Sunroof

Sunroof (pronounced suhn-roof)

(1) A section of an automobile roof (sometimes translucent and historically called a moonroof) which can be slid or lifted open.

(2) In obstetrics, a slang term used by surgeons to describe the Caesarean section.

1952: A compound word, the construct being sun + roof.  Sun was from the Middle English sonne & sunne, from the Old English sunne, from the Proto-West Germanic sunnā, from the Proto-Germanic sunnǭ, from the primitive Indo-European shwen-, oblique of sóhw (sun).  The other forms from the Germanic included the Saterland Frisian Sunne, the West Frisian sinne, the German Low German Sünn, the Dutch zon, the German Sonne and the Icelandic sunna.  The forms which emerged without Germanic influence included the Welsh huan, the Sanskrit स्वर् (svar) and the Avestan xᵛə̄ṇg.  The related forms were sol, Sol, Surya and Helios.  Roof was from the Middle English rof, from the Old English hrōf (roof, ceiling; top, summit; heaven, sky), from the Proto-Germanic hrōfą (roof).  Throughout the English-speaking world, roofs is now the standard plural form of roof.  Rooves does have some history but has long been thought archaic and the idea there would be something to be gained from maintaining rooves as the plural to avoid confusion with roof’s the possessive never received much support.  Despite all that, rooves does seem to appear more than might be expected, presumably because there’s much more tolerance extended to the irregular plural hooves but the lexicographers are unimpressed and insist the model to follow is poof (an onomatopoeia describing a very small explosion, accompanied usually by a puff of smoke), more than one poof correctly being “poofs”.  In use, a poof was understood as a small event but that's obviously a spectrum and some poofs would have been larger than others so it would have been a matter of judgement when something ceased to be a “big poof” and was classed an explosion proper.  Sunroof is a noun (sometimes hyphenated); the noun plural is sunroofs.

1973 Lincoln Continental Mark IV with moonroof.

Sunroofs existed long before 1952 but that was the year the word seems first to have been adopted by manufacturers in Detroit.  The early sunroofs were folding fabric but metal units, increasingly electrically operated, were more prevalent by the early 1970s.  Ford, in 1973, introduced the word moonroof (which was used also as moon roof & moon-roof) to describe the sliding pane of one-way glass mounted in the roof panel over the passenger compartment of the Lincoln Continental Mark IV (1972-1976).  Moonroof soon came to describe any translucent roof panel, fixed or sliding though the term faded from use and all such things tend now to be thought sunroofs.

Open (left) and shut (centre) case: 1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV (right) with Moonroof.

According to Ford in 1973, a “sunroof” was an opening in the roof with a sliding hatch made from a non-translucent material (metal or vinyl) while a “moonroof” included a hatch made from a transparent or semi-transparent substance (typically then glass).  The advantage the moonroof offered was additional natural light could be enjoyed even if the weather (rain, temperature etc) precluded opening the hatch.  A secondary, internal, sliding hatch (really an extension of the roof lining) enabled the sun to be blocked out if desired and in that configuration the cabin’s ambiance would be the same whether equipped with sunroof, moonroof or no sliding mechanism of any kind.  Advances in materials mean many of what now commonly are called “sunroofs” are (by Ford’s 1973 definition) really moonroofs but use of the latter term is now rare.

Lindsay Lohan standing through a sunroof: Promotional photo-shoot for Herbie Fully Loaded (2005).

Unlike many manufacturers, for many years Volkswagen maintained specific “Sunroof” models in the Beetle (Type 1) range.  When in 1945 the British military occupation forces assumed control of the Volkswagen factory and commenced production of civilian models (those made since 1938 delivered almost exclusively to the German armed forces or Nazi Party functionaries), one of the first organizational changes was to replace Herr Professor Ferdinand Porsche’s (1875–1951) internal type designations with a new set and these included the 115 (Standard Beetle Sunroof Sedan (LHD (left-hand drive)), 116 (Standard Beetle Sunroof Sedan (RHD (right-hand drive)), 117 (Export Deluxe Beetle Sunroof Sedan (LHD) & Export Deluxe Beetle Sunroof Sedan (RHD).  The original sunroof was a folding, fabric apparatus and this remained in use until 1963, a steel, sliding (manually hand-cranked) unit was fitted after the release of the 1964 range.  The Beetle used in the original film (The Love Bug (1968)) was a 1963 Sunroof Beetle; at the time they were readily available at low cost but by 2004-2005 when Herbie: Fully Loaded was in production, they were less numerous and some of those used in the filming were actually 1961 models modified (to the extent required in movies) for purposes of continuity.  Interestingly, the one which appears in most scenes appears to be a 1964 model which implies the folding sunroof was at some point added, not difficult because the kits have long been available.

Caesarean section post-operative scar: C-section scar revision is now a commonly performed procedure.

Manufacturers in the 1970s allocated resources to refine the sunroof because, at the time, the industry’s assumption was the implications of the US NHTSA's (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) 208 (roll-over protection, published 1970) fully would be realized, outlawing both convertibles and hardtops (certainly the four-door versions).  FMVSS 208 was slated to take effect in late 1975 (when production began of passenger vehicles for the 1976 season) with FMVSS 216 (roof-crush standards) added in 1971 and applying to 1974-onwards models.  There was a “transitional” exemption for convertibles but it ran only until August 1977 (a date agreed with the industry because by then Detroit’s existing convertible lines were scheduled to have reached their EoL (end of life)) at which point the roll-over and roof-crush standards universally would be applied to passenger vehicles meaning the only way a “convertible” could registered for use on public roads was if it was some interpretation of the “targa” concept (Porsche 911, Chevrolet Corvette etc), included what was, in effect a roll-cage (Triumph Stag) or (then more speculatively), some sort of device which in the event of a roll-over would automatically be activated to afford occupants the mandated level of protection and Mercedes-Benz later would include such a device on the R129 SL roadster (1998-2001).  Although in 1988 there were not yet “pop-ups” on the internet to annoy us, quickly the press dubbed the R129’s innovative safety feature a “pop-up roll bar”, the factory called the apparatus automatischer Überrollbügel (automatic rollover bar).  It was spring loaded and pyrotechnically activated, designed fully to deploy in less than a half-second if sensors detected an impending rollover although the safety-conscious could at any time raise it by pressing one of the R129’s many buttons.

Alternative approaches (partial toplessness): 1973 Triumph Stag in Magenta (left) and 1972 Porsche 911 Targa in silver (right).  The lovely but flawed Stag (1970-1977) actually needed its built-in roll cage for structural rigidity because it's underpinnings substantially were unchanged from the Triumph 2000 sedan (1963-1977) on which it was based.

Despite the myths which grew to surround the temporary extinction of convertibles from Detroit’s production lines, at the time, the industry was at best indifferent about their demise and happily would have offered immediately to kill the breed as a trade-off for a relaxation or abandonment of other looming safety standards.  As motoring conditions changed and the cost of installing air-conditioning fell, convertible sales had since the mid-1960s been in decline and the availability of the style had been pruned from many lines.  Because of the additional engineering required (strengthening the platform, elaborate folding roofs with electric motors), keeping them in the range was justifiable only if volumes were high and it was obvious to all the trend was downwards, thus the industry being sanguine about the species loss.  That attitude didn’t however extend to a number of British and European manufacturers which had since the early post-war years found the US market a place both receptive and lucrative for their roadsters and cabriolets; for some, their presence in the US was sustained only by drop-top sales.  By the 1970s, the very existence of the charming (if antiquated) MG & Triumph roadsters was predicated upon US sales.

High tech approach (prophylactic toplessness): Mercedes-Benz advertising for the R129 roadster (in the factory's Sicherheitsorange (safety orange) used for test vehicles).

The play on words uses the German wunderbar (“wonderful” and pronounced vuhn-dah-baah) with a placement and context so an English speaking audience would read the word as “wonder bar”; it made for better advertising copy than the heading: Automatischer Überrollbügel.  This was a time when the corporate tag-line “Engineered like no other car” was still a reasonable assertion.  It had been the spectre of US legislation which accounted for Mercedes-Benz not including a cabriolet when the S-Class (W116) was released in 1972, leaving the SL (R107; 1971-1989) roadster as the company’s only open car and it wasn’t until 1990 a four-seat cabriolet returned with the debut of the A124. 

