Bugeye & Frogeye

Bugeye (pronounced buhg-ahy)

(1) A nautical term for a ketch-rigged sailing vessel used on Chesapeake Bay.

(2) A slang term, unrelated to the nautical use, used to describe objects or creatures with the bulging eyes resembling those of certain bugs.

1883: An Americanism, the construct being bug + eye, coined to describe the 1880s practice of shipwrights painting a large eye on each bow of the ketches used for oyster dredging in Chesapeake Bay, an estuary in the US states of Maryland and Virginia.  Bug dates from 1615–1625 and the original use was to describe insects, apparently as a variant of the earlier bugge (beetle), thought to be an alteration of the Middle English budde, from the Old English -budda (beetle) but etymologists are divided on whether the phrase “bug off” (please leave) is related to the undesired presence of insects or was of a distinct origin.  Although “unbug” makes structural sense (ie remove a bug, as opposed to the sense of “debug”), it doesn’t exist whereas forms such as the adjectives unbugged (not bugged) and unbuggable (not able to be bugged) are regarded as standard.  Eye pre-dates 900 and was from the Middle English eie, yë, eighe, eyghe, yȝe, eyȝe & ie, from the Old English ēge, a variant of ēage, from the Proto-West Germanic augā, from the Proto-Germanic augô (eye).  It was cognate with the German Auge & the Icelandic auga and akin to the Latin oculus (eye), the Lithuanian akìs (eye), the Slavic (Polish) oko (eye), the Old Church Slavonic око (oko) (eye), the Albanian sy (eye), the Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps) (in poetic use, “eye; face”) & ὄσσε (ósse) (eyes), the Armenian ակն (akn), the Avestan aši (eyes) and the Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi).  A related Modern English form is “ogle”.  Bugeye is a noun and bugeyed is an adjective; the noun plural is bugeyes.  Hyphenated use of all forms is common. 

Frogeye (pronounced frog-ahy or frawg-ahy)

(1) In botany, a small, whitish leaf spot with a narrow barker border, produced by certain fungi.

(2) A plant disease so characterized.

(3) A slang term, unrelated to the botanical use, used to describe objects or creatures with the bulging eyes resembling those of frogs.

1914–15: A descriptive general term, the construct being frog + eye, for the condition Botryosphaeria obtusa, a plant pathogen that causes Frogeye leaf spot, black rot and cankers on many plant species.  The fungus was first described by in 1832 as Sphaeria obtusa, refined as Physalospora obtusa in 1892 while the final classification was defined in 1964.  Frog (any of a class of small tailless amphibians of the family Ranidae (order Anura) which typically move by hopping and in zoology often referred to as “true frog” because in general use “frog” is used loosely or visually similar creatures) pre-dates 1000 and was from the Middle English frogge, from the Old English frogga, from the Proto-West Germanic froggō (frog).  It was cognate with the Norwegian Nynorsk fraug (frog) and Old Norse frauki and there may be links with the Saterland Frisian Poage (frog) and the German Low German Pogg & Pogge (frog).  The alternative forms in English (some still in regional use at least as late as the mid-seventeenth century were frosk, frosh & frock.  Eye pre-dates 900 and was from the Middle English eie, yë, eighe, eyghe, yȝe, eyȝe & ie, from the Old English ēge, a variant of ēage, from the Proto-West Germanic augā, from the Proto-Germanic augô (eye).  It was cognate with the German Auge & the Icelandic auga and akin to the Latin oculus (eye), the Lithuanian akìs (eye), the Slavic (Polish) oko (eye), the Old Church Slavonic око (oko) (eye), the Albanian sy (eye), the Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps) (in poetic use, “eye; face”) & ὄσσε (ósse) (eyes), the Armenian ակն (akn), the Avestan aši (eyes) and the Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi).  A related Modern English form is “ogle”.  Frogeye is a noun and frogeyed is an adjective; the noun plural is frogeyes.  Hyphenated use of all forms is common.

Bugeye or frogeye: The Austin-Healey Sprite

1960 Austin-Healey Sprite (left) & 1972 MG Midget (right).

The Austin-Healey Sprite was produced between 1958 and 1971 (although in the last year of production they were badged as the Austin Sprite, reflecting the end of the twenty year contract with Donald Healey's (1898–1988) eponymous company).  Beginning in 1961, the car was restyled and a more conventional frontal appearance was adopted, shared with the almost identical MG Midget, introduced as at the same time as a corporate companion and the Midget outlived the Sprite, the last built in 1980.  Upon release, the Sprite immediately picked up the nicknames frogeye (UK & most of the Commonwealth) and bugeye (North America) because the headlights were mounted as protuberances atop the hood (bonnet), bearing a resemblance to the eyes of some frogs and bugs.  The original design included retractable headlights but to reduce both cost and weight, fixed-lights were used.  As purely functional mountings, such things continue to be fitted to rally-cars.  The linguistic quirk that saw the Sprite nicknamed bugeye in North America and frogeye in most of the rest of the English-speaking world is a mystery.  Etymologists have noted the prior US use of bugeye as a nautical term but it was both geographically and demographically specific and that use, visually, was hardly analogous with the Sprite.  No other explanation has been offered; the English language is like that.

1963 Lightburn Zeta (left) 1964 Lightburn Zeta Sports (centre) & Lightburn Zeta Sports with "sports lights" (right).  Not everything in the 1960s was groovy. 

1949 Crosley Hotshot.

Although distinctive, the look wasn’t new, familiar from the use of the Triumph TR2 (1952) and Crosley in the US had used a similar arrangement for their "Hotshot" & "Super Sport" (1949-1952 and notable for being fitted with four-wheel disk brakes although heey didn't work very well) and in Australia, Lightburn (previously noted for their well-regarded washing machines and cement mixers) were in 1964 forced to adopt them for the woeful Zeta Sports to meet headlight-height regulations.  The Zeta Sports was better looking than the Trabant-like "two-door sedan" which preceded it but truly that is damning with faint praise.  An adaptation (development seems not the appropriate word) of the Meadows Frisky microcar of the mid-1950s, the Zeta Sports was built in South Australia and initially it wasn't realized headlight-height rules in New South Wales (NSW) were such that the low-slung Zeta couldn't comply, even were the suspension to be raised, an expedient MG was compelled to use in 1974 to ensure the bumpers of the Midget & MGB sat at the height specified in new US rules.  Instead "sports lights" were added to the bonnet (hood) which lent more more cartoon-like absurdity to the thing but did little to increase its appeal, only a few dozen built in the two years it was available.

1959 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale, Tipo (type) 101.20. 

Ungainly the bugeye lights may have been but they were a potentially handy addition given the original headlights doubled as bumper bars.  That seems a silly idea and it is but it wasn't unique to the Zeta and some examples had exquisite (if vulnerable) coachwork, such as the early (low-nose) versions of the much-admired Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS (Sprint Speciale, Tipo (type) 101.20; 1957-1962).  It was only the first 101 cars which were produced in lightweight, bumper-bar less form, that run to fulfil the FIA's homologation rules which demanded a minimum of 100 identical examples to establish eligibility in certain classes of production-car racing.

Lindsay Lohan in "bugeye" sunglasses, the look made popular by Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994; US First Lady 1961-1963). 

So aerodynamically efficient (the drag coefficient (CD) a reputed .28) was Carrozzeria Bertone's design that although using only a 1290 cm³ (79 cubic inch) engine with barely 100 hp (75 kW), the SS could achieve an even now impressive 200 km/h (124 mph).  Fitted with a 498 cm³ engine which yielded 21 hp (15.5 kW), the Zeta Sedan thankfully wasn't that fast but did feature a four speed manual gearbox with no reverse gear; to reverse a Zeta, the ignition key was turned the opposite direction so the crankshaft turned the other way.  All four gears remained available so top speed in reverse would presumably have been about the same as going forward but, as Chrysler discovered during the testing for the doomed Airflow (1934-1937), given the vagaries of aerodynamics, it may even have been faster, something which certainly may have been true of the Sports, (at least with the soft top erected) given the additional drag induced by the bugeye lights.  This was never subject to a practical test because unlike the sedan, the diminutive roadster had a reverse gear.  

The class-winning Austin-Healey Sprite, Coupe des Alpes rally, 1958.  With its goofy bugeyes and "grinning grill", the Sprite was often anthropomorphized.  It was part of the little machine's charm and, cheap to run and easy to tune, Sprites were for decades a mainstay of entry-level motorsport and still appear in historic categories.  For years they were cheap so predictably were repowered by more powerful engines including V8s, the transplantation of which could be challenging, as was the subsequent driving experience.

