What’s the most excessive American car design of all time?

(UPDATED FROM 5/1/2020)

American automakers have always had a penchant for extravagant designs that can look overwrought compared to imports.

Of course, this has been changing of late as foreign automakers — particularly the Japanese — have tried to out-Detroit Detroit. We have discussed recent design trends (go here), so let’s get historical. What’s the all-time most excessive American car design?

Going back just a decade, one might argue that the Cadillac Escalade is the loudest vehicle to reach mass production. However, like the Lincoln Navigator, this sport utility vehicle is naught but a low-priced truck with some extra bling. That’s too plebeian to be truly excessive.

What’s the ultimate vehicle to outdo the Joneses?

Let’s go back another decade — how about the Hummer? This is arguably the purest form of automotive Alpha-male ever mass produced in the United States.

That’s not a bad nomination. Nevertheless, the Hummer is essentially a repurposed military vehicle. While the military might have been a key part of the American self image for more than a half century, achieving the “good life” has arguably been of greater importance. Thorstein Veblen (1994) described this as “conspicuous consumption.”

For many people it’s not enough to merely live an affluent lifestyle — it must be seen by everyone else. That’s because when you strip away all of the pleasantries, what’s really going on is a competition whereby “one tries to keep up with the Joneses, the Joneses are trying to keep up with the neighbor on the other side, and up the line to Liberace, the Rockefellers . . . and Bill Gates” (Bell, 2004; p. 47).

What better way to one-up your neighbor than to buy a car that really stands out? The American auto industry has always exploited this widespread human tendency. However, the late-50s strikes me as the time period when Detroit automakers pressed hardest against the boundaries of good taste in their intense competition to produce the biggest, glitziest and most powerful cars of all.

Late-50s luxury cars displayed epic excessiveness

This can be seen most obviously in the luxury car field. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler each threw extraordinary amounts of money into their luxury car brands. And perhaps because Detroit had not yet been humbled by the rise of imports, their resulting car designs had a certain swagger that has never been duplicated.

Also see ‘Vance Packard: Blurring of auto status in late-50s helped imports’

This was symbolized by the tail fin. Cadillac started this styling fad and arguably reached the pinnacle of outrageousness with its 1959 models (go here for a photo gallery and here for a fake ad). I have described this as the sci-fi look.

William Mitchell defended adding tail fins to the 1948 Cadillac, pointing out that this was the first American car whose rear end had a distinct identity. Even so, when he became GM’s head of styling in 1959, Michell made it a priority to “clean them down” (Crippen, 1987). Over the next few years Cadillac’s tail fins shrank substantially and in 1962 the brand began transitioning away from the sci-fi to the brougham look.

Also see ‘1963 Cadillac: The car that mainstreamed the brougham look’

Meanwhile, the 1958 Lincoln came out with the biggest luxury car of that era. The overall length of 229 inches was a foot longer than that year’s Cadillac — and was not surpassed again by any of the Big Three luxury brands until the 1969 Imperial arrived. Meanwhile, the Lincoln’s 131-inch wheelbase was never topped except by limited-production Cadillac models such as the Fleetwood Brougham (go here for further discussion).

Chrysler goes extra mile in outdoing GM and Ford

Despite the impressive displays of excess by Cadillac and Lincoln, to my mind the 1961 Imperial should get the top prize. This car was almost as big as a Lincoln and everything about its styling was over the top, from the outboard headlights to a jukebox instrument panel.

This was a far cry from the 1957-58 Imperial, which had a relatively understated and nicely integrated look (at least for the late-50s). The 1961 restyling ditched all that in favor of bombastic design elements which didn’t come together into a cohesive whole.

For example, the jet-fighter tail fins quickly grabbed one’s attention, but not in a good way. The lovely arc of the 1957-59’s fins were replaced with awkwardly jutting protrusions.

“The Imperial fins grew to ridiculous heights,” acknowledged Peter Grist, the biographer for Chrysler styling head Virgil Exner. The 1961-63 models “had the added anguish of having to carry Exner’s freestanding headlamps held in large chrome pods, the neo-classic styling lost on the leviathan car” (2007, p. 116).

Automotive historian Richard Langworth was more pointed in his assessment: “The 1961 Imperial was an ungainly package, exemplifying everything that was wrong with an era now rightly under fire” (1993, pp. 150-151).

Was the 1961 Imperial an act of desperation?

One can offer a number of rationales for the Imperial’s excessiveness. Grist pushes at least some of the blame to Exner subordinates who allegedly went wild while he was recuperating from a heart attack. One designer even cheerfully acknowledged his contribution (go here).

All that sounds like an excuse to me. The key factor which gave Exner more room to fly his stylistic freak flag may have been corporate desperation. Chrysler invested heavily in the Imperial beginning in 1955, when it became a stand-alone brand.

Also see ‘1961-63 Imperial: Ode to Virgil Exner’s neo-classical excesses’

Even though the all-new 1957 body offered exclusive innovations such as curved side glass, only once in the next four model years did Imperial sales seriously challenge Lincoln for second place. Perhaps product planners decided that more aggressive styling was needed to draw attention away from competitors with far greater pedigree in the luxury car field.

That’s too bad, because the Imperial’s stylistic excesses worked against the brand’s greatest strength: It offered the most roadworthy American luxury car of its time. Indeed, the Imperial’s underpinnings would have been a much better match with the 1961-63 Lincoln Continental’s exceptionally trim European look (go here and here for further discussion).

Oh, the irony that the Imperial is now viewed as an embarrassment while the Lincoln Continental is a legend (Niedermeyer, 2013).

NOTES:

This is an updated version of an article originally posted March 12, 2018 and expanded on May 1, 2020.

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RE:SOURCES

• Bell, Michael Mayerfeld. 2004. An invitation to environmental sociology. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
• Crippen, David R.; 1987. “The Reminiscences of William L. Mitchell.” Automobile in American Life and Society. Posted May 8; accessed July 5, 2019.
• Grist, Peter; 2007. Virgil Exner, Visioneer. Veloce Publishing, Dorchester, England.
• Langworth, Richard M.; 1993. Chrysler & Imperial 1946-1985: The Classic Postwar Years. Motorbooks, Minneapolis, MN.
• Niedermeyer, Paul; 2013. “Curbside Classic: 1965 Lincoln Continental — The Last Great American Luxury Car.” Curbside Classic. Posted April 17.
• Veblen, Thorstein. 1994. The theory of the leisure class. New York: Dover Publications Inc.

ADVERTISING & BROCHURES

• oldcaradvertising.com: Lincoln (1958)
• oldcarbrochures.org: Cadillac (1959); Imperial (1957, 1961); Lincoln (1961)