Sunday, August 10, 2014

New Hope Automobile Show


In the beginning, horses.

This driver seems to have my Borsalino.


Gangsters and movie stars: "Depression? What depression?"


The Last Convertible.


The war. Too bad he couldn't find 48-star flags.


My favorites this year: the '46 Nash Suburban (quintessential beautiful '40s car – all American car design remained the same until the '49 model year; no production during the war – from a make not generally known for beautiful cars) and '57 Dodge Coronet (the whole Christine family from Chrysler was beautiful from '57 to '60), followed closely by the '59 Chevy Impala.


This is actually in a '56 Fury: twin carburetors like Christine, a '58.


Throughout its life, Nash/American Motors seemed to specialize in economy clown cars, from the early '50s Ambassadors and Metropolitans to the comical Pacer I remember. But I like the late '50s Ambassadors and Ramblers, like Chryslers in miniature for those on a budget. That and they had the Jeep, having absorbed Willys.


Meanwhile in G.B., immediate postwar design remained conservative, ironic for a country more liberal than we are. Impoverished by the war, Europe's '50s were different from ours.


The Hitlermobile and its Italian makeover, the Karmann Ghia.


'59 Skyliner: retractable hardtop version of Torello's cop car.


Pimp.


How the Lincoln Continental got its name.


Also: Mullica Hill, NJ.

2 comments:

  1. Is England any more liberal than the Northeastern US? I don't think it is.

    In some ways, of course, it's more conservative: smaller houses, smaller cars (many people don't drive at all), a/c and clothes dryers are uncommon in homes, even in the rich Southeast.

    England has one huge liberal metropolis in its southeast corner with much smaller liberal satellite cities spread out to the north and west among more conservative (if not widely church-going) provincial hinterlands.

    In other words, New York State (where I grew up). They're similar in geographical size too.

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  2. A Pacer? I had a Gremlin in college, and it left parts on the road.

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