Mercury Park Lane 1958-1960: Redesign and Facelifts Were Improvements

The Park Lane was the top of the Mercury line over the 1958-1960 model years.  I'm guessing that the name refers to the street in London that runs along the east side of Hyde Park.  That would seem to be obscure to many potential American car buyers, as massive jet air travel across the Atlantic was just getting underway then.  Maybe all the other ritzy continental names had been grabbed by then.  Or perhaps Mercury marketers figured that the old breed of ocean liner passengers along with 8th Air Force and pre- D-Day troops stationed in England in 1944 knew all about the Grosvenor House and such and would create a usable buyer pool.  Whatever ... Park Lane it was.  Sales were in the 8 -13 thousand per year range, so it wasn't a massive success.

The Park Lane Wikipedia entry is here, though I have quibbles with its remarks about styling.

What I find most interesting about the 1958-60 Park Lanes is that while the 1959 redesign was better looking than the previous design, the 1960 facelift created the best design of all.  Quite often, facelifting degrades designs over time.

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1958 Mercury Park Lane four-door hardtop.  It was a stretched, facelifted and upgraded 1957 Mercury Montclair: not a fresh design.  Questionable styling features include the grille openings in the massive front bumper ensemble, the awkward side and roof trim, plus the contorted back window that remained on the Mercury Monterey line through 1960.

This rear view of a Park Lane up for sale shows the rear bumper echoing the front bumper theme.  The ray-gun decoration on the tail light + side sculpting is a classic example of late 1950s silly styling.

The 1959 restyling most substantial on the greenhouse.  The windshield is now doubly curved, wrapping into the roof.  A big improvement is the new, cleaner backlight design.

The grille-bumper group has been simplified and made more conventional.  Side trim was also simplified and better integrated.  Losing the two-tone strip abaft of the headlights was a major factor here.

The rear bumper was restyled, but retained its two-element theme.  Ray-guns on the sculpting now look more like walking sticks.  The dogleg in the backlight echoes the windshield wrap-over, a nice, subtle touch.

Now for a set of photos of a 1960 Mercury Park Lane for sale in France.  The 1959 greenhouse design is retained, but most of the body sheetmetal has been reworked.  This is pretty expensive for the final year of a body design.  The entire front is redesigned, headlights being moved to the grille from the fender tops.

Side sculpting was totally restyled in a simplified, tasteful manner.  Those five vertical chromed bars designate that this is a Park Lane: lesser Mercury Montclairs only got three.

Rear styling is also pleasingly handled, though the tiny-tail-fin-plus-taillight grouping seem a little too cramped.

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Mercury's Unpublicized 1955 D-528 Concept Car

There might be other cases like Mercury's 1955 concept D-528, but I suspect there are few of them.    After all, what's the point of designing and building a running concept car using more resources and cost than a non-running "pushmobile" -- and then never formally showing it to the public?  Apparently Ford Motor Company management thought that creating the D-528 was an engineering research "investment" that was worthwhile without the need for any additional benefit of the publicity it might generate if revealed to the public and sent on the auto show circuit.

Unlike many concept cars from the 1950s, the D-528 was never destroyed.  I saw it in the spring at the Petersen Auto Museum in Los Angeles.  The museum's web site's page devoted to the D-528 is here.  It describes the D-528 as follows:

"The D-528 was built to test advanced concepts in seating, lighting, air conditioning, and front frame design. The hinged rear fender bulges were functional, concealing a spare tire on one side and a gas tank on the other. Such a design gave the car adequate luggage capacity despite the need to accommodate a large air conditioning system. Although it boasted design features such as a pillarless windshield and Ford’s first reverse-sloping retractable rear window, it was an in-house research vehicle that was never shown publicly. “Beldone” [as it is sometimes called] was a stage name selected by Paramount Pictures for the car’s appearance in the 1964 Jerry Lewis movie, The Patsy, not an official Ford designation."

Below are some photos I took of it.

