Interesting juxtaposition

by "Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
Published 06/27/2017 at 10:25

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Inner monologue: “Ugh, look at the stupid new Prius back end. Ooh, look at the pretty Mercedes coupe!”

Replies (6)

"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
06/27/2017 at 10:31, STARS: 1

Other butt juxtapositions: the “bathtub” Packard is the Porsche 356's fat dad:

"Rustholes-Are-Weight-Reduction" (rustholes-are-weight-reduction)
06/27/2017 at 10:51, STARS: 0

decisions decisions...

"RT" (rt-p)
06/27/2017 at 15:34, STARS: 0

Both are from 1948… which one was first?

"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
06/27/2017 at 15:50, STARS: 1

Well, if we look at their forebears from ‘39, we can see the elements of what became each already:

By 1941 Packard had started to move away from their previous full-fendered designs to a more sleek body style, so on that at least they had “caught up” by ‘47, before either design went into regular production.

So, the Porsche designs lead a bit in “draped” look, but the rolled and rounded back end with a high scallop in the metal was in Packard’s wheelhouse from at least as long ago as any of Ferdinand Porsche’s other designs.

^’35.

"RT" (rt-p)
06/27/2017 at 16:07, STARS: 0

Cool, that’s a neat history lesson on a brand I know little about.

"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
06/27/2017 at 16:16, STARS: 1

They’re both kind of interesting in being both very modern (no-fender) designs and at the same time having a lot of holdover from the cutting edge of the late ‘30s - both due to (real) streamlining and expensive Streamline Moderne styling that wasn’t really a mass-market thing. Because dies for swoopy panels were hard.

So Porsche and Packard both were a mix of ultra-modern and anachronistic around ‘48, and on into the ‘50s. Nash, oddly enough, suffered from something of the same as well as Hudson, though in their cases it was more a case of postwar metal production enabling them to go with what *had been* The Thing in auto styling. The best of what used to be cool and was going to be cool, now affordable.

Running the other direction, the Beetle is in some respects an extremely backward design. Because it’s time-locked in the mid 30s in a lot of ways, it holds onto the separate-fenders look, Budd body style window openings, door construction, etc., and was already “old” by the time it finally came out as something other than the KdFWagen.