Hyde Park Blvd

Via Frango.

Few material possessions as wondrous or satisfying as a clean, well-designed car. Fiat Cinquecento via Frango.

I write about Citroen more than I should.  Innovative and maddening, beautiful and disappointing.  But this is a great ad done by someone who knows a lot about the cars DNA — and how to make a great video.  Bon apetit!

In 1955 designer Mario Boano built this car in hopes of attracting business from Lincoln.  He succeeded to the extent that Henry Ford II bought the prototype (which is why it’s around and shows up at car shows irregularly). One can see the influence in design evolution from the flat sides and single headlamps of the 1956 Lincoln:

…to the 1957 Lincoln with its echo of Boano’s dynamic side intakes and stacked lamps:

…and just how unforced the Mark II from the same era looks to us today:

The Mark II is modern but simple; designed by Gordon Buehrig, William Clay Ford and John Reinhart. it echoes the classic Mark I of the 1940s without being at all retro or forced.

Photo courtesy of Kit Foster’s Car Port and Thomas Caldwell, Photographer.

I’ve wanted to do an update on my summer indulgence, a green MiniCooperS:

1.  The amount of swag and attention is extraordinary.  And even if most of it is dreck, it’s all securely tongue-in-cheek, full of the kind of attention to odd details (op art dashboard and seats, oversized air filler caps, ’secret’ compartments) that bespeaks auto fetishism (auto-erotic fethishism?) and delight.  The car is always supposed to be about fun.  The company and the marketing team are in sync.

2.  Think of another car that says ‘fun.’  Cars have been about travel (‘See the USA in your Chevrolet, sang Dinah Shore), thrills (‘We are excitement,’ claimed Pontiac), creativity (‘Ford has a better idea’), confidence (‘At Ford, quality is Job 1′), status (‘You deserve a Cadillac’).  Admittedly, little cars were sold as fun (beginning with DDB’s ‘Lemon’ VW ads.  Little Euro imports were fun; Renault’s Dauphin was sold with balloons.  The attempts by US carmakers copied this fun theme — especially for Falcons, F-85s, Buick Specials, and Valiants).

But today, especially since 9/11, cars are all about security, safety, substance.  No one could imagine a shovel-nosed Audi as fun.  ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ is like something out of Orwell’s ‘1984,’ not a car ad.  Mercedes are anything but fun.  Even BMWs aren’t fun, especially the Bangle versions, so poorly designed that one dares not buy them in anything but a dark color (better to hide the swoopy hysteria of the surfaces).

Little cars that don’t get across the Atlantic, are fun — odd Citroens like the Picasso and Twingo, the Fiat 500,  and Nissan Micra.  And you can forget about American cars.

3.  Driving the car is great fun, but it’s not a little car.  Despite the lack of room, the car is a little tank — more than 2500 lbs.  The tiny glasshouse makes it feel more tanklike.  It’s twice the weight of the original Austin Mini Cooper of 1961 and the VW Beetle Type 1 (with its 1200cc engine); even my ‘overweight’ first-gen Scirocco weighed almost a thousand pounds less.  Which means that the Mini isn’t a bad car, but that our expectations about cars have changed.  Today cars are computer controlled vehicles that provide safety, directions, communications, environmental quality, and succor — all in addition to what we expected when we sat down in the horsehair seats of a 1950s MG.

4.  To get back to those days, we have one car company that keeps up the traditions and ideals of the Issigonis Mini — Lotus.  Ariel and Caterham are nice, but not realistic choices.  And Porsche is too serious by half.  Only Lotus pushes all the right buttons, hews to simplicity and low weight, excellent handling and practicality.  Honda used to occupy this spot; maybe they’ll rediscover it soon.  Something to keep in mind when my ship comes in.

If Geo. Barris is the hieratic version of this art form, the rat rod is the demotic.  At its best rat rods embody the conflict between aspiration and finances (or expertise), adolescence and maturity, beauty and decrepitude.  The cars are often unpainted, with rust on full display.  Bondo and other restoratives are not generally part of the program.

And like all good, demotic arts, there are no defined standards.   If it feels right, it is right.

These (and many other) photos courtesy of Streetrods-online.

Love of small cars knows no bounds, does not stop at the Carnival door.  I treat my current ride like a bumper car, so why ever not.  Thanks to Jalopnik for the education and the joy.

Animated Engines, painstakingly created (using CAD) by Matt Keveney, provides a primer on the internal combustion engine.  In an era when it’s easy to debase the concept of carbon-based energy, the site conveys the logic and the genius of technical innovation.  And why gasoline’s portability and high energy content made possible small engines that continue (in the guise of everything from Honda motorbikes to the Tata Nano) to transform the world.

Thanks to reader MR for the link.

German manufacturer Adler made cars through 1940.  After the war, they focused on motorcycles and typewriters (as a teen-ager I had a portable Adler, and a good typewriter indeed).  They were a technology leader; in the 1930s Adler developed a mid-engine prototype for Volkswagen known as the May Beetle (Maikapfer) which was never produced.  Adler was more interested in FWD cars like the 1937 2.5 Cabrio.  Designed (by Paul Jaray) to be aerodynamic (see the Chrysler Airflow of the same era), the 58 horsepower, 6-cylinder beauty could go 125 mph.

The typewriter business was sold to Olivetti.

Copyright Rachel K. Turner

I couldn’t resist.  Also via Frango, it’s the eye and the eyebrow that get me.  Automotive design can be so auto-emotive, not to mention auto-erotic.