#1
Welcome to the "Automobile flashback series."
Periodically, an "Automobile flashback series" thread will be started, where, we will cover "that" year of the automobile. The good, the bad and the ugly. Interesting facts, outrageous opinions, and amazing feats will be posted.As stated in previous episodes, don't be shy about asking questions. While we all are passionate about our current cars, none of them would be what they are today without the constant innovation, improvement, development, and even outright blunders of the past. Ask questions, post up any info or photos you may find, and let's all learn something interesting.
Make sure you also check out the previous episodes as listed in the index.
Quote, originally posted by Gateway »
Without any further ado, I present you the year 1946...
But first, lets hear that Jingle... (VH1 Jingle) I love the 40's.... I love the 40's.... I love the 40's!!!!! (VH1 Jingle)Auto racing resumed around the world in 1946. Virtually all organized racing had been suspended for the duration of WWII. To start of this episode, I'll look at some of the racing done in 1946. As usuall, contribution by others is welcome, and encouraged.
The Indy 500
The 1946 Indy 500 was won by George Robson in the number 16 Thorne Engineering Adams/Sparks car, with an average speed of 114.82 MPH.In November of 1945 Wilbur Shaw, a three time Indy 500 winner, was concerned about the future of the race. He arranged a deal between Eddie Rickenbacker (the owner if the Indianapolis Motor Speedway) and Tony Hulman. Hulman bought IMS from Rickenbacker for $750,000. Post-war racing resumed at IMS with the 1946 Indy 500. The 1946 race also saw the start of two enduring Indy 500 traditions: the singing of "Back Home Again in Indiana" sung by tenor James Melton (Jim Nabors would not sing this at the Indy 500 until 1973); and the cerimonial command "Gentlemen, start your engines!".
Tony Hulman and Wilbur Shaw in 1946
Racing in France
Quote, originally posted by http://www.gpracing.net192.com/history/prewar.cfm »
World War Two ended in Europe in May 1945 and by September the first postwar meeting was taking place. France staged three races on a circuit in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. Entries were accepted for cars which had survived the war. The first race was the Robert Benoist Trophy, a memorial to the prewar Bugatti driver who had been shot by the Gestapo. The race was won by Amedee Gordini in a 1500cc car based on Simca and Fiat parts.
The second raced, entitled the Liberation Trophy, was won by Henri Louveau in a 2 litre Maserati. The final race of the meeting was the Coupe des Prisonniers, in which Jean-Pierre Wimille took a 4.7 litre Bugatti T59 to victory. The Italians were no slower off the mark and Enzo Ferrari spent the summer working with Alfa Romeo designer Gioachino Colombo on the design of a new V12 engine. For 1946 most races were run on street circuits in places such as Nice, Paris, Geneva and Milan. Most events were won by Maserati and Alfa Romeo who ran their pre-war 1.5 litre supercharged vehicles.
At the end of 1946 the newly formed Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) decided to establish new rules for Grand Prix racing and for the first time the term Formula One was applied. The rules stated that engines could be either 1500cc supercharged units or 4500cc un-supercharged. Thus Grand Prix racing began again in 1947 with the staging of the Swiss race at Bremgarten in June of that year. Jean-Pierre Wimille was victorious in an Alfa-Romeo 158. He repeated the result with wins at Spa and in Milan. Veteran racer, Louis Chiron, won the fourth and final race of the year, the ACF Grand Prix at Lyon.Amedee Gordini
Henri Louveau
Jean-Pierre Wimille
1946 racing in Milan
Modified by 4x4s at 10:46 AM 11-27-2005
#2
1946 also saw car companies getting back to designing cars.1946 Cadillac Interceptor concept
1946 Project Y "Stout," the prototype, Fiberglas car -- designed and built at Owens Corning Fiberglas in Newark
1946 Studebaker Commander Prototype Indy Official Car
And this one is particularly interesting
Holden Prototype Car No. 1
#3
Though still competative in this year, the French teams would not long survive in GP racing after the war.France, the spiritual home of the greatest automobiles in the Vintage Era, was in ruins - and so was it's industry. Much of the shine of France's greatest automotive achievements had been tarnished in the late 1920's and early 1930's by the long, slow decline of it's greatest names.