An Italian Bugeye: Pininfarina's Ferrari 330 GTC Speciale

1968 Ferrari 330 GTC.

Introduced at the 1966 Geneva Auto Show, the 330 GTC was an important model for Ferrari and something of a watershed, the model defining the template which would be used for a succession of grand touring models which profitably could be manufactured and sold in volumes which, by Ferrari’s historic standards, constituted mass-production.  Between 1966-1968 597 were built (the of-quoted 598 said to be a double-counting of one chassis number), buyers attracted not only by the style but also creature comforts like air-conditioning and electric windows.  Additionally, there had been refinements to extend the appeal beyond those drawn to the faster but more raucous sports cars, independent rear suspension meaning the ride was softer and the attention paid to NVH (noise, vibration and harshness although the acronym wasn’t then in use in Italy where all three qualities still had a following) meant merely the thing was less tiring (noise is a source of stress); the 330 GTC was said to be the first Ferrari in which the radio genuinely was usable.  Styled by Pininfarina, taking cues from the 500 Superfast (1964-1966) at the front and the 275 GTS (1964-1966) to the rear, it shared the 2,400 mm (94½ inch) wheelbase of the 275 GTB (1964-1968).  A lovely, elegant shape which aged well, it wouldn’t seem to need enhancement but Pininfarina did just that, using the 330 GTC as a test-bed for a number of design studies, some of the details almost imperceptible and some obvious.

1964 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 (left) and 1967 Ferrari 365 California Spyder (right). 

Of the latter, the most obvious was the addition of a pair of Supervis (super vision) driving lights in retractable housings, as used on the Ferrari 365 California Spyder (1966-1967).  By the mid 1960s, integrated quad headlights had for a decade been a part of mainstream design but their appearance on a Ferrari  had not met with universal praise, the 330 GT 2+2 (1964-1967) produced for its first two seasons with four but reverting to what was judged a more aesthetically accomplished pair for the rest of its run.  Speeds however were rising and the networks of European roads designed for high speed cruising rapidly were being extended and the need for better headlights was acknowledged.  Soon, technology would provide that but in the short term the solution was to add another pair and the retractable units on the Superfast were a way to do that without compromising the marque’s recognizable design language.  It was only on the Superfast the Supervis lights were standard equipment and they appeared on only two of the four 330 GTC Speciales along with a handful of regular production 330 GTC (fitted upon customer request, most sources suggest only three took up the option) and the clearly limited demand, coupled with the labor-intensive installation process, dissuaded Ferrari from extending availability as early as 1965 they appear to have vanished from the option list.  Not until compelled by US regulators a half-decade later would the factory return to retractable headlights, by then in a symmetrical quad.

Ferrari 330 GTC Speciale (serial number 8727, Pininfarina construction number CO 004, left) and in bug-eye mode (right).  This does hint why rarely are the the 365 California Spyders photographed with headlights raised. 

The brace of Supervis on chassis 8727 had a history.  Sometime prior to 1988 the front of the car had been damaged and when repairs were effected, the bug-eye lights simply were removed, the suddenly gaping apertures covered with a plug from sheet aluminium; once painted, the nose again resembled that of the standard 330 GTC the car had once been.  It was only during a later restoration the plugs were discovered and information was sought from Pininfarina which provided details of the history.  Obviously the rotating mechanisms were no longer available so those on one of the 14 365 California Spyders were removed and disassembled, allowing every part exactly to be duplicated, a process as expensive as it sounds and, adding to the cost, it was necessary to fabricate a new nose-cone because the existing metal surrounding the plugs had become too fragile to support the weight.

Skinnytoker Trindalyn Mackenzie skinnysplaining that "skinny isn't owned, it's rented".

The bug-eye look was adopted by the skinnytokers (the skinnytok community said to be "the acceptable pro ana") because the exaggerated size of the frames and lens creates the visual illusion of making the face appear thinner although Trindalyn Mackenzie seems anyway splendidly slender.  

A French bugeye: The Matra 530SX

Matra’s 1967 advertising copy for the last of the Sports Jets (left) and a 530 (right).

René Bonnet (1904–1983) was a self-taught French designer and engineer who joined the long list of those unable to resist the lure of building a car bearing his name.  It ended badly but his venture does enjoy a place in history because briefly he produced the first mid-engined road cars offered for general sale, some four years after the configuration had in Formula One racing begun to exert a dominance which endures to this day.  His diminutive sports car (marketed variously as René Bonnet Djet, Matra-Bonnet Djet, Matra Sports Djet & Matra Sports Jet) were produced by his company between 1962-1964 and by Matra for a further two years, the French manufacturer taking over the concern when Bonnet was unable to pay for the components earlier supplied.  While Matra continued production of the Djet, it used the underpinnings for a much revised model which would in 1967 emerge as the Matra 530.

Matra R.530 surface to air missile (1962, left) and René Bonnet Missile (1959-1962).

It was only force of circumstances which would lead Matra to producing the Djet.  As Bonnet’s largest creditor when the bills grew beyond his capacity to pay, the accountants worked out the only hope of recovering their stake was to take the equity and continue the operation.  Although asset-stripping wasn’t then the thing it would later become, there’s nothing to suggest this was contemplated and the feeling was the superior administrative capacity of Matra would allow things to be run in a more business-like manner although there was genuine interest in the workforce’s skills with the then still novel fibreglass.  However, although Djet production resumed under new management, Bonnet’s other offerings such as the Missile (1959-1962) were retired.  The missile, a small, front-wheel drive (FWD) convertible was a tourer in the pre-war vein rather than a sports car but while the idea probably had potential, the price was high, the performance lethargic and the styling quirky even by French standards.  In looks, it had much in common with the contemporary Daimler SP250 including the tailfins and catfish-like nose but while the British roadster was genuinely a high-high performance (if flawed) sports car, the missile did not live up to its name; under the hood (bonnet) sat small (some sub 1000 cm³) four cylinder engines rather than the Daimler’s sonorous V8.  One influence did however carry over: Matra named the 530 after one of their other products: the R.530 surface to air missile which had entered service in 1962 after a five year development.

Vis-à-vis: Matra 530: The LX (left) and the SX (right).

Using three-numeral numbers for car names is not unusual but usually the reference is to engine capacity (in the metric world a 280 being 2.8 litres, a 350, 3.5 litres etc while in imperial terms 350, 427 et al stood as an indication of the displacement in cubic inches).  Buick proved a contrarian, their 445 V8 gaining the name from its torque rating and the company used 225 in honor of the impressive 225 inch (5.7 m) length of the the 1959 Electra (Jayne Mansfield (1933–1967) died in a 225), sticking to to it for years even as the thing grew and shrunk and there have been many three-digit numbers which indicated a model's place in the hierarchy, the choice sometimes seemingly arbitrary.  Porsche in 1963 thought 901 was innocuous but Peugeot objected, claiming an exclusive right (for cars sold in France) to the use of three digit numbers with a central "0".  At that point Mercedes-Benz had in France been for a decade been selling the 300 and were about to release the 600 so it seemed an ambitious claim but, given the advice the case would be heard in a French court (which meant the French would win), Porsche renamed the thing 911 and the rest is history.  The "Letter Series" Chrysler 300 gained the name from its industry-leading 300 horse power, 331 cubic inch (5.4 litre) V8 and such was the reputation the thing soon established that even though over the following eleven years displacement and power both rose, the "300" model designation was retained, the allure so strong there was a twenty-first century revival.  Even now, 300 sounds an impressive number if linked to horsepower while the "110" used by both Austin and Wolseley doesn't stir the imagination, even though it denoted a useful 11% jump in horsepower from the previous 99.  The three-dozen odd models of the French Monica (1971-1975) were all called "560" because although Chrysler invoiced the company for "340 cid" (cubic inch displacement) V8s, to have called it the 340 would have baffled many in Europe for whom inches were mysterious so 560 it was, a familiar allusion to its 5.6 litres.  Unfortunately, after the ripples of the first oil shock washed over Europe after 1973, engines of that size become suddenly unfashionable and Monica was doomed along with most of the once lucrative trans-Atlantic ecosystem.  

