Corvette whiffery

[puddingwrestler]

Here's an idea chaps - what if the Chevrolet Corvette had actually become a GM 'Body' series of cars. In the 50s, GM's various american brands shared a lot of componentary around, including body panels and chassis. This lead to things like the 'A' body, 'B' body and 'C' body. Each GM brand would build cars using one or two of these bodies, so Chevy and Pontiac would both build cars using a 'A' body or whatever. Individual brands had thier own styling hallmarks - Pontiac's silver streaks, Oldsmobile's distinctive grille, Cadillac's fins etc.
So what if the Corvette was actually based on one of these standardised bodies - let's call it the 'S' body for 'Sports'.
What if every GM brand produced an 'S' body car. What would the Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac, and Oldsmobile look like? What if La Salle was still around?
It's be fairly easy to add the individual brands hall marks to the basic corvette body - each brand had it's own grille and side trim layout. Buick had it's own ideas aout fenders and belt lines, while Caddilac introduced the tail fin.
GM almost went this route in reality - there are various concept cars which were examinations of how various brands would style thier own Corvette type car.
Oldsmobile's F-88 looks very close to a production vehicle - it's still got basiaclly the same style as the corvette around the middle, but with Olds front and rear treatments added.

Pontiac's Bonneville Special has a corvette type spirit, but a much wilder rear end treatment and a bubble top. Looks further from production to me, but ideas from it could easily have been used on a toned down production version.

There's also Chevy's own Biscayne which is a sort of exercise in corvette style for a four door.

And I'm rather partial to the fender treatment on the Buick Wildcat. Again, looks like it could be made.


I bring all this up as I have aquired a Monogram 53 Corvette, parts of which are ear marked for my crazy taxi build, and I was thinking about makign some sort of buick version or some such. Probably buick, I like their side trim style, and I'd love to work out something like a more subtle and toned down Wildcat I...
Anyone have any thoughts about this?
How about other GM brand versions of the later corvettes like the 63 'Stingray' type and the super long running 69-85(ish) models and modern C5 versions? Do you think there'd have even been a place in the market for a Cadilac open two seat sportster?

[beowulf]

that F88.....................isnt that Penelope Pitstops?

[puddingwrestler]

damn you Beowulf, I'll never look at a 50's olds grille the same way again!

[puddingwrestler]

Here's a bit of a play I had in photoshop using 53 Oldsmobile styling cues (only the ones you can see from the side - the grille treatments are much more obvious)

And a buick version (tried to get the whole Buick rear fender line look, but I'm not really sure how to do it properly) note only three ventriports per side as it's a six, not and eight.

Obviously these are both very rough, just playing with ideas really, but you get the picture.

[beowulf]

damn you Beowulf, I'll never look at a 50's olds grille the same way again!

hehehehehe

[sequoiaranger]

Yeah, those are GREAT vehicles--the "corvettization" of an Olds and a Buick. GM also did a "T-bird" sized Cadillac (I did one in 1/87 scale but don't have a picture.)

Here is my "Corvette Nomad" (in 1/87 or "HO" scale), an actual GM show car for 1954 that pre-dated the "Nomad" station wagons of Chevy and the "Safari" of Pontiac in 1955:





Then here is the "Covette Lineup" for 1953 (first actual production Corvette was in 1954). My "Nomad" is at top.



PS--When I look at that "Biscayne", from the front fender back, I can see the "Corvair" look brewing!

[jcf]

While the Pontiac Club de Mer show car of 1956 was metal bodied, one could imagine a productionized version
made of glassfibre on a your 'S' chassis concept.



http://www.carstyling.ru/cars.1956_Pontiac_Club%20de%20Mer%20.html

The old Revell kit has been re-released a couple of times.

The concepts pages at the GM Photostore has some nice reference images:
http://www.gmphotostore.com/Concept-Vehicles/products/1238/

As to LaSalle, interestingly the design that became the 1963 Buick Riviera was originally
developed for Cadillac and one of the names considered was LaSalle. Cadillac passed on
the design and Buick got it. I used to own a '64 Riviera.

