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Dagmars, Fanta-Fins & Highway Hi-Fi
http://www.catalog-of-cool.com/goodlooks.html
Dagmars, Fanta-Fins & Highway Hi-Fi By Bob Merlis Fall 1956. Ike and Dick are about to sock it to Adlai and Estes. You open your morning paper, and there it is!--a ten-point headline screaming: "SUDDENLY IT'S 1960!" No. you haven't tripped into lysergic awareness or the Twilight Zone (neither will be invented for three more years). It's '56 all right, "Love Me Tender" is in the Top Ten, Jack Kennedy's been standing in line to see Bus Stop, and the guys at Chrysler Corp have unilateraily decided we'll all be better off if they flush what's left of the Fifties down the toilet. The future's been expected in autodom since VJ Day, and now it's here, courtesy of the flipped stylist cats and ad copywriters now gigging with Chrysler. Tomorrow's cars today, starting with the righteous 1960, er 1957, Imperial. Ever seen one in full wallow? Check out the wildest towering fins this side of a B-47. Dig those crazy acres of panoramic windshield--like widescreen. And the quad headlamps and "gunsight" taillights, Torqueflite pushbutton-activated three-speed automatic transmission (standard, Jack). Hey, isn't this the first production car with compound curve side glass? You can bet the Teamsters' pension fund it is. The '57 Crown Imp convertible: 4820 pounds of joy. Elvis and Lizabeth Scott cruised in one in Loving You. Let's have a party! The new wave hit in '56, but it had been heading Detroit's way since war's end. Back then, Henry J. Kaiser, fat from his Liberty Ship business, took on Motor City's Big Three with the help of designer "Dutch" Darrin. Darrin, famed for his swoopy Depression-era movie star/gangster Packards, was told to come up with something avant for Henry J. He did; his flattened out '47 Kaisers and Fraisers looked like no prewar buggy anyone'd ever seen. At Studebaker, they tossed history to the wind and turned loose Ray Loewy. Raymond Loewy, the most cosmic industrial designer since the Bronze Age, who'd already blown minds with his boss blue Ritz cracker box, with Lucky Strike's red-and-white bull's-eye packs and Coke's streamlined fountain syrup dispensers. Loewy's late Forties Studeys don't even resemble cars. They look like trains. To be exact, they look like the Pennsylvania Railroad's GG-1 locomotive, which Ray just happened to have dreamed up a couple of years earlier. You've seen it: a bulletshaped engine intended to haul in either direction to avoid switching. "is-it-going-or-is-it-coming" design made Studebaker Commanders and Champions bad joke fodder for years. But no one could deny the cars' look was futuristic. How better to suggest the far-flung shape of shorts to come than with 180-degree wraparound rear windows and, on those '50-51 Commander Starlite coupes, what for all the world resembled a propeller nacelle from a P-38? Loewy had only succeeded in transforming a car inspired by a locomotive into a fighter plane with a few bands of metal and chrome appliques. Voila! And just in time for Korea. Other independent car makers experimented, too--Nash's revolutionary "bathtub" models and those bulbous Packards that came on like bumper cars with the mumps. In the end, the " safe" styles of Chrysler, Ford, and GM carried the day, and the indies were squashed. But those wild train-, boat- and plane-derived models made their mark, and the majors got the message: You could put a rocket ship on the road, even if you had no intention of going to Mars. Move it, Ming, the light just changed! Simply, the coolest land cruisers ever to sit on four Firestones rolled off American assembly lines from '56 to '67. What follows is a guide to the swingin'est wheels, the ones whose presence once insured their country's unquestioned superiority in things cultural. Think about it, citizens. General Motors CADILLAC. First with the fin, and their finest may rest on the '49 Coupe De Ville, Caddy's original "hardtop convertible." "Dagmars," dual chrome- plated grill protuberances with "Dagmars," dual protuberances with a marked resemblance to a statuesque Scandinavian starlet of the day, began to sprout in the early Fifties, and grew into actual rubber-tipped mammaries by '58, The absolute apex of chrome-choked jukebox style was reached the following year with garish mutant models that looked like they'd been zapped in the slippery womb by the same lethal radiation that got Godzilla. And who could forget Paul Newman, bottoming out the mushy suspension of his '58 Cad in Hud? No wonder Patricia Neal went ga-ga for that ratfink. The next (and last) Caddy worth breathing heavy over is the '67 Eldorado. This