Tumblehome

Tumblehome (pronounced tuhm-buhl-hohm)

(1) In naval architecture, an inward and upward slope of the middle body of a vessel; of the sides of a ship: To incline or slope inwards, to contract above the point of extreme breadth.

(2) A conceptually similar shape applied, in reverse, to the upper body of an automobile.

1828: A compound word, tumble + home.  Tumble was from the Middle English tumblen (to fall over and over again, tumble), frequentative of the Middle English tumben (to fall, leap, dance), from the Old English tumbian, from the Proto-Germanic tūmōną (to turn, rotate).  It was cognate with the Middle Dutch tumelen and the Middle Low German tumelen & tummelen.  Home was from the Middle English home, hom, hoom & ham, from the Old English hām (village, hamlet, manor, estate, home, dwelling, house, region, country), from the Proto-West Germanic haim, from the Proto-Germanic haimaz (home, village), from the Proto-Indo-European tḱóymos (village, home), from the root tḱey-.  The (rare and probably extinct) alternative spelling is tumble home.  Tumblehome is a noun; the noun plural is tumblehomes.

The meaning of the word tumblehome has been well understood from its first appearance in the early nineteenth century but the origin has never been obvious.  Shipbuilders had for centuries been using variations of the design for a number of reasons but the first known instance of the word dates only from 1828 and then without explanation, suggesting the term may already have been in common use, at least within the industry.  An 1848 reference from a shipwright does however hint at some sense of novelty, noting “… the upper works usually incline towards the middle line, or as it is termed “tumble home”.  The word “tumble” to refer to the sides of ships appears to have been used at least as early as 1687 but the compound tumblehome seems not to have emerged for another hundred and fifty-odd years.  The idea always summoned was of the imagery of the sides of a ship “tumbling down” the slope created but why “home” was added remains a mystery, the assumption being it was based either on (1) an association with certain domestic architectural styles of the time (2) the romantic notion of the sea, to which the tumblehome falls, being "home" for sailors or  (3) the idea of a dilapidated house in the throes of "tumbling down", fallen bits an pieces accumulating at the bottom.

Big ships and fast cars

In automotive design (upper), the term is applied when the width of the cabin (cockpit or glasshouse) reduces as the height rises.  Although curved glass in the side windows of cars began widely to be adopted in the mid-1960s, thus creating a mild tumblehome effect, the term is applied only when it is sufficiently severe to be apparent to casual viewers.

In naval architecture (lower), the geometry is reversed, a tumblehome define as a hull which flares out as the sides approach the waterline.  Although in some vessels, the effect is barely detectable by the naked eye, it’s a technical term and applies to all hulls which dimensionally qualify.  The opposite, the classic shape for ships’ hull, is called the flare.

USS Brooklyn, 1896.

Tumblehome, unless taken to extremes, was functional in that it improved stability in warships under sail; sailing ships heel (they tend to lean over when moving) and tumblehome reduced this.  At the time, the biggest contributor to a warship’s mass on the upper decks was the guns and a tumblehome design, moving the centre of gravity lower, allowed armament to be maintained or even increased without further loss of stability.  Additionally, there was the benefit of making it harder for boarding parties to climb aboard.  In commercial shipping, vessels were long taxed on the basis of the square footage of a ship’s deck and fat ships with a pronounced tumble carrying the same freight but taxed less, were attractive.  Government fiscal policy thus influenced and distorted design and engineering principles in the same way tax arrangements of windows affected architecture and those on cylinder bores (adversely) affected engine design.

Lamborghini LP500 Countach prototype, 1971.

The Countach had one of the most extreme implementations, the angle meaning it was possible for only part of the side-window to be lowered but at least the Italians were more thoughtful than the Germans; in 1954, facing a similar challenge with the side-glass on the 300 SL (W198 1954-1957) gullwing, Mercedes-Benz simply fixed the panes, ventilation provided only by small quarterlights.  Neither flow-through ventilation or air-conditioning was available so driving in a gullwing could be hot and sticky experience and there's a reason they're sometimes seen being driven (at low speeds and not on public roads) with at least one door open. .  The tumblehome is used by high-performance cars because of the aerodynamic advantages it confers, reducing frontal area an allowing the curve of the greenhouse to be optimized for air-flow, lowering resistance.  Because of great advances made during the late twentieth century, refinements to tumblehomes no longer deliver the 3-5% improvements in a drag coefficient (CD) which once was possible, engineers now pursuing factional gains.  The origins in cars however lay in the quest for more interior space and for mass-market vehicles, bulging out the sides gained the odd vital inch and the technique, combined with curved side glass, has become almost universal although there has been the odd deviation.  Stylists are predicting tumblehomes are likely to become more exaggerated as sides need to be bulkier to meet more rigorous side-impact regulations and roof-lines are lowered slightly in the quest to reduce drag.