Chrysler was already in the courts to attempt to have a number of the upcoming regulations (focusing on those for which compliance would be most costly, particularly barrier crash and passive safety requirements) so instead of filing their own suit, a consortium of foreign manufacturers (including British Leyland & Fiat) sought to “append themselves” to the case, lodging a petition seeking judicial review of roll-over and roof-crush standards, arguing that in their present form (ie FMVSS 208 & 216), their application unfairly would render unlawful the convertible category (on which the profitability of their US operation depended).  A federal appeals court late in 1972 agreed and referred the matter back to NHTSA for revision, ordering the agency to ensure the standard “…does not in fact serve to eliminate convertibles and sports cars from the United States new car market.”  The court’s edit was the basis for the NHTSA making convertibles permanently exempt from roll-over & roof crush regulations.  That ensured the foreign roadsters & cabriolets lived on but although the ruling would have enabled Detroit to remain in the market, it regarded the segment as one in apparently terminal decline and had no interest in allocating resources to develop new models, happily letting existing lines expire.

The “last American convertible” ceremony, Cadillac Clark Street Assembly Plant, Detroit, Michigan, 21 April 1976.

One potential “special case” may have been the Cadillac Eldorado which by 1975 was the only one of the few big US convertibles still available selling in reasonable numbers but the platform was in its final years and with no guarantee a version based on the new, smaller Eldorado (to debut in 1978) would enjoy similar success, General Motors (GM) decided it wasn’t worth the trouble but, sensing a “market opportunity”, promoted the 1976 model as the “Last American convertible”.  Sales spiked, some to buyers who purchased the things as investments, assuming in years to come they’d have a collectable and book a tidy profit on-selling to those who wanted a (no longer available) big drop-top.  Not only did GM use the phrase as a marketing hook; when the last of the 1976 run rolled off the Detroit production line on 21 April, the PR department, having recognized a photo opportunity, conducted a ceremony, complete with a “THE END OF AN ERA 1916-1976”) banner and a “LAST” Michigan license plate.  The final 200 Fleetwood Eldorado convertibles were “white on white on white”, identically finished in white with white soft-tops, white leather seat trim with red piping, white wheel covers, red carpeting & a red instrument panel; red and blue hood (bonnet) accent stripes marked the nation’s bicentennial year.

The “last American convertible” ceremony, Cadillac Clark Street Assembly Plant, Detroit, Michigan, 21 April 1976.

Of course in 1984 a convertible returned to the Cadillac catalogue so some of those who had stashed away their 1976 models under wraps in climate controlled garages weren’t best pleased and litigation ensued, a class action filed against GM alleging the use of the (now clearly incorrect) phrase “Last American Convertible” had been “deceptive or misleading” in that it induced the plaintiffs to enter a contract which they’d not otherwise have undertaken.  The suit was dismissed on the basis of there being insufficient legal grounds to support the claim, the court ruling the phrase was a “non-actionable opinion” rather than a “factual claim”, supporting GM's contention it had been a creative expression rather than a strict statement of fact and thus did not fulfil the criteria for a “deceptive advertising” violation.  Additionally, the court found there was no actual harm caused to the class of plaintiffs as they failed to show they had suffered economic loss or that the advertisement had led them to make a purchase they would not otherwise have made.  That aspect of the judgment has since been criticized with dark hints it was one of those “what’s good for General Motors is good for the country” moments but the documentary evidence did suggest GM at the time genuinely believed the statement to be true and no action was possible against the government on several grounds, including the doctrines of remoteness and unforeseeability.

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004, US president 1981-1989). in riding boots & spurs with 1938 LaSalle Series 50 Convertible Coupe (one of 819 produced that year), Warner Brothers Studios, Burbank California, 1941.  

LaSalle was the lower-priced (although marketed more as "sporty") "companion marque" to Cadillac and a survivor of GM's (Great Depression-induced) 1931 cull of brand-names, the last LaSalle produced in 1940.  Mr Regan remained fond of Cadillacs and when president was instrumental is shifting the White House's presidential fleet to them from Lincolns.  Although doubtlessly Mr Reagan had fond memories of top-down motoring in sunny California (climate change not yet making things too hot, too often for them to be enjoyed in summer) and was a champion (for better and worse) of de-regulation, it's an urban myth he lobbied to ensure convertibles weren't banned in the US.  

Following Lindsay Lohan's example: President Xi standing through a sunroof, reviewing military parade in Hongqi L5 state limousine, Beijing, 2019.

The highlight of the ceremonies marking the 70^th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was the military parade, held in Beijing on 1 October 2019.  Claimed to be the largest military parade and mass pageant in China's 4,000-odd year history (and the last mass gathering in China prior to the outbreak in Wuhan of became the COVID-19 pandemic), the formations were reviewed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping (b 1953; paramount leader of the PRC since 2012).  The assembled crowd was said without exception to be “enthusiastic and happy” and the general secretary's conspicuously well-cut Mao suit was a nice nostalgic touch.

Two generals of the Belarus army take the salute standing, in Honggi L5 Parade Convertibles, Minsk, Belarus, June 2017.

Independence Day in Belarus is celebrated annually on 3 June and there is always a significant military component.  Other than the PRC, Belarus is the only known operator of the Honqqi and the four-door convertible parade cars were apparently a "gift" (as opposed to foreign aid) from the Chinese government but the aspect of this photograph which attracted some comment was whether the hats worn by generals in Belarus were bigger than the famously imposing headwear of the army of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea)); analysts of military millinery appeared to conclude the dimensions were similar.  Purists traditionally describe this style of coach-work as "four-door cabriolet" and it was "Cabriolet D" in the Daimler-Benz system but the "parade convertible" is a distinct breed and often includes features such as grab bars for those standing, microphones and loud-speakers so the “enthusiastic and happy” crowd miss not one word.   

Hongqi L5 state limousine.

The car carrying President Xi was the Hongqi L5, the state limousine of the PRC, the coachwork styling a deliberately retro homage to the Hongqi CA770, the last in the line (dating from 1958) of large cars built almost exclusively for use by the upper echelons of the CCP.  Most of the earlier cars were built on the large platforms US manufacturers used in the 1960s and were powered by a variety of US-sourced V8 engines but the L5 was wholly an indigenous product, built with both a 6.0 litre (365 cubic inch) V12 and 4.0 litre (245 cubic inch) V8 although neither configuration is intended for high-performance.  Interestingly, although Hongqi L5 have produced a version of the L5 with four-door convertible coachwork as a formal parade car and they have been used both in the PRC and in Belarus, the general secretary conducted his review in a closed vehicle with a sunroof.

US President Richard Nixon (1913-1994, US president 1969-1974) with Anwar Sadat (1918–1981; President of Egypt 1970-1981) in a 1967 Cadillac convertible, Alexandria, Egypt, June 1974.  On that day, the motorcade was 180-strong and unlike the reception his appearance in the US now induced, the Egyptian crowd really did seem genuinely enthusiastic and happy.  Within two months, in disgrace because of his part in the Watergate Affair, Nixon would resign.

The CCP didn’t comment on the choice of a car with a sunroof and it may have been made on technical grounds, the provision of a microphone array presumably easier with the roof available as a mounting point and given the motorcade travelled a higher speed than a traditional parade, it would also have provided a more stable platform for the general secretary.  It’s not thought there was any concern about security, Xi Jinping (for a variety of reasons) safer in his capital than many leaders although heads of state and government became notably more reticent about travelling in open-topped vehicles after John Kennedy (1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) was assassinated in 1963.  Some, perhaps encouraged by Richard Nixon being greeted by cheering crowds in 1974 when driven through the streets of Alexandria (a potent reminder of how things have changed) in a Cadillac convertible, persisted but after the attempt on the life of John Paul II (1920–2005; pope 1978-2005) in 1981, there’s been a trend to roofs all the way, sometimes molded in translucent materials of increasing chemical complexity to afford some protection from assassins.

Military parade marking the 70^th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, Beijing, China, 1 October 2019.  Great set-piece military parades like those conducted by the PRC and DPRK (recalling the spectacles staged by both Nazi Germany (1933-1945) and the Soviet Union (1922-1991) are now packaged for television and distribution on streaming platforms and it may be Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) was hoping the "Grand Military Parade" he scheduled in 2025 for his 79^th birthday (ostensibly to celebrate 250 years since the formation of the US Army) would display the same impressive precision in chorography.     

Covering all possibilities during the 24 hour cycle.  US advertisement (1974) for the Renault 17 Gordini Coupe Convertible, the Gordini tag adopted as a "re-brand" of the top-of-the-range R17 (1971-1979).  Gordini was a French sports car producer and tuning house, absorbed by Renault in 1968, the name from time-to-time used for high-performance variants of various Renault models.

Renault over the decades made the occasional foray into the tempting US market but all ended badly in one way or another, their products, whatever their sometimes real virtues, tending not to be suited to US driving habits and conditions.  Sunroofs had long been popular in Europe and, noting (1) what was assumed to be the demise of the convertible and (2) Lincoln's coining of "moon roof", Renault decided Americans deserved a sunroof, moonroof & starroof, all in one.  Actually, they got even more because there was also a removable, fibreglass hardtop for the winter months, Renault correctly concluding there would be little demand for a rainroof.  Physically large as it had to be, unlike a targa top, the 17's panel was intended (like other hardtops) to be stored in a garage until the warmer months.  One quirk of the R17's nomenclature was in Italy, in deference to the national heptadecaphobia, the car was sold as the R177 but the Italians showed little more interest than the Americans.