massive machine was lean and razor-cut. Not surprisingly, it became the proto-pimpmobile for the Superfly generation. BUICK. The future started in '59 for Buick, when they chucked years of fat- cat wagons with names like Special, Century, and Roadmaster. Here came the LeSabre, the Invicta, and Electra, with Eurasian headlights and wide- angled fins aiming up and out. For the Sixties, the medium cooled - chrome grew scarce, shapes got slippery. Buick's hippest move was the Riviera (especially '63-'65): two-door hardtops with bucket seats, sharp looking from every angle. Inspiration apparently struck style chief Bill Mitchell one foggy night in London town--a coach-built Rolls sliced through the mist, Bill flashed, and the Riv was born. Like too many good things, it was downhill from there on out. The only cool late Riv is the boat-tailed '71 "Batmobile" model, which has its points. (Mainly a very large one--at the base of the trunk, a fan-shaped growth appears to swallow a good three-quarters of the chassis.) These fastback beasts still look menacing. Gary Busey hauls Jodie Foster's teenage ass around in one in Carney. OLDSMOBILE. GM's "image car," Olds was the first to feature hydramatic, front-wheel drive, turbochargers. Fifty-six was a great year, thanks to the yawning shark's mouth grill treatment. The car looks like it's slobbering, but the overall effect is very strong. In '66, the original Toronado (the first American front-drive car since the Thirties' Cord) looked more like a fastbacked tank than an Oldsmobile. It moved: 135+ mph was not out of the question. PONTIAC. Until '59, the year they invented "wide track," Pontons we're strictly Little Old Ladiesville. Just what was "wide track"? A surrogate for testicular fortitude: the wheels were spaced a bit farther apart for a more macho stance. Sixty-three's Grand Prix, with chrome-free slab sides, concave rear window, and buckets is the slickest Big Indian that ever was. CHEVROLET. So many have frothed freely over the '55-57's that there's no point in doing it again. Nomads were a weird hybrid (station wagon crossed with sports car), Corvairs have a nice nerd appeal, but if you're talking strictly cool, you're talking about one Chevy and one Chevy only: the '63 Corvette Sting Ray "split window" coupe. Never has a car emulated marine life so closely. The split rear window, a throwback to the early Forties, was dropped within a year, but that peculiar design quirk, coupled with the fastback neopowerboat tail roofline make this 'vette the very hippest. The Cousteau vibe even extends to foldaway headlights hiding out in fenders punctured by gill slits. This plastic-bodied grouper was the fastest in its school, thanks to fuel injection, A dream car you could buy. The Beach Boys pose with one on the cover of Shut Down Volume 2; Jan & Dean try the same on the flip of their Dead Man's Curve/New Girl in School album. Ford Motor Company LINCOLN. The neoclassic heritage spawned by the original tire-in-the-back Continentals of the Forties haunts the marque to this day. The dinner jacket look of the first Connies was revived in '56 and '57 with the Continental Mark II, the first car from a modern major to break the $10,000 tag! Even at that steep tariff, these were built solely for prestige: A thousand clams were lost on each one sold. By '61 the Marks were over and the New Frontier and Great Society ('61-67) swung with the understated four-door sedans and converts simply called Lincoln Continentals. The early four-doors with the rear door hinged at the back (they open "out," like the classics) are the ones to have. Just the car to drive when making a withdrawal from your neighborhood school book depository. Ford must've had some remorse about scrapping the old Mark II's so they reincarnated it in '69 as the Continental Mark Ill. Popeye Doyle and his cronies dismantled one one winter's eve in The French Connection. (Didn't anybody think it a little odd that a frog had his American car shipped to the U.S.? How many of us give our LeCars round-trip tickets when we vacation in Nice?) MERCURY. Lincoln's little brother has always demonstrated a flair for the far-out. In '57 Mercury used its real-life dream car, the Turnpike Cruiser, as a kind of stalking horse for the forthcoming Edsel, offering hardtops and convertibles with a boatload of wild extras--a gold anodized inlay along the indents on the rear fenders, reverse slant power windows, quad headlamps in hooded over-hanging nodules, and "Seat-O-Matic" control, which offered the driver a choice of forty-nine "power" seat positions! And don't forget those dual dummy antennae jutting out from pods atop each side of the