In 1946 most of those names had been shuffled off the stage, either by the depression or by Hitler.
One that remained, in a ghostly form, was Delaunay-Belleville. Prior to WW1, the Delaunay-Belleville was considered the best luxury car in the world, trumping even Rolls-Royce and Packard. They were big cars, limousines driven by cheauffers for clients who ordered everything to spec. There was even a special model made only for Tsar Nicholas of Russia. But after the war they descended into sixes and semi-mass-production. Their lustre was considerably diminished. But they remained in business until 1950 - long after the name Delaunay-Belleville had all but vanished from popular culture.
What took place at the Delaunay-Belleville works in 1946 was a harbinger of what would happen to France's specialists in the post-war climate.
Though still offering their mid-size, six-cylinder R.16 model in updated form, Delaunay sales were virtually negligible. With factory space to fill, they engaged Robert De Rovin, who wanted to build a mircocar - the resultant product being the Rovin 3CV:
For the traditional Delaunay-Bellevilles, the end was nigh - France decided that any car rated over 15CV was a luxury car, and should be heavily taxed. This spelled disaster for Talbot-Lago, Delahaye, and the specialists who had managed to survive - but the impact wasn't immediate, and T-L in particular carried on until 1960.
For stagnant Delaunay, it was the end. The works which had once made cars for the Tsar was reduced to the cheapo Rovin, and the final Delaunays were built in 1950. The Rovin survived most of the micro-car boom in france, but finally expired in 1959, bringing an end to the story.
The Rovin was typical of the new kind of car France wanted. In the immediate postwar years, people wanted cheap, economical cars and the fiscal policies of the government, plus rationing, made these cars the only logical choice for motorists on a budget. Unlike the post-WW1 boom, there were no cheap cyclecars. But the Rovin and it's ilk were instant transportation for the masses, mostly for those who could not afford a Renault 4CV or even a Citroën 2CV.
Those makers who wished to survive stuck to smaller cars, but as before the war smaller outfits like Hotchkiss and Salmson could not survive against the bigger Citroën, Renault, Simca, and Peugeot operations. The taxation issue meant that these makers could no longer make big luxury cars as a refuge, nor risk their reputations on mini-cars for a flooded market.
By 1960 Delaunay-Belleville, Salmson, Talbot-Lago, Delahaye, Delage, Hotchkiss, Chenard-Walcker, and La Licorne were all long gone.
France, excepting the Facel-Vega and the Ligier JS2 of the 1970's, thereafter stuck to mainstream cars. France's phase as the spiritual home of the automobile was over - replaced by the United States, whom the world had been looking to for mass transit since 1907 and which had long since overtaken France in volume and industrial ability. The US had even started to digest parts of the French industry in the thirties, namely the annexation of Mathis to Ford.
In the US, things were far more rosy - but that's for later.
#4
With World War II production finished, Willys-Overland introduced its popular 'CJ'--the Civilian Jeep. By 1949, Willys was well established in a niche market for "distinctly personal" sport vehicles that kept the CJ mark alive through all the realignments of the auto industry across the next 40 years.
Production also begins on the Willys Jeep Wagon. Over 300,000 are manufactured between 1946 and 1965.
#5
As bad as things were for Delaunay-Belleville in 1946, they were even worse for many of the German manufacturers.Some concerns that had still been going before the war - Adler, Stoewer, Horch, Wanderer, Hanomag - would not be back. Long-established Stoewer, like Mercedes, faced a destroyed factory. Unlike Mercedes, Stoewer had been in such a long decline that there was no way to rebuild. And that was that.
One of the last Stoewers - a 1939 Arkona:
Adler made a few cars after the war but basically abdicated. They had no money or materials for cars and there were no buyers anyway. So they made motorcycles and typewriters and eventually just typewriters. Today what remains of the Adler company is a real estate agency.
This Adler Truck, which is pre-war, would've been typical of the few vehicles produced after the war - hardly any of which were ever sold to the public.
Hanomag had introduced a genuinely great car in 1939 - the little 1300 Autobahn sedan:
There was no way to get it back into production, so Hanomag stuck to making heavy trucks after the war, to much success into the 1970's.