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The D-528's styling was probably largely completed in 1954.  Elaborate two-tone paint schemes were already in production on General Motors' redesigned Oldsmobiles and Buicks, but still rare industry-wide.  Chrysler Corporation was two years away from launching its tail fin styling, and quad headlights were even farther in the future.  Perhaps these considerations help explain why the D-528's styling is comparatively clean.  Note that the windshield is somewhat panoramic, but the objects amounting to A-pillars lean backward in the fashion Chrysler used on its 1955 and later models, and not the vertical orientation Fords and Mercurys were given for that model year.  My main complaint about this aspect of the car is that the front fenders are too rounded, providing a heavier-than-necessary appearance.  Oh, and there seems to be too much overhang in front of the wheel opening for a rear-wheel drive car.

The front overhang seems less objectionable in this side view.  Note the thin, flat roof -- a feature Chrysler used in its sensational 1957 redesigns.  The fenders also seem too heavy from this perspective: the sides needed to be flattened a little bit.  And then there are those rounded lumps at the rear....

The quotation above explains the purpose of the lumps, but there is no getting around their awkward appearance.  The trunk lid has a blob-like shape.  It might have been improved by being flatter and by having a more squared-off aft -- something that would have added more carrying capacity.  The taillight housings do not seem to blend well with the bulges.

The most interesting feature of the dashboard design is the central section that intrudes into the passenger compartment.  Unusual for its time, but somewhat prophetic of what can be found on todays' cars.

It's possible that the reason why the D-528 was never formally introduced to the public was that it wasn't all that attractive due to the odd features noted above.

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1954 Mercury Monterey XM-800 Concept

A mid-1950s concept car that was neither a fancied-up production model nor a jazzy dream car was the 1954 Mercury Monterey XM-800.  It could have been a production car for the 1957 model year, and would have been a very attractive one even with the minor adjustments needed to make it practical and street-legal.  Alas, that didn't happen, and by 1958 cars in Ford's stable joined in the styling madness that infected the American automobile industry in those times.

For some background on the Monterey XM-800 and its fate, go here and, especially, here.

Even though it did not become a production design, the XM-800 lent a few styling features to future Ford Motor Company models.  These are shown below.

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High angle photo of the XM-800.  Basically, the design is a clean, archetypical example of mid-1950s American styling.  Significant details include the panoramic windshield, the thin roofline, low hood, and the very long fender line where the endpoints are the extremes of the body (not counting bumpers).

Front three-quarter from slightly below eye-level.  The air scoop on the hood might actually be functional (I can't be sure), but regardless, it adds interest.

A 1957 Mercury Montclair.  Its grille design has a bit of the XM-800's flavor.

The 1961 Mercury grille is even closer.  But these are the only models years halfway close to 1954 where the theme was used.

The rear end suffers from the heavy chrome trim on the trunk -- the only styling failing.  I like the design of the passenger compartment greenhouse, especially the C-pillar with a Targa feeling.

Side view.  A functional, not aesthetic, defect is the small front wheel opening.  The metal sculpting surrounding it echoes the front of the fender.  The rear wheel spat cutline reflects the angle of the rear fender edge as well as that of the greenhouse Targa.  And yes, the lower edge of the car does run downhill from aft forwards.

The general sense of the XM-800's side did get picked up on 1956 Lincolns.  Note the angles of the fore and aft fender edges.  Also the wheel openings.

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Early 1970s U.S. Bumper Standards and Car Styling

The 1970s were especially difficult times for the American automobile industry.  As the decade began, engineers were dealing with regulations concerning emissions.  Following the petroleum crunch in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, fuel economy became an important concern.  All this while and into the far future, state and federal governments piled regulation upon regulation on the industry.  But the worst of it was in the 70s when major changes had to be made quickly.

Regulations that affected car styling the most in the first half of the decade had to do with bumpers.  This link mentions a 1971 regulation taking effect for 1973 models that dealt with collision damage, and bumper designs had to be adjusted to protect more parts of cars.   The next year, regulations dealt with placement of bumpers and the impacts they had to be designed to deal with, requiring even larger protection systems.

