Appliqué (pronounced ap-li-key)
(1) Ornamentation, as a decorative cut-out design, sewn
on, glued or otherwise applied to a piece of material.
(2) The practice of decorating in this way
(3) A work so formed or an object so decorated.
(4) A decorative feature, as a sconce, applied to a
surface.
(5) To apply, as appliqué to.
(6) In medicine, of a red blood cell infected by the
malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum, assuming a form in which the early
trophozoite of Plasmodium falciparum parasitises the marginal portion of the
red blood cell, appearing as if the parasite has been “applied”.
1841: From the from French appliqué (work applied or laid
on to another material), noun use of the past participle of appliquer (to apply), from the twelfth
century Old French apliquier), from
the Latin applicare (attach to, join,
connect) and the source of “apply” in Modern English. The alternative spelling is applique and in
French, the feminine was appliquée, the
masculine plural appliqués & the
feminine plural appliquées. As a verb, appliqué refers to a method of
construction but as a noun, depending on the item, the synonyms can include finery,
ornament, plaque, ribbon, trinket, wreath, brocade, decoration, lace,
needlepoint, quilting, tapestry, mesh, arabesque, bauble, braid, curlicue,
dingbat & embellishment. Appliqué is
a noun, verb & adjective appliquéd is a verb & adjective and appliquéing
is a verb; the noun plural is appliqués.
The woodie wagon and the descent to DI-NOC appliqué
Horse drawn carriages of course began with timber
construction, metal components added as techniques in metallurgy improved. The methods of construction were carried
over to the horseless carriages, most early automobiles made with a steel
chassis and bodywork which could be of metal, wood or even leather, located by
a wooden frame. That endured for decades
before being abandoned by almost all manufacturers by the 1970s, Morgan remaining
one of the few traditionalists, their craftspeople (some of whom are now women)
still fashioning some of the internal structure (attached to the aluminum
chassis) from lovingly shaped and sanded English ash.
Early woodies which used real wood: 1934
Ford V8 Model 40 (left), 1941 Packard One-Ten (centre) and 1949 Mercury 9CM (right).
During the inter-war years, the timberwork again became prominent
in the early station wagons (estate cars). Because such vehicles were limited production
variations of the standard models, it wasn’t financially viable to build the tooling
required to press the body panels so a partially complete cars were used
(often by an external specialist), onto which was added the required coachwork,
all fashioned in timber in the same manner used for centuries. In the US, the
cars were known as woodie wagons (sometimes as "woody" in the UK where the same
techniques were used to create "shooting brakes") and the more expensive were truly fine examples of the
cabinet-maker’s art, the timbers sometimes carefully chosen to match the interior appointments. So much
did the highly-polished creations resemble the fine oak, walnut and mahogany
furniture with which the rich were accustomed to being around that they began
to request sedans and convertibles built in the same way and the industry
responded with top-of-the-range models with timber doors and panels replacing
the pressed metal used on the cheaper versions.
Lindsay Lohan in translucent lace appliqué trousers and black swimsuit, Mykonos, Greece, August 2016.
"Woodie" is a footnote also in political history. Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924; US president 1913-1921) was thought a remote, austere figure and not one much associated with the "common touch" politicians like to possess (or fake when it proves advantageous) so he was one day most pleased to hear someone in the crowd he was addressing call him "Woodie". Apparently, in his whole life he'd never heard any speak of him with an affectionate diminutive and he'd envied his popular predecessor (Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919; US president 1901-1909) who enjoyed many monikers including "Teddy" & "TR" although it's said he despised the former, thinking it effeminate and would rather have been remembered as "the colonel", a reference to his military exploits leading the charge up San Juan Heights during the Spanish-American War (1898). When a delighted Wilson got off the stage he said to an aide: "Did you hear that? He called me Woodie!".
1947 Nash Ambassador sedan (left), 1948 Chrysler
Town & Country convertible (centre) and 1947 Cadillac Series 75 Limousine
1947 (right). Such was the appeal of the
intricate woodwork that in the 1940s, manufacturers offered it on very
expensive models although the timber offered no functional advantage over metal
construction.
