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American Car Aesthetics Evolution
OK, this is probably only for the car nuts. And if necessary bypass the morbid context.
Since last Wednesday (November 22) was the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, I have seen many copies of a photograph of President and Mrs. Kennedy in the presidential limousine just before the shooting.
The car nut in me notices the vast aesthetic difference between the 1961 Lincoln in which the President is riding and the 1955 Cadillac immediately following the presidential limousine. Only six years apart, but completely different in style. Angular versus rounded and voluptuous. Minimalist versus massive. Illustrates how rapidly automotive aesthetics changed during the 1950s and 1960s. How rapidly American automotive aesthetics changed during that time.
Today, automotive aesthetics do not change nearly as rapidly. The style of a six-year-old (or even ten-year-old) car isn’t all that different from a current model. My fifteen-year-old BMW is often mistaken for a much newer model.
Perhaps related, the speeds that automobiles were capable of evolved rapidly during the same time. Several months ago, I stumbled onto a series of films on YouTube depicting the Darlington Southern 500 NASCAR stock car race through the 1950s and 1960s (when NASCAR race cars were modified versions of showroom cars, not the specialized race cars of today). Notable was the rapid increase in average speed of the race during those years. Each year, the average speed seemed to increase not by one or two miles per hour, but by ten or more miles per hour.
I know today, the built-in technology in cars changes rapidly (as I can see by comparing the technology in the aforementioned 2007 BMW with my other car, a 2019 Ford, or of either with its 2023 equivalent). Some of my friends were recently amazed at the lack of modern technology interfaces in the aforementioned 2007 BMW. Those changes do affect how I interact with the car, but those changes do not change the basic car functions of how fast I can get to my destination, how often I need to service the car, or what the car looks like.
But I was very much struck by the rapid aesthetic changes in cars during the 1950s visible in that one photograph.
Published in Culture
Cars are now designed by lawyers in Congress (or Sacramento). What is possible is severely limited by what is allowed.
The changes in clothing, music, entertainment, and other fashions appear to have slowed down as well:
In the mid-1960s, fashions were fairly straightforward:
By the mid-1970s, things had changed a bit:
And after that, by the mid-1980s, things had changed again:
1965 to 1985 is a period of 20 years. And the people in those pictures look like they’re from different planets. It’s just amazing how fast fashion changed over only 20 years.
I wonder why so many different fashions, from clothing to cars, don’t seem to be changing nearly as rapidly as they once did?
It may be due to a loss of confidence in the culture. The 60s were a brash era. Even in the 1970s and 1980s we had confidence in American culture. Not so much today. It feels like a lot of folks believe “Why bother changing things?” “Why make the effort?”
Original 1965 Shelby GT350 vs 2020
Interesting point. After your comment, I realized I have encountered photographs of people from 15 or even 20 years ago, and the most striking difference is the quality or resolution of the photograph, not the clothes the people are wearing.
I think that illustrates my point. Many of the styling cues of the 1965 car are retained in the 2020 car (a 55 year gap, and granted that the modern Mustang is expressly designed to retain the aesthetics of the original). But, if you went backwards in time even just ten years to 1955, you would find almost no aesthetic similarity between a high performance American 1955 coupe (there was no Mustang) and the 1965 Mustang.
Plus they are designed for aerodynamic efficiency. And that’s pretty standard.
I don’t know. The one in red seems to be enjoying sitting in the lap of the one in blue.
Eh, maybe they’re just lesbians. They did have those in the 60s.
Heck, the car is an endangered species in the American market. Most people want a pickup, SUV, or crossover these days. If you want a two-door coupe or hatchback, the pickings are mighty slim.
I blame the chicken tax and CAFE standards.
The chicken tax makes trucks more expensive, not less.
Probably age confirmation, but I still prefer the ’55 Caddy to the ’61 Lincoln.
And it also confirms several comments how very similar so many cars seem to be nowadays.
It wasn’t just that Fifties cars had a much rounder, curvier sense of design; it’s that the 1955 Cadillac was a General Motors car built in the chromium twilight of Harley Earl’s long career at GM. Earl believed that an expensive car should have a high, long jutting hood to convey prestige and power.
By contrast, the Lincoln came out of Ford’s more austere studios and benefitted from the lower, longer, flatter designs that were initially kicked off by Chrysler’s Forward Look. Designer Elwood Engel left Ford to take over Chrysler’s design department in the fall of 1961, bringing the flat, slab-sided look to Plymouth, Dodge and Chrysler. The design philosophy of Engel’s squared-off cars was described as “fill the box to the corners”.
Car hoods were traditionally high to accommodate tall six cylinder engines with air cleaners that sat like high hats on top. The Fifties were the golden years of the V-8. It had a lower profile, and engineers redesigned air cleaners to be flat and wide. Now, the hood could be completely flat. The modern look became lean and stretched.
I miss hood ornaments.
Fact check: True.
Yes, and V6 engines didn’t seem to come out until later.
That does not mean it does not have other perturbations of the market. It makes American-made trucks more likely.
Edited to add: And more likely profitable for American companies. One concentrates on what is profitable.
GM had them for trucks, but designed a new V-6 for its 1961 “senior compacts”. This group also had Detroit’s first production four cylinder in nearly 30 years, a small displacement aluminum V-8, and a Pontiac Tempest with its transmission (transaxle) in the rear and a flexible driveshaft. A lot of innovation. The aluminum V-8 was later sold off to Britain’s Rover Group, where it sits under the hood of generations of Land Rovers.
GM gave up on the V-6, briefly. They sold the tooling to Jeep. As the 1973 gas crisis bit into Buick sales, GM had the smart idea of buying the engine back from AMC, which had bought Jeep by then and had its own six.
They finally fixed the firing order to make it run smoother. And the V-6 lived happily ever after.
I’ve got a bucket full. What do you want? Mercedes? Rolls? A 55 Olds jetplane?
Kleptomania builds character.
And what I had in the early 80s…
Those high-back, low-nose Triumphs are nice cars, the only “wedgie” that men eagerly look forward to. Conservative screenwriter Andrew Klavan drove one of those.
In my older years now, I sometimes think about getting a TR-7. With the slant-4.
America makes SUVs and trucks. Cars are made by Japan, Korea, and Germany.
I remember someone saying that once upon a time, cars had character, but today they look like jelly beans. He was referring to the early models of the Ford Taurus. I read that the reason for the rounded exteriors was efficiency, less air resistance, marginally higher mileage at freeway speeds. Whatever. Right now, I wish I had an Oldsmobile 442 from around 1969 or 1970. Maybe this one:
It was the shape of things to come… But I preferred the shape of the way things were