Rogues Gallery of Busy Grilles and Front Ends

I've been hammering away for a while now about the current fashion for overly decorated designs.  I think an important reason for this fad or fashion is government fuel efficiency regulations that have driven engineers and stylists to wind tunnels in the pursuit of high aerodynamic efficiency.  The result is car bodies with nearly identical basic shapes, and this has led to the use of excessive ornamentation and aerodynamically irrelevant body surface sculpting as means to establish brand and model identification.

Another -- probably lesser -- reason is the normal pendulum swing from one extreme to another that is common where fashion is concerned.

This post presents examples of overly-busy looking grilles and front end ensembles on American cars of the 1950s, an era noted for extravagant styling themes.  Then recent and current examples are shown, illustrating that we now seem to be in a period even more extreme than the '50s.

The 1950s images are of cars for sale.  The others are manufacturers' publicity photos.

Gallery

1950s American Examples

1950 Buick
Classic overstatement that was toned down for the next model year.

1952 Packard 400 Patrician
This is a modernized version of the traditional Packard grille intended to better blend with post- World War 2 styling trends.  The sculpting is rather Rococo, but the overly decorated part is the "teeth" that thankfully disappeared on the 1953 facelift.

1958 Buick
If the decorations on the face of the hood were eliminated, the design would be a lot more coherent.

1959 DeSoto
A three-level grille-bumper ensemble, each level having a separate theme.

1959 Dodge
This design approaches the confusion seen in some of the recent images below.


Current and Recent Examples

2015 Nissan Juke
A small car with intentionally funky styling.

2016 Nassan Maxima
The Nissan badge and its chrome nest serve as brand-wide identification.

2017 Lexus IS
Variously termed as "hourglass," "spindle," and (by me) "back-to-back Lexus Ls, this has been a Lexus theme for several years now.  And, as seen farther below, Toyota seems to be adding it to its mass-market brand.

2017 Renault Mégane sedan
That enduring, yet somewhat inexplicable Moebius-diamond symbol reinforces an already somewhat cluttered design.

2018 Audi A8
Audi pioneered the theme of draping the grille over the front bumper.

2018 Genesis
Count the textures on the face of this Genesis by Hyundai.

2018 Honda Accord
This car has some interesting sculpting, but it gets carried a little too far on the front end.  The sweeping element atop the grille and its details do not relate well to what is below.

2018 Hyundai Sonata
This design is cleaner than most shown here.  But the faddish fake air intakes flanking the grille add to the clutter.

2018 Infiniti Q50
An odd, droopy look to the front.

2018 Toyota Camry
As mentioned above, Toyota's mainline American sedan is now getting a Lexus-like frontal design.  The hood face, the faux air intakes flanking the actual grille and the dark, two-level apparent grille segment do not work well together.

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Chrysler's First Art & Colour Team's Results

By the 1920s when basic engineering requirements were largely in place, major American car makers began to shift attention to appearance as a sales tool.  At first they relied on designers in custom body firms and production body suppliers along with some of their own engineering staff who had an artistic bent.

In 1927 General Motors became the first large car manufacturer to establish an in-house styling section.  This was led by the now-legendary Harley Earl.  Chrysler Corporation soon followed suit.  In each case a few years lapsed before the work of these teams appeared on streets and roads.  This was because of lead-times from new concept to the market via the large amount of work required to engineer and productionize a new design.  Initial items effected by stylists usually were trim and detail changes.

This post treats the first results from Chrysler Corporation's styling group.  But first some background from the indispensable Lamm & Holls book, A Century of Automotive Style.

The authors point out (pages 153-54) that Chrysler set up a small styling section in July of 1928, calling it Art & Colour -- following General Motors' lead of the year before.  But this new unit was not nearly as independent as Harley Earl's, being under the control of Chrysler's mighty engineering staff.