Lindsay Lohan in tumblehome blonde wig.

What professional hair stylists call “the tumblehome” is a triangulated shaping which is most cases can’t be achieved without an expert application of product and when sported by models on photo-shoots, it’s common for the angles and an illusion of volume to be achieved with engineering no more complex than a sheet of cardboard (cut to suit) being attached with hairclips to the back of the head.  The look can however be achieved with synthetics which can be persuaded sustainably to behave in a way human hair naturally resists and Lady Gaga (b 1986) made a tumblehome wig a signature feature of her “Fame Monster” period (2009-2010).  With natural hair, a tumblehome with hair a little shorter than that of Lady Gaga’s wig is sometimes technically achievable given the right hair and a generous use of product the sideways projection would be noticeably less.

Lady gaga in Fame Monster mode.

The tumblehome style with the exaggerated elongations al la Gaga is rarely seen and usually represents a lot of work.  However, many take about as much effort to avoid the similar geometry of the “pyramid head”: a triangular shape with a flat crown area which flares to a wide bushy shape at the ends.  A function of length and weight for those with curly hair, pyramids happen usually when the strands are of almost uniform length and the curls tend to “stack”, the weight meaning the roots sit flattest on the scalp while towards the ends where the effective volume (hair + space) is greatest, the curled strands move sideways, unlike the behavior of straight hair which is purely downwards.

Lindsay Lohan with pyramid head, Saturday Night Live, 2004.

Stylists recommend layers as the best tactic to minimize the triangulation, the strategy essentially to create longer, diagonal layers to frame the face, meaning the remaining curls “sit into each other”.  What this does is simply physics, the layering on the surface reducing the weight, increasing the percentage of the volume on the crown area and although some are resistant, the best results will probably be achieved if the hair is cut dry because it will be presented at its natural weight.  When wet, the moisture content will disguise the extent of the left-right movement and exaggerate the up-down.  The shorter the layers of course the more effective the amelioration but this can be too radical for some so clients need to be turned into realists.

Tartan

Tartan (pronounced tahr-tn)

(1) A woolen or worsted cloth woven with stripes of different colours and widths crossing at right angles, worn chiefly by the Scottish Highlanders, many clans now having its own distinctive design.

(2) A design now often identified by the name of the clan wearing it and most associated with the kilt.

(3) A generalized descriptor for any similar (sometimes called plaid) design.

(4) A single-masted vessel used in the Mediterranean, usually with a lateen sail (also spelled as tartane).

(5) The trade name of a synthetic resin, used for surfacing tracks etc.

1490-1500: Of uncertain origin, apparently a blend of the Middle English tartaryn (rich material) from the Middle French tartarin (Tartar cloth) and the Middle French tiretaine (strong coarse fabric; linsey-woolsey; cloth of mixed fibers) from the Old French tiret (kind of cloth), from tire (oriental cloth of silk) (and as the French tartane from the Italian tartana, of uncertain origin) from the Medieval Latin tyrius (material from Tyre), from the Classical Latin Tyrus (Tyre).  The origin of the name as applied to the small ship most associated with the Mediterranean, dates from seventeenth century French, probably the Provençal tartana (falcon, buzzard), it being common practice in the era to name ships after birds.  As an adjective meaning "design with a pattern of bars or stripes of color crossing one another at right angles", use began circa 1600.  The etymology of the fabric is certainly murky.  Most agree about the influence of the Old French tertaine but some trace the origin of that not to Latin via Italian but rather the Old Spanish tiritaña (a fine silk fabric) from tiritar (to rustle).  The spelling of tartan must have been influenced in Middle English by tartaryn from the Old French tartarin from Tartare (“Tartar," the people of Central Asia).  Tartan & tartanization are nouns, tartanize & tartaning are verbs and tartaned is a verb & adjective; the noun plural is tartans.

Lindsay Lohan in tartan, Freaky Friday (2003) costume test photo (Walt Disney Pictures).

Despite the perception of many (encouraged by the depictions in popular culture), tartan in the sense of specific color & pattern combinations attached to specific clans is something of recent origin.  Tartan (breacan (pɾʲɛxkən) in Scots Gaelic) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours.  The word plaid is now often used interchangeably with tartan (particularly in North America and when not associated with anything Scottish (especially kilts)), but technically (and always in Scotland), a plaid is a large piece of tartan cloth, worn as a type of kilt or large shawl although it’s also used to describe a blanket.  During the disputes between England and Scotland, the wearing of tartan became a political expression and the Dress Act (1746) was part of the campaign to suppress the warrior clans north of the border; it banned tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture. The law was repealed in 1782 and tartan was soon adopted as both the symbolic national dress of Scotland and in imagery more generally.  

Car seat covers in Clan Lindsay Tartan.  The Clan Lindsay motto is Endure Fort (Endure bravely).

