A BLANK
I, quite honestly, draw a blank when I try to picture what the next generation of automobiles might look like.
They have taken a host of impossible shapes in the past from glass display cases on large wooden wheels to sleek, little trundle bed designs - flat, feisty and fleet a-wheel And, curiously, each of them, in their time, was – or soon became acceptable – until such time as one manufacturing house decided to try something a bit different. When one did so, all save a few stubborn holdouts did the same.
It was only natural that early designers would created something generally reminiscently of of the buggy, wagon or some other beast-drawn,wheeled contrivance from their past. Over the years some deliberate efforts have been made change that bias. Some designed cars with ships in mind; others went overboard and swamped us with cars which had tails, fins and spoilers. They were long, streamlined shapes which could whiz through the air, dust, smog and rains from heaven with exemplary skill and the greatest of ease in all of their chrome-crusted beauty.
That must have been in the late 40's and early 1950's but since that era, car designing here in America, at least,
has been pretty much of an echo-oriented thing. All came to look pretty short, pudgy, generously colored little pods ...one was said to resemble a pregnant peanut... became pretty much standard until the strange times when we hit tupon thew Van craze and bounced into the SUV stage. That called for higher, boxy designs and now we see a tendency to blend limo body styles and more big car features with all the super-sturdy, and often clunky-looking, macho addtives of recent years.
We are, I suppose teetering on the very edge of yet another time co-called time of change. How modest or how violent such changes will be remains a deep mystery. Even those who do the designs have yet to flip the holy chrome wheel cover to determine which direction they will take this time.
To me, one of the most innovative body designs which comes to mind, which, as far as I know, has never been duplicated well in any other make, was the wrap-around hood feature of the sharp, sleek and sassy looking car called “The Cord”. The Cord was modern ahead of its time by at least fifty years or so, and I can remember wanting to have one when I became rich.
That never happened, of course, and I suppose must be content to remain cordless the rest of my days. Some critics speak of me as having been unplugged years ago.
A.L.M. March 9, 2004 [c459wds]