General Motors (GM) in 1935 actually introduced an
all-steel model with station wagon coachwork but it was on a light-truck
chassis (shades of the twenty-first century) and intended more for commercial
operators; nobody in the pre-war years followed GM’s example. The woodies were of course less practical and
in some climates prone to deterioration, especially when the recommended care
and maintenance schedules were ignored but demand continued and some returned
to the catalogue in 1946 when production of civilian automobiles resumed from the
war-time hiatus but these lines were almost all just the 1942 cars with minor
updates. By 1949, the manufacturers had
introduced their genuinely new models, the construction of which was influenced
by the lessons learned during the war years when factories had been adapted
to make a wide range of military equipment.
Although woodies remained briefly available in some of the new bodies, one
innovation which emerged from this time was the new “all steel” station wagon
which was not only cheaper to produce than the labor-intensive woodies but
something ideally suited to the emerging suburban populations and it would for
decades be one of the industry’s best-sellers, decline not setting in until the
mid-1970s. For sociologists, the station wagon (as the second vehicle in the two-car households rising prosperity permitted) was one component in a phenomenon which included a shift to suburban living and the emergence vast of shopping malls.
1949 Ford Custom Convertible “single spinner” (left) and 1951 Ford Country Squire “twin spinner” (right).
May of the industry's visual inspirations 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. The first generation Country Squires are sometimes referred to as "true woodies" because the stuff which lent the name did begin life as a tree but the last traditional Ford woodie (ie the rear sectional all crafted from wood) was built in 1948; after that it was pressed, glued-laminate timer spars frames and panels. The most significant change was the industry switching to "all steel" station wagons and Ford was a couple of seasons late in doing that, steel roofs and inner frames introduced for 1951. The transition from timber to synthetics was phased in three stages: (1) 1949–1951: Real structural wood framing and panels, (2) 1952–1953: Steel bodies with DI-NOC (a trade-marked product of the 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) Corporation) inserts and timber spars (which were purely decorative with no structural purpose) and (3) 1954: Fibreglass spars replaced the birch or maple.
The generation (1950-1951) Country Squires used mahogany paneling, accented by birch or maple surrounds from Ford-owned plantations processed at the company’s Iron Mountain plant in upper Michigan; the 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 synthetic DI-NOC which emulated the appearance and although eventually it would fade, did prove durable. The use of timber ended for a reason and that was economics, production levels among the lowest in Ford's range and although the price was high, resale values were notoriously low because within a year, especially in certain climates, the deterioration was obvious and rectification expensive. The synthetics were prone to fading but were maintenance-free so, for better or worse, DI-NOC would for decades be a feature of the American automobile (including even convertibles!).
1950 Nash
Rambler Airflyte Custom Station Wagon: In Champagne Ivory (left) and in Seafoam
Green with reproduction Mullins camping trailer in matching livery and custom
roof rack with (real) wood batten floor (right).
So there were the historic “true”
woodies (cars with coachwork partly of timber) and the latter “woodies” which
used synthetic “woodgrain” components to achieve the look, the early fifties
Country Squired with both a unique hybrid of steel, timber and plastic. From one independent manufacturer there was
also what might in retrospect be thought of as “fake fibreglass”. The 1950 Nash Rambler Custom Station Wagon
was ahead of its time in that it was a “luxury” version of a small (in US
terms) car, a market segment which until then had been served almost exclusively by purely utilitarian
machines for those who wanted “basic” transportation in the most economic
way. To reinforce the idea luxury and,
by implication, prestige need not mean “big”, Nash’s advertising for the thing depicted
one in which sat four happy, prosperous-looking souls at the polo field, two
polo ponies prominent. The woodie
station wagon was very much still part of the automotive landscape in 1950 but
Nash used neither timber nor plastic: the “woodgrain” was painted-on, a trick the
French manufacturer Facel Vega would use for the dashboards of its very
expensive trans-Atlantic hybrids (ie European chassis and coachwork with US V8
engines and (usually) transmissions).