Although there’s now an industry devoted to the tartans of the clans, the specific association of patterns with clans and families began only in the mid-nineteenth century.  This history was both technological and economic deterministic.  Unlike some fabrics, tartans were produced by local weavers for local sale, using only the natural dyes available in that geographical area and patterns were just designs chosen by the buyer.  It was only with a broader availability of synthetic dyes that many patterns were created these began (somewhat artificially) to become associated with Scottish clans, families, or institutions wishing to emphasize their Scottish heritage.  The heritage was usually real but not often specific to a particular tartan, the mid-nineteenth century interest in the fabrics a kind of manufactured nostalgia.  There are many modern tartans on sale, the color combinations and patterns of which are chosen for market appeal rather than any relationship to clan identity or any other historic link: Among the purists, these collectively are called "the clan McGarish".  The phrase "Tartan Tory" does not refer to Scottish members of the Conservative Party (a once prolific species which has for decades been listed as "threatened" and may already be functionally extinct) but to the faction of the Scottish National Party (SNP) which is associated with cultural nostalgia rather than radical nationalist politics

High-priced plaid

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (W198) trimmed in blue-grey plaid.

Buyers of the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (W198 1954-1957) had the choice of seats covered in leather or plaid cloth.  In the years since, many Gullwings originally fitted with plaid upholstery were re-trimmed in leather during refurbishment or restoration, partly because the leather was thought to have more of a allure but also because for decades fabrics exactly matching what was available in the 1950s had become unobtainable ("unobtainium" thus the preferred industry term).  However, in 2018, in what was said to be a response to demand, Daimler announced bolts replicating exactly the original three designs (blue-gray, red-green and green-beige color) would again be available as a factory part-number.  Manufactured to the 1955 specification using an odor-neutral wool yarn woven into a four-ply, double weave twill, it’s claimed to be a “very robust material”.  In the era, the blue-gray fabric was the most popular, fitted to 80% of 300SLs not trimmed in leather while the red-green and green-beige combinations were requested respectively only by 14 & 6% of buyers.  The price (US$229 per yard) is indicative of the product’s niche market but for those restoring a 300 SL to its original appearance, it's a bargain.

The part-numbers:  Blue-Grey: A 000 983 44 86 / 5000, Red-Green: A 000 983 44 86 / 3000 & Green-Beige: A 000 983 44 86 / 6000.

Endurance

Endurance (pronounced en-doo r-uhns or en-dyoo r-uhns)

(1) The fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships, etc.

(2) The ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina.

(3) Lasting quality; duration.

(4) Something endured, as a hardship; trial.

1485-1495: From the Middle English enduren from the Old French endurer, from the Classical Latin indūrō (to make hard).  Enduren displaced the pre-900 Old English drēogan (congnate with the Gothic driugan (to serve in arms) which survives dialectally as dree (tedious; dreary)).  The meaning "ability to endure suffering" was first noted in the 1660s. The older forms, enduraunce, indurance, induraunce are all long obsolete.  Construct was endure + ance; the suffix –ance (a process or action) added to the stem of verbs to form a noun indicating a state or condition, such as result or capacity, associated with the verb, this especially prevalent with words borrowed from French.  Many words ending in ance were formed in French by alteration of a noun or adjective ending in ant; ance was derived from the Latin anita and enita.

Endurance Racing

There’s no precise definition of endurance racing, it's just a form of competition of greater duration of length than most.  It’s bounced around over the years but events now regarded as endurance races tend to be over a distance of 625 miles (1000 km) or twelve or twenty-four hours long.

Long races existed from the early days of motorsport, the first twenty-four hour event being on an oval circuit at Dayton, Ohio in 1905, followed soon by the opening event at the purpose-built Brooklands circuit in 1907.  One of the epic races was the Targa Florio, first run in 1906.  Held originally on public roads in the mountains of Sicily near the capital Palermo, it was for decades the oldest event for sports cars and a round of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955-1973.  The first few races were a lap of the whole island but as the volume of traffic and competitors increased, it became too disruptive and the track length was reduced to the 72 kilometre (45 mile) Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie, each Targa Florio run over eleven laps.  Safety concerns and the oil crisis conspired to remove it from the world championship after 1973 and it was finally cancelled in 1977.  A much toned-down event is now run annually as a round of the Italian Rally Championship.

Further north, the thousand-mile Mille Miglia, also run on public roads, was first staged in 1927 and although soon one of the classic events on the calendar, it's the 1955 race to which a particular aura still attaches.  Won by Stirling Moss (1929-2020) and  Denis Jenkinson (1920-1996), they used a Mercedes 300SLR, a car which technically complied with the sports car regulations but was actually the factory's formula one machine (W196) with a bigger engine and a streamlined body with seats for two.  It wasn't exactly a "grand prix car with headlights" as some claimed but that wasn't far off.  Officially the W196S (Sports) in the factory register, for marketing purposes it was dubbed (add badged) as the 300SLR to add lustre to the 300SL Gullwing coupé then on sale.