Porsche, sunroofs, weight distribution and centres of gravity 

Porsche 917K, Le Mans, 1970.

Porsche in the early 1970s enjoyed great success in sports car racing with their extraordinary 917 but greatly innovation and speed disturb the clipboard-carriers at the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation) which is international sport's dopiest regulatory body.  Inclined instinctively to ban anything interesting, the FIA outlawed the 917 in sports car racing so Porsche turned its glance to the Can-Am (Canadian-American Challenge Cup) for unlimited displacement (Group 7) sports cars, then dominated by the McLarens powered by big-displacement Chevrolet V8s.  Unable to enlarge the 917's Flat-12 to match the power of the V8s and finding their prototype Flat-16 too bulky, Porsche resorted to forced aspiration and created what came to be known as the "TurboPanzer", a 917 which in qualifying trim took to the tracks with some 1,500 horsepower (HP).  There's since been nothing quite like it and for two years it dominated the Can-Am until the first oil shock in 1973 put an end to the fun.  However, the lessons learned about turbocharging the factory would soon put to good use.

The widow-maker: 1979 Porsche 930 Turbo (RoW (rest of the world (ie Non-NA (North American) market) model) in the “so 1980s” Guards Red with “Sunroof Delete” option.

Although an RoW car, this one has been "federalized" for registration in the US including the then required sealed-beam headlights, fitted inside the "sugar-scoop" housings.  Curiously, although the term “sunroof delete option” is often applied to the relative few 930s with solid metal roofs, there was at the time no such 930 option code and, the sunroof being listed as “standard equipment” on 930s, if a customer requested one not be fitted, what the factory did was not include option 9474 (electric sunroof) on the build sheet.  Later the companion option codes 650 (Sunroof) and 652 (Delete Sunroof) became part of the list for all models.  Rare though it may be in some Porsches, for some the “sunroof delete” thing is surprisingly desirable and in the aftermarket, it's possible to purchase “sunroof delete” panels which convert a sunroof-equipped car into one with a solid metal roof.  They are bought usually by those converting road-going cars for track use, the removal of the 29 lb-odd (13 kg) assembly not only saving weight but also lowering the centre of gravity.

1977 Porsche 930 “Sunroof Coupé” in Talbot Yellow.

Introduced in 1975, the 911 Turbo (930 the internal designation) had been intended purely as a homologation exercise (al la the earlier 911 RS Carrera) so the engine could be used in competition but so popular did it prove it was added to the list as a regular production model and one has been a permanent part of the catalogue almost continuously since.  The additional power and its sometimes sudden arrival meant the early versions were famously twitchy at the limit (and such was the power those limits were easily reached if not long explored), gaining the machine the nickname “widow-maker”.  There was plenty of advice available for drivers, the most useful probably the instruction not to use the same technique when cornering as one might in a front-engined car and a caution that even if one had had a Volkswagen Beetle while a student, that experience might not be enough to prepare one for a Porsche Turbo.  When stresses are extreme, the physics mean the location of small amounts of weight become subject to a multiplier-effect and the advice was those wishing to explore a 930's limits of adhesion should get one with the rare “sunroof delete” option, the lack of the additional weight up there slightly lowering the centre of gravity.  However, even that precaution may only have delayed the inevitable and possibly made the consequences worse, one travelling a little faster before the tail-heavy beast misbehaved.

Porsche 911 Carrera S, Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, June 2012.

Although it seems improbable, when in 2012 Lindsay Lohan crashed a sunroof-equipped Porsche 911 Carrera, it's not impossible the unfortunate event may have been related to the slight change in the car's centre of gravity when fitted with a sunroof.  She anyway had some bad luck when driving black German cars but clearly Ms Lohan should avoid Porsches with sunroofs.

The interaction of the weight of a 911’s roof (and thus the centre of gravity) and the rearward bias of the weight distribution was not a thing of urban myth or computer simulations.  In the February 1972 edition of the US magazine Car and Driver (C&D), a comparison test was run of the three flavours of the revised 911 (911T, 911E & 911S), using one of each of the available bodies: coupé, targa & sunroof coupé, the latter with the most additional weight in the roof.  What the testers noted in the targa & sunroof-equipped 911s was a greater tendency to twitchiness in corners, something no doubt exacerbated in the sunroof coupé because the sliding panel’s electric motor was installed in the engine bay.  C&D’s conclusion was: “If handling is your goal, it's best to stick with the plain coupe.”  

The Porsche 911 E series and the Ölklappe affair

1971 Porsche 911S (note the flap for the oil filler cap behind the passenger-side door (US market model and thus left-hand drive (LHD)).  The factory confirmed this car was built in July 1971, despite many references to E series production beginning in August.

Although in C&D's 1972 comparison test there was much focus on the rearward weight bias, the three 911s supplied actually had a slightly less tail-heavy weight distribution than either that season's predecessor or successor.  Porsche in 1971 began the build of its E series update (produced between July 1971-July 1972 and generally known as the “1972 models”) of the then almost decade-old 911 and in addition to the increase in the flat-six’s displacement from 2.2 litres (134 cubic inch) to 2.3 (143) (although always referred to as the “2.4”), there were a myriad of changes, some in response to US safety & emissions legislation while others were part of normal product development.  One of latter was the placing of the hinged-flap over the oil filler cap behind the right side door, something necessitated by the dry sump oil tank having been re-located from behind the right rear wheel to in front, one of a number of design changes undertaken to shift the weight distribution forward and improve the handling of the rear-engined machine’s inherently tail-heavy configuration.  In Germany, the addition was known variously as Ölklappe, Oil Klapper or Vierte Tür (fourth door, the fuel filler flap being the third).  Weight reduction (then becoming difficult in the increasingly strict regulatory environment), especially at the rear, was also a design imperative and the early-build E series cars were fitted with an aluminum engine lid and license-plate panel although these components were soon switched to steel because of production difficulties and durability concerns.

Where the troubles began:  The fuel filler flap on the left-front fender (left) and the oil filler flap on the right-rear fender (right).  Apparently, not even the “◀ Oil” sticker in red was sufficient warning.

For the E series 911s, Porsche recommended the use of a multigrade mineral oil (SAE 20W-50 or SAE 15W-40, depending on climate) but were aware those using their vehicles in competition sometimes used a high-viscosity SAE 50 monograde.  With the car’s 10 litre (10.6 US quarts, 8.8 Imperial quarts) oil tank, the fluid’s weight would be between 8.5-9.1 kg (18.7-20.0 lb) and the physics of motion meant that the more rearward the placement of that mass, the greater the effect on the 911’s handling characteristics.  It was thus a useful contribution to what would prove a decades-long quest to tame the behaviour of what, in the early versions, was a car regarded (not wholly unfairly) as handling like “a very fast Volkswagen Beetle” and ultimately the engineers succeeded, it being only at the speeds which should be restricted to race tracks the 911s of the 2020s sometimes reveal the implications of being rear-engined.

VDO instruments in 1971 Porsche 911S.  In home market cars, the oil pressure gauge (to the left of the centrally mounted tachometer) was labelled DRUCK.

However, when in August 1972 the revised F series entered production, the oil tank was back behind the rear wheel and the filler under the engine lid, the retrogressive move taken because there had been instances of gas (petrol) station attendants (they really used to exist) assuming the oil filler flap was the access point for the gas cap and, to be fair, it was in a location used for gas on many front-engined cars (a majority of the passenger-car fleet in most markets where Porsche had a presence).  Quite how often this happened isn’t known but it must have been frequent enough for the story to become part of the 911 legend and the consequences could have been severe and rectification expensive.  The factory paid much attention to oil and also ensured drivers could monitor the status of the critical fluid; all air-cooled 911s ran hot and the more highly tuned the model (in 1971-1972 the 911T, E & S in increasing potency), the hotter they got.  As well as being a lubricant, engine oil functions also as a coolant and the VDO instrumentation included gauges for oil level, oil temperature, and oil pressure; for all three to appear in a road car was unusual but being air-cooled and thus with no conventional fluid coolant, the oil's dynamics were most important.

Swastika

Swastika (pronounced swos-ti-kuh (Germanic) or swas-ti-kuh (English-speaking world)).

(1) A figure used as a symbol or an ornament in the Old World and in America since prehistoric times, consisting of a cross with arms of equal length, each arm having a continuation at right angles.

(2) The official emblem of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (The NSDAP, the National Socialist German Workers' Party better known as the Nazi Party (1920-1945)) and (after 1935) the German state (Third Reich).