The small wagon sold well and remained available until 1955 but when in
1958 the line was revived (in reaction to a brief but sharp US recession), the
wagon joined the industry trend and featured DI-NOC, presumably because it had
become cheaper to (and certainly more consistent in appearance) to glue-on vinyl than
to paint. The Nash was something of a
harbinger because the era of the smaller luxury car would come and (despite the
odd misstep like the Cadillac Cimarron (1982-1988)), it remains alive and well,
even if “small” is often now not quite what it once was.
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 twin-boom Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft (1941-1945) which had
first been seen (in prototype form) in 1938 and which went on to inspire 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.
US manufacturers for decades glued on the appliqué. To many European eyes "some were worse than others" but in the home market they were popular and are now collectable period pieces.
Although by the mid-1950s, the all-steel bodies
had in the US replaced all but the handful of coach-built wagons made for those
who valued exclusivity more than practicality, there was still a nostalgic
longing for the look of timber. It was
too expensive to use the real stuff but what was adapted was DI-NOC, (Diurno Nocturna, from the Spanish, literally “daytime-nighttime” and
translated for marketing purposes as “beautiful day & night”), an embossed vinyl or polyolefin material with a pressure-sensitive adhesive backing produced
since the 1930s and perfected by Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M) (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). Described as an “architectural finish”, it
was used mostly for interior design purposes in hundreds of patterns and was
able to be laid over a variety of substrates such as drywall, metal, and
laminate. Remarkably effective at
emulating (at a distance) more expensive materials such as wood, leather,
marble, metal or granite, what the manufacturers did was not re-create the appearance
of the original woodies but instead unleash the designers on the large side-surfaces
of the modern Amerian car, the results mostly variations of a theme and
polarizing, the DI-NOC appliqués something one either loved or hated.
1963 Ford (UK)
Consul Cortina 1500 (Mark 1 “Woody” estate). As Ford would learn from the later Mark 2 Cortina 1600E (1967-1970), bling worked better on the inside.
It was the
Americans who fell in love with the look and in the second half of the
twentieth century a wide range of cars, large and small (most of them station
wagons) were available, off the showroom floor, complete with a faux-woodgrain
appliqué glued to the flanks and often the tailgate. 3M claimed it looked exactly like the real
thing and at night, that really was true although, close-up, daylight exposed
reality like the "ugly lights" a night-club turns on at closing time,
something especially obvious in a DI-NOCed machine which had spent a couple of
summers baking under an Arizona sun.
Still, nobody actually claimed it was real wood and unlike something
subtle like a badge, a dozen-odd square feet of DI NOC plastered on the sides
was a way of telling the neighbors you bought the most expensive model. Detroit had established colonies in England,
Australia and Germany and there they tried to export the DI-NOC idea; the
Prussians weren’t tempted but Ford did offer an embellished Cortina in
the UK and the Falcon Squire in Australia. The ventures proved brief and unsuccessful and Ford never bothered to trouble the Germans or French with the feature.
1971 Fiat 130 Familiare, the only one of the four fitted with the DI-NOC paneling.
The British
found underwhelming the fake timber side on the Cortina and Ford never included
the model in its export programme although some exist in both Australia and New
Zealand. Sensibly, although as late as
the 1950s there had been European station wagons and shooting brakes with the
traditional part-timber rear coachwork, after the post-war industry switch to
all-metal construction, the Europeans didn’t add “fake wood” just for the look. However, on the Continent, the Europeans
didn’t entirely escape the sight of square metres of Di-NOC on their roads
because not only was there the occasional US import but there was also a
quixotic one-off local, one of the four Fiat 130 sedans converted to station
wagons also adorned with DI-NOC. The 130’s
rectilinear roofline meant the conversion was most accomplished, avoiding the
ungainly lines which resulted when some executive sedans in the era with sloping
upper structures (notably the Rover P5 and Jaguar XJ) were given the treatment.