Mercedes-Benz W196S (300SLR), Mille Miglia, 1955.

The race was completed in 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds, a average speed of 157.650 km/h (97.96 mph) (the course was never exactly 1000 miles and that year was 1,597 km (992 miles) and at times, the 300SLR touched almost 305 km/h (190mph) which enabled Moss to cover the last 340 km (211 miles) at an average speed of 265.7 km/h (165.1) mph.  The record set in 1955 will stand for all time because the Italian government banned the Mille Miglia after two fatal crashes during the 1957 event, one of which killed nine spectators and a cursory glace at the photographs showing crowds clustered sometimes literally inches from the speeding cars might suggest it's surprising not more died.

Today, the name of the Mille Miglia endures as a semi-competitive tour for historic racing cars which, run since 1977.  By contrast, events run on closed courses have survived, the most famous of which is the 24 Heures du Mans (the Le Mans 24 Hour) and well-known 1000 km, 12 & 24 hour races have been run at Sebring, Laguna Seca, Daytona, Bathurst, the Nürburgring and Spa Francorchamps.

Porsche 917Ks in the wet.  Vic Elford (1935-2022) and Pedro Rodriguez (1940-1971), BOAC 1000km, Brands Hatch, 1970.

Pagoda

Pagoda (pronounced puh-goh-duh)

(1) In South Asia and the Far-East, a temple or sacred building, often a pyramid-like tower and typically having upward-curving roofs over the individual stories.

(2) An ornamental structure imitating the design of the religious building, erected since the eighteenth century in parks and gardens.

(3) In fashion, a flared sleeve, most popular in the 1850s.

(4) A unit of currency, a coin made of gold or half-gold, usually bearing a figure of a pagoda temple, issued by various dynasties in medieval southern India and later by British, French, and Dutch traders.

(5) An image or carving of a god in South and South East Asia; an idol (sixteenth century use, usually as pagod, now extinct).

(6) Term applied to the first of the two generations of Mercedes-Benz SL (W113 & R107) roadsters to use a pagoda-themed roof.

1580-1585: From the Portuguese pagode, via Tamil from the Sanskrit भगवती (bhagavatī (name of a goddess, feminine of bhagavat (blessed, adorable) from bhagah (good fortune)) from the primitive Indo-European root bhag- (to share out, apportion; to get a share) or भागवत (bhāgavata), (follower of the Bhagavatī).  The alternative etymology suggests pagoda was either a corruption of the Persian butkada (from but (idol) + kada (dwelling) or perhaps from or influenced by the Tamil pagavadi (house belonging to a deity), itself from the Sanskrit bhagavatī.  There’s also the suggestion it’s derived a South Chinese pronunciation of the term for an eight-cornered tower (八角塔), a use influenced by the adoption by European visitors to China of the name of a noted pagoda in the Guangzhou region, the Pázhōu tǎ (琶洲塔).  Finally, it may be from the Sinhala dāgaba, from the Sanskrit dhātugarbha or the Pali dhātugabbha (relic, womb or chamber; reliquary shrine (ie stupa)) which made its way into other languages through Portuguese.

Given the uncertainty, it’s not impossible pagoda emerged in its modern form under more than one influence.  The related (pagod) and alternative (pagode & pagody) forms are now rare, occurring almost exclusively in historic texts.  The noun plural is pagodas.

Pagoda Sleeve 

Pagoda sleeve describes any funnel shaped sleeve and the style is still seen, though its impracticality tends to confine it to cat-walks and casualwear.  Briefly popular in the US during the late 1850s, it appears abruptly to have vanished, an 1870s revival on not so extravagant a scale not lasting; function again triumphing over fashion.  The original design was narrow at the shoulder and very wide at the wrist, worn often with an under-sleeve, made usually of a lighter cotton or linen fabric, matching the bodice’s chemisette or collar.

Layered Pagoda Sleeve

The variation of the pagoda sleeve which most closely emulated the architectural motif was tailored with layered tiers.  It may not have been co-incidental that the pagoda sleeve’s decline in popularity was at the time of the US Civil War, conflicts often imposing austerity in fashion as in other parts of the economy.  The style didn’t entirely vanish but certainly became restrained, the replacement “bishop” and “bell” sleeves both of a more severe cut but all three terms were often used interchangeably.

Yellow Crane Pagoda, near Wuhan, China

In architecture, a Pagoda is an Asian temple, rendered usually as a pyramidal tower with one or more upward curving roofs.  Although most associated with structures created for Buddhist religious purposes, the first may actually have been built in China, even before Buddhism spread there.  Whether these early buildings used the motifs of the pagoda as a stylistic embellishment or for some function purpose such as rigidity or water drainage isn’t known but it does seem the technique improves resistance to the stresses imposed by earthquakes.  In Buddhism, the structure’s original purpose was to house relics and sacred writings but the style soon extended to other sacred and secular sites.  Made from wood, brick, or stone, they can have as many as fifteen stories, each with an up-curved, overhanging roof and the tradition, in the East, was always to build with an uneven number of levels, a convention not always followed in Europe.  