These regulations could have been more easily dealt with if designers were allowed to implement them when a new design was launched.  Unfortunately for stylists and engineers, designs already in production had to be modified.  The result often was heavy, awkward-looking bumpers placed on designs originally featuring far less protection.  As time went on, bumper impact criteria became more easy to accommodate, and protection systems on today's cars are hardly noticeable.

Below are some examples of Detroit cars and how they coped with the new rules.

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1973 Chevrolet Camaro Z28.  The bumper guards in front of the grille were in reaction to the first regulation.

The 1974 Camaros received a much more massive bumper whose styling wasn't quite a design theme destroyer.  Other parts of the front end were restyled to accommodate this change.

This is the newly designed 1972 Ford Torino produced before the regulations took effect.

This Ford press release pictures the 1973 Torino with a massive front bumper that anticipates the regulations to be in effect for the 1974 model year.  Again, other parts of frontal styling were modified.

A pre-regulations 1972 Mercury Cougar.

Like its Ford stablemate, Mercury went straight to the heavy bumper required for the following year.

Mecum auction photo of a 1972 Dodge Dart with its pre-regulation bumper.

Like Ford, some Chrysler Corporation models such as this Dart got large bumpers that didn't easily fit the existing styling theme.  Barrett-Jackson photo.

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Comparing 1939 Mercurys and Fords

Ford Motor Company's mid-range Mercury brand spent most of its 72 model-years life sharing basic bodies with Ford and, at times, Lincoln.  This is well known.  Not so well-known, yet no secret, is that the original Mercurys had their own bodies.  The problem being that those bodies looked very similar to those used by contemporary Fords.  Perhaps that, plus the need to keep production costs reasonable, led Ford management to use Ford bodies as the basis for 1941 Mercurys.

The Wikipedia entry on Mercury is here, and Joe Sherlock's thoughts on the brand as it lay dying are here.

The original Mercurys were larger than Fords, as the Wikipedia entry mentions.  So if a 1939 Mercury were seen next to a 1939 Ford De Luxe, this would be obvious.  Normally, it was fairly rare that people saw such juxtapositions.

I don't have photos of the cars side-by-side, but perhaps the images below will illustrate their similarities and differences.

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Publicity photo of a 1939 Mercury 4-Door Sedan.

A 1939 Ford De Luxe Fordor on display in Salt Lake City.  Similarities: headlights, grille shape, hood shape and cut lines, chrome trim along the belt line, windshield and side window shapes, door openings, door hinging and general fastback shape.  Differences: position of windshield wipers, fender profiles, rear door hinging, and the degree the bodies overlap the running boards.

A two-door '39 Mercury.

A Ford De Luxe Tudor.  Again, side widow shapes are essentially the same, though the Mercury's aft window is longer thanks to its larger body.  The length difference in this zone of the car is between the door and rear fender, the Mercury having a longer wheelbase.

Publicity shot of a convertible.  Note the Moderne trim on the building in the background, perhaps to hint that the Mercury is in tune with the future.

Grist for another comparison, the Mercury here...

... and a Ford here, albeit a Tudor (for-sale photo).  This offers a better view of fender differences, slight though they are.

Rear three-quarter view of a '39 Mercury 4-door sedan in another for-sale photo.

1939 Ford De Luxe Fordor, Barrett-Jackson photo.  Back windows are about the same, as is the trunk and its cut lines.  The Mercury's rear fender is fatter than the Ford's.

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Mid-1950s Transparent Roofs for Ford, Mercury

A look at automobile history reveals a few Holy Grails that strike me more as wishful thinking than practicality.  These include rear-mounted engines, gull-wing doors and transparent roofs.

As for the latter, the wish is to have an open-air, convertible-like driving experience coupled with weather protection.  A major downside is the creation of a greenhouse effect, whereby the passenger compartment becomes overheated in sunny conditions.  Use of air conditioning can counteract that, but at the price of reduced fuel economy.