1850–1855: From the Sanskrit स्वस्तिक (svastika), from svasti (prosperity), the construct being सु- (su-) (good, well (cognate with Greek eu-) + अस्ति (asti) (that being as- (be) + -ti- (the abstract noun suffix)) + क (ka) (the diminutive suffix), hence "little thing associated with well-being", best understood in modern use as “a lucky charm".  It was first attested in English in 1871, a Sanskritism which replaced the Grecian gammadion.  After adoption in the early 1920s by the German National Socialist Workers’ Party (the Nazis), swastika was increasingly used to refer to the visually similar hooked cross which in German was the Hakenkreuz (literally "hook-cross"), English use first noted in 1932.  The su- element is from the primitive Indo-European (e)su- (good), a suffixed form of the root es- ("to be”); the asti element is from the same root.  It was known in Byzantium as the gammadion and in medieval heraldry as the cross cramponnee, Thor's hammer, and (although this is contested), the fylfot, a similar shape though most usually rendered in mirror image to the swastika.  Swastika is a noun (the rare adjective swastikaed is non-standard); the noun plural is swastikas.

Crate label advertising, Swastika brand fruit, L.V.W. Brown Estate, Riverside, California, 1930s.

For thousands of years, the swastika was used by almost every culture as a symbol of good fortune before, in the Western world, becoming synonymous the Nazis and thus a byword for racism and barbarism.  Translated literally as "well-being" in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit and for millennia shared between Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, it was the positive connotations associated with the shape, as well as its pleasing, adaptive geometry which inspired the early Western travelers visiting Asia to bring it home, examples found in the archaeological record of the Ancient Greeks, Celts, and Anglo-Saxons, some of the oldest examples in eastern Europe, stretching from the Baltic to the Balkans.  In the 1800s it became a popular shape among jewelry designers and by the turn of the twentieth century there was quite a fad for it among graphic designers who applied it from everything from tiled floors, fabrics, architectural motifs and advertising.  Carlsberg and Coca-Cola both used it on their bottles and Swastika was the title of the magazine of the Girls' Club of America, the young ladies being awarded swastika badges to wear as a prize for selling copies.  In one especially interesting example of timing and placement, some war planes of both the Aeronautical Division of the US Signal Corps (predecessor of USSAF & USAF) and the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) were adorned with swastikas, beginning in the 1920s.  Use declined, obviously, during the 1930s but there’s evidence the symbol was used as late as 1939.  The Finnish Air Force adopted it in 1918, discretely painting over the last examples in 1945 but the symbol continues to be used by some squadrons and on decorations.

Dirty laundry: Darty Laundry electric delivery van, rendered by Raidió Teilifís Éireann, (RTE, Radio & Television of Ireland, the Irish public service broadcaster) in “Swastika Laundry” livery for the television series Caught in a Free State (1983) a four-part drama about German spies in neutral Ireland during World War II (1939-1945), an event known in Ireland as “The Emergency”.  As late as the 1970s there were at least 600 electric delivery vehicles on the streets of Dublin alone, their numbers declining as private ownership of cars, washing machines, refrigerators and such increased.  In the UK, when milk was still every day delivered to houses, some 85% of deliveries were made by electric vehicles.

Anwar Sadat (1918–1981; president of Egypt 1970-1981, left) and Israeli foreign minister (and former IDF (Israeli Defence Force) general) Moshe Dayan (1915-1981, right), King David Hotel, Jerusalem, 19 November 1977.

It was the first visit to Israel by an Egyptian president and although the visit was successful, the “swastika” tie he on one occasion wore attracted comment.  During the visit he also chose neckwear in stripes and polka-dots so there were mixed messages but in Washington DC, on 26 March 1979, some 16 months after the visit and following the 1978 Camp David Accords, the Egypt–Israel treaty was signed, providing for mutual recognition and a cessation of the state of war that had existed since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.  Maybe, sometimes a tie is just a tie.

Playing cards, New, York, 1920s.

The Nazi’s use of the swastika is another example of the quasi-scientific links they claimed existed between Germans and ancient civilizations.  Nineteenth century German scholars translating old Indian texts had notice the structural similarities between their language and Sanskrit; their conclusions were equivocal but the some among the Nazis concluded this was proof of a shared ancestry with a race of white warriors they called Aryans.  Even at the time, the linguists and anthropologists were appalled at the misappropriation of their work; their findings had been about the structure of language and nothing more.  The Nazis however grasped at straws wherever they fell.  Single swastikas began to appear in the Neolithic Vinca culture across south-eastern Europe around some 7,000 years ago and during the Bronze Age were widespread across the continent but, when clay pots embossed with swastikas dating from circa 2000 BC were looted after the occupation of Kiev in WWII and were exhibited in Berlin as evidence of a shared Aryan ancestry.  Displays of the swastika have been banned in Germany since the end of the war but attempts to extend the ban EU-wide have never succeeded.

A K-R-I-T bus in New York City, taking a jury to luncheon, October 1912.  The matter on which the jury sat was a police corruption trial, the murder of Herman Rosenthal (1874–1912) who ran several small casinos which were subject to raids by the police who, in exchange for “protection money” (claimed to be 20% of the day’s take) allowed them illegally to operate, the money spread among police, Tammany Hall (headquarters of the Democratic Party machine) and some corrupt politicians (in NYC at the time, something of a tautology),  New York Police Department (NYPD) Lieutenant Charles Becker (1870–1915) and four members of the Lenox Avenue Gang ultimately were convicted of murder and “got the chair”, the executions carried out in 1915 in Sing Sing Prison’s death chamber.

US Army Air Corps Boeing P12 (F4B) (1929-1942), circa 1964 (left) and the flying jacket of a US Army observer, 45th Infantry Division, circa 1939 (right).  Obviously the swastika livery didn't endure but it wasn't the end of the symbol appearing on US and British warplanes, small versions of the symbol often stencilled onto the fuselage to indicate the count of a pilot's "kills".

Finnish Air Force Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 fighters, Latva Airfield, East Karelia, 9 September, 1943.

The Finnish Air Force introduced the blue swastika in 1918; it was known as the hakaristi, the construct being haka (hook) +‎ risti (cross).  The Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 was a French fighter, based on an airframe which first flew in 1935 and it was only marginally improved by 1938 when the pre-production models first flew.  Like some other aircraft in what was a transitional period, the construction was a mix of old and new, the rear steel-tube frame fabric-covered in the conventional manner but the remainder had a skin of plymax, (a plywood veneer bonded to light alloy).  Under-powered and lacking firepower, it was hardly state of the art but was valuable export for the French industry, two sent to Switzerland to be used as templates for local production and 30 to Turkey while 160 had been sold to Poland but the timing was unfortunate because they were in the process of delivery when the German invasion began in 1939.  Just before the fall of France, 30 had been dispatched to Finland and the Germans would later augment this with a further batch of 57 confiscated from the Armée de l-Air (the French Air Force), distributing others to Croatia and Italy.  As the combat record in the Battle of France suggests (400 losses for 175 kills), the M.S.406 was outclassed by more capable German designs and in the conflicts with the Soviet Union (1939-1940 & 1941-1944) Finnish pilots found then agile but under-powered as well as unreliable as a gun platform, instability noted when firing and the weapons of dubious reliability.  The solution for the lack of power was typical of the improvisations often adopted during war-time: re-fitting the sturdy airframe with the more powerful Soviet Klimov M-105 or M-103 engines, both in plentiful supply from crashed enemy aircraft and stocks captured by the Germans during the early successes in the invasion of Russia in 1941.  A typical Soviet rip-off, the Klimovs were improved versions of the Hispano-Suzia 12Y-31 V12 used in the M.S.406 and were thus able to be re-purposed with relatively little effort.  The change transformed the Finnish fighters, giving them a performance second only to the Messerschmitt BF-109s also in the fleet.

Years before there was a Nazi Party, the trademark of the short-lived (1909-1916), Detroit-based motor car company K-R-I-T (derived from Kenneth Crittenden (1889-1972) who provided financial backing and contributed to the design) was the swastika.  K-R-I-T (the name was simplified to Krit after 1912) was one of some 2000 concerns which entered the US motor industry during the first two decades of the twentieth century but the ancient symbol of good fortune, chosen “to ensure favor of auspicious gods” failed the export-dependent company and World War I (1914-1918) proved the final nail in the coffin.  That Mr Crittenden was born in the same year as Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) is one of history's many coincidences and he went on to a long career in the industry, in 1928 joining Chrysler where he remained until his retirement in the mid-1960s.

1912 K-R-I-T Model A Roadster.  From the automotive “brass era”, its fittings included a firewall mounted Solar acetylene spotlight, twin Solar acetylene headlight, E&J kerosene sidelights, tufted black leather upholstery, wood spoke wheels with 30 x 3½ inch tires and a cylindrical bolster fuel tank.