1971 Chrysler (Australia) VG Valiant Regal 770 Hardtop.

Perhaps because 220, 440, 330 and such can be multiples of amicable numbers (and thus possess a beauty for mathematicians), they seem to have been used as model designations unrelated to the three numeral string’s usual function of (usually with some rounding up or down) indicating engine displacement (Kawasaki 440=440 cm3; Mercedes-Benz 220=2.2 litres; Oldsmobile 330=330 cid etc). AMC (American Motor Corporation) had the most complete sequence, using 220, 330, 440, 550, 660, 770, 880 & 990 to tag a model’s place in the hierarchy and in Australia Chrysler used 660 and 770 for their blinged-up Hillman Hunter and Valiant respectively; they also called the Hunter a “Royal” in case 660 was too abstract for the colonials. There, Ford's Mark 1 Cortina was sold as a 220 (the so-called "poverty" model which was a two-door without even a standard heater so it could be advertised at the lowest possible price) & 440 (the better equipped four-door version).  When a two door version with the 440 equipment levels was released, in stead of 330 it was called 240. 550 is also a footnote because the Mercedes-Benz R230 (2001-2011) was unusual because of the quirk of the SL 550 (2006-2011), a designation used exclusively in the North American market, the RoW (rest of the world) cars retaining the SL 500 badge even though both used the 5.5 litre (333 cubic inch) V8 (M273).

Nor is a link with the materiel of the military unusual, the names of warships have been borrowed and Chevrolet used Corvette as a deliberate allusion to speed and agility but an air-to-air missile was an unusual source although Dodge did once display a Sidewinder show car.  Eventually the Corvette did live up to its name although the humble Triumph Spitfire was a far cry from the fighter aircraft which became famous in the Battle of Britain (1940).  At the time though, it wasn't the Matra's name which attracted most comment.  There have been quite a few French cars which looked weirder than the 530 but the small, mid-engined sports car was visually strange enough although, almost sixty years on, it has aged rather well and the appearance would by most plausibly be accepted as something decades younger.  The automotive venture wasn’t a risk for Matra because it was a large and diversified industrial conglomerate with profitable interests in transport, telecommunications, aerospace and of course defence (missiles, cluster-bombs, rockets and all that).  As things transpired, the automotive division would for a while prove a valuable prestige project, the participation in motorsport yielding a Formula One Constructors’ Championship and three back-to-back victories in the Le Mans 24 hour endurance classic.

Matra 530: The LX (left) and the SX (right).

The road-car business however proved challenging and Matra never became a major player.  Although the British and Italians would prove there was a market for small, economical sports cars, buyers seemed mostly to prefer more traditionally engineered roadsters which were ruggedly handsome rather than delicately avant-garde.  Although as a niche model in a niche market, the volumes were never high, the 530 was subject to constant development and in 1970 the 530LX was released, distinguished by detail changes and some mechanical improvements.  Most distinctive however was next year’s 530SX, an exercise in “de-contenting” (producing what the US industry used to call a “stripper”) so it could be offered at a lower price point, advertised at 19,000 Fr against the 22,695 asked for the LX.  It was a linguistic coincidence the SX label was later chosen for the lower price 386 & 486 CPUs (central processing unit) by the US-based Intel although they labeled their full-priced offerings DX.

Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968; Soviet pilot and cosmonaut and the first human to travel to “outer space”) with his 1965 Matra Djet (left), standing in front of the Покори́телям ко́смоса (Monumént Pokorítelyam kósmosa) (Monument to the Conquerors of Space), the titanium obelisk erected in 1964 to celebrate the USSR's pioneering achievements in space exploration.  The structure stands 351 feet (107 metres) tall and assumes an incline of 77° which is a bit of artistic licence because the rockets were launched in a vertical path but it was a good decision however because it lent the monument a greater sense of drama.  Underneath the obelisk sits the Музей космонавтики (Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics (known also as the Memorial Museum of Astronautics or Memorial Museum of Space Exploration)) and in the way which was typical of projects in the Brezhnev-era (Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982; Soviet leader 1964-1982) USSR, although construction was begun in 1964, it wasn't until 1981 the museum opened to the public.  In the Soviet Union, while it was common for projects to be delayed for years, they were usually described as "ahead of schedule". 

The reduction in the cost of production of the SX was achieved in the usual way: remove whatever expensive stuff can be removed.  Thus (1) the retractable headlights were replaced with four fixed “bugeyes”, a single engine air vent was fitted instead of the LX’s four, (3) the rear seat and carpet were deleted, (4) the front seats were non-adjustable, (5) the trimmed dashboard was replaced by one in brushed aluminium (which was much-praised), the removable targa panels in the roof were substituted with a solid panel and, (7) metal parts like bumpers and the grille were painted matte black rather than being chromed.  In the the spirit of the ancien regime, the Frensh adopted the nicknames La Matra de Seigneur (the Matra of a Lord) for the LX & La Matra Pirate (the Matra of a pirate) for the SX.

Who wore the bugeye best?  Austin-Healey Sprite (1958, left), Lightburn Zeta Sports (1964, centre) and Matra 530SX (1971, right).

The SX did little to boost sales and even in 1972 which proved the 530’s most prolific year with 2159 produced, buyers still preferred the more expensive model by 1299 to 860.  Between 1967-1973, only 9609 530s were made: 3732 of the early models, 4731 of the LX and 1146 of the bugeyed SX and, innovative, influential and intriguing as it and the Djet were, it was a failure compared with something unadventurous like the MGB (1963-1980), over a half-million of which were delivered.  One 530 however remains especially memorable, a harlequinesque 1968 model painted by French artist Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979), a founder of the school of Orphism (a fork of Cubism which usually is described as an exercise in pure abstraction rendered in vivid colors).  The work was commissioned by Matra's CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère (1928–2003) for a charity auction and still is sometimes displayed in galleries.  In 2003, after some thirty years of co-production with larger manufacturers, Matra’s automotive division was declared bankrupt and liquidated.

Nerf

Nerf (pronounced nurf)

(1) A device, traditionally metal but of late also rubber or plastic, attached to the front or corners of boats or road vehicles for the purpose of absorbing impacts which would otherwise damage the device to which they’re attached.

(2) A slang term in motorsport which describes the (intentional) use of part of a vehicle to nudge another vehicle off its course; used also to describe the almost full-length protective bars used in some forms of dirt-track (speedway) racing (although the term may have be retrospectively applied, based on the use on hot-rods).

(3) As a trademark, the brand name of a number of toys, often modeled on sports equipment but made of foam rubber or other soft substances.

(4) In video gaming, a slang term for reconfigure an existing character or weapon, rendering it less powerful.

(5) By extension from the original use at the front and rear of 1950s hot rod cars and in motorsport, the name adopted (as nerf bar) for a step to ease entry and exit on pickup trucks or sport utility vehicles (SUV) and known also as step rails, step tubes, step bars or truck steps; also sometimes used to describe the extended foot-rests used on some motorcycles.

(6) As "nerf gun", a toy which fires foam darts, arrows, discs, or foam balls; the class is based on the original "Nerf Blaster" by Hasbro.

Circa 1955: Apparently an invention of US (specifically 1950s Californian hot-rod culture) English, the source of the word being speculative.  The later use, in computer-based gaming, etymologists trace (though there is dissent) from the primitive Indo-European mith- (to exchange, remove) from which Latin gained missilis (that may be thrown (in the plural missilia (presents thrown among the people by the emperors)), source (via the seventeenth century Middle French missile (projectile)) of the English missile ((1) in a military context a self-propelled projectile whose trajectory can sometimes be adjusted after it is launched & (2) any object used as a weapon by being thrown or fired through the air, such as stone, arrow or bullet).  Nerf is a noun & verb, nerfed is a verb & adjective and nerfing is a verb; the noun plural is nerfs.

Lindsay Lohan holding Herbie's nerf bar, Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) premiere, El Capitan Theater, Hollywood, Los Angeles, 19 June 2005.

In the US, nerf bars were often fitted to cars with bumper bars mounted lower than were typically found on domestic vehicles.  What these nerf bars did was provide a low-cost, sacrificial device which would absorb the impact the bodywork would otherwise suffer because the standard bumper would pass under the bumper of whatever was hit in an accident.  On a large scale, the idea was in the 1960s implemented on trucks as the "Mansfield Bar", a (partial) solution to the matter (understood since the 1920s) of cars crashing into the rear of trucks, tending increasingly (as bodywork became lower) to “pass under” the rear of a truck's chassis, meaning it was the passenger compartment (at the windscreen level) which suffered severe damage.  The death toll over the decades was considerable and Jayne Mansfield (1933–1967) the most famous victim, hence the eponymy.  Design rules and regulations began to proliferate only in the late 1960s and remarkably as it must seem in these safety conscious times, in the US it wasn't until the early 1970s that cars were required to be built with standardized bumper-bar heights, front & rear.