Hanomag's larger car, the stunningly well-proportioned Sturm, was dead too. This one was a 1938 model:
They would be back with one final fling at a car - the Hanomag Partner in 1951 - who's design was in the works in the late forties.
The little Partner, which debuted at Frankfurt in 1951, was powered by a 700-cc two stroke, but never reached production.
The old Horch/Audi factory was now in the occupied East, and (like all Auto-Union plants) it was nationalized in 1945. The pre-war Horches were not coming back, so the factory built trucks and a car called the I.F.A.
The original IFA was little more than a 1939 DKW, with a two-stroke twin, exactly what the parent company was producing to the west.
Later on, still connected to the original Auto-Union, they produced the F9, a version of the post-war DKW.
Production of these cars was later transferred to Eisenach, which relates to the BMW story.
BMW also found itself split in two, with the Eisenach factory being nationalizd and procuding modified BMW 327/328 models of pre-war design. These became "E.M.W." until the BMW of West Germany sued to have the name (and badge) removed. The EMW badge was identical to the BMW badge except that the blue parts were changed to red.
This is a slightly later EMW, the most common style was the four-door, but many EMW 327/328 cabriolets and coupes were built as well, and they were identical in every way to a pre-war BMW. They were probably the best cars anybody behind the sloly descending Iron Curtain would get for many years, a least the best out of Eastern Germany.
The EMW and IFA were killed off, ultimately, in favor of the Wartburg - which became Eisenach's definining post-war product.
At Zwickau thing weren't looking that bad after the war, and the Horch eventually returned in 1956 - but Auto-Union, by then having severed connections, prevented them from using the Horch name and the car became the Sachsenring.
The Sachsenring resembled a Humber Hawk and was probably just as nice, but it never took off and luxury cars were not in keeping with the realities of East German life. Higher ups used Russian cars now. So it had a short life - just three years, from 1956 to 1959. In that final year both it and the Zwickau compact were both killed off in favor of the Trabant, which became the most famous (infamous?) product of Zwickau in the post-war years.
With all Auto-Union plants nationalized by the occupying forces, there was, in effect, no actual management at Auto-Union. Wanderer, Audi, and Horch were dumped likely because the people in charge could see no point in bringing them back for a nonexistant buying public.
The Borgward-Hansa group, hit hard by the war, was not yet back in 1946.
Mercedes was rebuilding - already turning out small numbers of pre-war designs virtually built by hand while the factories were rebuilt from total devostation. Opel and Ford faced similar problems but they had the corporate muscle to get back to business because of their American connections.
#6
Okay, sorry I have nothing to add, but I love reading this series. The war years were kind of boring, but I have a feeling there will be a lot more posts and a lot more interesting cars to some.My question, though, that Caddilac concept is pretty cool looking, but why does it only have one headlight. I know during the war that was sometimes necessary, but I don't understand why it would be on a post war car.
Hope my question gets answered and I can't wait till '49. I hope someone makes an extensive post on the '49 mercury. I am a european car guy, but ever since I saw Rebel Without a Cause and American Graffiti those cars have had a fond place in my heart.
#7
There are two different headlight designs on the Cadillac styling buck - one is expose, the other is a pop-up. It was not uncommon for the styling department to do two different things on either side of the car and then use a mirror to find the apperance of how it would look by mounting the mirror in the center of the buck. This way you get two prototypes to see for the price of one.The Designers of that styling buck were Bill Mitchell and (mostly) Ed Glowacke.
#8
Quote, originally posted by chris@ou » ...
My question, though, that Caddilac concept is pretty cool looking, but why does it only have one headlight. I know during the war that was sometimes necessary, but I don't understand why it would be on a post war car.
...
It's hard to find definitive information on that specific concept car, but here's an interesting tidbit about the Caddy design work going on in that period:
Quote, originally posted by 1948 CADILLAC »
The "Interceptor" proposal was the first design series to make use of the 3/8-scale model concept and to incorporate some of the ideas developed from the visit to see the P-38 Lightning. Some of the models sported an early version of the tailfin, others did not. All of them, however, were based on the single line flowing from the leading edge of the vehicle to the rear bumper. Some of the Interceptor models were even triple-prowed like the P-38, and otherwise borrowed heavily from the plane's design.So, my guess is that this was an early 3/8 scale model to bounce around and visualize design ideas. Note how, in addition to the headlight, the left front and right front are dramatically different. I could imagine this being a valid way to compare differing design ideas. [and a resonable guess it was, based on Taimar2's post while I was writing this!] As the quote above states, they were borrowing design ideas from the P-38 Lightning after seeing that gorgeous aircraft. There actually is a headlight there, integrated in the bumper which looks quite similar to an airplane landing light.