Possible inspirations in northern Italy in 1971: 1951 Fiat 500 C "Topolino" Giardiniera Belvedere "Legno" (left) and 1971 Ford LTD Country Squire (right). There doesn't seem to be any record of whether the addition of the DI-NOC was an instruction from Signor Agnelli or an initiative of the Fiat Design studio or the idea of the craftsmen at Officina Introzzi. Perhaps more amusing is the question of whether the notion would now be a proud claim or admission of guilt.
The
DI-NOCed 130 Estate was commissioned by Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli
(1921–2003) scion of the family controlling Fabbrica
Italiana di Automobili Torino (FIAT) of which in 1966 he assumed
leadership. Fond of fine machinery,
Agnelli had earlier commissioned one-off Ferraris and Lancias but, a keen
skier, when looking for a large, comfortable car to keep in St. Moritz for
trips to the slopes, he decided a 130 with more space would be ideal and
eventually four were made, the other three for Agnelli family members or
friends. The design was undertaken
in-house but construction was handled by Officina
Introzzi (1960-1996), a coach-building house in Lombardy’s Como province
with much experience in creating “long-roof” (station wagons, hearses,
ambulances and such) versions of sedans and the 130 wagon was dubbed Familiare (Family). Why the DI-NOC was fitted (it doesn’t appear
on the other three Familiares) isn’t
known and while it may have been a deliberate tribute to the earlier
wood-framed Fiat station wagons, it may be that simply (and inexplicably)
Agnelli liked the look of Ford Country Squires and their ilk. In an added touch of practicality, a wicker
basket was added to the roof rack so a party’s skis could be carried.
Third rear brake light (mounted in the left-rear of the back-screen) to be monitored by the following security detail (it was in Italy a time of kidnappings and assassinations). This was some 15 years before US authorities (for other but not un-related reasons) mandated third "eye-level" brake lights.
Also practical was the asymmetrically mounted
third rear brake light, there to ensure the closely following security detail
(Italy in the 1970s could be a dangerous place for rich industrialists) didn’t
crash into the wagon. Although a
keen driver, Agnelli chose to equip his Familiare
with the Borg-Warner three-speed automatic because, after a high-speed crash in
1952 on the Lower Corniche (close to the Cap Roux tunnel), he found the use of
a clutch pedal difficult; his leg was broken in seven places and he never fully
recovered. It’s said the crash happened
while he was driving home his 21 year old mistress (Anne Marie d'Estainville, b
1931), the pair having just been caught “red-handed in embrace” by his lover of four
years (Pamela Harriman (1920–1997), the ex-wife of Randolph Churchill
(1911-1968) and one of the century’s great courtesans). In tribute to Signor Agnelli, the crash
happened at the same time he was having an affair with his future wife (Princess
Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto (1927-2019)) although at that point she was
not quite yet pregnant with his son Edoardo (1954-2000).
Fiat 130 coupé (top), 130 Maremma (centre) and 130 Opera (bottom). There were three Maremmas made while the Opera was a one-off.
The 130 was
Fiat’s last attempt at a “large” car and there have since its demise been no
Fiats with more than four cylinders. Although
the sedan lasted from 1969 until 1976 and the stunning coupé was produced
between 1971-1977, commercially both were failures, a scant 4,000-odd coupés
made while some 15,000 sedan were sold, Mercedes-Benz, over much the same span having
produced 243,234 of their comparable (six cylinder) W114 sedans (230.6, 250,
280 & 280E). Had the Fiat 130 been
sold badged as a Lancia or even (with a V8 engine) as a Ferrari (both marques
at the time owned by FIAT), it might now be remembered as a great success
rather than a failure. It’s debatable
whether brand-name consciousness was any less then than now but perceptions
certainly counted against the 130 which moved FIAT conspicuously into the upper
middle-class market where not only were Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar-Daimler long
dominant but the newer, bigger BMWs were also becoming established, building on
the successes enjoyed by their smaller models.