windshield. These pods were completely practical, of course--they were extremely helpful in permitting large amounts of water to enter the passenger compartment during the rainy season. The Turnpike Cruiser, like the Edsel, was a bomb, but a beaut. Semi-cool: The original Cougar, Merc's "pony car," started as a Mustang sidekick in '67. Taillights automatically signalled the direction of your intended turn by flashing sequentially. Wow. FORD. Fifty-seven Skyliner retractible hardtops. Are they converts or hardtops? Only their five motors, ten solenoids, thirteen switches, nine circuit breakers, and 610 feet of wire know for sure. Fifty-eight and '59 T-birds: big, square-mouthed, appealing in a violent sort of way. Mustang: like Dobie Gray says, the original is still the greatest--'64's and '65's only. Join the In Crowd. Chrysler Corp. IMPERIAL. Once shorn of their (late Fifties) fanta-fins, Imps were never again cool, but consider Elwood Engle's redo on the '64's. The former Ford man gave them a Lincoln influence by impressing a tire shape onto the trunk lip and lower bumper. The shape was on the square (as in non-round) side. Really, Elwood. CHRYSLER. Innovation struck in '56 with the introduction of "Highway Hi-Fi": your favorite tunes played at 16 2/3 rpm right under the dash. Mambo to go. Fifty-seven's 300-C is one of the greats. Its "Suddenly it's 1960!" fins and yawning egg crate grill make it say "Get the hell out of my way" even when it's parked at the market. Three hundred ninety horses. Maron! the '60 300-F's were pretty scary, too, boys and girls (400 horses @ 5200 rpm). DODGE. Like the Pontiac, an old lady's car that was put on a hormone program in the late Fifties. Just uttering the name of 1957's top of the line can take your breath away--"Dodge Custom Royal Lancer D-500." Cops loved 'em, at least on TV. Broderick Crawford fishtailed all over hell in one every week on Highway Patrol. In '66 Dodge kicked off the "brute car" brawl with the Charger (check McQueen's classic Frisco car chase in Bullitt). In the Seventies there was a Dart hardtop called the Swinger. It wasn't. PLYMOUTH. Hard to imagine that a car whose emblem is the Mayflower introduced a model named for a cartoon character in '69. Beep beep. Sixty-four's Barracuda was a crazy fastback that filled in a missing roofline slope with a giant piece of contoured glass. Fishbowl fun! Rear-seat passengers broiled, courtesy of the solar "greenhouse effect." Studebaker- Packard Perennial also-ran Studebaker (merged with Packard in '56) consistently came up with the most gone attempts at covering those market slots the Big Three ignored. Dig: '53 Loewy Starliner coupe, without question the most beautiful car ever made in the U.S.A. True. Not until the Seventies did any major domestic maker attempt anything as rakish. Loewy's lowboy was facelifted into the hawk line by '56 and flew until '64. Studebaker picked 1963 as the time to give America the family sports car--the Avanti, an eccentric Loewy creation cooked up at the master's Palm Springs retreat. The fastest production car ever built stateside, a kind of four-passenger Corvette with a sharp collection of circles and reverse curves and planes for a body. Shortly after the Avanti's arrival, Studebaker was forced into Canadian exile. You can buy a new Avanti II today (no longer made by Studebaker--they use a GM drive train). Also gone, but never to be forgotten: the Packard Hawk, freakish stepchild of the S-P union--fish-faced chromeless cavity for a grill, with dual Dagmar tusks, towering fiberglass fins, and upholstery on the outside of the door. Too hip, baby. Foreign Bodies Sure, U.S. iron is best, but fairness forces us to admit that some boss sets of wheels traveled by sea before hitting land. Various un-American examples of auto-cool have come and gone, but one sterling example remains, one of the greatest looking pieces of machinery ever designed, regardless of intended purpose. Forget about that classic wind-in-the-face sports car stuff that makes old square-radiator MG's and Jag XK-120's so cher-chez'd. The Jaguar E-types ('61-74) are the only foreign made movers ever to run with the 'vettes and to be storied in song ("Deadman's Curve"). Despite the overt phallic symbolism of its hood, the E would turn on someone who'd been neutered. The Dave Clark Five stood inside an E on the cover of their Try Too Hard album. This is the car to drive down Carnaby Street. England swings ... maybe for the last time. *** Bob Merlis is a regular contributor to Automobile magazine. For more that's cool, check out www.catalog-of-cool.com |
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Great site.... Thanks for sharing!