Grand Pagoda, Kew Gardens, London

Built in 1762 and designed by Sir William Chambers (1723-1796), the Grand Pagoda at Kew Gardens, London, is an example of what in the eighteenth century came to be called “follies”, the term referring to the tendency of increasingly rich plutocrats to build grandiose structures fulfilling no purpose.  A gift for Princess Augusta, founder of the botanic gardens and the first building to offer an aerial view of Greater London, it’s a ten-storey octagonal structure.  Although based on the fifteenth-century Porcelain Tower in Nanking, it’s thought Chambers based his design on a woodcut which erroneously showed ten floors.  Happily, despite not having the requisite uneven number of levels thought in the East to bring good luck, the Grand Pagoda still stands and is a fine example of chinoiserie (a loanword from the French from the Chinese chinois ), used to describe the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other East Asian artistic traditions.

Taipai 101 in the renegade province of Taiwan.  Although not technically a pagoda, it borrows aspects of the design.

Pagodas almost always have a central staircase and, in common with many architectural styles, consist of a base, a body, and a top although, because of the origin in sacred representational form, pagodas tend not to be optimized for the functional maximization of interior space, whether circular, square, or polygonal.  Because of their height, they’ve always attract lightning strikes, something which may have played a role in the perception of worshipers of them being spiritually charged places but the electrical propensity proved useful in the modern age, lightning rods and cabling often added.

Mercedes-Benz SL W113 (230, 250 & 280) 1963-1971

The pagoda roof on the 1963 230 SL was initially misunderstood.  The designer didn’t lower the roof’s centre; it was actually the side windows which were raised.  The engineering advantage was a strengthening of the structure and, when in place, the hardtop, although un-stressed, became an integral part of the passenger "safety-cell" introduced in 1959.  It had the additional benefit of making ingress and egress slightly easier.  All that was of interest to designers and engineers but for most, it was the delicacy of line which drew the eye and women especially proved loyal and often repeat customers.  There were those who hoped for more and when the 2.3 litre 230 SL made its debut in 1963, thought it was too much the replacement for the 190 SL (R121; 1955-1963), and not sufficiently a successor to the 300 SL (W198) which as both the gullwing coupé (1954-1957) and roadster (1957-1963) was one of the supercars of the era.  In that the critics were of course correct but it wasn't that the factory had failed, it was that it had abandoned that market, its priorities now to pursue objectives which lay in other directions.

By the late 1960s however, Mercedes-Benz understood the gusty, high-revving straight-sixes, on which they'd re-built the brand's post-war reputation, were technologically bankrupt and that success in the next decade would be delivered by a range of larger-capacity, mass-market V8s, the known concerns then mostly about pollution rules rather than a rise in the price of oil.  The events of October 1973 would change that but while US$2 a barrel oil was being pumped in abundance the engineer's attention remained fixated on poise, power and performance and the W113 even played a small part in the development of the new, bigger engines.  Although, bizarrely, one W113 had been fitted with the 6.3 litre (M100) big-block V8 used in the 600 and 300 SEL 6.3 (presumably because the engineers wondered what would happen), a more plausible prototype was the one which used the new 3.5 litre V8 (M116).  That was a more satisfactory machine but the limitations of the old platform meant even it couldn't be considered for production.  All the V8 W113s were scrapped once testing was complete as was the even more unusual test-bed which used a Wankel engine, something for which (never realized) high hopes were once held.

Over its life, although the appearance didn't change, the W113 was subject to constant product development, the engine growing first to 2.5 and later 2.8 litres but the emphasis always was more on improving low and mid-range torque rather than outright power although, by 1968 when production began, the 280 SL was usefully quicker and even a little faster than its predecessors.  It wasn't sportier though, the stiff suspension of the original softened as the decade grew into middle-age though the addition of disk brakes at the rear was a welcome improvement.  More attention however was devoted to creature comforts because things like the seats and air-conditioning were more important to the target market than ultimate cornering performance, something indicated by the majority being sold with automatic transmissions, sales of the four-speed manual declining year-by-year while the optional ZF five-speed was rarely specified.