"Among Art & Colour's staff members were Thomas (Tom) Martin, Herb Weissinger, A.B. (Buzz) Grisinger, Henry King, Rhys Miller, Max Wasserman, Bill Flajole, Ed Sheard, Gus Sompe and a handful of others; all young but highly enthusiastic and capable....

"For 1929-31, the Chrysler Imperial, along with Chrysler's four other lines, used what were called "ribbon" radiator grille shells. These looked like narrow chrome ribbons taped to the leading edge of the hood.  The idea was to make the hood look longer by making the grille shallower, but in actuality ribbon grilles made the entire front ensemble look weaker, cheaper and less substantial.  The public didn't like ribbon grilles, and yet they became something of a corporate identity symbol during those two to three years."

They go on to mention that 1931 Chryslers and Chrysler Imperials dropped the ribbon grille for a Weissinger design strongly inspired by Al Leamy's 1929 Cord design.

Here are examples of Chrysler Corporation cars from those days.  Dodge is not included because it was a long-established brand acquired by Chrysler in 1928 and not fully integrated with the rest of the Chrysler line until a few years later.

Gallery

1929 Chrysler Imperial with ribbon grille and Vauxhall-inspired hood scallops.  The 1930 models were little changed.

1931 Chrysler CG Imperial Close-Coupled Sedan,  RM Sotheby's photo.  Side window framing, the cowl shape and other details are carried over from previous model years.  What's new is the Cord-inspired grille design and revised hood.  The flat, split windshield was an Imperial oddity that detracted from the car's appearance.

1929 Chrysler 75 Tonneau Phaeton via RM Sotheby's.  Regular Chryslers lacked the Imperial's hood sculpting, but otherwise their front ends were similar for that model year.

1930 Chrysler 77 Dual-Cowl Phaeton by Locke, also actioned by RM Sotheby's.  This has Chrysler wings on the radiator cap ornament, but is essentially the same front as in 1929.

1931 Chrysler CM Roadster,  Hyman auction photo.  Now the grille is somewhat Cord-like.

1929 DeSoto Roadster with ribbon grille.

1930 DeSoto 4-door sedan.  Most '30 DeSotos lacked ribbon grilles, though Model K DeSotos retained them.

And then ribbon grilles returned across the board, as seen on this 1931 DeSoto 4-door sedan.

1932 DeSotos received grilles inspired by Miller racing cars.

1929 Plymouth Model U 4-door sedan,  Owls Head auction photo.  Chrysler's entry-level brand also got a variation on the ribbon grille where the framing was rounded.

1930 Plymouth 30-U 4-door sedan for sale.  The grille face is flatter than in '29, but the ribbon effect has been replaced by a conventional frame.

1931 Plymouth PA 4-door sedan, auction photo.  Again, no ribbon grille, and some rounding has returned.

From the images presented here, it seems that the ribbon grille situation by model year was more complex than how Lamm and Holls presented it.  Nevertheless, their thesis broadly holds in that the ribbon style was tried and then rejected.  Other design elements by the new Chrysler Corporation Art & Colour group are hard to detect besides the grille design borrowings from Cord and Miller.  This would begin to change for 1933 and 1934.

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When DeSoto Wanted to be a Buick

Buick stood next to the top (Cadillac) in General Motors' hierarchy of brands once LaSalle was dropped from the lineup after the 1940 model year.  Like other GM brands, Buick offered models across a price/prestige range.  Around 1950, the most expensive Buicks overlapped entry-level Cadillacs in price, while the least-expensive Buicks competed with Oldsmobiles and some Pontiacs. Over at Chrysler Corporation, Chryslers were competitive with Buicks, while the Imperial model was in the Cadillac price range.  DeSotos considerably overlapped Chrysler's range, but from a slightly lower starting point.  That is, DeSoto competed with all Buicks save the Roadmaster line and all Oldsmobiles except the lower-level 76s.