More interesting bits from the above quoted site (though it's jumping the gun a some on the 48 caddy)...
Quote » Hershey remembers working on the clay models one day in the studio in the GM engineering building and adding tailfins to a particular model of that series. When Earl came in with Nick Dreystadt, one of the top executives, he saw them and told Hershey, "Take those things off!" Being the rugged individualist that he was, Hershey left the fins on and simply covered them with a drape. Earl came back a couple days later and said the same thing: "I told you to take those things off!" Hershey just covered the fins again. Some time later, Dreystadt came into the studio, looked at the model, and said, "Thank God, you left the fins on the car! The top brass loves them!" Earl then encouraged Hershey to leave the fins on the models wherever he wished. Tailfins had gained a secure foothold in Cadillac design.
Harley Earl and his design team will have a huge influence on the next dozen or so episodes of the flashback series. They should be fun.
Modified by 4x4s at 4:21 PM 9-11-2005
#9
If the thirties was the "most interesting" era for automobiles (by my accounting anyway), then the coming fifties and sixties would be the "most fun", and I'm looking forward to reading and scribbling a lot more than lately in this series. There's only one topic I'm still going to contribute to in the Lounge from now on, and this is the one, so I'm glad that it won't be "cancelled due to lack of interest".
I've read and studied in great detail about the designers at GeeEmm, Ford, Chrysler, etc during the war years, and their "unofficial", under-the-table projects for postwar products, but I'd not seen the Cadillac "Interceptor" clay that is being discussed prior to now. That droopsnoot, popup headlamp nose treatment is pure Bill Mitchell, and further demonstrates what kind of an advanced-thinker he really was when it came to future trends in automotive design. It was Mitchell, not Earl, who will occupy the King's throne of automotive designers in future accounts, IMO. Like his work or not (I mostly do...greatly), Bill Mitchell was THE MAN when it came to both creating and terminating design trends in not only the American, but in the world's-in-general, automotive community for several decades. There was, and still is, no other designer who even approaches Mitchell's stature as a shaper of opinion, tastes, and even culture in the entire postwar automotive universe. He died in 1982, but his influence can still be felt in designs being created in studios today.
Hey, photo-people, since we're re-living 1946, how about some nice views of the most intriguing car of '46, that being the Loewy/Bourke Studebakers? And, to put them into proper perspective for the learning audience, also put-up some views of the Stude's contemporaries from Ford, Chevrolet, etc of 1946 to show just how advanced and visionary these great Indiana machines really were.
#10
Nice as they are, I think those Studebakers really belong in 1947. Studebaker turned out about 19,000 cars for the 1946 model year, all of which were circa-1942 "Skyway" Champions. The larger models did not return for '46.Studebaker was first off the line with a brand new deisgn for 1947 - the first of the "new" American cars and probably the first totally new post-war design in the world, excluding Volvos, which were produced during the war. The Loewy-Bourke cars debuted in late 1946 as 1947 models.
To be fair, the Skyway Champion was changed a bit from it's pre-war incanation, spotting a distinctly 1940's front fascia in place of the more delicate original, which looked a bit like that of a 1940 Lincoln Continental.
It was, however, very clear that something big was coming from South Bend when this car appeared at the Indy 500:
Not the official pace car, but the "official car" at Indy that year was this Studebaker Commander prototype.
In addition to this, 1947 will see the first brand-new American make since the 1932 Rockne - but it won't be entirely new.
In October 1946 Henry J. Kaiser - a wealthy ship manufacturer who'd gotten hugely rich on war contracts, partnered up with Joseph W. Frazer and started making cars under the Kaiser and Frazer nameplates.