Krit’s business model was one which for more than a century has lured major manufacturers, independents and start-ups when came and went: “the modestly priced, full-featured automobile”.  Such a product obviously has huge market appeal and thus the possibility of achieving compelling economies of scale but it also attracts players so the sector tends to become crowded, accounting for a hundred-odd years of industrial churn.  Depending on the configuration, the K-R-I-T Model A was advertised between US$800-1000, just a little more expensive than Henry Ford’s (1863-1947) Model T (1908-1927) but offered more power from an engine almost identical in specification (177 cubic inch, L-head, in-line four-cylinder) and a three-speed sliding gear transmission, easier to use and affording greater flexibility than the Ford’s two-speed planetary gearbox.  Unfortunately for Krit, demand in its most receptive and lucrative domestic market fell precipitously after widespread crop-failure in the US west in 1913 and the outbreak of war in Europe some months later killed demand there; Europe had absorbed more than 80% of of the company’s export business.  Production ceased in 1915 and after for some month trying. And failing, to raise new capital, the concern was dissolved.

The K-R-I-T badge (1908, left) and The Nazi's Goldenes Parteiabzeichen (Golden Party Badge (1933, right).

That the detailing in some of Krit's swastika emblems was so similar to that adopted by the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (The NSDAP, the National Socialist German Workers' Party better known as the Nazi Party (1920-1945)) is not surprising because the color combinations and aspect ratios which most appeal to one graphic artist are likely to be judged as pleasing by another.  Adolf Hitler claimed he personally designed the escutcheon his movement would make infamous and while he told many lies and there are many myths about his role in the party’s early days, his claim is thought to be true and throughout his political career, even in the depths of war when thing were bad, he never ceased sketching and designing; he was a competent (if uninspired) artist (although the human form eluded him) and likely would have be a proficient architect.  Nor did Hitler claim his conceptual notions were original, admitting the combination of red, white and black was something he “stole” from the posters of his enemies, the German communists (whose propagandists seem to have settled on the scheme because it was used for the flag of the German Empire (the so-called “Second Reich” (1871-1918).  Especially among the right-wing, the symbol had been much used in the German Empire.

Grounds of the Mercedes-Benz factory decorated in honor of a visit to Stuttgart by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945), the display visible from his aircraft (1936, top left), a Mercedes-Benz showroom in Munich, Lenbachplaz (1935, top right) and 1938 Mercedes-Benz W125 Rekordwagen (bottom).  Although, tucked away in a corner of the corporate website there is a single page which contains a rather perfunctory acknowledgement of company’s complicity in some of the crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi regime between 1933-1939 there’s little attempt to discuss the matter, an understandable reticence and quite a gap in the otherwise extensively documented history which dates back to 1886 with the debut of what is claimed to be the world’s “first automobile”.  Brand-management can be as much about what is left unsaid or hidden as what is projected. 

When used in events other straight-line speed record attempts (ie where corners needed to be negotiated) the streamlined version of the W125 Formel-Rennwagen (race car built in accord with defined rules) didn’t use the spats (fender-skirts) covering the wheels.  It was used thus on Berlin’s high-speed Avusrennen with its two, uniquely long straights and differed from the conventional W125 in that it was powered by V12 engine rather than the usual big-bore straight-eight, the lower hood (bonnet) line further reducing drag.  Fitted with the spats, W125 Rekordwagen (record car) was used in 1938 to achieve a speed of 432.7 km/h (269 mph) over the flying kilometre, then the fastest timed speed achieved on a public road and a record which stood until 2017.  It’s now on display in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, although, the swastika with which it was once adorned has been removed from the aluminum skin (displays of the swastika banned in Germany except as authorized).

German U-boat (submarine) U-576 (left) flying the Kriegsmarine’s (German navy) War Ensign (1935-1945).

U-Boat U-576 was sunk on 15 July 1942, 30 miles (48 km) off Cape Hatteras, Hatteras Island, North Carolina.  The Kriegsmarine’s (German navy) War Ensign, flown from all combat vessels between 1935-1945, was raised when submarines were entering or leaving port but otherwise rarely displayed.  The swastika was never painted on the hulls, a point of some legal consequence in the first Nuremberg trial (1945-1946, heard before an IMT (International Military Tribunal) to try the surviving leading Nazis) when evidence was presented in the matter of the steam trawler Noreen Mary, sunk by gunfire from U-247 about 20 miles (32 km) west of Cape Wrath on the north Coast of Scotland.  The witness provided sworn testimony he saw a swastika painted on the submarine’s conning tower but it was proved no U-Boat had ever been so decorated and, combined with other evidence, this weakened the prosecution case against Großadmiral Karl Dönitz (1891–1980; Supreme Commander of the Kriegsmarine 1943-1945).

Hitler Youth & BDM members on camp together, circa 1937.

The Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls) was the girls' wing of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth), the Nazi Party's youth movement (membership of which, like much in the Third Reich, was close to obligatory), intended to train boys to be ready to become good soldiers and prepare girls for their traditional role of motherhood; it was abbreviated as BDM.  Perhaps unfortunately, some mixed activities such as the girls and boys going on camps together resulted in much practical preparation for motherhood, revelations of this promiscuity leading Germans to conclude BDM might better be understood as the Bund Deutscher Matratzen (League of German Mattresses).

Bromide press print (circa 1911) of portrait by unknown photographer of Olave St Clair Baden-Powell (née Soames), Lady Baden-Powell (1889-1977), Leader of the world Girl Guide movement and wife of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts movement, National Portrait Gallery, London (left), the Edmonton Swastikas ice hockey team, 1916 (centre), and US actress Clara Bow (1905–1965) adorned in swastikas to ward off the bad luck of Friday the 13^th, photo-shoot for “Ancient Cross Defies Jinx Day” published on page 27 of the Los Angeles Times, 13 April 1928 (right).

Although in the West now most associated with the BDM, before the evilness of the Nazis tainted the association, girls had been wearing swastikas for centuries, sometimes because of the association with good fortune and sometimes because it was just another bolt shape, the distinctiveness of which made it adaptable to fashion.  As well as the Edmonton operation, there were two other Canadian ice hockey teams, the Fernie Swastikas out of Fernie, British Columbia and the Windsor Swastikas of Windsor, Nova Scotia.  In Nazi Germany, the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides movements associated with Lord & Lady Baden-Powell were absorbed respectively into the HJ & BDM and although many of the activities were carried over (tying knots, outdoor survival skills, pitching tents and all that), the political nature of the indoctrination was different.  Tellingly, although the Nazis had been marching under the swastika since 1920 and were already in Germany & Austria a byword for intolerance and violence, the LA Times in April 1928 made not one mention of events in Europe and it’s doubtful the movement, then still obscure in the US and well-known only to the few interested in international events, much registered in public consciousness.  Ms Bow seems never to have been interested in the politics of the right or left but she did in 1933 visit Germany on her honeymoon and film buff Hitler (like many, a Clara Bow fan) presented her a copy of his autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf (My Struggle, 1925); it’s thought like most, Ms Bow probably didn’t trouble to read the work.  The swastika did not ward off her bad luck and she later went mad (suffering what would now be called “mental health issues”).

Mr Ye and Ms Censori, annual Grammy Awards, Los Angeles, 2 February 2025.  Most intriguing has been the suggestion Ms Cansori is being paid by Mr Ye on a "per outfit" basis and is thus a kind of "walking installation".  That would make it a very "modern" marriage and one of which not all would approve but there have been relationships (artistic and otherwise) based on more dubious arrangements.

In recent years, the US rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, hip hop identity & fashion designer Ye, formerly known as Kanye West (b 1977) has (in a sense) “re-created” Australian architect & model Bianca Censori (b 1995) as a series of installations (which probably isn’t quite the right word but on the model of the art business, it’s close); the two may (at least in some jurisdictions) be married, the reports are contradictory.  What Mr Ye has done is to create photo opportunities using Ms Censori as a lure by having her dress (again that may not be quite the right word) in a style likely to attract photographers, vloggers, magazine editors and other content aggregators.  As an installation there to be photographed, the well-qualified Ms Censori certainly draws the lens and has taken the “nude dress” trend of the last decade-odd almost to its logical conclusion and whether the concept can be taken further than her recent appearance at the 2025 Grammy Awards has been debated; it certainly wouldn’t demand much fabric.  Although the coverage (in the media, not of Ms Censori’s skin) has been extensive, whether Mr Ye is much benefiting isn’t clear because the focus is, predictably, very much on the installation rather than the artist and the only mention he seems to gain is being condemned as exploitative or worse.  All the attention devoted to Ms Censori may also have engendered in him what Gareth Evans (b 1944; Australian Labor Party (ALP) senator or MP 1978-1999, sometime attorney-general & foreign minister) called RDS (relevance deprivation syndrome) because his latest on-line project is selling “swastika T-shirts” at US$20; it's a niche market but, given recent events, he may regard it as a growing one and the reaction to his venture was certainly focused on him.  The product code for the T-shirts was "HH01" and those who recall his comment: “There’s a lot of things that I love about Hitler" in a December 2022 podcast with the since bankrupted host Alex Jones (1974) probably deconstructed the code to mean “Heil Hitler” although to remove any doubt he also tweeted: “I love Hitler” and “I'm a Nazi”.  Swastika T-shirts must have been too much for Shopify which took down the page, issuing a statement saying Mr Ye had "violated" the company's terms.  It was an example of the dangers inherent in having a site administered by AI (artificial intelligence) with humans checking the content only in reaction to complaints.  The AI will improve but whether Mr Ye has thought better of offering the range remains to be seen, yeezy.com now displaying only the stylized message YEEZY STORES COMING SOON♡.