The suggested etymology is said to account for the application of nerf to gaming where it means “to cripple, weaken, worsen, deteriorate or debuff” (“debuff” a linguistic novelty attributed to gamers) a character, a weapon, a spell etc.  The idea is apparently derived from the proprietary “Nerf” guns, large-scale (often realized in 1:1) toys which fire extremely soft (and therefore harmless) projectiles (al la missilis from the Latin); the Nerfball in 1970 apparently the first.  It doesn’t however account for the use either in motorsport or on hot-rods but the evidence suggests it was the hot-rod crew who used it first, based on an imperfect echoic, thinking the dirt-track (speedway) drivers using the protective bars running along the outside of the bodywork of their vehicles to nudge other competitors off the track and onto the grass were saying “to nerf” whereas they were actually saying “to turf”.  Because the hot-rods became widely known as part of the novel “youth culture” of the 1950s, the specifics of their slang also sometimes entered the wider vocabulary and the bars of the speedway cars, in an example of back-formation, also became “nerf bars”.

Nerf bars on a hot-rod.

AC Shelby Cobra 427 (replica) with naked nerf bars (top) and a real one with over-riders fitted (bottom).

The ultimate hot-rod was the AC Shelby Cobra (1962-1967) of which fewer than a thousand were made, a number exceeded more than fifty-fold by the replica industry which has flourished since the bulge-bodied original was retired in 1967, looming regulations proving just to onerous economically to comply with.  The first Shelby Cobra street cars used nerf bars as attachment points for chrome over-riders but, as a weight-saving measure, the latter were usually removed when the vehicles were used in competition, leaving the raw nerf bars exposed.  The raw look has become popular with customers of the replica versions and, surprisingly, the authorities in some jurisdictions appear to allow them to be registered in this state for street use.

On production vehicles, what are sometimes mistakenly called nerf bars are actually “bumperettes”, cut-down bumpers which in their more dainty iterations were sometimes little more than a decorative allusion to the weight-saving techniques used on genuine competition cars.  The increasing stringent impact regulations imposed during the 1970s ended the trend but modern engineering techniques have allowed designers to pick up the motif in the twenty-first century.

The concept of nerf bars as used on hot-rods existed long before the term became popular and can be found in depictions of Greek and Roman ships from antiquity and remain a common sight today, either as a specifically-designed product or simply as old car-tyres secured to the side of the hull and used especially on vessels such as tug-boats which need often to be maneuvered in close proximity to others.  The correct admiralty term for these is "fender" (ie in the sense of "fending-off" whatever it is the vessel has hit).  Manufactured usually from rubber, foam or plastic, there are also companion products, “marine fenders”, which are larger and permanently attached to docks on quay walls and other berthing structures.  Much larger than those attached to vessels, they're best thought of as big cushions (which often they resemble).  The construct was fend + er (the suffix added to verbs and used to form an agent noun); fend was from the Middle English fenden (defend, fight, prevent), a shortening of defenden (defend), from the Old French deffendre (which endures in modern French as défendre), from the Latin dēfendō (to ward off), the construct being dē- (of, from) +‎ fendō (hit, thrust), from the primitive Indo-European ghen- (strike, kill).

Dagmar

Dagmar (pronounced dag-mahr)

(1) The stage-name adopted by Virginia Ruth "Jennie" Lewis (née Egnor; 1921-2001), a star of 1950s US television (initial upper case).

(2) Slang term for the symmetrically-paired bumper extensions used by a number of US vehicle manufacturers and associated mostly with Cadillac 1946-1958 (initial lowercase).

(3) In the study of marketing, as DAGMAR, the acronym of Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results (usually all upper case).

(4) A female given name from the Germanic languages and of Norse origin, in occasional use since the last nineteenth century (initial upper case).

Pre-1000: A given name of Scandinavian origin, almost always female.  It was the name of a queen of Denmark (1185–1212), a Czech by descent, originally Dragomíra (related to the contemporary Slovak Drahomíra), the construct being the Old Church Slavonic dorgb (dear) + mirb (peace), rendered in medieval Danish under the camouflage of dag (day) + már (maid).  In Danish the meaning is listed as “day” and “glory” and it’s used also in Slovakia, Poland (Dagmara), the Netherlands, Estonia and Germany.  The ultimate source was the the Old Norse name Dagmær, the construct being dagr (day) + mær (daughter; mother; maiden).

The Tsarina (Princess Dagmar; 1847–1928) in 1885 (colorized).

Maria Feodorovna  was known before marriage as Princess Dagmar of Denmark.  She became Empress of Russia upon marriage to Alexander III (1845-1894; Tsar 1881–1894) and was the mother of the last Tsar, Nicholas II (1868–1918; Tsar 1894-1917).  Historians regard Maria Feodorovna as the most glittering of all the Tsarinas.  Renowned for her beauty, her dark eyes were mentioned in both poems and diplomatic dispatches and a glance was said to be able to "fix men to the spot".  She was also one of the most admired "clothes horses" in Europe, her statuesque, slender figure ("tall, thin and sort or weird looking" as the fashion photographers describe their ideal) of the type seen today on catwalks and in London, Paris and Milan, couturiers in the fashion houses  would write letters to the Russian court (including sketches), sometimes offering their services in exchange for nothing more than the royal imprimatur.

The evolution of Cadillac’s dagmars, 1941-1959

Lockheed P-38 Lightning (left) & 1949 Cadillac (right).

On first looking at the 1949 Cadillac, a borrowing of the motif of the tail fins and propeller hubs from the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (1941-1945 and first seen in prototype form in 1938) does seem obvious but while it appears to be true of the fins, all contemporary evidence suggests the conical additions to the front bumper bar were intended by the stylist Harley Earl (1893–1969; then General Motors' (GM) vice president of design), to evoke the idea of a speeding artillery shells.  In the twenty-first century, it may seem curious to use the imagery of military munitions in the marketing of consumer goods but that's the way things were once done.  GM claimed also they afforded additional collision protection but given it wasn’t until the 1970s that regulations existed to require front and rear bumpers to be the same height, in many impacts, it’s likely they acted more like like battering rams used on medieval siege engines.

1941 Cadillac.

The bumper guards (later called over-riders) on the 1941 Cadillac were neither novel nor unique but, being on a Cadillac, they were bigger and shinier than many.  Nor was the linking bar unusual, offered by many manufacturers and emulated too by aftermarket suppliers, used often as a mounting bracket for accessory head lamps.  There was in 1941 nothing new about the idea of additional bumper guards (or over-riders) which were not unknown in the early days of the automobile in the nineteenth century and similar devices, entirely functional as protective protuberances, can be identified on horse-drawn and other forms of transport dating back centuries.  It was only in the twentieth century they became a styling feature.

1942 Cadillac.

A chromed pair, recognizably dagmaresque, made their debut in the 1942 model year, production of which began in September 1941.  Just as stylists had drawn from earlier influences such as aeronautical streamlining and art deco architecture, Cadillac’s designers, although the US was not yet a belligerent in what was still a European war, picked up a motif from the military: the conical shape of the artillery shell, presumably to invoke the imagery of speed and power rather than destruction.  One quirk of the early dagmars was that after the US entered the war in December 1941, the government immediately imposed restrictions on the use of certain commodities for consumer goods and this affected chrome plating so the last of much of the the 1942 production runs left the factory with painted bumpers.  Automotive production for civilian sale in the US ceased on 22 February 1942, the  manufacturing capacity converted rapidly to war purposes.

1946 Cadillac.

Although the administration had allowed car production to continue until April, most of the output was used to create a stockpile of over half a million cars and light trucks, made available for the duration of the war to those for whom the allocation was deemed essential.  The sale of cars to private buyers was frozen from 31 December 1941 by Office of Production Management (OPM) although, upon application, local rationing boards could issue permits for cars to be delivered if the contract had been executed before 1 January.

By April 1944, only some thirty-thousand new cars remained in the stockpile and the manufacturers received authorization to undertake preliminary work on experimental models of civilian passenger cars with the proviso there must be no interference with war work and limits were imposed on the resources allocated.  At this stage, the invasion of mainland Europe had not happened and although progress on the atomic bomb was well-advanced, it was top-secret and not even tested so planning continued with the expectation conflict would continue into 1946 or even 1947.  The war instead ended in August 1945 and that month, Cadillac finished its last M-24 tank, the production lines reverting to cars as soon as September.  By the first week of October, car production was in full swing, the 1946 models essentially the 1942 range with a few detail differences.  The dagmars were retained and re-appeared also on the 1947 line.  Even by 1942 Americans had become accustomed to annual updates to the appearance of automobiles but such was the pent-up demand from the years of wartime restrictions that people in 1946-1947 queued to fill the order books for what were "new" versions of 1942 cars.  In the special circumstances of the time the approach worked in a way recycling for 2016 crooked Hillary Clinton's failed candidacy for the 2008 nomination didn't work for the Democratic party.

