Electel Blogspot

American automobile production ceased in February 1942 on orders from the government due to the USA's entry in World War 2.  Before that time and even during the war years carmakers contemplated postwar offerings. This post deals with Chrysler Corporation styling models from that era . The photos of styling studio models presented below suggest that Chrysler was thinking of offering a major facelift rather than a complete redesign once production could resume following hostilities. Thanks to the postwar pent-up demand for new cars, most American car builders indeed marketed facelifted prewar designs until around the 1949 model year. The images of styling models below are interspersed with production Chrysler Corporation cars so as to strongly suggest that the models were based on prewar rather than totally new bodies. Gallery Styling model from December 1941 that has a grille with some postwar Dodge detailing.  Compare the basic body with that shown in the following image. 1...

Rendering by Chrysler stylist Gil Spear - 1941 Many American cars were redesigned around 1940-1941.  Absent the USA's December 1941 entry into World War 2, the next redesigns might have appeared around 1944.  What would those cars have looked like? Some clues are offered in design models by Chrysler Corporation stylists made in the early 1940s.  A few of these are shown below.  Other models made around 1943 suggest postwar cars that might have been launched around 1947: these also are shown. As it happened, there was great pent-up demand for new cars in the early postwar years, so most American manufacturers profitably produced facelifted prewar designs until around the 1949 model year when the redesigned Chrysler Corporation line appeared.  Thanks to that delay, the projected circa-1947 designs pictured here never materialized. Regardless, I find these stillborn designs fascinating, and hope that you do too. Gallery Design for a Chrysler Windsor, May 1941. Chr...