Kevin www.huffreport.com A Celebration of American Cars, Music, and Retro Culture "Kim Cooper" > wrote in message om... > http://www.catalog-of-cool.com/goodlooks.html > > Dagmars, Fanta-Fins & Highway Hi-Fi > By Bob Merlis > > Fall 1956. Ike and Dick are about to sock it to Adlai and Estes. You > open your morning paper, and there it is!--a ten-point headline > screaming: "SUDDENLY IT'S 1960!" > > No. you haven't tripped into lysergic awareness or the Twilight Zone > (neither will be invented for three more years). It's '56 all right, > "Love Me Tender" is in the Top Ten, Jack Kennedy's been standing in > line to see Bus Stop, and the guys at Chrysler Corp have unilateraily > decided we'll all be better off if they flush what's left of the > Fifties down the toilet. The future's been expected in autodom since > VJ Day, and now it's here, courtesy of the flipped stylist cats and ad > copywriters now gigging with Chrysler. Tomorrow's cars today, starting > with the righteous 1960, er 1957, Imperial. > > Ever seen one in full wallow? Check out the wildest towering fins this > side of a B-47. Dig those crazy acres of panoramic windshield--like > widescreen. And the quad headlamps and "gunsight" taillights, > Torqueflite pushbutton-activated three-speed automatic transmission > (standard, Jack). Hey, isn't this the first production car with > compound curve side glass? You can bet the Teamsters' pension fund it > is. The '57 Crown Imp convertible: 4820 pounds of joy. Elvis and > Lizabeth Scott cruised in one in Loving You. Let's have a party! > > The new wave hit in '56, but it had been heading Detroit's way since > war's end. Back then, Henry J. Kaiser, fat from his Liberty Ship > business, took on Motor City's Big Three with the help of designer > "Dutch" Darrin. Darrin, famed for his swoopy Depression-era movie > star/gangster Packards, was told to come up with something avant for > Henry J. He did; his flattened out '47 Kaisers and Fraisers looked > like no prewar buggy anyone'd ever seen. > > At Studebaker, they tossed history to the wind and turned loose Ray > Loewy. Raymond Loewy, the most cosmic industrial designer since the > Bronze Age, who'd already blown minds with his boss blue Ritz cracker > box, with Lucky Strike's red-and-white bull's-eye packs and Coke's > streamlined fountain syrup dispensers. Loewy's late Forties Studeys > don't even resemble cars. They look like trains. To be exact, they > look like the Pennsylvania Railroad's GG-1 locomotive, which Ray just > happened to have dreamed up a couple of years earlier. You've seen it: > a bulletshaped engine intended to haul in either direction to avoid > switching. > > "is-it-going-or-is-it-coming" design made Studebaker Commanders and > Champions bad joke fodder for years. But no one could deny the cars' > look was futuristic. How better to suggest the far-flung shape of > shorts to come than with 180-degree wraparound rear windows and, on > those '50-51 Commander Starlite coupes, what for all the world > resembled a propeller nacelle from a P-38? Loewy had only succeeded in > transforming a car inspired by a locomotive into a fighter plane with > a few bands of metal and chrome appliques. Voila! And just in time for > Korea. > > Other independent car makers experimented, too--Nash's revolutionary > "bathtub" models and those bulbous Packards that came on like bumper > cars with the mumps. In the end, the " safe" styles of Chrysler, Ford, > and GM carried the day, and the indies were squashed. But those wild > train-, boat- and plane-derived models made their mark, and the majors > got the message: You could put a rocket ship on the road, even if you > had no intention of going to Mars. Move it, Ming, the light just > changed! > > Simply, the coolest land cruisers ever to sit on four Firestones > rolled off American assembly lines from '56 to '67. What follows is a > guide to the swingin'est wheels, the ones whose presence once insured > their country's unquestioned superiority in things cultural. Think > about it, citizens. > > General Motors > > > CADILLAC. First with the fin, and their finest may rest on the '49 > Coupe De Ville, Caddy's original "hardtop convertible." "Dagmars," > dual chrome- plated grill protuberances with "Dagmars," dual > protuberances with a marked resemblance to a statuesque Scandinavian > starlet of the day, began to sprout in the early Fifties, and grew > into actual rubber-tipped mammaries by '58, > > The absolute apex of chrome-choked jukebox style was reached the > following year with garish mutant models that looked like they'd been > zapped in the slippery womb by the same lethal radiation that got > Godzilla. And who could forget Paul Newman, bottoming out the mushy > suspension of his '58 Cad in Hud? No wonder Patricia Neal went ga-ga > for that ratfink. > > The next (and last) Caddy worth breathing