Some at the time criticized the styling of the sedan, suggesting it
showed little more imagination than increasing the dimensions of the company’s
smaller, three-box designs but this was exactly the approach of Mercedes-Benz
and the 130 was a well-executed, balanced shape with an interior which
displayed true Italian flair, offering something more modern (although the very 1970s oranges and browns used in
the coupé some will now find jarring) than the leather & walnut of the
Jaguar or the austere functionality of the German competition. However, as a driving experience, the 130 was
very much in line with the smaller Fiat sedans, demanding involvement from the
driver to extract the most from the 2.9 litre (175 cubic inch) V6 (in 1971 the
sedan was upgraded to the coupé’s 3.2 litre (197 cubic inch) unit) but
rewarding with fine handling and high levels of adhesion though ultimately not
the refinement to which Jaguar and Mercedes drivers had become accustomed.
Extracts from Ford Australia's brochures for the 1964 XM Falcon Future (top) and 1964 XM Falcon Squire (bottom). The Futura's bling appealed to the market, the Squire's Di-NOC did not.
The Australian experiment
has been blamed on the local operation being headed by an American, the
implication being he presumed what had great appeal in the northern 50 states
would be just as attractive in the southern 51st. The Squire was introduced with the XL range (1962-1964)
which was both a cosmetic update (with the “Thunderbird” roofline) and a much
needed strengthening of the underpinnings which in the original XK (1960-1962)
had proved too fragile for the roads (or lack of them) in the outback. The success of the XL meant the Falcon
survived in Australia, something genuinely in doubt when local conditions
exposed the lack of robustness in the XK but the DI-NOCed Squire didn’t greatly
contribute to the revival; of the 75,756 XL Falcons produced, just 728 were
Squires.
The appliqué shape on the early (XK-XL) Falcon Squire (left) and the final fling on the XP (right). Despite by the 1960s the Australian population being among the world's most urbanized, the advertising of cars did often use “bush” settings, the nation then, as now, comforted more by myths than reality.
Despite
the modest demand, Ford Australia did make an effort with its more diminutive
Squires. For the XP, a “thrusting spear”
effect was applied at the front although designers might be divided on whether
that better suited the lines; whatever the judgement of the professionals, it did little to stimulate sales. To North
American eyes, the early Australian Falcon station wagons would anyway have
appeared strangely truncated because they didn’t use the extended rear-section
fitted by Detroit, officially because of concerns about “bottoming out” on the
country’s notoriously bad outback roads but the production-line rationalization
of being able to use a single platform for the whole range may also have been a
factor. If in 1962-1964 Ferrari had sold a run of 728 roadsters it would have been hailed an outstanding success
but that number of Falcons was derisory and although the model was carried to the XM (1964-1965) & XP (1965-1966), that was the end and no more fake wood appeared down under between then
and when Ford’s local manufacturing ceased in 2016. However, although Australians never warmed to
the DI-NOC, they clearly liked bling because the up-market Falcon Futura
introduced with the XL sold so well when the XP range (1965-1966) was released it
included and even more luxurious Fairmont which was available both as a sedan
and station wagon; both sold well.
One-off 1967 Ford Country Squire with Q-Code 428 V8 and four-speed manual transmission.