Though Kaiser-Frazer was a new make, the company was partially the reconstituted parts of the old Graham-Paige firm, which Frazer was the director of. Graham ceased to be after 1941, leaving it's management team and many employees to seek new horizons, and most of them came to Kaiser-Frazer under Frazer's wing. Henry J. got a car company, Frazer got to keep everybody happy when the war contracts dried up.
More on Kaiser-Frazer when we hit 1947.
#11
'46 Studebaker Champion Coupe
'46 Studebaker Skyway Champion
'46 Chevy Fleetline
'46 Chevy 2 door
'46 Ford
#12
Emile Mathis was back in 1946 with what would become a parting shot.
The Mathis 333 was an unusual little three-wheeled car that bore no relation to the cars he once created as Alsace's largest volume manufacturer and one of France's biggest nameplates.
Many had speculated that Mathis, who lived in America during the whole of WW2 and had created an immensely profitable marine-engine business, as well as getting many military contracts, might create a new car company in America rather than France. But he knew better - Americans did not buy cars from low-volume manufacturers, you couldn't produce cars to the cost ratio dictated by American business. Henry J. Kaiser, mentioned above, would later learn that the independents were all going to the wall regardless of how good their products were - they could not compete with the big three on volume and production cost.
Mathis returned to Strasbourg, once the home of his great Automotive empire, and developed a new car, and this was the 333. "3" for three wheels, "3" for three seats, and "3" for three liters of fuel used every 100 km. As you can see it was a teeny-tiny economy car with aerodynamic lines and using light materials. It was front drive, using a 700-cc flat twin with a very odd cooling system. It was water cooled with individual radiators built into the cylinder heads.
Though a fundamentally good car, it never reached production. The French Government would not approve the allocation of materials to Mathis to build it - they preferred safer bets such as the Renault Juvaquatre and Peugeot 202, and the previously-mentioned Rovin mini-car, which wasn't nearly so radical as the Mathis.
Two years later he returned with a genuinely ugly sedan called the "666" - "6" for 66 hp, "6" becaue it weighed 660kg, and "6" for it's six-cylinder engine. This was also a non-starter.
France wasn't the only place that micros were being developed.
Right here in the USA, 1946 marked the debut of the longest-lasting US micro, the King Midget.
Needless to say, it hadn't quite finished development just yet...
Modified by Taimar2 at 4:53 PM 9-11-2005
Modified by Taimar2 at 7:52 PM 9-11-2005
#13
1945 marked the rebirth of the car that put us all here, but actual cars reaching the public didn't really happen until 1946.About 1800 Volkswagens were built in late 1945, from leftover parts and tooling that was now being reassembled. About 10,000 more were made in 1946. Though all of these cars were allocated to the occupying forces, some were now reaching the public. Hardly any Kdf-wagens had actually been sent to customers before the war, so this was essentially the first time the public could get the car they'd seen in ads as long ago as 1938.
The funny little car that had been designed at Hitler's behest now outranked virtually all of Germany's established industrial companies in importance, and it would pave the way for Germany's post-war economic miracle.
#14
Pardon me while my brain farts.Why I jumped the gun and placed the new-design Studebakers as '46 instead of '47 models I'll never know...I really am embarrassed, and thanx muchly for the correction. People who know me have always considered me a kind of "Rain Man" of automotive model-year knowledge. Maybe I'm going Alzheimers or sumpin'...
#15
Quote, originally posted by vwlarry » Pardon me while my brain farts. Well, I guess that serves to put this post from another thread to rest:
Quote, originally posted by Y2kSI »
That and the all-knowing tone of many of those threads probably made it less than enjoyable to read for many people.
See folks, even us old farts who actually like history can make mistakes.
#16
I've been around these forums since '97 when they first came up, and early on I made the observation that the greatest thing about automobiles and their story is that learning about them and consolidating one's knowledge is akin to peeling an onion, layer-by-layer. You'll likely never get to the end if you do it carefully enough.There aren't any "know-it-alls" in these forums, and if anyone actually thinks he/she is one, they are full of crap.
#17
It was common practice to create dual personality mock-ups. I can't find a picture but I have seen pictures of full-sized Hudson stepdowns that were two doors (one door) on one side and four door (two doors)on the other. The Henry Ford Museum had an approx. 1/12 scale model of one of these Hudsons when I was there several years ago.