Back in the mid-1950s when air conditioning was a rare, expensive accessory, Ford Motor Company launched models featuring a transparent roof over the front seat.  That roof was a thick acrylic glass, as this source mentions.  These panels were given dark blue-green tints in an effort to block sunshine effects.

Nearly 23,000 1954 model year Fords and Mercurys thus equipped were sold, and the feature was continued for the next two model years amid declining sales.

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This is the 1954 Ford Crestline Skyliner with its transparent roof panel.

1955 Fords look considerably changed from 1954, but this was the result of a major facelift rather than an actual redesign.  Shown here is what was named the Crown Victoria Skyliner, the Skyliner label again denoting a transparent roof panel.  The '54 version was based on a hardtop convertible body, but for '55 we find a heavy, chromed B-pillar style.  Barrett-Jackson auction photo.

Skyliners for 1956 were the same as in 1955 aside from superficial model year facelift changes.  Mecum Auctions photo.

Mercury's version of the Skyliner was called the Monterey Sun Valley for 1954.

For 1955 the name was Montclair Sun Valley.  Like Ford, '55 Mercurys were heavily facelifted 1954 bodies.  Unlike Ford Skyliners, Sun Valleys continued to be based on hardtop bodies.  Auctions America photo.

Sun Valley and other Mercury models were given fairly minor facelifts for 1956.  Auctions America photo.

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The Transitional 1949 Dodge Wayfarer Line

The "Big Three" American automobile makers -- General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler Corporation -- held off introducing post- World War 2 redesigns until the 1949 model year.  (Exceptions were 1948 Cadillacs and Oldsmobile 98s.)

The prewar notion that streamlined-looking fastback styling was the wave of the future was largely abandoned, though every GM division did market some fastback models for 1949.  Chrysler did the same, but on a much smaller scale.  Plymouth built an entry-level fastback 2-door sedan, and Dodge had a semi-fastback similar in character to Mercury's '49 roofline.

And there was even more Chrysler experimentation in Dodge's Wayfarer line.  This experimentation required extra tooling expenses for what turned out to be fairly low-volume cars.  In those days, Chrysler Corporation ranked ahead of Ford in sales and was doing well financially, so its management must have thought that the risk of losing some money to gain market knowledge was worthwhile.

Let's take a look at Dodge's Wayfarer line.  Color images are of cars that were on Internet for-sale sites.

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Let's first view a 1949 mainstream Dodge Coronet 4-door sedan to provide context.  The sun visor above the windshield was a popular accessory in the late 1940s and early 50s.

This is a 1949 Wayfarer business coupe.  Business coupes had only one bench seat, but this allowed for larger trunk space for hauling business-related items.  That body style was dropped early in the 1950s.

And here is the Wayfarer Roadster, essentially a convertible version of the business coupe.  Only a small proportion were true roadsters with side curtains instead of roll-up windows -- most Dodge "Roadsters" were built with the latter.

Front three-quarter views of '49 Dodge Wayfarer sedans.

A 1950 Mercury showing its semi-fastback / semi- bustle-back styling.  The Dodge's bustle-back is smaller and gives the impression of being mostly a fastback.

Rear view of a '49 Wayfarer.  Compare this to the 1949 Plymouth P-17 fastback below.

This car and the Dodges shown above used the same roof tooling, the main difference is that the Dodge's B-pillar slants and the Plymouth's is vertical.  The Dodge bustle-back is due to a 4-inch longer wheelbase and 14 inches (35 cm) more overall length.  This added length would have required a different, more expensive fastback roof shape towards the rear, so the cheaper semi-fastback option was taken.

Finally, the Dodge Wayfarer sedan's fastback competition, a 1949 Pontiac Streamliner 2-door.  Much sleeker than the Dodge, but perhaps with a bit less trunk space -- a problem that led GM to dropping  fastbacks after the 1952 model year.

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