heavy over is the '67 > Eldorado. This massive machine was lean and razor-cut. Not > surprisingly, it became the proto-pimpmobile for the Superfly > generation. > > BUICK. The future started in '59 for Buick, when they chucked years of > fat- cat wagons with names like Special, Century, and Roadmaster. Here > came the LeSabre, the Invicta, and Electra, with Eurasian headlights > and wide- angled fins aiming up and out. For the Sixties, the medium > cooled - chrome grew scarce, shapes got slippery. Buick's hippest move > was the Riviera (especially '63-'65): two-door hardtops with bucket > seats, sharp looking from every angle. Inspiration apparently struck > style chief Bill Mitchell one foggy night in London town--a > coach-built Rolls sliced through the mist, Bill flashed, and the Riv > was born. > > Like too many good things, it was downhill from there on out. The only > cool late Riv is the boat-tailed '71 "Batmobile" model, which has its > points. (Mainly a very large one--at the base of the trunk, a > fan-shaped growth appears to swallow a good three-quarters of the > chassis.) These fastback beasts still look menacing. Gary Busey hauls > Jodie Foster's teenage ass around in one in Carney. > > OLDSMOBILE. GM's "image car," Olds was the first to feature > hydramatic, front-wheel drive, turbochargers. Fifty-six was a great > year, thanks to the yawning shark's mouth grill treatment. The car > looks like it's slobbering, but the overall effect is very strong. In > '66, the original Toronado (the first American front-drive car since > the Thirties' Cord) looked more like a fastbacked tank than an > Oldsmobile. It moved: 135+ mph was not out of the question. > > PONTIAC. Until '59, the year they invented "wide track," Pontons we're > strictly Little Old Ladiesville. Just what was "wide track"? A > surrogate for testicular fortitude: the wheels were spaced a bit > farther apart for a more macho stance. Sixty-three's Grand Prix, with > chrome-free slab sides, concave rear window, and buckets is the > slickest Big Indian that ever was. > > CHEVROLET. So many have frothed freely over the '55-57's that there's > no point in doing it again. Nomads were a weird hybrid (station wagon > crossed with sports car), Corvairs have a nice nerd appeal, but if > you're talking strictly cool, you're talking about one Chevy and one > Chevy only: the '63 Corvette Sting Ray "split window" coupe. Never has > a car emulated marine life so closely. The split rear window, a > throwback to the early Forties, was dropped within a year, but that > peculiar design quirk, coupled with the fastback neopowerboat tail > roofline make this 'vette the very hippest. > > The Cousteau vibe even extends to foldaway headlights hiding out in > fenders punctured by gill slits. This plastic-bodied grouper was the > fastest in its school, thanks to fuel injection, A dream car you could > buy. The Beach Boys pose with one on the cover of Shut Down Volume 2; > Jan & Dean try the same on the flip of their Dead Man's Curve/New Girl > in School album. > > Ford Motor Company > > LINCOLN. The neoclassic heritage spawned by the original > tire-in-the-back Continentals of the Forties haunts the marque to this > day. The dinner jacket look of the first Connies was revived in '56 > and '57 with the Continental Mark II, the first car from a modern > major to break the $10,000 tag! Even at that steep tariff, these were > built solely for prestige: A thousand clams were lost on each one > sold. By '61 the Marks were over and the New Frontier and Great > Society ('61-67) swung with the understated four-door sedans and > converts simply called Lincoln Continentals. The early four-doors with > the rear door hinged at the back (they open "out," like the classics) > are the ones to have. Just the car to drive when making a withdrawal > from your neighborhood school book depository. > > Ford must've had some remorse about scrapping the old Mark II's so > they reincarnated it in '69 as the Continental Mark Ill. Popeye Doyle > and his cronies dismantled one one winter's eve in The French > Connection. (Didn't anybody think it a little odd that a frog had his > American car shipped to the U.S.? How many of us give our LeCars > round-trip tickets when we vacation in Nice?) > > MERCURY. Lincoln's little brother has always demonstrated a flair for > the far-out. In '57 Mercury used its real-life dream car, the Turnpike > Cruiser, as a kind of stalking horse for the forthcoming Edsel, > offering hardtops and convertibles with a boatload of wild extras--a > gold anodized inlay along the indents on the rear fenders, reverse > slant power windows, quad headlamps in hooded over-hanging nodules, > and "Seat-O-Matic" control, which offered the driver a choice of > forty-nine "power" seat positions! And don't forget those dual dummy > antennae jutting out from pods atop