Almost all were sold with both a folding fabric soft-top and the pagoda hard-top but one interesting variation concocted for the US market was the "Californian Coupe" which was actually just a W113 outfitted with the standard removable hard-top but no soft-top, a folding bench-seat fitted in the space the deletion made available.  That made the California Coupe a genuine (if cramped) 2+2, something rather more accommodating than the rarely-seen option of a transverse seat for one.  Of course without a folding top, the thing was suitable only for days when it didn't rain but, as everyone in Stuttgart knew, California had plenty of those.  Available both as a 250 and 280 SL, the California Coupe was one of three occasions the SL was sold without a folding top, the others being the original 300 SL Gullwing and the AMG SL 65 Black Series (2008-2012), on the R230 (2001-2012) platform.  The Black Series was some 250 kilograms (551 lb) lighter than the 604 horsepower AMG SL 65 AMG (made famous in 2005 when Lindsay Lohan crashed one) and rated at about 10% more powerful (although those numbers are thought conservative).  The weight-loss programme included substituting some metal components with carbon-fibre units but of greater significance was the deletion of the folding aluminium roof, replaced by a fixed structure in carbon-fibre, something which produced the additional benefit of a lower centre of gravity.  Only 350 were built (tales of 400 seem to be an internet myth).                     

Mercedes-Benz SL R107 (280, 300, 350, 380, 420, 450, 500 & 560) 1971-1989.

The pagoda roof was retained when the R107 was introduced in 1971 but, despite the contours, it was only ever its predecessor which was known as "the pagoda".  Because of concerns impending US legislation would outlaw convertibles, Daimler-Benz didn’t develop open versions of their new (W116) S-Class platform so the R107 SL remained in production for close to two decades as the marque’s only drop-top.  The factory claimed the pagoda roof was the strongest ever offered and, like the W113's pagoda, a slight aerodynamic advantage was claimed, directional stability said to be improved.  Strongest or not, made from steel and glass, it was certainly one of the heaviest.  SL actually stands for “super light” which was sort of true when first it was used in 1952 but by 1971 was misleading at least, the R107 no lightweight and a grand tourer rather than a sports car.  For years, the factory never much discussed what the abbreviation "SL" stood for and the assumption had long been it meant Sports Light (Sports Leicht), based presumably on the SSKL of 1929-1931 (Super Sports Kurz (short) Leicht) but the factory documentation for decades used both Sports Leicht and Super Leicht.  It was only in 2017 it published a 1952 paper discovered in the corporate archive confirming the correct abbreviation is Super Leicht. However defined, the R107 is heavy, the removable hard-top famously so.

The first R107 sold in the US was the 350 SL but it was fitted with a long-stroke, 4.5 litre engine, the 3.5 sold in the rest of the world lacking the torque characteristics known to be preferred by American drivers and it was anyway soon to be too toxic to meet the stricter emission regulations.  In time, as the bigger engine was made available in other markets, the 450 SL badge was applied to all such machines.  The R107 was thus an early example of the once (usually) logical nomenclature of Mercedes-Benz beginning the path to confusion which the reorganization of the mid-1990s substantially fixed before in the twenty-first century descending to the point where the model designations are now merely indicative of a place in the hierarchy.  It was a footnote in engineering too, the 350 SL (along with the SLC & SE) in 1980 the last occasion the factory would offer a manual transmission behind a V8 engine.  In truth, using the clunky Mercedes-Benz four-speed was not all that satisfying an experience but the rarity of the small number of 350 SLs so equipped has made them something of a collector's item among the survivors of the 227,000-odd produced and (as automatics) they were for decades the preferred (one suspects almost the obligatory) transport for types such as interior decorators, Hollywood starlets, successful hairdressers and the wives of cosmetic surgeons.

Over its unexpectedly long life, the appearance changed little except for a mid-life revision to the size and design of the aluminium wheels but over the eighteen-odd years, eight different engines and several transmissions were fitted and the biggest offered was the 5.6 liter V8 in the 560 SL.  The factory had never intended to develop the 5.6 but two factors forced their hand, the first being the news BMW were unexpectedly reviving their 5.0 litre V12 project, shelved in the 1970s when the political and economic atmosphere proved unfriendly.  The other was pressure from the US where dealers were losing sales because the largest engine Mercedes-Benz were then offering (the 3.8 litre V8) was thought inadequate and the volume of "grey-market" sales of 5.0 litre cars (500 SL, SEL & SEC) was troublesome.  With their own V12 years from readiness and the 5.0 V8 not suitable for modification to comply with US emission rules, the solution was obvious; thus the 560 range, offered only in the US, Japan and Australia, then the markets with (1) a taste for big engines and (2) the toughest anti-emission laws.

However, although it packed the biggest engine, the 560 SL wasn't the fastest R107, that honor accorded to the 500 SL which used a modified version of the 5.0 litre V8 first offered in 1977 in the 450 SLC 5.0 (the C107, a long-wheelbase coupé based on the SL).  Used (improbably but successfully) as the factory's entry in long-distance rallies, the 450 SLC 5.0 was a homologation special produced only to ensure the bits and pieces needed to make the thing competitive in motorsport (the all-aluminium engine and some light-weight body & structural components) could lawfully be used.  Toxic though it was at the tail-pipes, by the standards of the 1980s, the 500 SL was a genuine high-performance car.                