In the US, Ford for decades churned out the Country Squires by the thousand but there was the odd oddity. Like most big station wagons, almost all Country Squires were built for function and although the engines might sometimes be large (in the 1970s they were available with 429 & 460 cubic inch (7.0 & 7.5 litre) V8s), they were configured to carry or tow heavy loads and were thus sold almost always with heavy-duty automatic transmissions. In 1967 however, there was a one-off Country Squire built with the combination of a 428 cubic inch (7.0 litre) V8 in Q-Code configuration (the “Q” a marker of the
engine's specification which included "Cobra Jet" style cylinder
heads with larger valves, a four barrel carburetor (typically a 735 CFM (cubic
foot per minute) Holley, a higher compression ration and exhaust manifolds with
reduced impedance). The Q-Code 428 was the most powerful offered that year in full-sized Fords (except for 12 Ford XLs with the 427 V8 derived from a unit built for competition). Such vehicles are usually unicorns, often discussed and sometimes even created as latter-day “tributes” and are thus rarely "real" but the 1967 Country Squire is a genuine one-off and as a type may be unique not only among Fords but also the entire full-size ecosystem of the era. The tale is sometimes still repeated that Plymouth built a special order Belvedere station wagon at the request of Bill Harrah (1911–1978) of Harrah's Hotel and Casinos in Nevada (now part of Caesars Entertainment) with the 426 cubic inch (7.0 litre) HEMI V8 for the rapid transport of cash across the desert but that is a myth and the coda (that Harrah decided instead to build his own) is just as unverified. So the 1967 Country Squire is a curious period piece and a collectors’ item; despite its dilapidated appearance, its "one-of-one" status (much-prized in collector circles) meant that in 2020 it sold at auction in the US for almost US$50,000. When
exhibited at the South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance in
November 2024, an entry on the car’s placard claimed production of the special
order required the personal approval of Lee Iacocca (1924–2019), then vice-president
of Ford’s car and truck group. The
one-off wagon received a Palmetto Award in the “Barn Finds” class in which patina is a virtue.
1968
Mercury Park Lane convertible with “Yacht Deck Paneling”. It was to the 1968 Mercury Ford Australia
turned when they needed some distinctive styling for their 1976 ZH Fairlane
& Marquis, the previous model having suffered because there was insufficient
product differentiation from the lower-price Falcon from which they were so obviously derived. Eight years old the look might have been but it created product differentiation and the consensus was it was a good choice, 1968 Fords & Mercurys judged better looking than what the corporation in the US offering in 1976. By then, the Australians didn’t
consider adding Yacht Deck Paneling to the option list.
Away from
station wagons where the woodie-look remained popular, public taste in the US clearly
shifted in the late 1960s. Impressed by the
industry’s solid sales numbers for “woodie” station wagons, Mercury decided
those buying two-door hardtops and convertibles deserved the same choice and,
for the 1968 season, “Yacht Deck Paneling” appeared in the catalogues as an
option on the top-of-the-line Park Lane.
Clearly not wishing to be thought deceptive, Mercury not only didn’t
disguise the synthetic origins of the “simulated walnut-tone” appliqué, its advertising
copy made a virtue of being faux, pointing out: “This paneling is tougher, longer-lasting
than real wood… and every bit as beautiful” before concluding “wood-tone
paneling has always been a good idea”.
Chrysler
Newports with “Sportsgrain” option: 1968 convertible (left) and 1969 two-door
hardtop (right). This was the era when
the big cars came to be called “land yachts” so references to “yacht decks” and
such were not inappropriate. Inefficient
in so many ways, in their natural environment (“floating” effortlessly down the
freeways, passengers and driver isolated within from the rest of the world),
they excelled and there’s since been nothing quite like them.
That sales
pitch must have convinced Chrysler “wood-tone paneling has always been a good idea”
because it responded to what Mercury were doing by slipping onto the market the
mid-season offering of the “Sportsgrain Newport”, available as a two-door
hardtop or convertible, both with the same simulated timber used on the corporation’s
station wagons. A US$126 option, it was
a deliberate attempt to evoke spirit of the high-priced Town and Country
convertibles of the late 1940s but, because the T&C moniker had already been
appropriated for the wagons, someone in marketing had to come with “Sportsgrain”
which now must seem mystifying to anyone unaware the first element of the word was a nod to the convertibles of the early post-war years. Other than the large swath of vinyl, the “Sportsgrain”
cars were standard Newports (then the cheapest of the Chrysler-branded
models). While demand for appliqué-adorned
station wagons remained strong, Chrysler in 1968 had no more success than
Mercury in shifting hardtops & convertibles with the stuff glued on, only
965 of the former and 175 of the later being ordered which, nationwide, was not
even one per dealer. Remarkably, the
option returned for 1969 with the new “fuselage” body styling, possibly because
the corporation, anticipating higher demand, had a warehouse full of 3M’s vinyl
but, being simply glued on, maintaining the option would not have been an
expensive exercise. Sales however must
have been low, the survivors of the 1969 range rare and Chrysler seems never to have disclosed the final season's production totals. On the basis of the known survivors, it may be assumed to be “not many”.
