Re: Here's a barn find that's NOT a Packard...

Posted by Fyreline On 2013/10/9 22:05:33

I always (OK, usually) try to examine automotive styling trends in the context of their time . . . As a child of the 50s I remember many of the cars we now consider over styled, over-chromed and over-finned when they were new. My uncle had a new '58 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special in robin's egg blue with acres of stainless steel trim on the sides, and as over the top as that car was (and I thought it was the most beautiful car I'd ever seen, even better than his 1954 Buick Skylark that it replaced) the '59 Caddy that came out the next year made it look downright spartan. Again, taken in the context of the rock 'n roll, hey-a-nuclear-war-is-coming-anyway-so-who-cares 1950s, they weren't anywhere near as outrageous when they were new as they now appear. I agree that there were (are?) certain styling elements the Italians seemed to get right, but overall, their sense of proportion skewed away from larger cars after the war. Understandable, as no one in Europe could afford a large car even if European manufacturers had been making them, which very few were. Still, the need for postwar European auto manufacturers to export in order to survive - and that meant to the USA, where the money was - should probably have produced a few more exceptional large-car designs than it did. Even if it had, though, a country whose tastes in the 50's included such cars as the Edsel, Desoto and 1958-1960 Lincolns probably wouldn't have embraced a slick Italianate large sedan.

Too bad. A nicely Italian-styled mid-1950s Packard (or Pontiac, or Plymouth for that matter) would have been a tasty treat . . . But in the end, would in all likelihood have made little or no difference to either the Italian economy or the demise of Packard . . . Or Plymouth . . . Or Pontiac.