The artist formerly known as Kanye West in shirt, Los Angeles, February 2025.  As a device to attract photographers and generate an ongoing presence in print and on-line, a well-placed swastika remains potent.

In architecture and design, the swastika has been used for thousands of years.  Top row: Lampposts, Glendale, California, USA 1924-1927 (left), the unexpected juxtaposition of a swastika atop a Jewish Star of David (centre) and Coronado Naval Base, San Diego, California (not the “Albert Speer Memorial Retirement Home” as it has been tagged on the internet), (right).  Bottom row: Skillman Branch Library (1931), Detroit, Michigan, USA (left), nineteenth century floor in Roman Catholic church, Tamaulipas, Mexico (centre) and a floor mosaic with geometrical designs and swastikas, laid in the second or third century AD, Tarraco (ancient name of the city of Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain), Archaeological Museum of Tarragon, Spain, (right).

The "Swasticar"

Elon Musk at the 2025 US Presidential Inauguration, Washington DC, January 2025.

So moved by the moment when on stage at the inauguration ceremony marking the beginning of Donald Trump’s (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) second coming (as the MAGA devotes seem to regard it) was tech titan Elon Musk FRS (b 1971) that to express to the adoring crowd “My heart goes to you”, spontaneously he gave a gesture which many noted was similar to the many “Sieg Heil!” (Hail Victory!) moments made infamous by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) in Nazi Germany (1933-1945).  To reinforce his point, Mr Musk then turned to the crowd behind and repeated the gesture.  He did first place his right hand over his heart (as per the US Pledge of Allegiance's current protocol) but arm was raised ("palm-down" (as used by the Nazis)) rather than "palm-up" (the pre-1942 US protocol) although probably no intent should be inferred from this because the raised palm procedure hadn't be in use for almost two generations before Mr Musk was born. 

The reaction was swift and widespread.  Predictably, memes appeared but there was also direct action, Tesla dealerships picketed and the cars vandalized, sometimes by being daubed with swastikas, sometimes by being torched, a disturbing trend given they’re fitted with lithium-ion batteries which, when they burn, burn for hours.  The shift in the political association attached to the flagship of electric vehicles was remarkable.  Once it had been V8-powered pick-up owners south of Mason-Dixon Line who had despised the things, their suspicion being Teslas encapsulated much that was a threat to the American way of life: homosexuality, New York, California, trans-gender rights, environmentalism, Freemasonry and the Democratic Party; suddenly, it was the Tesla-driving (or aspiring) liberals embarrassed (or fearful) to be associated with the brand, some resorting to gluing on Honda or Hyundai badges to deter the attacks.

One of the most striking was an image by Portuguese graphic artist Ves Vaz (b 1986) which was based on the famous photograph of “Tank man” standing in front of PLA (People's Liberation Army) tanks sent in June 1989 by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to “deal with” crowds of protesters gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.  The photograph was taken by AP (associated Press) photographer Jeff Widener (b 1956) who initially was displeased at “tank Man” appearing in frame for what looked like a perfectly composed shot.  As things turned out, it became one of the best known images of the century and one often re-published when the Tiananmen Square Massacre (the “June Fourth Incident according to the CCP) is discussed.  For cartoonists and artists like Ves Vaz the Cybertruck is a gift because the shape is so distinctive instantly it’s recognizable as a Tesla, even by those unable to tell a Ferrari from a F-150.  Of course, that also means it’s pointless to stick on a Toyota badge which can make more anonymous looking Teslas “blend in”, to some degree protecting them from roving anti-MAGA vandals.

Soon, on London bus shelters there appeared posters dubbing Teslas “Swasticars” and urging people not to buy them, the political messaging including references to white supremacy, autocracy and allusions to the Third Reich.  Swastikas seem not to have appeared, presumable to avoid possible legal challenges although even without them, the meaning was lost on few.

Digital projection on Tesla Gigafactory, Berlin, Germany.

Other forms of direct action included the Tesla’s Gigafactory in Berlin having a depiction of Mr Musk’s “My heart goes to you” moment projected onto the façade with a “Heil” prefixed to the illumined “Tesla” although no swastika was added, the symbol banned in Germany for all but a few special purposes.  Interestingly, Tesla was there already the subject of controversy on environmental and social grounds, having a year earlier suffered an arson attack but the opposition has swelled after Mr Musk association with the second Trump administration has fuelled a growing perception of an alignment with the far-right.  Although computers would have made the stunt easier, this would have taken much preparation and some physical testing.

Hailing cab with dog on leash: Gloria Walker (b 1937), PotM (Playmate of the Month), Playboy magazine, June 1956; photograph by Herman Leonard (1923-2010).  Whether waving to someone or hailing a cab, the raised arm is one of humanity's more common gestures, meaning jurisdictions banning the act must base prosecutions on context and intent rather than merely the act. 

2024 Tesla Cybertruck AWD Foundation Series (left) and the suspect cant rail.  The term “cant rail” came from architecture and railway engineering and referred to an angled or sloped surface.  Cant rails (also often seen in fence construction) are those parts which are tilted or positioned at an angle rather than being strictly vertical or horizontal.  In automobile design specifically, a cant rail is the (sometimes structural and sometimes cosmetic) section running along the top edge of the side windows, connecting the A-pillar to the B-  C- or D-pillar; visually, it defines the roofline and can contribute to strength.  The early automobiles picked up the name from the reinforced horizontal member supporting the upper structure on railway carriages & horse-drawn carriages because the early techniques of construction were essentially the same.

To add to Tesla’s woes, in March 2025 came the news the company’s Cybertruck was subject to a global recall, needed to rectify a fault in which large stainless steel body panels can unexpectedly detach and (if the vehicle is in motion) “fly off”.  The recall notice issued by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) revealed the affected Cybertrucks were the 46,096 built between November 2023 & February 2025 and the issue was the adhesive used: “The Cybertruck is equipped with a cosmetic applique along the exterior of the vehicle, known as the cant rail, which is an assembly comprised of an electro-coated steel stamping joined to a stainless steel panel with structural adhesive. The cant rail assembly is affixed to the vehicle with fasteners. On affected vehicles, the cant rail stainless steel panel may delaminate at the adhesive joint, which may cause the panel to separate from the vehicle.”  According to a Tesla communiqué, the adhesive was “susceptible to environmental embrittlement” which pleased word nerds; although “embrittlement” is rare, it’s not a recent tech industry neologism and is seen most commonly as “hydrogen embrittlement” (HE), known also as “hydrogen-assisted cracking” (HAC) or “hydrogen-induced cracking: Hydrogen embrittlement (HE), also known as hydrogen-assisted cracking or hydrogen-induced cracking” (HIC), all of which describe the absorption of hydrogen into a metal, and subsequent weakening, as part of a pickling process.

1945 Heinkel He 162 Salamander (Volksjäger) National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC.

Recalls and “fix bulletins” from Tesla have not been uncommon but most have involved the need to patch software and these have been handled remotely.  The “flying panels” will however require a visit to a Tesla Service Center.  The company has thus far acknowledged 151 warranty claims related to the failed glue but said it was “not aware of any collisions, fatalities, or injuries.”  Coincidently, it was problems with an adhesive which afflicted the Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger (People's Fighter), a jet-powered fighter aircraft the Luftwaffe late in World War II (1939-1945) planned to be flown by aviators from the Hitlerjugend (HJ, the Hitler Youth) who had the benefit of a few hours training flying gliders.  For those intrepid youth, going from that to a jet-fighter was about as ill-advised as it sounds but by 1945 the Germany’s military position was dire and in many fields the bottom of the barrel was being scraped.  Heinkel used Salamander as the project name for the wing program and it’s that which military historians came to prefer despite the whole project being called Spatz (Sparrow), while the Air Ministry’s preferred Volksjäger never caught on.  With aviation-standard metals in short supply, the He 162 was built substantially from wood with only critical components such as the fuselage skin and wing edges made from aluminium.  This made it not only cheap to produce but also a genuinely “disposable” aircraft with damaged units intended to be discarded and replaced.  Remarkably, the first prototype flew in December 1944 only 38 days after the factory received the blueprints but while the early tests proved it was a capable (if sometimes tricky to handle because of the unusual layout) short-range interceptor, after only days structural failures in flight began to occur, leading to fatalities.  The issue was traced to environmental embrittlement, an acid in the adhesive used to bond the wood panels causing delamination of the layers, the subsequent fragmentation meaning vital parts would “fly off” compromising structural integrity.  Between February-May 1945, some 120 of the 1000-odd air-fames were delivered to Luftwaffe units but few ever saw combat and losses (most from accidents or structural failures) exceeded the small number of Allied aircraft it claimed.