1948 Cadillac.

Smaller and more agile, Studebaker was the first manufacturer with a genuinely new post-war range and reaped the benefits although there was some resistance to the modernist lines which seemed then so radical.  GM was more conservative but nobody would mistake the 1948 Cadillacs for something earlier although while the bodies were new, the drive-train substantially was carried over.  Tail-fins weren’t entirely new to cars because the aviation influence had been seen pre-war but this was the model which began Detroit’s tail-fin fetish which, although starting modesty, would grow upwards (and occasionally outwards) for more than a decade.  Although inspired by the P-38 Lightning, the fins served no aerodynamic purpose, but unlike Mercedes-Benz’s later claim the fins on the 1959 Heckflosse were Peilstege (parking aids), Cadillac never bothered to suggest they were there to assist those reversing; at the front, a tribute to the Lockheed's twin propeller hubs seemed to compliment the fins.  The fins were mostly admired but the big news for 1949 was the new overhead valve (OHV) V8 which marked the start of a power race which would run for almost a quarter century before environmental concerns, safety issues and the first oil crisis (1973-1974) wrote finis for such things for a generation.

In a manner echoing pre-war practice, the new 331 cubic inch  (5.4 litre) V8 was actually smaller than its predecessor; that would not be the post-war trend and Cadillac’s V8s would grow to 500 cubic inches (8.2 litre) until reality bit in the 1970s and that reality did intrude on what was planned.  When Cadillac introduced their 331 V8 in 1949 it was designed with expansion in mind, able to be enlarged to around 430 cubic inches (7.0 litres), a displacement expected not ever to be required, such had been the advances in efficiency of internal combustion engines compared with pre-war units.  However, the American automobile became bigger & heavier while the highway network expanded, ushering in high-speed motoring, meaning the demand for more powerful engines grew too and by 1964, the Cadillac V8, then enlarged to 429 cubic inches (7.0 litres) had reached the end of its development potential and it was known both Chrysler and Ford would soon release V8s of even greater capacity.  Accordingly, in late 1967 they trumped the Chrysler 440 (7.2) and Ford's 462 (7.6) with the Cadillac 472 (7.7), a block designed to be able to grow to a remarkable 600-odd cubic inches (circa 10 litres), the precaution taken to ensure the corporation was ready for whatever market trends or regulatory impositions (fuel economy standards weren't envisaged in an era of "cheap, limitless oil") might emerge.  It was a shame because the Cadillac 429 was (by Detroit's seven litre standards) a compact and economical unit.  As things transpired, after growing in 1970 to 500 cubic inches, progressively the behemoth was down-sized to 425 (7.0) and 368 (6.0) before being retired in 1984 when it was the last of the US "big block" V8s still in passenger car use.  If Greta Thunberg (b 2003) thinks such things are bad now, she may be assured they used to be worse.

1949 Ford Custom Convertible “single spinner” (left) and 1951 Ford Country Squire “twin spinner” (right).

The industry’s inspiration certainly came originally from the military, influenced either by artillery and aviation.  The first new Fords of the post-war years came to be known as “single spinners” (1949-1950) and “twin spinners” (1951), referencing the slang term for propeller and even then that a backward glance, jets, missiles & rockets providing designers with their new inspirations, language soon reflecting that.  Over eight generations, the Country Squire was between 1950-1991 the top of the Ford station wagon line, distinguished from lesser models by the timber (or fake timber) panels.  Only the first generation (1950-1951) were true “woodies” with wood (mahogany paneling, accented by birch or maple surrounds) from Ford-owned plantations processed at the company’s Iron Mountain plant in upper Michigan.  As a genuine "woodie" the Country Squire’s production process was capital and labour-intensive, three assembly plants involved with transportation of the partially-finished cars required between locations.  The initial assembly of the steel body was undertaken at Dearborn with the shells then shipped to Iron Mountain plant for the fitting of the timber components.  Upon completion, the bodies were on-shipped to various Ford assembly facilities for mounting onto ladder-frame chassis and the installation of interior & exterior trim.  To reduce costs, in 1951 final assembly was out-sourced to the Ionia Body Company which had for years assembled wood-bodied station wagons for General Motors and in 1952 the mahogany was replaced with 3M’s (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, the corporation not to be confused with the "Three Ms" of the 1950s who were the actresses Mamie Van Doren (b 1931), Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) & Jayne Mansfield (1933–1967), the "blonde bombshells" of the era) synthetic DI-NOC which emulated the appearance and although eventually it would fade, did prove durable.  The next year, use of birch and maple was discontinued and “timber-look” fibreglass moldings were fitted.  For better or worse, DI-NOC would for decades be a feature of the American automobile (including even convertibles!) but Ford’s attempts to tempt the British and Australians proved brief and abortive.

The “bullet nose” Studebaker Commander: 1950 (left) and 1951 (right).

Like many nicknames, the “single spinner” appellation applied to the 1949-1950 Fords appeared only in retrospect, after the 1951 facelift added a second.  To the public the use of “spinner” probably was obvious because the look did obviously recall the bosses on a twin-engined propeller aircraft but what people decide something should be called doesn’t always accord with what the designer had in mind.  The distinctive look of the 1950 Studebaker Commander came from the ever-vivid imagination of French born US designer Raymond Loewy (1893–1986) who was inspired not by jet engines (soon to emerge as a popular motif in many fields because jets became sexy) but an earlier technology.  Loewy had had in mind the prominent snout of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (the headlights serving as analogues for the engine nacelles) which later would provide the model for the modest tailfins on the 1948 Cadillac but despite that, the 1950s Studebakers came to be called “the bullet-nose”.  At Studebaker, the feeling soon must have been the moment was at least passing because in 1951 the outer-ring of the assembly was painted to blend in more with the bodywork but the reduction of the vanes from four to three was probably nothing more than the usual “change for the sake of change” although the P-38 did always use three-blade propellers.  The “beak” differed little from Loewy’s conceptual sketches but did become part of one of the era’s more celebrated fueds, Studebaker’s styling department employing designer Virgil Exner (1909–1973) who was there by virtue of having in 1944 been fired by Loewy.  Two of the great names of mid-century US design, the clash of egos continued and, triggered by Loewy receiving credit for his work styling the landmark 1946 Studebaker, Exner quit and went to work for Chrysler where, for a decade he influenced automotive design on both sides of the Atlantic.  As a footnote, the way the front bumper-bar was handled on the 1950-1951 Commander was visually a preview of the technique many manufacturers would adopt from 1973 to conform with the US impact regulations, the closest implementation probably to “diving board” design used by BMW. 

"Dagmar", Virginia Ruth "Jennie" Lewis (née Egnor, 1921–2001).

Television was the great cultural disrupter of the post-war years, creating first a national and eventually an internationally shared experience unimaginable in the diverse media environment of the twenty-first century.  Television needed content and, beginning in 1949, some of it was provided by Dagmar.  Ms Lewis adopted the persona of the "dumb blonde" but soon proved to be no airhead, becoming the star of the show on which she'd been hired as the supporting act, parlaying her fame to become one of the celebrities of the era.  She was also impressively pneumatic which may have accounted for her popularity with at least some of the audience and the vague anatomical similarity to the Cadillac's chromed pieces quickly saw them nicknamed "dagmars".  She was said to be amused by the connection, exploiting it whenever possible and Harley Earl's notion of speeding explosive shells was soon forgotten.

Art and Engineering: The automobile, the sweater, the "bullet" or "torpedo" bras and the cross-over of techniques from the structural to the decorative; from jet aircraft & rockets to fashion, in the 1950s, the industry had no shortage of inspiration and role models.  Unfortunately, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) didn't live to see the dagmars sprout from cars and while it may be assumed he'd have thought them worthy of analysis, probably he'd have conceded "sometimes a bumper is just a bumper".

1951 Cadillac.

For 1951, the dagmars not only grew but evolved stylistically from their bolt-on beginnings to become visually integrated with the bumper itself although, technically, they remained separate parts.  The growth of the dagmar is illustrative of Charles Darwin's (1809-1882) theory of natural selection; beneficial mutations within the genetic code that aid an organism's survival will be passed to the next generation.  The sales performance of the brand in the post-war years would proved Darwin correct, the increasing bulk of Cadillacs rewarded on the sales charts and for much of Cadillac’s next twenty-five years, bigger would be better.  While the dagmars soon would reach an evolutionary dead-end and go extinct, for a (human) generation or more, size would continue to matter.