Mercedes-Benz SL R129 (280, 300, 320, 500, 600) 1989-2002.

By 1989, improvements in metallurgy and structural engineering meant the pagoda curves were no longer required to achieve the desired strength, it being now possible to render an even stronger roof in aluminum with the advantage of a significant weight reduction.  It’s not known if a pagoda roof was considered but the late 1980s was the last era  at Mercedes-Benz during which engineers held sway over salesmen so a mere styling gimmick would likely have been vetoed.  Much admired as it had been, by 1989 the origins of the R107 as a design of the late 1960s were looking obvious; it had after all been on the market for what would usually have been two-three model cycles so hopes for the new SL were high.

The R129 didn't disappoint.  Introduced in 1989 as the 500 SL, it was based on the fine platform of the W124 (which had proved its competence as the 500 E) and as well as the 5.0 litre V8, would be offered also with 2.8, 3.0 and 3.2 litre sixes, the larger of which, for general use, proved remarkably effective alternatives to the big-engined versions which tended to attract most publicity.  That was certainly the case in 1993 when the 600 SL was released with the new 6.0 litre V12 (M120).  The M120 would prove to be one on the best engines Mercedes-Benz ever made and it made headlines at the time as the company's first road-going V12 (their previous V12s were all for racing or the Luftwaffe and the planned 600K programme was scrapped in 1940 because German industry suddenly had other priorities).  Some purists thought the front-heaviness detracted somewhat from the fine balance achieved by the six and eight-cylinder cars but it was the beginning of the emergence of AMG as a major player in the high-performance market and for them, the M120 was a base the like of which few other manufacturers offered and in time, 7.0, 7.1 and 7.3 litre SLs would appear with the AMG badge, offering a naturally-aspirated driving experience (including aurally) very different from the turbo-charged competition.  The AMG V12 SLs were a reminder of the way things used to be done, done faster.  That the Citroën XM (a car hardly as innovative as the DS, SM or CX had in their day been) won the 1990 European Car of the Year can be explained only by dark hints about the undue influence (or worse) of French journalists. The R129 was runner-up and remains, unlike the XM, fondly remembered and much admired.

Temple of the 500 Lohan, Kijiang, Riau Islands Province, Indonesia.  Many Buddhist temples use the pagoda root as an architectural feature and despite the traditional appearance, the Temple of the 500 Lohan is a recent construction.

Not etymologically or in any other way connected with Lindsay Lohan, in Buddhist theology a Lohan is an individual who had achieved Enlightenment and was a true follower of Buddha.  The Lohans are also known as the Arhat, Arahat or Arahant while in the Far East, the transliteration was often phonetic and in the Chinese 阿羅漢 (āluóhàn) it was often shortened to 羅漢 (luóhàn) and, via the Raj, this was picked up in English as Lohan or luohan whereas in Japanese the pronunciation of the Chinese characters was arakan (阿羅漢) or rakan (羅漢).

Flachkühler

Flachkühler (pronounced flak-koo-ler)

In German, (literally wide cooling device (radiator)), a name adopted by Daimler-Benz to describe the W111 Mercedes-Benz coupés and cabriolets built (1969-1971) with a lower, wider radiator grill than the earlier W111 (and W112) coupés and cabriolets (1961-1969).

Circa 1860s: The construct was Flach + kühler.  The adjective flach (the singular flacher, the comparative flacher and the superlative flachsten) (shallow (wide and not deep)) was from the Middle High German vlach, from the Old High German flah, from the Proto-Germanic flakaz of uncertain origin.  The construct of the noun Kühler ((1) cooler (anything device which cools) or (2) radiator (of an internal combustion engine) was kühlen +‎ -er.  Kühlen was from the Middle High German küelen, from the Old High German kuolōn & chuolen, from the Proto-Germanic kōlōną & kōlēną and related to kalaną (to be cold).  It was cognate with the Hunsrik kiele, the Luxembourgish killen, the Dutch koelen, the Saterland Frisian köile, the English cool (verb) and the Swedish kyla.  The German suffix -er (used to forms agent nouns etc from verbs (suffixed to the verb stem)) was from the Middle High German -ære & -er, from the Old High German -āri, from the Proto-West Germanic -ārī, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, from the Latin -ārius.  When used as an adjective, kühler was a comparative degree of kühl ((1) cool (of temperature), (2) calm, restrained, passionless and (3) cool, frigid (particularly of the emotions)), from the Middle High German küele, from the Old High German kuoli, from the Proto-West Germanic kōl & kōlī, from the Proto-Germanic kōluz & kōlaz, from the primitive Indo-European gel-.  It was cognate with the Dutch koel and the English cool.  Flachkühler is a noun; the noun plural is Flachkühlers.

