Dodge D5

A 1937 Dodge D5 coupe, parked on a street in Brooklyn Heights.

1963 Airstream Bambi Travel Trailer

Wally Byam was born on the Fourth of July in 1896 in Baker City, Oregon. He loved the outdoors and had a keen sense of wanderlust. But his wife did NOT. So in the late 1920s, he had the notion to attach a tent contraption on top of a Model T chassis, in order to provide her with some more comfort on their trips. He eventually built a proper trailer, and in 1931 opened the first Airstream trailer factory in California.

The business survived the Great Depression and World War II, and business started to boom after the war. He pitched the trailers to the average person, "With no worry as to where you are going to stay or how the means are going to be when you get there . . . you have plenty of carefree time to see the sights instead of hurrying through them." He also led Airstream Caravans across the globe, traveling through Mexico and Central America, Europe, Canada, and from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt. The Airstream Caravans produced a group of owners who formed a club to maintain the friendships they'd made during the trips. In 1955, the first Airstream Club was founded.

This 1963 Bambi was the company's smallest model, a single-axle trailer roughly the same length as the average passenger car. Its areodynamic body is all lightweight aluminum. Byam had worked in the areonautics industry, and took inspiration from airplanes in designing the Airstream body.

 

Wally Byam promoted his Airstreams with a rather beautifully idealistic manifesto, which reads in part:

In the heart of these words is an entire life's dream. To those of you who find in the promise of these words your promise, I bequeath this creed . . . my dream belongs to you.

• To place the great wide world at your doorstep for you who yearn to travel with all the comforts of home.
• To keep alive and make real an enduring promise of high adventure and faraway lands . . . of rediscovering old places and new interests.
• To open a whole world of new experiences . . . a new dimension in enjoyment where travel adventure and good fellowship are your constant companions.
• To encourage clubs and rallies that provide an endless source of friendships, travel fun and personal expressions.
• To lead caravans wherever the four winds blow . . . over twinkling boulevards, across trackless deserts . . . to the traveled and untraveled corners of the earth.
• To play some part in promoting international goodwill and understanding among the peoples of the world through person-to-person contact.
• To strive endlessly to stir the venturesome spirit that moves you to follow a rainbow to its end . . . and thus make your travel dreams come true.

This video gives a glimpse to the interior of an 1960s Airstream:

More history of Wally Byam and the Airstream: https://www.airstream.com/blog/the-creed/

Volkwagen Type-1 Beetle

 Almost through my series of MoMA Automania drawings.

The Volkswagen Beetle, along with its sibling, the VW microbus, is an icon of the 1960s Woodstock generation, and one of the most beloved cars ever made. In 1972, when the 15 millionth Type 1 was assembled, it surpassed the Ford Model T as the highest-selling car in history. It was quite the turnaround from some ignoble beginnings.

In the mid-1930s, Adolf Hitler ordered German carmakers to develop an automobile for the common people. This 'people's car,' or 'volkswagen,' was to be mechanically simple, inexpensive to produce, fuel efficient, and capable of accommodating a family of two adults and three children. Its production would be subsidized by the state, and consumer purchasing would also be subsidized through a state-run savings plan. Along with the development of the Autobahn, the Volkswagen program was Hitler's initiative to promote automotive culture to the German people.

In 1938, the first Volkswagen factory was built, however World War II delayed the launch of the car. After the war, the factory was turned over to the British. The factory began producing them for the occupying British Army, and they began to gain popularity throughout Europe, being faster and more fuel-efficient to other cars like the Citroën 2CV. It became known in Germany as the Käfer (German for "beetle"), the Coccinelle ("Ladybug") in France, and of course, the Beetle or Bug in America.

It began to be imported to the United States in 1949, and while it was slow to catch on, it started to gain popularity by 1959 and exploding in popularity in the early sixties. It eventually became the longest-running and most-manufactured model car ever made, remaining in production until 2003 and producing 21,529,464 cars.

History and Reference:

Hemmings: The Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle Marks Its 75th Anniversary

1957 Lincoln Premiere

This car is NOT a part of the MoMA Automania exhibit. In fact, I had a day off from my museum job and went out looking to draw something OTHER than cars, but wound up finding this guy anyway.