From 1942 though 1954 a major Buick brand identification feature was a grille with vertical bars.  DeSoto grilles also had vertical bars, but from 1941 through 1955.  And there was a brief time -- model years 1951 and 1952 -- that DeSoto even borrowed Buick's hood sculpting theme.  I am not sure that was a good idea, essentially copying the looks of a competing brand.  In any case, that detail was dropped on DeSoto's restyled 1953 line.

Gallery

1939 Buick - publicity photo
Buick first tried out a vertical grille bar theme in 1939, but went to horizontal bars for 1940 and 1941.

1941 DeSoto - Auctions America photo
DeSoto's first use of vertical bars on a horizontal grille.

1942 Buick
Vertical bars were back for the war-shortened 1942 model year.

1949 Buick Super Sedanette - Hyman Ltd. photo
Buicks were restyled for 1949.  Note the sculpting on the front of the hood.  DeSoto stylists were aware of this feature when the 1951 facelift was being developed.

1950 DeSoto - for sale photo
DeSotos were also given new body designs for 1949.  The 1950 models got a revised grille design.

1950 Buick Special Sedanette - Hyman Ltd. photo
Another new set of bodies for Buick in 1950.  The hood sculpting theme was carried over from 1949.

1951 DeSoto - for sale photo
All Chrysler Corporation cars were facelifted for 1950, the most noticeable change being the rounded-off hood prow.  Now DeSoto picks up Buick's hood sculpting.  Not an exact copy, but pretty close.

1951 Buick Super - Hyman Ltd. photo
That same model year Buick got a new grill, but the hood sculpting was unchanged.

1952 DeSoto - for sale photo
DeSotos for 1952 were almost identical to '51s.  The only difference seen here is the typeface for the word "DeSoto."

1953 DeSoto - Mecum Auctions photo
As mentioned above, restyled 1953 DeSotos dropped the Buick-like hood sculpting.

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Airflows, Large and Smaller

Chrysler Corporation's aerodynamically-influenced Airflow body design was a marketplace failure.  Despite that, it was highly influential in the American automobile industry.  References to Chrysler and DeSoto Airflows are here and here.

One new engineering feature was all-steel bodies (aside from a roof panel) built up from a frame structure attached to what amounted to a chassis.  To put it another way, Airflow bodies approached, but didn't qualify as, unitized construction that since then has become the norm.

At any rate, for launch year 1934 Chrysler produced Airflows in three basic body types (four-door sedans, two-door sedans, and coupes) and for the 4-door sedans, five different wheelbase lengths.  Wheelbases in ascending order are -- DeSoto: 115.5 in (2934 mm); Chrysler CU: 122.8 in (3119 mm); Chrysler Imperial CV: 128.0 in (3251 mm); Chrysler Custom Imperial CX: 137.5 in (3492 mm); and the Chrysler Custom Imperial CW: 146.5 in (3721 mm).

What we have, then, is a wheelbase range of 31 inches (787 mm) -- a huge difference for one line of cars.  Coupling that with the various body types, Chrysler Corporation launched a wide variety of Airflows.  Here are examples.

Gallery

This is a 1934 CU Chrysler Airflow.  It can be considered the baseline model for comparisons.

The largest '34 Airflow was the CW Custom Imperial  8- passenger sedan that featured a curved windshield -- the first for an American production car.

All 1934 DeSotos were Airflows, Chrysler retaining conventional bodies for its 6-cylinder cars.  This is the four-door sedan.

Here is a two-door DeSoto sedan for 1934.

Then there were coupes.  The smallest, due to its short wheelbase was this 1934 DeSoto (Bonhams auction photo).

* * * *   Some Side Views  * * * *

1934 Chrysler CU, Bonhams photo.

Advertisement photo featuring a 1934 CW Custom Imperial.  The background is the Park Avenue entrance to the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.

An in-motion Bonhams auction photo of a '34 DeSoto Airflow Coupe.

A brochure page for the 1934 DeSoto Airflow Coupe.

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