1965 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE Cabriolet (Hōchkühler)

The dimensions of the grill used on the Mercedes-Benz W111 coupé & cabriolet was dictated by the height of the three litre straight six (M189) engine used in the more exclusive W112 (300 SE) versions.  The M189 was one of several de-tuned variants of the M198 used in the 300SL Gullwing & Roadster (W198) which had started life as the M186 in the big 300 (W186, “Adenauer”) saloon before revealing it’s competition potential by gaining victories at the Nürburgring, the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico and, most famously, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  In the sports cars, the long-stroke six had been installed at an angle of 50^o and fitted with a dry sump which permitted a low hood (bonnet) line but in the W111 & W112 the engine was in a conventional perpendicular arrangement and used a wet sump, further adding to the height, thus the relatively tall grill.  The smaller sixes used in the car (2.2 litre (M127); 2.5 (M129) & 2.8 (M130)) were of a more modern, short-stroke design and didn’t demand such a capacious engine bay but production line rationalization didn’t make viable two different sets of coachwork for what were low volume models.

1971 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Coupé (Flachkühler)

By the mid 1960s however, Mercedes-Benz realized their gusty, high-revving sixes were technologically bankrupt and for success in the vital US market, they needed a mass-market V8.  Their big-block 6.3 litre V8 (M100), introduced in 1963 with the 600 Grosser (W100) wasn’t suitable for down-sizing so a physically smaller range was developed, the first of which was designated M116; released in 1969 and in displacements of 3.5, 3.8 & 4.2 litres, it would serve the line until 1991.  The 3.5 came first and in 1969 it was fitted to the W111 coupé & cabriolet.  By then, the old 3.0 litre six had been discontinued so the tall grill, which by then had come to look rather baroque, as no longer required and the factory took the opportunity to modernize things and the new, lower wider grill came to be known as the Flachkühler (literally “flat cooler” and best translated as “flat radiator”, the engineers deciding the earlier design should be referred to as the Hōchkühler (high radiator).  Hōch (high, tall; great; immense; grand; of great importance) was from the Middle High German hōch, from the Old High German hōh, from the Proto-West Germanic hauh, from the Proto-Germanic hauhaz, from the primitive Indo-European kewk-, a suffixed form of kew-; it may be compared to the Dutch hoog, the English high and the Swedish hög.

1968 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE Cabriolet (Hōchkühler, left) and 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 Cabriolet (Flachkühler, right).

Because of the first oil shock in 1973, the plans for mass-market (a relative term) Mercedes-Benz V8s were interrupted for a while but the 3.5 litre W111s had already reached the end of the line before the embargo began.  Produced only until 1971, they were always expensive and only 3,270 coupés and 1,232 cabriolets were built and, it being another age, they were available with a four-speed manual gearbox, an option a few actually choose.  The Mercedes-Benz manual gear-change was a rather clunky thing but such is rarity value, they have a cult following.  The whole ecosystem of 280 SE 3.5 coupés and cabriolets is actually a cult in itself, perfectly restored cabriolets commanding prices in excess of US$500,000 and some German tuning houses will charge even more for examples modernized with attributes like ABS, later V8 engines, transmissions and suspension.  Even now, although in essence the structure dates from the late 1950s and the mechanicals a decade later, the appeal remains because the things are remarkably usable in modern conditions and ascetically, nothing Mercedes-Benz has made since has anything like the elegance.

1953 Morgan Plus 4 ("flat radiator", top left), 1955 Morgan Plus 4 (top right), 1969 Morgan Plus 8 (bottom left) and 2024 Morgan Plus 6 (bottom right).  Thematically, not all that much has changed since 1954.  

Strangely, the idea of the “flat radiator” had been around for a while in the vernacular of collector car circles but it referred to another aspect of geometry.  In 1952, Morgan of Malvern Link, Worcestershire, was (as it is now) a cottage industry manufacturing pre-war sports cars with more modern engines and they received advice from the manufacturer of their separate headlight assemblies that because MG’s new TF (due for release in 1953) would have its headlamps integrated into the bodywork, production of the housing was ending.  There being no alternative supplier, Morgan were compelled to follow MG’s lead restyle things so the headlamps were faired in.  Concurrent with this, the Morgan factory took the opportunity to do one of their rare styling changes, abandoning their long-establish upright radiator grill one mounted in a cowl that blended into the hood (bonnet).  It wasn’t exactly the onset of modernity but there presumably was some aerodynamic gain.  Just to assure buyers change wasn’t being made for the sake of change, disc brakes would have to wait another few years.  The change to the grill was made in 1953 although, because of the way Morgan operated, some of the older style cars were actually assembled later than the new.  The cars with the traditional Morgan look which features the upright grill are known among aficionados as the “flat radiator Morgans”.

Impromptu Flachkühler: In October 2005, Lindsay Lohan went for a drive in her Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG.  There was a low-speed unpleasantness with a van which caused the roadster to suffer a Flachkühler.