Electel Blogspot

Cadlillac's 1989 Solitaire concept car was essentially a coupé version of its 1988 Voyage sedan concept.  Some background on the Solitaire is here . Of the two, I found the Voyage a better, more interesting design and wrote about it here .  Unlike the Voyage, the Solitaire had no impact of the styling of future GM production cars. All images below are from General Motors.  Some are of the Voyage for comparison purposes. Gallery Front quarter Solitaire view.  The below-the-beltline part of the car as seen here is generally similar to the Voyage, though details such as front lights and hood shaping vary. This aspect of the car is quite different from the Voyage.  The beveled trunk is an interesting touch.  But storage capacity was thereby reduced, and that might have affected sales had the Solitaire entered production. It's difficult to see in these images, but for some reason there is a see-through panel along the upper edge of the door but on the roof above...

One of General Motors' most interesting concept cars from around 1990 was the 1988 Cadillac Voyage (background here ). Unlike some concepts, this wasn't a motorless "pushmobile."  It even appeared in the 1993 Sylvester Stallone movie " Domolition Man ." The Voyage's design was wind tunnel tested, though GM stylists used enough straight-edge and angular detailing to avoid the overly-rounded appearance seen on recent Fords.  As shown below, some of the styling spirit of the Voyage found its way onto later GM production cars.  The Voyage images are from GM. Gallery Front quarter view.  Being a concept car, it has small bumpers.  Windows are large, a carryover from 1970-80 "three-box" design practice.  Note the cutline above the front wheel opening.  According to the first link above, that panel pivoted when the wheel turning angle was large enough, thus fixing (with some complexity) a problem with designs such as 1950-vintage Nashes featuring skir...

I wrote here about the 1990 Lexus, a successful new luxury brand.  In this post, the subject is Infiniti, another new Japanese luxury brand launched around the same time.  Specifically, the model Q45 (marketed model years 1990-96). Its Wikipedia entry is here . As mentioned in the earlier post, stylists and management surely paid attention to potential competitors.  Below are cars in the American market that were in production during the time Q45 styling was developed.  They were selected on the basis of having wheelbases fairly similar to that of the new Infiniti.  Their designs are compared to that of the Q45. Most of the images below are factory-sourced photos. Gallery 1985 Cadillac Sedan DeVille Basically 1970s-'80s "three box" angular styling featuring large glass areas.  The main concession to aerodynamic efficiency is the slanted windshield. 1981 Lincoln Town Car This model remained in production during the 1980s.  Its design is even more ...

So you want to launch a totally new luxury car brand.  One detail to be decided is the car's styling.  And surely Toyota stylists and management glanced at designs of the new car's intended or possible competition.  How different or similar should it look? The Lexus (Wikipedia entry here ) was launched in the USA for the 1990 model year and was a great success that has continued since. The subject of this post is Lexus styling compared to some potential competitors in production while it was gestating.  Perhaps other brands were evaluated in addition to the set shown below, but those pictured were surly among those studied.  They tend to have similar wheelbases to that of the 1990 Lexus LS 400 (2814 mm, 110.8 inches). Gallery 1985 Cadillac Sedan DeVille Since the US market was key to Lexus market planning, Cadillacs were evaluated.  The current Caddy in the Lexus size range was the Sedan DeVille that appeared for the 1985 model year.  Its styling conti...

A few years ago I wrote about what I titled "1941: Harley Earl's Very Good Year".  My leading thoughts were: "I am not alone when I claim that the 1941 model year was the best for General Motors' styling chief Harley Earl, though I think 1949 comes close.  Several designs were outstanding and the others were very good -- all this in the context of their times." To take this further, I think the best designs were for Cadillac .  And those 1941 Cadillacs were the best styled Cadillacs of all time, though I also like the 1954 line a lot along with the 1967 Eldorado. Setting aside convertibles, the sportiest looking '41 Cadillac was the 61 Series Five-Passenger Coupe, a two-door fastback design.  The present post features walkaround views of one of those cars via the Hyman, Ltd. consignment sales company. Let's take a look. Gallery In addition, here is a view of the instrument panel/dashboard area. Hyman didn't offer a side view, so here is one via...

General Motors' LaSalle (Wikipedia entry here ) was a "companion brand" to Cadillac .  LaSalles were marketed for model years 1927-1940.  They were originally slated for 1941, but management decided to drop the brand and expand the Cadillac line to make up for the loss of LaSalle. All that remains of the prospective 1941 LaSalle line are photos of LaSalle mockup models or prototypes.  Some of these are shown below along with images of comparable 1941 Cadillacs. Gallery 1941 LaSalle C-body sedan. 1941Cadillac 62 C-body sedan, Barrett-Jackson auction photo.  Aside from the grilles, the trim on these cars is similar.  Especially note the air vents on the side of the hood -- they occupy the same space, though their details differ slightly. Fastback LaSalle sedan, side view. 1941 Cadillac 61 Touring Sedan, for-sale photo.  Cadillacs and LaSalles shown here have three horizontal chrome strips abaft of their wheel openings.  The LaSalle's are wider and indent...

Harley Earl, General Motors' styling boss from the late 1920s to the late 1950s, seems to have had a soft spot in his heart for designs based on large-radius curves.  That is, highly rounded designs that could range from chubby-looking to bloated. Perhaps the most extreme examples were styling studies from around 1945-48.  Most of these never got further than the scale model stage. But one exception was the 1946-vintage Cadillac Interceptor design that was modeled in clay full-size and two prototypes were built, one of which was driven at the proving ground. Below are images of the Interceptor.  It was wisely decided not to produce it because of its fat appearance.  Nevertheless, the Interceptor is interesting due to its manifestation of a brief period of American styling thinking as well as for some of its features that entered production a few years later. Gallery Stylist sketch of an Interceptor variation. Poor-quality image of an early-1946 clay model -- perhaps ...