Simple Lines With Elaborate Motor Car Fittings

In the Spring Cars There Are Many Little Refinements Worth Studying

UNDOUBTEDLY the art of automobile body designing in America has reached a point in its development when it is sufficiently mature and self-assured to be simple. The superfluities of line; the many curves and hollows; the gingerbread work of other years have gone—it is to be hoped forever. The wonderful mechanisms which have been combined to make up the working parts of the motor car of today are now clothed in body structures which are worthy of them. It has taken a decade for the coach builder in this country to catch up with his engineering rivals. Too long he has lagged behind or been slavishly imitative of the work of foreign craftsmen. This has not been altogether his fault. The motoring public has been too intent upon the wonders of performance which the automobile factories have unfolded before them in an ever increasing degree each year to pay sufficient attention to what might be called the dress of their motor cars.

Mechanically speaking, however, the automobile has reached so satisfactory a stage in its growth during the last two or three seasons that the body builders have had time to catch up, as it were. And the motorist has had opportunity to turn his interest in part from engine and chassis to body design, finish and beauty of line. It is proof, if that be required, of the adaptability of the American manufacturer to the needs of his public that he has been able to meet this condition so rapidly and so completely. As the automobile engineer had done before him, so be has now stepped from the position of copyist and adapter to that of creator and independent designer. Therefore, it is now certain that whereas before the war we looked to Europe for most of the worthwhile suggestions in automobile body work and body fitting, now and, in all probability, in the future we cam be considered the leaders. It will be the fault of the designers themselves if it is otherwise.

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A FEW of the interesting tendency in this newer body designing are illustrated in this issue of Vanity Fair. They show some of the broader trends of line as a whole and also some of the highly interesting details which are the bones, as it were, of the whole structure. Two of the cars illustrated, the Salamanca and the touring car with Victoria top, are good examples of the use of long straight lines. Times were when any large or costly chassis was not considered possessed of a worthy body unless it was broad of beam and as full of billowy curves as a full-rigged ship. It had to be high, massive, impressive; almost like a juggernaut, with rear seat projecting far over the fenders and rugged, bluff bows. In short, it was a monstrosity; neither fish, flesh nor fowl and unlike every other vehicle that moved in ordinary terrestrial spheres.

Only a glance at the two bodies under consideration is needed to show how far we have progressed from this conception. They have plenty of size and dignity, to be sure, but there is no suggestion of awkwardness or clumsiness, no superfluous material anywhere, no bulging. They are made up of long, direct lines, low to the ground, agile and competent looking, as clean and clear-cut as the outline of a well-bred terrier. A bump has been taken off here and a bulge there, a foot or so has been amputated from the overall width, an inch or so added to the height of the bonnet and the depth of the cowl until, by the successive refining touches of the master hand, they have been transformed and translated into things of real beauty and balance.

IF beauty, as somebody has said, is based upon a true sense of proportion, then the motor cars of 1918—with special reference, of course, to the cars of the better class and more careful workmanship—are indeed beautiful. In fact, .this is the keynote of the whole transformation which has been wrought. The proportion of body to chassis has been studied with the greatest care and attention. An infinite number of small changes have been made until the desired relation of part to part has been attained and the result has justified all the care and attention that has been spent upon the process.

There is no reason why an automobile should be an ugly vehicle—-.the products of the early designers to the contrary notwithstanding. Just because the motor car is propelled by the explosion of gasoline; or because it requires oil to keep its many delicately adjusted parts in working order is no reason why its exterior should reveal its practical characteristics and partake of the workshop. The mind of the designer should be fixed rather upon the character and the wonderful capabilities of the finished product than upon the processes by which it obtains these powers. It is essentially a thing of power, of speed, of sure and controlled resources and these qualities can be expressed in its garb. That they can be so expressed is proved by the body designs of the current season.

And the designers in their successful striving after more beautiful exteriors and more harmonious lines have not forgotten the practical utility of the cars on which they were at work. They have welcomed the suggestions of experienced motorists as to the little things which they would like to have incorporated in their cars to add to the comfort of touring or the ease and pleasure of city driving. It is precisely because the motorist of experience can be so helpful in suggestions of this character that the coach builders, strictly speaking—the men who do not manufacture automobiles but only the custom built bodies and fittings for them—have been of immense value in shaping the course of body designing of a more commercial and large-scale kind. The good things that come out of the custom body shops, where they in tum have been absorbed, in many cases, from the hints of the motorist himself, find their way quickly to the large manufacturers and are seen in a surprisingly short time, incorporated in the ready-touse car.

AMONG the good things of this kind which are pictured in these pages are the little compartment which divides the driving seat of one of the touring cars and the folding steering wheel of another open model. The latter makes it easy to get in and out of the driving compartment on the driver's side, for the wheel, instead of tilting over from front to rear as do some other folding wheels, tilts sideways. The compartment, covered by part of the seat cushion itself, is an exceedingly handy place in which to keep goggles and maps.

It will be noted that one of the cars pictured is of the close-coupled variety. This is a type which is becoming more and more popular, and deservedly so.

Vanity Fair will be delighted to give its readers more specific information than is contained in the text or captions about any of the automobiles or accessories touched upon in the Motor Department. It is only necessary to drop a line to the Editor of that Department to secure information of this character or careful and, of course, entirely impartial advice on motor cars and motoring.