How about a picture of a picture?
Modified by onebadbug at 9:21 PM 9-11-2005
Last edited by onebadbug; yesterday at 10:13 AM.
What you get isn't always what you see.
#18
As usual, I can't really contribute anything here...But a long-overdue thanks to everyone for the cool info!
#19
Michelin patented the radial tire in 1946, ushering in a new age of tire technology - at least in France. The radials had steel cords, allowing them to last up to 10 times longer than other tires. The French embraced the idea right away. But thanks to American protectionism, the radial didn't arrive in the US until 1967, when it was sold on Lincoln's Mark II.The first car to make radials standard equipment was the Citroen Traction Avant, a best-seller in Europe from 1935 to 1967.
A very famous cutaway tire showing the construction of a radial tire. This was used extensively beginning in 1946 to sell the benefits of radial tires.
A post-war Traction Avant in an obscure Michelin museum. It's believed that this car was used for testing some of the first radial tires. The photo on the right shows test equipment installed in the Traction.
The above photos were found on this website - MYSTERIOUS MICHELIN MUSEUM which has some very interesting information. I recommend all the car history buffs here take a look.
#20
Quote, originally posted by vwlarry » What there are in these forums are a goodly number of "know-a-lots", And thank God for that.
#21
1946 - Chryseler takes a shot at an automatic transmission
Quote, originally posted by http://www.allpar.com/mopar/m6.html »
The M6, sold as Presto-Matic, Fluidmatic, Tip-Toe Shift, Gyro-Matic, and Gyro-Torque, was a two-speed manual transmission with an electric overdrive unit attached. It was used on Dodge (1948-1953), DeSoto (1946-1953) and Chrysler (1946-1953) models, and was coupled to either Fluid Drive (fluid coupling) or Fluid-Torque Drive (torque converter).The driver would select either low or high range (the two manual forward gear sets) and "shift" the transmission within either range at a predetermined speed by lifting his foot off the accelerator pedal, causing the overdrive unit to kick in. The four "speeds" were Low, Low Overdrive, High, and High Overdrive.
Most people would start out in High range and somewhere between 15/20 mph, lift their foot off the accelerator, whereby the OD unit would kick in for "cruising" gear. The OD would kick out at any speed under 11 MPH, and when the car was brought to a stop. For better low-speed acceleration, you could start in the low range and first gear, at 8 mph release the gas and wait for the clunk as it shifted, then go up to 25 and shift into the high gear.
To use all four speeds, you could start in low range, and, while shifting to high range, floor the gas, which caused the transmission to kick down to the low gear, bringing third gear into play. This could provide a performance boost.
The clutch was necessary any time the gear lever was moved between Low/High, or Reverse. A fluid coupling was attached to the flywheel, and a conventional clutch was mounted in tandem.
Later models had shift quadrants to make the configuration appear as "automatic" as possible. On the 1954 Dodge, the quadrant had four positions in this order: R L Nu [Neutral] Dr, with the same H pattern as a conventional 3-speed, minus 1st gear ("L" was in the 2nd gear position, "Dr" in the 3rd gear slot.)
Bill Watson noted "The shifting of gears within low or high range was not done automatically as you had to lift your foot off the accelerator and wait for the "clunk" when the higher gear engaged. Some, including Chrysler, decribe it as a 'click,' but I used to own a 1949 DeSoto and it was a 'clunk'! The downshift occurred automatically when the car slowed down to a stop."
#22
From the primordial planetary two-speed transmission of Ford's Model T (which, though not automatic, was "clutchless", and the basis of modern automatic transmissions in principle), to the Cotal preselector system from France, to the GeeEmm Hydramatic, and to all of the other permutations, and just plain mutations on the way to the emergence of modern automatic transmissions in automobiles, I'd like to see a thread devoted to just this topic specifically.It seems like there were about a gazillion different creative approaches to solving this mechanical challenge, and most of them are pretty interesting, if not a little bit loony at times.
#23
1946 is just about played out. Why don't we just move on to '47 a little early? Or even '48? I'm anxious to start talking about Tuckers.
Posting Permissions