Jon

[puddingwrestler]

I thought about the Club Del Mer after I posted, but could not really be bothered posting about it...
The other interesting whif is the whole FMC/Chrysler Corp corvette idea - if they had produced a directe corvette fighter, what would it be like? I know the first gen Thunderbirds were basically a corvette fighter, but larger, V8 powered and metal. If they wanted something directly up against the vette - a european style sports car rather than american style, what would they come up with? There are some interesting concepts out there which hint at this...

[sequoiaranger]

>The other interesting whif is the whole FMC/Chrysler Corp corvette idea - if they had produced a direct corvette fighter, what would it be like?<

Maybe the Mustang/Barracuda but a little shorter? I would opt for the "DeSoto Dervish" if I were making such a whif. The photo-shopping is crude, but you might get the idea!



Or maybe a "Studebaker Starburst" that I just now made from a shrunken Whatever-it-is.



PS--It was only '54 and '55, I believe, that the Corvette had a six cylinder engine--the Chevy 265/283/327 V-8 went in thereafter.

[puddingwrestler]

I think it really needs to be a roadster however. I'd love to see a Studebaker roadster of that era, styled by Raymond Loewy of course. Possibly a shorter starlight with no roof sort of look, but with slighlty different styling - there were two door stude convertibles I'm sure (but don't trust me on this one!), this'd have to be a bit different, more rakish and overtly sporty. Which is a big ask really when you consider how rakish the normal studes were at that time.

Also, I know they upgraded to V8, I was thinking about what'd happen if the other companies either decided on direct competition, or had the idea for the vette themselves and used the six.

[puddingwrestler]

Here's a quick bash together with cadillac styling cues. I did try keeping a formal fender line with upright headlights as it seems very important to the caddie's shape, but then the corvette just looks like a normal caddilac which has been shortened and sectioned...

[puddingwrestler]

And here, just to get all the GM fan boys hot under the collar - 1953 Ford styling cues! I've altered the body shape a little so it doesn't dip down around the doors - the 53 fords had a very straight line shape along there. I think the rear end treatment is rather nice on a vette body, and the 53 ford tail lights lend themselves to the shape very nicely!

[sequoiaranger]

Although your '53 Ford taillight look does fit in, it's kind of an axiom that show cars show off design thinking about two or three years ahead. That is, the production cars of 1956 resembled show cars of 1953/54, etc.

So if "we" are going to "Corvettize" other makes than Chevy, then we "should" look to 1956 or so styling for the conversions.  Possibly a "Ford Falcon " slightly down-sized.  Lots of possibilities.

For Studebaker, that might mean slightly downsizing the "Golden Hawk" look that stayed around for some ten years. I can remember a friend of mine's 1966 Grand Tourismo Hawk that had a similar front end to a 1956 Golden Hawk, but had Mustang-like performance. Maybe start there and retrofit for the mid-50's.

Or maybe make a Nash "Cosmopolitan GT", up-sizing that cutie into a growling hot rod.

Hudson used to dominate the stock-car circuits; maybe make a downsized Hudson Hornet into a "Corvette" (I guess convergent evolution would make it somewhat like a "Cosmopolitan GT" anyway).

Maybe some names that were later applied to larger cars gets attached to the "Corvettized" cars, like Mo-Par's "Sport Fury", "Daytona", or "Charger", Ford's "Pinto" (Oh God, erase the memory!) or "Falcon", Pontiac's "Tempest" or "Le Mans", Mercury's "Cougar" or "Comet" ,  AMC's "Pacer" or "Javelin", etc.

As a modeler, though, where does one get mid-fifties kits anymore, other than a few classics? One might have to go to the 1/43 die-cast inventory and get out the hacksaw.

All in all, it is an interesting exercise.

[jcf]

The Studebaker Hawks (1956 - 1964) were all modified versions of the 1953 Starliner/Starlight body and chassis.
The upright grill, fins (56-61) and over-chroming bastardized a beautiful design. The GT Hawk introduced in '62 at
least got rid of the fins even as it added a Thunderbird style roofline.
Yes, the original Starliner design is one of my all time favorites. 

There is at least one Starliner convertible conversion running around:

Loewy's daughter Laurence with the conversion.

[puddingwrestler]

Although your '53 Ford taillight look does fit in, it's kind of an axiom that show cars show off design thinking about two or three years ahead. That is, the production cars of 1956 resembled show cars of 1953/54, etc.

This I know  - the ford was more of a custom idea, or a 'whatif ford actually did it in 53' sort of idea.