AMERICAN CLASSIC CAR CLUB AUCKLAND
  • Home
  • Corkboard
  • News
  • Gallery
    • Xmas @ Bridgewater - 13 December 2020
    • Toy Run - 7 December 2020
    • Piha Bowls - 15 November 2020
    • Bill Tweed shed raid - 25 October 2020
    • Te Aroha Cruise In - 3 October 2020
    • Caffiene & Gasolene - 27 September 2020
    • Packard Museum - 5 & 6th September 2020
    • Willow Glen& Ross Bros - 19 July 2020
    • Huljich Military Shed - 21 June 2020
    • Port Waikato run - 22 March 2020
    • Waipu Car & Bike Show - 9 February 2020
    • Ellerslie Classic Car Show - 9 February 2020
    • Morrinsville Motorama - 8-9 February 2020
    • Cruise Martinborough - 23-26 January 2020
    • Kumeu Classic & Hot Rod Festival - 18 January 2020
  • Join us
  • Contact
  • Members only
    • Committee contact details
    • Members contact details
    • 2020 Annual Accounts
    • Club apparel & badges
    • Cruisepaper

GM’s Fleeting Fastback Phase: The 1941-52 Streamliners

24/9/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​When the GM streamliners first made their appearance in 1941, they looked like the most advanced cars on the road. But the futuristic shape didn’t age well, lasting barely a decade.
Picture
1941 Pontiac Torpedo 6 Coupe Sedan

​The fastback era at General Motors arrived with a bang in 1941, with Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac adopting the dramatic new sheet metal that year, while Chevrolet followed along one year later in ’42. Developed under the management of GM Styling boss Harley Earl, the teardrop roofline was applied across the board on the company’s A-Body, B-Body, and C-Body platforms, sharing common glass and stampings and produced in both two-door and four-door styles.
Picture
1941 Cadillac Sixty-One Five-Passenger Touring Sedan 

​While the streamliners presented a unified styling look for GM, which it called “Sport Dynamic,” the automaker never made a serious effort to promote them as a single corporate theme. The individual passenger car brands were left to come up with their own model names for their fastbacks, which they did in a casual and often inconsistent manner. Oldsmobile favored the Dynamic Cruiser label, while Pontiac adopted Streamliner and Torpedo (but also applied these names to its conventional body styles).
Picture
1942 Chevrolet Special De Luxe Fleetline Aerosedan

Chevrolet came up with the tag Fleetwood Aerosedan, while other GM divisional names included Club Coupe, Touring Sedan, and Coupe Sedan. But the name that stuck in the minds of the public was the Buick label, Sedanet. Consumers applied the name to all the GM fastbacks, often adopting their own alternative non-GM spelling, “Sedanette.”  Buick stayed with the Sedanet designation throughout its fastback phase, embellishing it to Jetback Sedanet in 1950.
​
Picture
1946 Oldsmobile Dynamic 76 Club Sedan

​When civilian auto production at GM resumed at the end of World War II, the streamliners returned as well, as the ’46 passenger cars were barely facelifted carryovers from ’42. The automaker typically offered its most popular models in both fastback and conventional three-box sedan styles, careful to offer car buyers their choice of either. When the GM passenger car divisions received their complete redesigns in ’48-’49, the streamlined roofline was continued, but in fewer model lines. The teardrop fad was passing.
Cadillac dropped its fastbacks after 1949, while Buick, Olds, and Pontiac discontinued theirs in 1951. Chevrolet hung on for one more year, offering a single streamliner, the Fleetline Deluxe Two-Door Sedan, through 1952. With the clarity of hindsight, we can see what happened: By 1950, GM’s fastback sales were falling off a cliff. American car buyers no longer viewed the teardrop roofline as futuristic, but as a remnant of the past. The fastbacks were swept off the production schedules to make way for the hot new body styles of the ’50s: the pillarless hardtop and the queen of the suburbs, the all-steel station wagon.
Picture
1951 Chevrolet Deluxe Styline Four-Door Sedan

Article courtesy of Mac's Motor City Garage.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Classics
    Concepts
    Custom
    Hot Rods
    Interesting Stuff

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

Copyright © ACCCA 2020
  • Home
  • Corkboard
  • News
  • Gallery
    • Xmas @ Bridgewater - 13 December 2020
    • Toy Run - 7 December 2020
    • Piha Bowls - 15 November 2020
    • Bill Tweed shed raid - 25 October 2020
    • Te Aroha Cruise In - 3 October 2020
    • Caffiene & Gasolene - 27 September 2020
    • Packard Museum - 5 & 6th September 2020
    • Willow Glen& Ross Bros - 19 July 2020
    • Huljich Military Shed - 21 June 2020
    • Port Waikato run - 22 March 2020
    • Waipu Car & Bike Show - 9 February 2020
    • Ellerslie Classic Car Show - 9 February 2020
    • Morrinsville Motorama - 8-9 February 2020
    • Cruise Martinborough - 23-26 January 2020
    • Kumeu Classic & Hot Rod Festival - 18 January 2020
  • Join us
  • Contact
  • Members only
    • Committee contact details
    • Members contact details
    • 2020 Annual Accounts
    • Club apparel & badges
    • Cruisepaper