With the anti-Tesla movement growing and sales declining by as much as half in some places, the company turned to what may seem an improbable but untapped market: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).  In invitations sent to prospective customers in the kingdom, recipients were requested to RSVP to a launch event at the Bujairi Terrace on 10 April 2025 where they could “Explore our global best-selling line-up and step into a world powered by solar energy, sustained by batteries, and driven by electric vehicles” and “Experience the future of autonomous driving with Cybercab, and meet Optimus, our humanoid robot, as we showcase what's next in AI and robotics.”  Assured real humans would be on hand to answer questions about “Tesla ownership, home charging and more”, the select few were urged: “RSVP now. Space is limited.”  Tesla’s previous neglect of Saudi Arabia was not related to the kingdom being one of the planet’s major producers of fossil fuels (and one which not long ago pledged to extract and sell “every last molecule”).  Instead, the estrangement dated from a 2018 rift between Mr Musk and Saudi Arabia’s PIF (Public Investment Fund the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund) over the failure of a funding deal which would have enabled him to take the company private.  To add insult to injury, the PIF subsequently invested in EV (electric vehicle) start-up Lucid, taking a majority stake and later announcing an intention to purchase as many as 100,000 Lucid EVs over a decade, apparently as part of an effort to reduce the government’s dependence on oil.  All that may not sound encouraging for Tesla and EV sales in Saudi Arabia constitute not even 1% of total but elsewhere in the Gulf, EV penetration in the taxi and ride-hailing sector has been impressive so, coming off a low base, there clearly some scope for growth and even before Tesla’s recent troubles, relations between the parties did seem to be improving.  Apart from all else, Mr Musk is one of nature’s optimists.

Mr Musk is known for his optimism, recently suggesting it was feasible for a settlement on Mars to be established, able to sustain a permanent population of a million people.  That does show an engineer’s faith in technological advances (as well as fiscal provision) because (1) to transport even one person to Mars would take well over a year (thus far the longest duration of one ways trips to somewhere else is the three-odd days it took the twelve Apollo programme astronauts over six trips in 1969-1972), (2) on Mars there is no breathable atmosphere, no known food sources and the availability of usable water is uncertain and (3) the climate is mostly not hospitable for human life with only the equatorial regions ever sometimes rising to what on Earth would be thought temperate (highs between 20°C (68°F) - 35°C (95°F) recorded at noon during summer but typically the whole place is cold especially the poles (-153°C (–243° F) and it’s there water sources (as ice) may exist.  So it’s a challenging place for human habitation and the extent of the challenge is emphasised here on earth with simply a rise on the global average temperature by 3^oC threatening to render certain regions economically unviable for a permanent human presence to be maintained.  It was in an interview with Ted Cruz (b 1970; US senator (Republican-Texas) since 2013) in which Mr Musk speculated about a million folk living on Mars under “glass domes” and the senator is well-aware of the difficulties of coping with extreme cold, having once jetted out of an icy Texas during a cold snap to enjoy the warmth of a Mexico beach, somewhat to the chagrin of the shivering voters he deserted.  On Mars, there are no sun-drenched beaches and whatever Mr Musk’s million souls find when they get there, that’s their life.

The "fascist salute"

The fascist salute has become so associated with Hitler and Nazism that in recent years some jurisdictions have banned its use, emulating the prohibition which has existed in Germany (the sanction pre-dating unification in 1990) for decades.  Because the salute is the same gesture as that used for purposes ranging from waving to one's mother to hailing a taxi, prosecutions are expected to be initiated only in cases of blatant anti-Semitism or other offensive acts.  The "salute" is so widely used that photographs exist of just about every politician in the act and they're often published; usually it's just a cheap journalistic trick but if carefully juxtaposed with something, it can be effective.

Lindsay Lohan: Sometimes, a wave is just a wave.     

Benito Mussolini's (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943) reverence for the Ancient Rome of popular imagination accounts at least in part for the Fascists' adoption of the so-called "Roman salute" although the Duce did also object to the shaking of hands on the basis it was “effete, un-Italian and un-hygienic” and as the reduced infection rates of just about everything during the “elbow-bumping” era of the COVID-19 social isolation illustrated, on that last point, he had a point.  Other fascist regimes and movements also adopted the salute, most infamously the Nazis although none were as devoted as Hitler who, quite plausibly, claimed to have spent hours a day for weeks using a spring-loaded “chest expander” he’d obtained by mail-order so he’d strengthen his shoulder muscles sufficiently to enable him to stand, sometimes for a hour or more with his right arm extended as parades of soldiers passed before him.

A much-published image of the Duce, raising his arm in the fascist salute next to the bronze statue of Nerva (Marcus Cocceius Nerva) (30–98; Roman emperor 96-98) in the Roman Forum.  Often published as an example of the fascist salute's lineage, the emperor is actually holding what's believed to be a scroll.

However, historians maintain there’s simply no evidence anything like the fascist salute of the twentieth century was a part of the culture of Ancient Rome, either among the ruling class or any other part of the population.  Whether the adoption as a alleged emulation of Roman ways was an act of cynicism of self-delusion on the part of the Duce isn’t known although he may have been impressed by the presence of the gesture in neo-classical painting, something interesting because it wasn’t a motif in use prior to the eighteenth century.  This “manufacturing” of Antiquity wasn’t even then something new; the revival of interest in Greece and Rome during the Renaissance resulted in much of the material which in the last few hundred years has informed and defined in the popular imagination how the period looked and what life was like.  By the twentieth century, it was this art which was reflected in the props and sets used in the newly accessible medium of film and the salute, like the architecture, was part of the verisimilitude.  Mussolini enjoyed films and to be fair, there were in Italy a number of statutes from the epoch in which generals, emperors, senators and other worthies had a arm raised although historians can find no evidence which suggests the works were a representation of a cultural practice anything like a salute.  Indeed, an analysis of many statues revealed that rather than salutes, many of the raised arms were actually holding things and one of the best known was revealed to have been repaired after the spear once in the hand had been damaged.

Adolf Hitler showing the "long arm" & "short arm" variants of the fascist salute (left) and examples of the long arm & short arm penalty being awarded in rugby union (right).

In fascist use, what evolved was the “long-arm” salute used on formal occasions or for photo opportunities and a “short-arm” variation which was a gesture which referenced the formal salute which was little more than a bending of the elbow and involved the hand rising at a 45^o angle only to the level of the shoulder; in that the relationship of the short to the long can be thought symbiotic.  Amusingly and wholly unrelated to fascism, the concept was re-appropriated in the refereeing of rugby union where a “short-arm” penalty (officially a “free-kick”) is a penalty awarded for a minor infringement of the games many rules.  Whereas a “full-arm” penalty offers the team the choice of kicking for goal, kicking for touch or taking a tap to resume play, a “short-arm” penalty allows a kick at goal, a kick for touch or the option of setting a scrum instead of a lineout.  The referee signals a “short-arm” penalty by raising their arm at an angle of 45^o.

How it was done: Mussolini, Hitler and Victor Emmanuel III show their interpretations of the fascist salute, the technique varying according to their commitment to the cause.  The trio are reviewing an Italian military parade, Rome, May, 1938. 

Front row: Benito Mussolini (left), Adolf Hitler (centre) and Victor Emmanuel III (1869–1947; King of Italy 1900-1946) (right).

Second row: Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893–1946; Nazi foreign minister 1938-1945, far left), Count Galeazzo Ciano (1903–1944; Italian foreign minister 1936-1943, centre left), Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897-1975; Nazi propaganda minister 1933-1945, centre right) and Rudolf Hess (1894–1987; Nazi deputy Führer 1933-1941, far right).

Back row: The WAGs (wives & girlfriends).