1953 Cadillac.

Whether or not Cadillac was influenced by the cultural impact of Ms Lewis isn’t documented but in one way the anthropomorphism became a little more explicit in 1953, this time with uplift, supported still by the bumper but notably higher.  However, for 1953, the dagmars also returned to their military roots with the addition of small stabilizer fins so those seeking meaning in the metal should make of that what they will.  It was in 1953 the Cadillac Eldorado first appeared as a low volume convertible, production prompted after the positive response to the 1952 El Dorado “Golden Anniversary” show car.  Lavishly equipped, it featured a unique body and is notable for the first appearance on a Cadillac of the “wrap-around” windscreen which would become an industry feature for almost a decade and one historian suggested the several days of incapacity suffered by Richard Nixon (1913-1994; US president 1969-1974) during the 1960 presidential campaign (his knee damaged by the “dog-leg” windscreen pillar in his Chevrolet) may have been a factor in him losing the contest by “an electoral eyelash”.  The 1953 Eldorado was very expensive and only 552 were built but despite that, in subsequent decades, US manufacturers often couldn't resist the lure of such unprofitable ventures, justified usually as "prestige projects".

1954 Cadillac.

Cadillac slightly enlarged the tails fins for 1954 but abandoned the little fins on the dagmars, the shape returning not merely to something approximating Ms Lewis but hinting also at the bullet bra style so associated with the era.  Why the dagmars dropped a cup size in 1954 isn't known but although it must at the time have seemed a good idea, the era's mantra of "never do in moderation what can be done in excess") soon prevailed.  It was clear there was demand for something like the Eldorado but the stratospheric price of the exclusively bodied 1953 car had meant buyers were few.  In 1954 Cadillac re-positioned the Eldorado as a blinged-up version of the regular-production line, enabling the price to be reduced by 35%; in response, sales almost quadrupled and almost immediately the thing was among the most profitable in the GM stable, something which encouraged over the years a number of “special edition” Eldorados with predictably fanciful names.

1955 Cadillac.

Peak dagmar was reached in 1955.  Although techniques in steel fabrication existed to allow them further to grow, imagining such things can conceive of them only as absurd and there's no evidence in the GM archives that anything bigger was contemplated; from now on, they would have to evolve in another way.  Such was the importance of the dagmar, to afford them additional space, the parking lamps were moved to a spot directly below the head lamps and 1955's uplift was quite explicit, the superstructure suggestive of the cantilever effect which underlay the structural engineering of the underwire bra.  Pursuing the metaphor, this was definitely up a couple of cup sizes from the year before; while it’s hard to be exact, by 1955 Cadillac was well into the alphabet.  Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner (1926-2017) drove a 1955 Cadillac Series 62 convertible; amateur psychoanalysts may be inclinded to ponder on that.

1956 Cadillac.

Apparently now content with the shape of the protrusions, Cadillac may have realized that even by their standards the 1955 fittings may have been too big so slightly they were pruned and some attention was devoted instead to the surrounding details, the grill now with a finer texture and the parking lamps moved to lacunae cut into the bumpers.  A novelty for 1956 was the option of the grill being embellished in gold as an alternative to the standard satin finish and the fins, although higher than the originals, remained restrained.  That was not to last.

1955 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Show car (left) and 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (right).

Longer to lengthen the lingerie link, the uplifted dagmars now gained padding (which were technically more like pasties given they didn't increase a dagmar's size), the rubber attachments actually quite a good idea given how far their chromed metal predecessors stuck out.  Although obviously not at the time foreseen, the idea would be revived by some in the early 1970s as a quick, cheap solution to meet the new frontal-impact regulations and the rubber buffers must in 1957 have prevented some damage, both to victim and perpetrator.  Predictably, they were quickly nicknamed “pasties”, a borrowing of the term used in the female underwear business to describe a stick-on attachment designed for purposes of modesty.  The quad headlamps previewed on 1955 Eldorado Brougham Show car became lawful in many US states in 1957 (and soon all 48) and that meant the front end was becoming very busy with its array of circular shapes.

1958 Cadillac.

GM's corporate body for 1958 was released with the usually high expectations.  However, not only was the a brief, though sharp, recession which affected sales but the ranges suffered stylistically against the sleek new Chryslers which more than any embodied the "longer, lower, wider" motif which would characterize the era.  The Cadillacs were certainly longer in 1958, one aspect addressed in response to the perception the 1957 models had looked, remarkably, too short; a thing of relative proportions as well as absolute dimensions.  Still padded, the dagmars moved towards the edges and the fins grew, losing the forward slope on some models which had contributed to the sense of stubbiness.  What GM's designers looked at most longingly however were the Chrysler's sweeping tail-fins; they would respond.

1959 Cadillac.

Cadillac retired the dagmars for 1959; Darwinian natural selection again. (1) The dagmars, even if padded, did cause damage, both to themselves and whatever it was they hit (2) the adoption of the newly lawful quad headlamps in 1957-1958 created an opportunity for stylists render something new and (3) whatever may have be the linkage with women’s fashion, the old imagery of artillery shells or twin propellers was outmoded in the jet-age, the new inspiration being the twin-engined nacelle seen on the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and the Convair B-36 Peacemaker, four of which Cadillac grafted on, two for the head lamps, two for the park lamps.  Even in Detroit in the 1950s, to add a pair of dagmars to that lot might have been thought a bit much.  As it was, probably few noticed or long lingered over their absence because for the 1949 range it was the tail-fins and tail-lamps which drew the eye.

Translatable motifs: The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and the 1959 Cadillac.

Built between 1952-1962, the B-52 has been in service under 14 presidents and has seen several generations of airplanes come and go; when first it flew, Joe Biden (b 1942; US president 2021-2025) was nine, Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021 and since 2025) was six and crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) was five (though even then probably already lying about her age).  No longer used for its original purpose which was to overfly Russian & Chinese targets, dropping gravity bombs, the platform has proved adaptable and been subject to a number of upgrades and revisions, new generations of engines (quieter, more economical and less polluting) fitted and some modern materials integrated to replace the some of the period steel & aluminium.  The most obvious updating however is that the B52s still in service are hybrids in that they're a mix of analogue and digital, the flight controls, weapons systems and other avionics reflecting in some cases almost all of the technical generations of the last sixty-odd years.  It’s not impossible some may still be in service in 2052, a century after the first flight.  In most ways, the B-52’s design has proved more durable than the 1952 Cadillac.

Translatable motifs: The Convair B-36 Peacemaker and the 1959 Cadillac.

The nacelles of aircraft engines provided Cadillac with a rich source of inspiration and if they couldn't decide between propellers and jets, some aircraft offered both.  The earliest of Messerschmitt's prototype twin-jet ME-262s were equipped also with a propeller driven by a Jumo 210 engine, a necessity for the test-pilots given the unreliability of the early jets and many manufactures adopted the approach for their prototypes.  For some aspects, Cadillac settled on one which, unusually, combined both propulsion systems in a mass-produced model: the Convair B-36 Peacemaker (1946-1954) a transitional airframe which straddled the two eras and was one of the earliest strategic bombers designed specifically as a delivery system for nuclear weapons.  With a greater payload even than the B-52, in its final configuration the B-36 was powered by a remarkable ten engines, six radial propeller units and four jets which lent the B-36 its slogan within Strategic Air Command (SAC): "six turnin' and four burnin' ".  However, the propellers were in an unusual pusher configuration, facing the opposite direction from the usual practice so it would have been a challenge to continue the tribute to Ms Lewis.  Instead, for 1959 Cadillac "mixed and matched": the B-52's twin nacelles at the front, the B-36 lending its lines to the tail lamps at the rear.

Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967) in her 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarrritz.

She may neither have noticed nor cared that Cadillac deleted the dagmars on the 1959 range but Jayne Mansfield anyway brought her own when she bought a 1959 Eldorado convertible.  As a marketing ploy, the two-door hardtops had for some time been called the "Eldorado Seville" while the companion convertible was the "Eldorado Biarritz".  The dagmars may have gone but it's for the "twin bullet" tail-lamp assemblies that the 1959 range is remembered; while not the tallest fins on the era (the 1961 Imperials taking that dubious award by just under an inch (25 mm)), they probably were the most extravagant.  Also, despite the number of pink 1959 Cadillacs now in existence, none ever left the factory painted thus, a rose-colored exterior hue offered in only 1956.  It was that Elvis Presley (1935-1977) owned a pink Cadillac and the use of the phrase in popular culture (song & film) that made the trend a thing although his car was a 1955 Fleetwood Sixty Special which was originally blue with a black roof.  The roof was later re-sprayed white but people adopting the motif usually go all-pink.