The Lincoln Premiere was produced between 1956 and 1960. It became Lincoln's flagship model, offering luxury options like power brakes, power steering, power windows, a 'Quadra-Lite' arrangement of four headlamps, and, of course, lots of chrome and big fins.

For more history:

https://www.hagerty.com/apps/valuationtools/1957-lincoln-premiere

https://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z9218/lincoln-premiere.aspx

Cisitalia 202 GT

The auto maker Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia - or simply, Cistalia - was founded in 1946 by Piero Dusio, an Italian businessman, race driver, and former professional soccer player. He commissioned Battista "Pinin" Farina, one of Europe's leading designers, to craft the 202. Pininfarina's radical design was to mold the body of the auto as a single unified structural skin, or monocoque, as opposed to an assemblage of parts. The body was formed out of aluminum using aerodynamic principles used in race cars. Because each car was coach-built by hand, there were multiple variations of the model. It also meant that it was very expensive and labor-intensive to produce, and only 170 were produced in total between 1947 and 1952, when the company went into receivership and was sold. This 1948 Cistalia 202 GT was the first car to enter MoMA's collection of automobiles.

More info and history:

Drivetribe:The 1946 Cisitalia 202 Was a Milestone

Supercars.net blog:1946 Cisitalia 202

Jaguar Type E

More drawings from the Automania show at MoMA, now closed.

British car maker Jaguar Car Ltd. produced the Jaguar E-Type between 1961 and 1975. Called the Jaguar XK-E in the North American market, it caused a sensation when it was introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in 1961. Enzo Ferrari declared it was "The most beautiful car ever made," and when Frank Sinatra saw it at the New York Auto Show, he said, "I want that car and I want it now!" It immediately became an iconic status symbol for the celebrity set, owned by George Harrison, Brigitte Bardot, George Best, Tony Curtis, and others.

Designed by former aeronautics engineer Malcolm Sayer, it was based on Jaguar's D-type racing car and was the fastest passenger car in the world at the time, capable of reaching sixty-two miles (97 km/h) in less than seven seconds.

More info, history, and trivia on the Jaguar E:

GQ: The A-Z of the Jaguar E-Type

 

Ferrari 641

Another set of drawings from the car exhibit at MoMA.

The Ferrari 541 is considered one of the most beautiful Formula 1 race cars of all time. It debuted in 1990 and won six of the sixteen races it entered, nearly winning the World Championship for Ferrari for the first time in seven years. Its shape was designed using exhaustive wind-tunnel studies and a precise size/weight/materials formula to maximize its aerodynamic properties. With minimal drag, it could handle at speeds over 200 mph (322 kph) and withstand lateral forces of up to 4G.

On the left is the Ferrari logo. Agip is the Italian gas company. The six-legged dog of its logo represents the four wheels of the car with the two legs of the driver.

Fiat 500F

The Fiat 500 City Car was conceived as an economic car for the masses. Three feet shorter than a Volkswagen Beetle, it was compact yet spacious enough to accommodate four passengers. Cheap but reliable, it became highly popular in Italy and then throughout Europe. Designed by Dante Giacosa, who was lead engineer for Fiat for almost 25 years, it was launched in 1957 and remained in production until 1973.

Porsche 911

  Another car featured in the MoMA Automania show.

The Porsche 911 (pronounced "nine eleven") was designed by Butzi Porsche, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who created the Volkswagen Beetle. Production of the Porsche 911 began in 1964 and continued through 1989. It was initially called the "Porsche 901" after its internal project number, but rival car-maker Peugeot claimed to have exclusive rights in France to car names formed by three numbers with a zero in the middle. That seems like a very specific right, but there you go.  

The April 1965 issue of Car and Driver raved:

No Contest. This is the Porsche to end all Porsches - or, rather, to start a whole new generation of Porsches. Porsche's new 911 model is unquestionably the finest Porsche ever built. More than that, it's one of the best Gran Turismo cars in the world, certainly among the top three or four.

