Re: Why were running boards phased out?

Posted by 58L8134 On 2015/11/21 11:48:38

Hi

Runningboards were rendered obsolete primarily by greatly improved roads that no longer required high ground clearances. Considerable mileage in new paved roads spread out across the country in those first decades of the 20th Century connecting cities and small towns.

As Dave notes, the lowered construction methods between the '41 Clipper and a Packard of 6-7 years prior is striking. It was evolutionary, through the '34 Chrysler Airflow, '36 Lincoln Zephyr and Cord 810/812, '38 Cadillac 60 Special, every carmaker was there or nearly so by 1940-42.

Postwar, runningboards were the province of commercial vehicles, trucks and that handful of cars of state, where the occupants needed security protection.

Steve