Advertising for 1983 Chrysler Town & Country (with "plush cloth and vinyl" rather than "fine Corinthian leather", left), 1946 Chrysler Town & Country Convertible Coupe (with real timber, top right) and 1983 Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country Mark Cross Convertible (bottom right). LeBaron
Carrossiers (1920-1953) was one of the storied named in US coach-building and
during the 1920s & 1930s crafted bodies on chassis from some of the world's
most expensive lines including Marmon, Isotta Fraschini, Chrysler Imperial, Rolls-Royce, Duesenberg, Lincoln and Packard. Changes
in the post-war economy made such extravagances an unviable business and in
1953 the LeBaron brand was acquired by Chrysler which came to use it as a
designation for higher-priced models, much as Ford for decades used Ghia.
A generation on, the public's restrained enthusiasm for appliqué adorned convertibles must have faded from Chrysler's corporate memory because between 1983-1986 there was the LeBaron convertible, recalling the post-war Town & Country range which used real timber. Now with a (minor) cult following because one appeared in the popular film Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), with some 1100 sold, the K-Platform based LeBaron Convertible coincidentally almost matched the 1968 run although it took four years to achieve that modest feat. Chrysler's front wheel drive (FWD) K-Platform (the so-called "K Cars", 1981-1995) is treated now as emblematic of the "Malaise Era" but it's no exaggeration to say it rescued Chrysler from looming bankruptcy and it yielded literally dozens of variants (many of them with only slight differences) including even an elongated "Executive" offered as a five seat sedan on a 124 inch (3150 mm) wheelbase (1983-1984) or a seven seat limousine (complete with partition) with a 131 inch (3327 mm) wheelbase. All the Executives were underpowered (the early versions with a 2.2 litre (134 cubic inch) four cylinder engine especially so); the "Malaise Era" gained the name for a reason.
Real and sort of real. 1964 Morris Minor Traveller (left) and 1961 advertisement
for the Morris Mini Traveller (centre). Both used real timber but only on the older car were the spars structural futtocks. Stations wagons with wood frames (real and fake) are in the US called "woodies" but the spelling "woody" also appears in UK use.
In the UK, one traditional woodie did enjoy a long life, the Morris Traveller, introduced in 1953 as an addition to the Minor range
(1948-1972 (1975 in overseas assembly)) remaining in production until 1971, the body aft of the doors formed
with structural ash timber members which supported infill panels in painted aluminum. However, while the Minor Traveller was real, the
subsequent Mini Traveller (1961–1969) was a curious hybrid: Structurally it was
exactly the same car as the Mini station wagon, the external members genuine ash but wholly decorative affectations which were attached directly to the steel body, the "infill" panels an illusion. The Morris version was marketed as the "Traveller" while Austin sold it as the "Countryman" but, in the way the corporation in the era handled "badge engineering", the two were identical but for the names and production of both lasted from 1961 to 1969. The original Mini enjoyed a forty-year life (1959-2000) but when in 2001 BMW introduced their retro-flavored take on
the idea, although they resurrected a few motifs, they didn’t bring back a
woodie, fake, faux or real, restricting themselves to calling the station wagon (ohne die Balken) the "Mini Countryman", possibly preferring to leave "Traveller" retired because admiration for the Romani people (known also as Travellers or Gypsies) is not universal.
Usually unrelated: 1957 Morris Minor Traveller (left) and 1960 Jaguar XK150 FHC (right). Although between 1968-1973, there were “badge-engineered” Versions of the Minor’s commercial derivatives sold as the Austin 6cwt & 8cwt Van & Pick up, all the “woodies” were Morris Travellers.
