn out by 1946. And reproducing new dies of the old design, or creating entirely new sets would be a similar investment.
Strangely enough it’s pretty well-documented who designed the new Cadillac or Chevrolet models, but there’s no mention of the designers of GM commercial vehicles. We guess it simply wasn’t a prestigious job, and these trucks were styled alongside the passenger cars in the GM styling studios, as there was no dedicated commercial design studio either.
Whatever the case, the nameless GM designers applied all modern treats to these new trucks. At the time, their styling and detailing were thoroughly modern. There was a proper onslaught of variations and sizes, too, from pickup truck to lorry, meeting every conceivable demand. Chevrolet’s copywriters counted “109 models on 8 wheelbases” for the 1948 lineup.
Our pictured COE (read: „Cab Over Engine”) was the fruit of creatively dealing with the legislation: as the overall length for trucks was limited, the cab of the standard truck simply was lifted atop the engine to gain a few more inches of cargo space. Reconnecting the front grille to the higher cowl line required a very bulbous bonnet, and voila, ready was one very peculiar looking truck design.
The „Advance-Design“ COE was built virtually unchanged between 1947 and 1955, but little details narrow down the year in which our pictured truck was produced. The two-piece door glass with separate ventilation pane was introduced in 1951, and push-button door handles came in 1952. The “Chevrolet” bonnet emblems disappeared in 1953, and for 1954, the windshield became an one-piece curved glass. Hence, our pictured truck was produced in 1952. And despite its vintage, it’s still going strong in daily service as a particular (read: privately owned) transport. Because the state-owned bus network is notoriously unreliable, trucks like these remain being the indispensable people hauler in Cuba’s rural areas.
Friday 22 January 2021
Thursday 14 January 2021
"Just because Biscayne is our lowest priced, bet you thought it might look a little bit frumpy. Well, look again and ask yourself how we can do it for this kind of money. Or, for that matter, why no one else does it for this kind of money."
In matte blue color, this Chevy Biscayne from Santa Clara might get lost in the shuffle elsewhere, but on the Cuban car market this car holds immense value, just because it is less vintage than any regular cacharro.
When new in 1969, the Chevrolet was good looking, but didn't stand out in any other way. It was plainly a very average car. The shift towards sportiness and flamboyant styling that had characterized GM's budget brand in the 1950s, was long forgotten, and replaced by stuffy characteristics such as reliability, low upkeep and a cushiony ride. Somehow, the roomy, comfortable Chevy was the period equivalent of today's Toyota Camry. Well, in case you’re wondering: we'd still rather take the Chevy...
Wednesday 6 January 2021
Since its inception in 1926, Pontiac was essentially an upscale Chevrolet, positioned to bridge the gap between the budget make and GM’s more prestigious brands on Alfred P. Sloan’s fine-tuned hierarchy ladder that promised “A Car For Every Purse And Purpose”. At that it fared pretty well, especially if you consider that apart from bespoke engines the Pontiac shared most of its components with Chevrolet.
Pontiac customers had an easy choice in 1952: the Chieftain was the only trim line offered after the Streamliner fastback models were dropped in 1951. You only had to select your preferred bodystyle and color, and decide between six- or eight cylinder engine options.
All 1952 Pontiac and Chevrolet models were based on the corporate GM “A-body”. But to justify its lusher appearance and higher price tag, the Pontiac was stretched by 5.6 inches (14,2 cm) and had a 5-inch (12,7 cm) longer wheelbase than its plebeian counterpart. The additional length didn’t offer much benefit at all, though, except for bragging rights: between windshield and rear wheels, Pontiac and Chevrolet were identical, sharing the same cabin and interior space. The extra bulk was merely added to trunk and bonnet.
However, the gleaming opulence of the Pontiac was popular with the customers and looked attractive, as you can still witness on the pictured convertible from Havana. Despite the bonnie looks, this car is a workhorse, used as a sightseeing ride from dawn till dusk, so the tourists can enjoy “authentic” time travel into the 1950s in exchange for much needed hard currency.
Friday 20 November 2020
Thursday 12 November 2020
Everything is tiny on this Ford Anglia from Cienfuegos, and it’s apparently only “a pleasure to ride in” if you are of smaller stature. Once inside, you’d probably be happy that the skinny car can’t surpass a top speed of 57 mph (92 km/h) which is impressive, considering that its tiny 933cc (56.9 cu-in) engine only churns out 23 hp.
The Anglia looked already dated when it was new. The 1949 makeover wore the same body as the previous generation from 1939. Only the front end received a streamlined redesign, but those “BMW-kidneys” arguably didn’t make the car look much better than the original design. Yet, marketing cars requires some “newness” every once in a while, to keep the customers interested. And regardless of its old-school look, the Anglia held one coveted selling point: it was one of the cheapest cars you could buy anywhere on the planet. Hence, 108,878 Ford Anglia found happy takers in the 4-year long production run. Even after introducing the all-new third Generation in 1953, Ford kept on selling the outgoing Anglia as a price-cutter until 1959, now rechristened as Ford Popular.
What looks cartoonish today was a proper motor car in the United Kingdom of 1949. Back then, anything European certainly looked tiny from an American perspective. The huge lifestyle discrepancy on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean becomes evident when you compare the quirky British Ford with the modern design that Ford offered at the same time in the U.S..
Tuesday 3 November 2020
“El Dodge 1500 es como una vuelta en la calesita”
“The Dodge 1500 is like a ride on the merry-go-round”, waxed Argentinian copywriters in 1971. Well, while the car sure wasn’t that exciting, its genesis certainly is: this Argentinian model, despite its American nameplate, actually originates from England, where it was launched as the Hillman Avenger in 1970. Hillman was an established car manufacturer in England, and since 1927 part of the Rootes Group that united various British makes under one big brand umbrella. We covered some of the irrational insanities of the postwar British car industry on previous occasions.