1948 Chrysler Newport Limousine (left), 1949 Chrysler Town & Country Convertible (centre) and M4 Sherman “Rhino” Tank (France, 1944, right).

However, from the 1940s to the 1960s the dagmar’s path wasn’t lineal.  There’s nothing to suggest Chrysler had any sort of anthropomorphic mutation in mind when the corporation added a third bumper guard for the 1948 range (top left) and the rationale was probably nothing more than “more is better”, a philosophy which in Detroit would linger into the 1970s (the Pentagon has never quite abandoned the notion).  For 1949 there was more still when a fourth bumper guard was added (top right), all now less dagmaresque and the range anyway made its debut some months before Ms Lewis first appeared on television.  More than anything, the 1949 Chrysler’s impressive array recalled the front of the “rhino tank”, the American nickname for Allied tanks to which “tusks” had been added to allow the vehicles to “cut through” the hedgerows (the lines of thick shrubbery which separated parcels of land in the hinterland on which was fought much of the Battle of Normandy which followed the D-Day landings (6 June 1944)).  Originally an ad-hoc battlefield modification fabricated with steel from the defensive devices the Germans had laid upon the beaches, most of the “Rhinos” had three, four or five “tusks” (or “prongs” as the British called them) but Chrysler were never tempted by five and no models left the factory with more than four bumper guards.  Interestingly, although fond of fins, the corporation never jumped on the dagmar bandwagon.

Lycia Naff (b 1962) as the three breasted prostitute (left) in Total Recall (1990), the idea revived on the catwalk, Milan Fashion Week, 2018 (right).

Nor is there any evidence Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven (b 1938) was familiar with the 1948 Chrysler when he conceived the three-breasted sex worker in Total Recall (1990), played by Lycia Naff (b 1962) although his first thoughts were apparently 1949ish because in an interview with The Ringer, the director explained he originally wanted four: “I know that some women had, let’s say, not two nipples, but they have four nipples.  Like a dog, whatever.  That’s what they have.  They exist, basically, and I’ve seen the medical photos when I was at university.  And I knew that. I wanted four nipples and breasts, with big breasts and smaller breasts underneath.  And [special effects specialist] Bob Bottin (b 1959), I think, felt that it was too realistic for the film.  And basically that three breasts would be more, let’s say, in the style of the whole movie.”  Now we know.

The radomes, paired and singular: 1959 Cadillac Cyclone (XP-74) concept car (left) and North American F-86-50-NA Sabre (right).

However, although Cadillac abandoned the use of dagmars in their 1959 models (a rare example of restraint that year), just to remind people what they were missing, simultaneously they toured the show circuit with the Cadillac Cyclone (XP-74) concept car, an example of how far things had come from Ford's "twin spinners" a decade earlier.  Although it was powered by the corporation’s standard 390 cubic inch (6.5 litre) V8, there was some adventurous engineering including a rear-mounted automatic transaxle and independent rear suspension (using swing axles, something far from ideal but not as bad as it sounds given the grip of tyres at the time) but few dwelt long on such things, their attention grabbed by features such as the bubble top canopy (silver coated for UV protection) which opened automatically in conjunction with the electrically operated sliding doors.  This time the link with military aviation was quite explicit, the black dagmars actually functional radomes like those familiar on the F-86-D Sabre, containing the radar-controlled proximity sensors used electronically to alert the driver with an audible signal and warning light should an automobile or other approaching object be detected.  The system apparently worked although it would have been too expensive to offer as an option.  In 2024, such systems are produced by the million at low-cost and are standard equipment on many vehicles.

Ad-hoc modifications to racing Minis in the quest for aerodynamic advantage: A “chop-top” (the “chop” part of “chop & channel” (left) and one of the many implementations of a “streamlined” front section rendered in fibreglass (right).  What the chop to did was (1) reduce frontal area, (2) lower the centre of gravity and (3) reduce weight, all effective measures but in most competitions the technique was soon banned.  The fibreglass front clips also saved weight but the prime objective was to reduce drag; so radical were these modifications they were permitted only in some competitions.  There was however one "loophole".

Fashion & function.  1960 Plymouth Fury Convertible (left) and 1971 Porsche 917K (right).

During the dagmar era, Detroit was no stranger to mendacity, claiming the big tail-fins were there to enhance straight-line stability.  Whether that was true isn’t clear but the theory was sound, the Czechoslovak manufacturer Tatra in 1934 adding a single central fin on the sloping tail of their 77 (1934-1938), the technique borrowed from aviation where aircraft tails equalize the pressure on either side; with swing axles, a rear mounted V8 and advanced aerodynamics which made high speeds possible, more than most the Tatras needed stabilization.  Jaguar famously added an off-set one to the D-Type (1954-1957), speeds previously unexplored on long straights meaning the aerodynamic properties once needed by aircraft were now required closer to the ground.  The principle had been proved and Porsche in the early 1970s added to the 917 a pair not dissimilar in appearance to some of the US cars of a decade-odd earlier but that was a product of wind-tunnel and track testing whereas there’s nothing to suggest what Detroit fitted came from anywhere but the stylists’ drawing boards.

The loophole: Mini with headlight "dagmars".

However, even the industry’s infamously shameless advertising agencies seem never to have claimed the dagmars, despite their shape, conferred any aerodynamic benefit (unlike on missiles and such where as nosecone they provided exactly that).  Given the places in which they were fitted to Cadillacs and such, that restraint was wise but there was one group which saw the potential to use them to gain a slight aerodynamic gain and for that group even the slightest improvement was worth having.  When conceived, BMC’s (British Motor Corporation) Mini (1959-2000) had been designed with only economy and packaging efficiency as objectives but it had been on the market only days when its potential as a “giant killer” became obvious; the light weight, nimbleness and tenacious grip, combined with low fuel consumption and tyre wear made the diminutive machines highly competitive against more powerful, faster opposition.  High-performance versions of the Mini did gain power and they went on to win trophies on the track and in rallies but there were times when Mini raced against Mini in events where the “equalization rules” banned most mechanical modifications.  That meant the usual path to aerodynamic enhancement was barred but one trick not banned was explored by some: The “headlight dagmar” was achieved by the simple expedient of installing a headlight “bucket” (the conical assembly usually concealed within the fender behind the lens) backwards.  Although amateur drivers didn’t have access to wind tunnels so the efficacy of the innovation was never tested, the shape certainly looked more aerodynamic and may have gained a fraction of a second here and there.

Trends in one industry do get picked up in others and it can be difficult to work out who is being influenced by whom, cause and effect sometimes amorphous.  Like the tailfin fad, the dagmar era came and went during the first generation of "the affluent society", a brief, chromed moment during which excess could be enjoyed without guilt although, even at the time, there were critics, some of whom probably were dissenters who actually bought the big Cadillacs, Lincolns and Imperials.  Whether being in the avant-garde of dagmar trends much influenced buying patterns is doubtful because the Cadillac, Lincoln & Imperial crowd tended to be a tribal lot and conquest sales happened at scale only if some thing genuinely innovative (like the 1955 & 1957 Imperials) appeared and even then, Cadillac owners were seen as a breed apart; a separate population.  Only about one thing did probably most concur: everybody likes boobs.

Not only Cadillacs

1958 Lincoln Continental Mark III Convertible. 

Ford's 1958 Lincoln Continental was a reasonable technical achievement, being at the time the largest vehicle of unitary construction ever built and in convertible form it remains the longest the industry made since World War II (1939-1945).  It was also a failure in the market which went close to dooming the Lincoln brand and the reasons for that included the sheer size of the things (there were many garages, even in the affluent society's more respectable places, in which one simply wouldn't fit) and the appearance, a mashup of lines, curves and scallops which made some speculate each part may have been designed by a different committee, all working is isolation.  Ponderously, the body survived for three seasons during which Lincoln apparently couldn't decide about dagmars; after appearing in 1959, they were deleted the next year, only to return for the range's swansong in 1960.  Clearly, Lincoln lacked Cadillac's passion.