Porsche enthusiasts used to insist that the 365 model was as nearly-perfect an automobile as had ever been designed, an immutable classic that couldn't be improved on. Oh, no? Put a familiar 356 up alongside a 911. Only yesterday, the 356 seemed ahead of its time. Today you realize its time has passed; the 356 leaves you utterly unimpressed and you can't keep your eyes off the 911. The 911 is a superior car in every respect ... the stuff legends are made of.

Citroën DS 23

Until recently, the Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Modern Art was occupied by several classic cars as part of the exhibit, Automania. Those are gone now, though the exhibit continues through January 2021 with some more cars inside, which I plan to get to soon. Here's the first of this series. . .

The French Citroën DS was one of the most ambitious car productions of all time. It created a sensation when it debuted at the 1955 Paris Auto Show. Stylish and expensive, the Citroën was a aspirational symbol of France's resurgence after the devastation of World War II. Its body was designed by Italian sculptor and industrial designer Flaminio Bertoni. In addition to its futuristic design, it featured much advanced technology and innovations such as hydraulic suspension. "DS" was a play on the pronunciation of the French word déesse, meaning "goddess." Of the Citroën, French literary theorist Roland Barthes said, "It is obvious that the new Citroën has fallen from the sky inasmuch as it appears at first sight as a superlative object . . .  We must not forget that an object is the best messenger of a world above that of nature." Over 1.5 million were sold over its 20-year production run between 1955 and 1975.

Henry J

I was in North Carolina for a bit this summer, and came across a warehouse with some old abandoned vehicles rusting away outside. This guy is the remnants of a 1951 Henry J.

The Henry J was produced by the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation between 1950 and 1954. It was intended as a low-budget entry into the small car market, meant to appeal to less affluent consumers. To keep the price low, the car was designed to be extremely bare-bones, lacking a glove compartment, armrests, sun visors, and even a rear trunk lid! (Owners accessed the trunk by folding down the rear seat.)

When the prototype was introduced, a contest was held to name the car. The winner was "The Henry J," which was an amazing co-incidence given that the Chairman of Kaiser-Frazer was Henry J Kaiser. While largely forgotten today, Kaiser was once one of the most popular men in America. He was known as the "Father of Modern Shipbuilding," and was responsible for mass-producing Liberty Ships, cargo ships that supplied the war effort in the Second World War. The Kaiser Shipyards could complete a ship in four days. After the war, a poll ranked him as the foremost civilian war-hero, crediting him with having "done more to help the president win the war than any other civilian." He was a contender for Roosevelt's second Vice President, and was so popular that they made a comic book of his life! He was also the "Kaiser" in "Kaiser Permanente."

The Henry J was not one of Kaiser's successes, however. The car did not catch on with the public, and production far exceeded demand. By 1953, production of the cars had halted. Some went on to have a second life as hot rods, as seen here. Their lightweight bodies combined with a muscular engine makes them super-speedy.

Process:

REFERENCES

Classic Car History.com

Old Cars Weekly.com

Kaiser Permanente - Our History: Henry J Kaiser: America's No. 1 Civilian Hero

Triumph TR6

A Triumph TR-6 parked in Windsor Terrace. Cars are surprisingly tricky, with all their curves and angles, and getting the proportions just a little bit off can make them look completely wrong. I almost got this one right.

Mercury Comet Caliente

1964 Mercury Comet Caliente. It's been parked down the street from my apartment for months. I've never seen it moved, even for street cleaning. I don't know how it avoids being ticketed. It's full of bike parts and straw hats.

Inktober 2019 Week 2

Week 2

3 Classics

Three classic cars I came across over the past few months.

I'm not particularly interested in cars. I don't really know anything about various makes or models, how they work, or anything. And I'm not particularly interested in drawing them, either, except if they're vintage cars. There is something cool about old cars. They have a sense of design and style that's missing from most modern vehicles. But I wonder if that's just a misplaced sense of romanticization. Maybe the original owners of these cars didn't see them as super-stylish vehicles. They were just cars. And maybe decades from now, people will see an old car on the street and say, "Check out that cool Toyota Corolla! They sure don't make them like that anymore!"