each side of the windshield. These > pods were completely practical, of course--they were extremely helpful > in permitting large amounts of water to enter the passenger > compartment during the rainy season. The Turnpike Cruiser, like the > Edsel, was a bomb, but a beaut. > > Semi-cool: The original Cougar, Merc's "pony car," started as a > Mustang sidekick in '67. Taillights automatically signalled the > direction of your intended turn by flashing sequentially. Wow. > > FORD. Fifty-seven Skyliner retractible hardtops. Are they converts or > hardtops? Only their five motors, ten solenoids, thirteen switches, > nine circuit breakers, and 610 feet of wire know for sure. Fifty-eight > and '59 T-birds: big, square-mouthed, appealing in a violent sort of > way. Mustang: like Dobie Gray says, the original is still the > greatest--'64's and '65's only. Join the In Crowd. > > Chrysler Corp. > > IMPERIAL. Once shorn of their (late Fifties) fanta-fins, Imps were > never again cool, but consider Elwood Engle's redo on the '64's. The > former Ford man gave them a Lincoln influence by impressing a tire > shape onto the trunk lip and lower bumper. The shape was on the square > (as in non-round) side. Really, Elwood. > > CHRYSLER. Innovation struck in '56 with the introduction of "Highway > Hi-Fi": your favorite tunes played at 16 2/3 rpm right under the dash. > Mambo to go. Fifty-seven's 300-C is one of the greats. Its "Suddenly > it's 1960!" fins and yawning egg crate grill make it say "Get the hell > out of my way" even when it's parked at the market. Three hundred > ninety horses. Maron! the '60 300-F's were pretty scary, too, boys and > girls (400 horses @ 5200 rpm). > > DODGE. Like the Pontiac, an old lady's car that was put on a hormone > program in the late Fifties. Just uttering the name of 1957's top of > the line can take your breath away--"Dodge Custom Royal Lancer D-500." > Cops loved 'em, at least on TV. Broderick Crawford fishtailed all over > hell in one every week on Highway Patrol. In '66 Dodge kicked off the > "brute car" brawl with the Charger (check McQueen's classic Frisco car > chase in Bullitt). In the Seventies there was a Dart hardtop called > the Swinger. It wasn't. > > PLYMOUTH. Hard to imagine that a car whose emblem is the Mayflower > introduced a model named for a cartoon character in '69. Beep beep. > Sixty-four's Barracuda was a crazy fastback that filled in a missing > roofline slope with a giant piece of contoured glass. Fishbowl fun! > Rear-seat passengers broiled, courtesy of the solar "greenhouse > effect." > > Studebaker- Packard > > Perennial also-ran Studebaker (merged with Packard in '56) > consistently came up with the most gone attempts at covering those > market slots the Big Three ignored. Dig: '53 Loewy Starliner coupe, > without question the most beautiful car ever made in the U.S.A. True. > Not until the Seventies did any major domestic maker attempt anything > as rakish. Loewy's lowboy was facelifted into the hawk line by '56 and > flew until '64. > > Studebaker picked 1963 as the time to give America the family sports > car--the Avanti, an eccentric Loewy creation cooked up at the master's > Palm Springs retreat. The fastest production car ever built stateside, > a kind of four-passenger Corvette with a sharp collection of circles > and reverse curves and planes for a body. Shortly after the Avanti's > arrival, Studebaker was forced into Canadian exile. You can buy a new > Avanti II today (no longer made by Studebaker--they use a GM drive > train). > > Also gone, but never to be forgotten: the Packard Hawk, freakish > stepchild of the S-P union--fish-faced chromeless cavity for a grill, > with dual Dagmar tusks, towering fiberglass fins, and upholstery on > the outside of the door. Too hip, baby. > > Foreign Bodies > > Sure, U.S. iron is best, but fairness forces us to admit that some > boss sets of wheels traveled by sea before hitting land. Various > un-American examples of auto-cool have come and gone, but one sterling > example remains, one of the greatest looking pieces of machinery ever > designed, regardless of intended purpose. > > Forget about that classic wind-in-the-face sports car stuff that makes > old square-radiator MG's and Jag XK-120's so cher-chez'd. The Jaguar > E-types ('61-74) are the only foreign made movers ever to run with the > 'vettes and to be storied in song ("Deadman's Curve"). Despite the > overt phallic symbolism of its hood, the E would turn on someone who'd > been neutered. The Dave Clark Five stood inside an E on the cover of > their Try Too Hard album. This is the car to drive down Carnaby > Street. England swings ... maybe for the last time. > *** > Bob Merlis is a regular contributor to Automobile magazine. > > For more that's cool, check out www.catalog-of-cool.com |
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