1960 Lincoln Continental Mark V Executive Limousine. 

The size did however come in handy when building limousines.  The black car (above) was leased by Ford to the White House for an annual (US$500) fee and was the one presidents used for personal journeys around Washington DC.  Replaced during Lyndon Johnson's (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president 1963-1969) administration as part of the periodic updating of the White House fleet, it was sold by public tender as just another used car.  There wasn't then the same sensitivity attached to objects associated with events and the 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible in which John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) was assassinated was, after being repainted black (it was originally midnight blue), fitted with a permanent roof and titanium armor plating and returned to the White House car pool where it served until 1977, an unsentimental pragmatism probably unthinkable now.  Although their own extravagances were hardly subtle, the fins on Fords, Lincolns and even Edsels never reached the heights or were bent to shape the contortions GM and Chrysler pumped out.  To their eternal credit, Lincoln didn't add dagmars to the memorable 1961 Lincoln; there would have been an absurd clash with the severe lines.

1963 Ford Galaxie 500XL convertible (G-Code 406 Tri-power).

Notably, GM's other divisions rarely tried to match Cadillac in the size, lift and projection of dagmars, Buick the most committed though other manufacturers, albeit spasmodically, would use the theme.  Mercury and Packard offered them on various models between 1953-1956 and Chevrolet's were modest and often rubber-padded.  That idea was picked up by Ford in the early 1960s, their final  A-cup fling on the 1963 Galaxie; perhaps as a sign of the times, uniquely, they were offered only as an optional extra.  In a distinctly un-dagmaresque way, a pair appeared also on the rear bumper and were obviously there genuinely to offer some modest protection against the damage which might be suffered in low-impact events such as those suffered in car parks.  The insurance industry had already noted the disproportionately large costs they were incurring fixing damage suffered while parking and, hiring more lobbyists (ie those who traded "campaign financing" for laws), were planning their own strategy.

Clockwise from top left: 1974 Jaguar XKE (E-Type), 1974 Triumph TR6, 1978 Triumph Spitfire and 1973 Dodge Monaco.

There was no suggestion of anything organically Darwinian about the sudden addition of ungainly blocks of rubber to certain US-market cars in the early 1970s.  They were a consequence of the lobbying efforts of the insurance industry proving more effective in having the congress pass legislation imposing "bumper standards" than were those of the car industry to delay or prevent their introduction.  Presumably also, the "donations" of the insurance industry were both greater and better "packaged".  Some US manufacturers bolted them on as a stop-gap solution while the engineering was done to create the "railway-sleeper" bumpers to comply with the next year's tougher standards while some British sports cars would see out their final years so disfigured.  A few were built on platforms designed in the 1950s which either couldn’t be adapted or were so close to end-of-life the economics were not compelling.  The quick and dirty solution produced what proved to be distinctly non-anthropomorphic dagmars, this time made almost entirely of padding so predictably dubbed “falsies”.  Awkward looking though they were, worse was to come; some of the solutions used to meet the rules were truly ghastly, a few of which lasted well into the 1980s.  It was Ronald Reagan (1911-2004; US president 1981-1989) who, as part of the war his administration waged on regulations and red tape, ended the growth of the bumper bars he called "battering rams".

Sabrina, the English Dagmar

Television penetrated most of the Western world during the 1950s and in an era of generally (though not without the odd hiccup) rising prosperity, the sets became increasingly ubiquitous in domestic households.  The content however was much more regionally specific than would become the trend in succeeding decades.  While production centres in the UK did distribute some of their product elsewhere (and not only in the English-speaking world), by volume and cultural influence the US were by far the most successful, much of what was seen on many screens was locally produced, something easier to achieve in an era when 24 hour TV was not yet a thing and it was industry practice to repeat broadcasts with some frequency.  Additionally, there were often “local content” requirements (quotas) which were industry protection trade barriers erected obsessively to save viewers from what even then was understood as “cultural imperialism”.  Although that phrase had been used even prior to World War I (1914-1918), it wasn’t until it appeared in Mass Communications and American Empire (1969) by US sociologist Herbert Schiller (1919–2000) that it would become part of the mainstream language of critical theory.  However, not only was the particular phenomenon of American cultural influence well documented in the 1950s, it was also appreciated that television would be a force like no previous form of distribution, a concept Dr Schiller also discussed as “packaged consciousness”, an idea later refined as “encapsulated cultural hegemony”.

1962 Reliant Sabre (1961-1963): It was only the early cars which were adorned with the rather bizarre “sabrinas”.

But in the 1950s, more cultural references than now were regionally specific, although international trade (globalization had actually been well underway before World War I (1914-1918) and its aftermath of decades imposed an intermission) meant objects spread and in fields like architecture something like an “international style” had emerged.  So, the dagmars on the cars made it to Europe but, without Ms Lewis appearing of screens, the nickname didn’t come into use.  Except for Detroit’s cars, not many examples of the classic dagmar bumpers were seen but England did have Norma Ann Sykes (1936–2016), better known by her stage name: Sabrina.

Sabrina in some characteristic poses.

Sabrina’s early career was as a model, sometimes in various stages of undress, but it was when in 1955 she was cast as a stereotypical “dumb blonde” in a television series she achieved national fame.  On stage or screen, she remained a presence into the 1970s but without great critical acclaim although the University of Leeds did confer an honorary D.Litt (Doctor of Letters) for services to the arts so there was that.  What was of course noticed was her "presence" and as well as the unusual fittings to the nose of the Reliant Sabre, the “sabrina” moniker was applied to parts of equipment on machinery as varied as heavy trucks and Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter jets.

Triumph sabrina engine in TRS, Le Mans, 1960.

There was also a “sabrina” engine, or more correctly its cylinder head.  For various reasons, it wasn’t easy for European manufacturers to pursue the path to power and performance by adopting the American approach of big displacement so they chose the alternative: greater specific efficiencies & higher engine speeds.  In Italy, as early as 1954 Alfa Romeo had proved the once exotic double overhead camshaft (DOHC) configuration was viable in relatively low-cost, mass-production machines and even in England, MG’s MGA Twin Cam had been released, short-lived though it was.  Triumph’s sports cars had enjoyed much success, both in the marketplace and on racetracks but their engines were based on one used in a tractor and while legendary robust, it was tuneable only up to a point and that point had been reached, limiting its potential in competition.  The solution was a DOHC head atop the old tractor mill and this the factory prepared for their racing team to run in the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hour classic, naming the car in which it was installed the TR3S, suggesting some very close relationship with the road-going TR3 although it really was a prototype and a genuine racing car.

The Le Mans campaigns with the sabrina Engine: TR3S (1959, left), TRS (1960, centre) and the TRS team crossing the line in formation for what was a "staged  photo-opportunity", none of the cars having completed the requisite number of laps to be classified a "finisher" (1960, right).  In 1961, all three went the distance, taking the "Teams Prize".    

Some resemblance in the mind's eye of an engineer: Sectional view of the sabrina.

Triumph used the sabrina engine for three consecutive years at Le Mans, encountering some problems but the reward was delivered in 1961 when all three cars completed the event with one finishing a creditable ninth, the trio winning that year’s team prize.  Satisfied the engine was now a reliable power-plant, the factory did flirt with the idea of offering it as an option in the TR sports cars but, because the differences between it and the standard engine were so great, it was decided the high cost of tooling up for mass production was unlikely to be justified, the projected sales volumes just not enough to amortize the investment.  Additionally, although much power was gained by adding the DOHC Hemi head, the characteristics of its delivery were really suited only to somewhere like Le Mans which is hardly typical of race circuits, let alone the conditions drivers encounter on the road.  As a footnote in Triumph’s history, it was the second occasion on which the factory had produced a DOHC engine which had failed to reach production.  In 1934 the company displayed a range-topping version of their Dolomite sports car (1934-1940), powered by a supercharged two litre (121 cubic inch), DOHC straight-8.  The specification was intoxicating and the lines rakish but, listed at more than ten times the price of a small family car, it was too ambitious for the troubled economy of the 1930s and only three were built.

Professor Regitz-Zagrosek's "bikini triangle": Lindsay Lohan illustrates (left) and with (as imagined by an engineer) with overlaid "Sabrina" timing gear (right).

When viewing the casing containing the gears & timing chains running from the bottom-end to the front camshaft bearings, one can see why Sabrina rapidly would have entered the mind of an engineer.  Apparently it began with a chance remark at the assembly bench but nobody could think of a more appropriate description so the official project name it became, the original "20X" soon forgotten.  Anatomically, the engineers were of course about right because the front sectional view of the sabrina engine’s internals do align with what Dr Vera Regitz-Zagrosek (b 1953; Professor of Cardiology at the University of Zurich), describes as “the bikini triangle”, that area of the female human body defined by a line between the breasts and from each breast down to the reproductive organs; it’s in this space that is found all the most obvious anatomical differences between male & female although the professor does caution differences actually exist throughout the body, down to the cellular level.