And they did point to one future trend, the re-emergence of long hood, short deck proportions in American car styling that had been thrown out, in irony, by Exner with the wildly befinned second wave of the Forward Look. So take my opinion with a grain of salt: What Virgil Exner really intended for these cars in looks was a lot worse than what actually appeared in the fall of 1961, at least for the Plymouth. Also notable is how much of a narrow track the prototypes had, which seems decidedly out of touch with where automotive styling was going. What Exner intended for his follow-up to the Forward Look ended up sacrificed, notably the curved side glass to eliminate the catwalk section in the body.
( ED: Here’s a more complete look at what actually happened) The well-told story of how Bill Newberg “overheard” that Chevrolet would further downsize its 1962 standard line (actually the Chevy II) led to a directive to downsize the planned Plymouth’s and Dodge Dart from their customary 119 inch span to a 116 inch wheelbase loosely based on the Valiant/Lancer bodyshell. We also know that what ended up at Plymouth dealerships in 1962 wasn’t quite what was intended.
#Virgil exner 1958 ford thunderbird full size#
The 1961 Plymouth full size models were pretty much the most cartoonish production cars of the 1960s, and managed to make the canted-eyed Chryslers and reverse fin Dodges from the same year look relatively sane. We’ve already covered how bad it got, at least in looks.
( first posted ) Here I am again, resident defender of some underdog car (whether it be in looks, sales, relevancy, etc.) This time I’m going to go as far as saying the 1962 Plymouth was the best concept of what a full sized American car should be, fifteen years too early and in a questionable wrapper.
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