Re: We haven't had a good "What If?" for a while, so.....
Posted by 55PackardGuy On 2012/4/15 15:11:30
The discussion of the 1938 Cadillac 60 Special caught my eye as I am a long-time fan of Bill Mitchell's hand at styling the Riviera (which was initially considered to be a possible re-introduction of the LaSalle, and ended up a Buick, hence the "clamshell" lamps in '63 and '64--and the headlight covers in '65--were initially an homage to the LaSalle's pointed grill). Looking at some history on the '38 Cadillac, it started life as a LaSalle design and then was bumped up the brand ladder to Cadillac when its price was calculated to be too high for LaSalle. History repeating itself in reverse.
Looking at the '38 Cadillac 60 S mindfully for the first time, based on what's been said here, I agree that the front view is really quite ugly... if the goal was an aggressive look, that was achieved at the expense of making it far too truck-like for my taste.
From the side, the most striking thing to someone used to the now-ubiquitous "3 box" style that was so radical then, I see the front fenders as the outstanding styling feature. Not knowing much about these Cadillacs, I don't know if this was a fresh design, but it certainly gives the car an imposing big-car presence, and an elegant sculpted look from the side.
For my money, the '47 Clipper does the same thing, only better, with a much more appealing front view and more integrated yet still massive looking fenders.
Clipper stacks up pretty well eh? Granted it's 9 years later, but there was a war in between. The photo just happened to be sitting right in front of me here on the PMCI sidebar.
(Thought that since we were talking styling so much here, some pics might be in order.)
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Looking at the '38 Cadillac 60 S mindfully for the first time, based on what's been said here, I agree that the front view is really quite ugly... if the goal was an aggressive look, that was achieved at the expense of making it far too truck-like for my taste.
From the side, the most striking thing to someone used to the now-ubiquitous "3 box" style that was so radical then, I see the front fenders as the outstanding styling feature. Not knowing much about these Cadillacs, I don't know if this was a fresh design, but it certainly gives the car an imposing big-car presence, and an elegant sculpted look from the side.
For my money, the '47 Clipper does the same thing, only better, with a much more appealing front view and more integrated yet still massive looking fenders.
Clipper stacks up pretty well eh? Granted it's 9 years later, but there was a war in between. The photo just happened to be sitting right in front of me here on the PMCI sidebar.
(Thought that since we were talking styling so much here, some pics might be in order.)
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