Of the seven men in this image, only Victor Emmanuel would die from natural causes, in exile succumbing to pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs) some 18 months after being compelled to abdicate.  While on the run, the deposed Mussolini would be executed by Italian partisans, Hitler & his new wife would commit suicide in the Berlin Führerbunker with Soviet troops only blocks away, von Ribbentrop would be hanged at Nuremberg after being found guilty of planning aggressive war, waging aggressive war, war crimes & crimes against humanity, Ciano would be executed on the orders of Mussolini (his father-in-law!), Goebbels & his wife would commit suicide (after murdering six of their seven children (aged 5-14)) shortly after the death of Hitler and Hess, sentenced to life imprisonment at Nuremberg for planning & waging aggressive war, committed suicide aged 93, after 46 years in captivity.

A most unfortunate conjunction of imagery: Adolf Hitler on Berlin's newly opened East-West Axis in his Mercedes-Benz 770 K Grosser Cabriolet F open tourer (W150; 1938-1943) in a parade marking his 50^th birthday, opposite the Technical High School, 20 April 1939 (left) and David Bowie in his Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100, 1963-1981) Pullman Landaulet, Victoria Station, London, 2 May 1976 (right).

Sometimes a wave is just an excuse.  The pop star David Bowie (1947-2016) understood he was an influential figure in music but on more than one occasion explained to interviewers: “I am not an original thinker”.  Trawling pop-culture for inspiration nevertheless served him well but he later came to regret dabbling with history slightly less recent.  Not impressed with the state of British society and its economy in the troubled mid-1970s, he was quoted variously as suggesting the country would benefit for “an ultra right-wing government” or “a fascist leader”.  Although he would later claim he was captivated more by the fashions (the long leather coats said to be a favorite) than the policies of the Third Reich, the most celebrated event of this period came in 1976 in what remains known as the "Victoria Station incident".  Mr Bowie staged a media event, arriving standing in an open Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Landaulet, recalling for many the way in which Hitler so often appeared in his 770 K.  Unfortunately, a photographer captured a shot in what the singer later claimed was “mid wave” and it certainly resembled a Nazi salute.  He later attributed all that happened during this stage of his career to too many hard drugs which had caused his interest in the aesthetics of inter-war Berlin to turn into an obsession with politics of the period.  All was however quickly forgiven and his audience awaited the next album which is an interesting contrast to the cancel culture created by the shark-feeding dynamic of the social media era.

Now, were a pop star to tell interviewers: “Britain could benefit from a fascist leader” and “I believe very strongly in fascism … Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars”, their future career prospects might be "nasty, solitary, brutish and short".  Despite that orthodoxy however, the multi-media personality Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West (b 1977)) has expressed what seem to be pro-Hitler sentiments and been photographed wearing a "swastika T-shirt", even (briefly) offering them for sale on the (now apparently in abeyance) Yeezy website.  Rather than having him cancelled, Mr Ye's comments and products seem to have had at least a financial upside because in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) he stated: "...AND I MADE 40 MILLION THE NEXT DAY BETWEEN MY DIFFERENT BUSINESS. THERE'S I LOT OF JEWISH PEOPLE I KNOW AND LOVE AND STILL WORK WITH. THE POINT I MADE AND SHOWED IS THAT I AM NOT UNDER JEWISH CONTROL ANYMORE IN WAR YOU TAKE A COUPLE LOSES..."  That would seem to suggest that in the right circumstances, the Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) and Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897-1975; Nazi propaganda minister 1933-1945) were right: "It doesn't matter what people are saying about you as long as they're saying something."

The US Pledge of Allegiance salute

Children in the US saluting the flag, circa 1892.  The non-saluting young chap in the centre of the photo is thought to have been distracted by the camera, rather than attempting to exercise his First Amendment rights.

In the US, the “Pledge of Allegiance” salute was visually similar to the fascist gesture but its adoption long predated the Italian and German dictatorships of the inter-war years.  Despite the name, the origin of the so-called “Bellamy salute” (1892) officially is credited to someone else and the true “inventor” (adaptor might be a better term) is contested, there being factions which attribute the honor variously to either (1) American Christian socialist Baptist preacher Francis Bellamy (1855–1931) or (2) confessed Freemason James Upham (1845-1905).  According to Bellamy's published instructions for the “National School Celebration of Columbus Day” (as the 400^th anniversary of the “discovery” of America), the salute was first demonstrated on 21 October, 1892.  It should also be added the text was a revision of the original Pledge of Allegiance, written in 1885 by Captain George Thatcher Balch (1828-1894), an officer in the Union Army during the US Civil War (1861-1865).

The Freemasons stake their claim to the pledge: Plaque at James Upham's grave.

The orthodox history long was the palm-out salute was created by Upham as the gesture to accompany the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America, a text written by Bellamy; known also as the “flag salute”, it gained the name by which it came to be known because it was Bellamy who most assiduously advocated its use.  Not until several years after Upham's death did his family found a copy of the pledge’s original draft, written in his hand, but by then there had already been a ruling attributing credit to Bellamy and a monument in his name erected.  Despite the documentary evidence, in 1939, a committee of the USFA (US Flag Association) ruled in favour of Bellamy and a review issued in 1957 by the Library of Congress in 1957 supported the committee’s findings.  The family never succeeded in gaining Upton official recognition but the Freemasons did have their revenge, “arranging for” the city of Malden to commission a plaque acknowledging his authorship, installing it at Upham’s gravesite in Forestdale cemetery.

The meme makers had much fun with Mr Musk's “My heart goes to you” moment and earlier, those editing fragments from the film Der Untergang (Downfall (2004), a dramatization of Hitler's last days in the Führerbunker) when making contributions to the Hitler Rants Parodies explored the comedic possibilities of the fascist salute. 

Little disquiet about the salute seem to have been expressed during the 1920s but fascism, then associated exclusively with Mussolini’s Italy, didn’t yet have the bad reputation it would gain when the nature of the Nazi regime became better understood (although not until after the end of World War II (1939-1945) were the horrors fully comprehended).  Interestingly, as late as June 1942, at the urging of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Congress had passed Public Law 77-623, which codified the etiquette used to display and pledge allegiance to the flag including the raised arm.  However, now at war with the fascist Axis powers (Germany, Italy & Japan) the controversy increased and, as a consequence, the protocol was revised by replacing the raised arm with an instruction the right hand should be placed over the heart when reciting the pledge, Congress amending the Flag Code on 22 December 22, 1942.  Even that wasn’t without controversy because, after all, the Americans were first and both the USFA and the Daughters of the American Revolution (then still in its pre-DEI (diversity, equity & inclusion) phase) asserted it was inappropriate for the nation to have to change the traditional salute just because foreigners had later adopted a similar gesture.

Context is everything.

Top left: Crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) in Ralph Lauren pantsuit waving to her fans (it's believed, world-wide, there may be as many as a dozen), presidential inauguration ceremony, Washington DC, January 2017; Top right: A kitten, probably stretching but who knows, some cats seem really evil and these three could be an axis of evil.

Bottom left: Australian sprinter Peter Norman (1942–2006, left) and US athletes Tommie Smith (b 1944, centre) & John Carlos (b 1945, right), on the podium after the 200 metres final, Summer Olympics Mexico City, 1968.  Smith and Carlos displayed the "Black Power" salute (with only one pair of gloves, Carlos used his left arm) while in solidarity, Norman wore the OPHR (Olympic Project for Human Rights) badge; Bottom right: Formula One champion Sir Lewis Hamilton (b 1985) who has adopted the Black Power salute to signify his support for BLM (the Black Lives Matter movement).

As well as the modification to the gesture, there have over the years been changes to the text and the most controversial by far proved to be the interpolation of “under God”, a change requested by Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969; US president 1953-1961), concerned about the spread of Godless (though more to the point, un-Christian) communism during the high Cold War.  Because of the “freedom of religion” guaranteed by the US Constitution (primarily protected by the First Amendment (1791): “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”) challenges to that have reached the USSC (US Supreme Court) but as early as 1940 (in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586 (1940)) the court ruled 8-1 students could be compelled to recite the pledge, Harlan Stone (1872–1946; associate justice US Supreme Court 1925-1941 & chief justice 1941-1946) issuing the only dissent: “The guarantees of civil liberty are but guarantees of freedom of the human mind and spirit and of reasonable freedom and opportunity to express them…The very essence of the liberty which they guarantee is the freedom of the individual from compulsion as to what he shall think and what he shall say.”

By implication, the ruling meant the state could demand at least an expression of obedience to the nation, even if it conflicted with the doctrine of one’s religion.  Justice Stone’s argument must have been persuasive because in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), the court held the First Amendment guaranteed a right to non-participation in flag salutes although to solve several problems, that case was decided on the basis of protected “free speech” rather than “freedom of religion”.  In the twenty-first century, the cases (now usually based on the argument the phrase “under God” was an unconstitutional endorsement of monotheism have continued but none have succeeded and where possible, judges have found technical (such as a lack of standing) rather than substantive grounds to dismiss although in a lower court in 2015, it was ruled that because since 1943 participation has been “optional”, the pledge was thus a voluntary and patriotic exercise, not a religious one.