In refutation to Party-VI...

"505Turbeaux" (505turbeaux) 06/17/2014 at 11:05 • Filed to: None

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France > !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Wanna fight? :)

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Gordini will show you what is up foo

Coty > 505Turbeaux 06/17/2014 at 11:06

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Is it wrong to want this more?

505Turbeaux > Coty 06/17/2014 at 11:06

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lol nope

crowmolly > 505Turbeaux 06/17/2014 at 11:09

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I dunno man, this is a contender:

Sn210 > 505Turbeaux 06/17/2014 at 11:09

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stop fighting! Think of the children!

Nibbles > 505Turbeaux 06/17/2014 at 11:12

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This car is so hipster. Derpface before derpface was cool

OPPOsaurus WRX > 505Turbeaux 06/17/2014 at 11:15

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Wanna fight? haha u'll just surrender. (yea its gotten old, I'm french so i've heard it too much) I love french cars

Roberto G. > 505Turbeaux 06/17/2014 at 11:16

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If in your opinion that's a beautiful car, than you need a pair of new reading glasses ASAP.

Where have all the lightweights gone? > 505Turbeaux 06/17/2014 at 11:17

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France doesn't have the staying power in the beauty department Italy has. The last truly great-looking French cars were the Citroen DS & SM.

Jedidiah > 505Turbeaux 06/17/2014 at 11:21

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USA > All

505Turbeaux > Where have all the lightweights gone? 06/17/2014 at 11:38

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I dont know...

505Turbeaux > crowmolly 06/17/2014 at 11:41

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touche

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Jedidiah 06/17/2014 at 11:58

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Apart from the fact that the GT40 chassis and body was developed by Lola in Britain...

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Where have all the lightweights gone? 06/17/2014 at 12:00

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Agreed, although the latest crop of Citroens, DS5 and whatnot, look phenomenal. Every time I see one I think 'damn they look great', which really doesn't come across in pictures.

The latest Megane Coupe looks great as well, and the Matra Murena of the 80s looked fantastic.

Party-vi > Sn210 06/17/2014 at 12:26

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That's not a Bugatti.

Party-vi > 505Turbeaux 06/17/2014 at 12:27

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Car-for-car, Ferrari has sold more cars than all the awesome French marques combined. Probably. I dunno GIMME THE KEYS TO DAT!!!!

Sn210 > Party-vi 06/17/2014 at 12:45

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you're right, this one in particular was one of the final chassis put together by Dauer, so there was some French-Italian-German love triangle action going on here...

Jedidiah > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/17/2014 at 13:26

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I know this; the GT40 chasis has been discussed many times. The Duesenberg was designed by German immigrants. It's hard not to discuss American engineering or culture without discussing its European origins. This was supposed to be a humorous post.

I also included a picture of an Aurburn Boattail Speedster, but it looks like it got kinja'd.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Jedidiah 06/17/2014 at 16:16

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Ah, no worries :)

To be fair, the real trailblazers during the 60s and 70s were the Italians and the Americans. Pretty much everyone else during that time was either developing their designs, or employing designers from Italy or America.

Jedidiah > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/17/2014 at 16:39

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The Americans made impressive concepts and styling, but production cars were always fairly conservative. They made what sold with technology that worked. Their staple has been mass production with the KISS philosophy, which is not exactly a bad thing. They produced rugged cars that were well suited to customers' demands (at least until corporate arrogance dictated bad PR and marketing in 70s).

American coachmaking died due to the Depression and the War. The names from coachmakers like Fisher Body were absorbed by the powerful companies and used for in-house styling excercises rather than traditional, hand-built manufacturing. It is unfortunate that there isn't an American equivalent to Ferrari or Rolls Royce, but all the surving companies decided to focus on mass-production rather than making cars for the elite.

The pre-war era was great because each nation that manufactured cars contributed significantly to major technological advancements. Post-war development; however, was led by the American market's demand for comfort and saw the invention of the automatic transmission and the mass production of novel OHV V8s. As the American demand increased, the car became more of a leisure item and consequently everybody focused on making the car more convenient.

It wasn't until there was a strong demand for fuel efficiency (i.e. Gas Crisis) that the development of the automobile changed again. Now manufacturers are concerned with bringing technology from other industries to make the car more efficient.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Jedidiah 06/18/2014 at 13:32

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All true, but I would still contend that the Americans were really on the ball styling-wise for a couple of decades. Just look at 60s cars like the Continental, Camaro, Mustang, Corvair, Corvette Stingray, Charger, Challenger, Firebird, Thunderbird and the Toronado.

Save for the Corvair and Toronado, all utterly conventional cars, but to a car all stunning. What sold them was the styling. Don't forget, it's pretty much solely the American car makers that did model-year changes in such a drastic way. Look at a Jaguar XJ6 in 1968 and it'll look near-identical to a Jaguar XJ6 in 1973.

Do the same with a Dodge Charger and they look like completely different cars, despite being near-identical underneath.

Jedidiah > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 06/18/2014 at 16:45

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I really like American cars from the 60s. You get a stylistically unique car each year and you don't have to worry about one-year-only parts (aside from body panels/interior bits ofc).

I like GM styling in particular, it was one of the major influences for a long time along with Pininfarina. Cars generally stayed true to their concepts and their influence was pervasive. I see a little bit of Corvair in nearly every European car released after the Corvair's debut.

Chrysler styling was derrivative from GM in the sense that they made more fleshed out versions of popular, yet abandoned, GM styling tropes (i.e the tunnelback roof on the Charger is reminscent of a GM body style that was discontinued 2 years earlier).

Ford styling had particular cars that were extremely influential (Falcon, Mustang, Thunderbird), but they didn't have a whole fleet of progessively styled cars like GM did.

The American manufacturers got a lot of things right back then. They made good-looking cars that people wanted to buy, were easy to fix/maintain, and were well suited to American roads.