Classic Cars With Bob Gelber

The French have an expression for it - trompe l'oeil - meaning fool the eye. During World War II, Boeing Aircraft built fake neighborhoods on the flat roofs of their massive Seattle factories to confuse Japanese bombers. For the record, Boeing currently builds the 747 - one of the most successful airliners of all time. Clever guys. General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and most of the world's successful automobile manufacturers are pretty inventive. They are also all masters of Trompe l'Oeil. Virtually all American cars built during the post WWII era, especially during the fifties, had swoopy bodies and rear end designs that mimicked the newly introduced jet fighter planes. However, if you looked under the hood of these new cars, you would find several feet of nothingness between the radiator and the front grill. It was pure wasted space, but the added length was there to give the car a sleeker-looking exterior.

The tail fins that most American cars boasted, to use fifties parlance, were cool looking, but they were just another visual deception added to vehicles to make them appear longer. Of course, the enormous and outrageously tall tail fins on the 1959 Cadillac was another matter altogether. This facet of industrial design madness was just a glimmer of General Motors' marketing strategy to ensure that the wealthy had the right to a bigger and better tail fin. The theory here was that the more expensive Buicks had four portholes and the cheaper ones had only three. It was very easy to tell the difference between a cheap entry-level Buick Special and an expensive Buick Super. By the way, those engine-cooling ports really were eye foolery because they were sealed off and totally non-functional.

This mid-twentieth century General Motor's marketing strategy was diametrically opposed to the marketing strategy that Mercedes Benz has used for the last several decades. For instance, all the top of the S Class Mercedes models have identical bodies with different sized engines. In many cases, the price differential can be substantial between the large and powerful engine car versus the smaller engine car. All Mercedes cars have the engine code on the rear trunk. For example, a Mercedes 560 has a 5.6-liter V-8 engine, and a Mercedes 300 would have a 3 liter six cylinder. Logical and very Teutonic nomenclature. Every Mercedes fan knows that the 560 is much more expensive and considerably faster than the 300. However, in Germany trunk mounted model numbers are also an option. Why? So that anyone in Germany can buy the less expensive 300 and put a 560 number tag on the trunk. There are literally hundreds of sexy Mercedes SL convertibles running around all over the world with phony engine sizes on their trunks.

There is one car in production that really fools the eye - the Mini Cooper. First let's talk about the original Mini that appeared in 1959. It was much smaller, by about a third of the current model in size, and really looked diminutive. However, when you sat in the thing, especially with passengers, it felt like a much larger car. In the sixties, I drove all through Europe in a Mini 1000. At 6 feet 1 inch, I was in the driver's seat, with my 5 feet 10 inch wife at my side. In the back seat was my charming mother-in-law along with our four-year-old son. The trip was amazingly comfortable. Fast forward to our new retro Mini. It still looks small, especially when compared to the preponderance of SUVs that seem to be everywhere. Like the original, once inside it seems like a much larger vehicle. The Mini design is clever in the sense that you sit quite high in the car, virtually at eye level with drivers in normal sized sedans, giving you a feeling of size equality. The Mini interior is also wide with plenty of elbowroom. The only weakness of both Minis is in the trunk capacity. Since most of the interior space is dedicated to passengers, the trunk is small. But, wow, that little car is surprisingly roomy.

Car designers currently take great pride in fooling the eye. The latest trend seems to be extremely raked windshields. They make the car look streamlined, but the sun broils the car on a 90-degree day. The advantage of an extremely raked windshield is that it is less prone to stone chips. What about all those aero devices like spoilers and air dams? Truth be told, most of them are totally useless, unless of course you are going over 125 miles per hour. Visual deception in a car, or for that matter, in an individual, can be an eye opener upon closer inspection.

Bob Gelber, an automotive journalist living in the Hamptons, appears regularly on television as an automotive expert. You can email him at bobgelber@aol.com

Back to Contents