The Beauty of Post-War Excess

Car design has been a key part of automotive history since the very first series of carriages was built for royalty. Though not a car per se, these first carriages offered visual delight to onlookers. Painted and gold-leafed, often with family crests and other pageantry, the carriage evolved from buggy to Edwardian opulence and then finally as an appliance in the form of the durable and efficient Model T. After the Second World War, though, we would forever see the shape of our cars evolve regularly through the use of technology, metallurgy, materials development and aerodynamics. Most impressively, through coachbuilders in the European traditions and “Big Three” car studios, significant show cars and concept cars would spark the imagination of buyers and dreamers forever. So much of that drama continues today in the hands of collectors who buy, race and restore these wonderful pieces of sculpture as a reminder of those prosperous and often flamboyant times.

The 1953-1959 time period was an era of profound transformation. The cars of the early ’50s were really little more than evolutionary architecture following the forms of the ’40s. However, by 1953 (though earlier Autorama shows had been done) GM Design Chief Harley Earl ushered in the traveling spectacle of the Motorama, serving up a more forceful visual ideology—a window into a future of fanciful ideas. Rocket ships, orbital space paths, parabolic architecture and bright metallic colors all became part of the automobile design lexicon.