Although for the whole of the Jaguar XK150’s production run (1957-1961) the Morris Minor Traveller (1952-1973) was also being made in factories never more than between 20-60 odd miles (32-100 km) distant, so different in form and function were the two it’s rare they’re discussed in the same context. One was powered by an engine which had five times won the Le Mans 24 hour endurance classic while the other was one of several commercially-oriented variants of a small, post-war economy car, introduced in the austere England of 1948. The Traveller did however have charm and it was also authentic in its construction, the varnished ash genuinely structural, an exoskeleton which provided the strength while the panels behind were there just to keep out the rain. By contrast, by the mid-1950s, the US manufacturers had abandoned the method and produced their “woodies” with a combination of fibreglass (fake timber) and DI-NOC.
In phased releases over 1957-1958, Jaguar made available the usual three versions of its XK sports car, the DHC (drophead coupé, a style which elsewhere was usually called a cabriolet or convertible) and FHC (fixed head coupé, ie coupé), later joined by the more minimalist OTS (open two-seater, a roadster) and the line was a link between flowing lines of the inter-war years and the new world, celebrated by the E-Type (1961-1974) which created such a sensation upon debut at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show. One sometimes unappreciated connection between the XKs (XK120: 1948-1954, XK140: 1954-1957 & XK150: 1957-1961) and E-Type is neither was envisaged as the long-term model both became. The XK120 had been shown at the 1948 London Motor show with the purpose of drawing attention to the new XK straight-six (which would serve in vehicles as diverse as racing cars, limousines and fire engines until 1992) but such was the public response it was added to the factory catalogue, the early models hurriedly built in aluminium to satisfy demand. Later, Jaguar hadn't believed there would be a market for more than a few hundred E-Types so it was not designed in a way optimized for mass-production which was embarked upon only because demand was so high. Many of the car's quirks and compromises remained part of the structure until the end of production more than a decade later.
Minor modification: 1960 Jaguar XK150 3.4 Shooting Brake (“Foxbat”).
The Morris Minor Traveller was the last true woodie in production and is now a thing in the lower reaches of the collector market but there's one less available for fans because of a sacrifice to a project by industrial chemist and noted Jaguar enthusiast, the late Geoffrey Stevens, construction undertaken between 1975-1977. He wanted the Jaguar XK150 shooting brake the factory never made so blended an XK150 FHC with the rear compartment of a Morris Minor Traveller of similar vintage. Mr Stevens in 1976 dubbed his creation “Foxbat” because, just as a MiG-25 landing in Japan was an event so unexpected it made headlines around the world, he suspected that in the circles he moved, a timber-framed XK150 shooting brake would be as much a surprise. In that he proved correct and the unique shooting brake has been restored as a charming monument to English eccentricity, even the usually uncompromising originality police among the Jaguar community (mostly) fond of it. In a nice touch (and typical of an engineer’s attention to detail), a “Foxbat” badge was hand-cut, matching the original Jaguar script. Other than the hybrid coach-work, the XK150 is otherwise “matching-numbers” (chassis number S825106DN; engine number V7435-8). The Morris Minor Traveller was the last true woodie in production and is now a thing in the lower reaches of the collector market but there's one less available for fans because one was sacrificed to a project by by industrial chemist and noted Jaguar enthusiast, the late Geoffrey Stevens, construction undertaken between 1975-1977. He wanted the Jaguar XK150 shooting brake the factory never made so blended a XK150 FHC with the rear compartment of a Morris Minor Traveller of similar vintage. Dubbed the Foxbat (the influence of a Soviet pilot who in 1976 defected to the West, taking his MiG-25 "Foxbat" with him), it has been restored as a charming monument to English eccentricity and even the usually uncompromising originality police among the Jaguar community seem fond of it. In a nice touch (and typical of an engineer’s attention to detail), a “Foxbat” badge was hand-cut, matching the original Jaguar script. Other than the coach-work, the XK150 is otherwise “matching-numbers” (chassis number S825106DN; engine number V7435-8).
