Fastback

Fastback (pronounced fast-bak or fahst-bak)

(1) A form of rearward coachwork for an automobile body consisting classically of a single, unbroken convex curve from the top to the rear bumper line (there are variations of this also called fastbacks).

(2) A car having using such styling (also used as a model name by both car and motorcycle manufacturers).

(3) A type of pig developed from the landrace or large white and bred for lean meat.

(4) In computing, a product-name sometimes used for backup software.

1960–1965: The construct was fast + back.  Fast was from the Middle English fast & fest, from the Old English fæst (firmly fixed, steadfast, constant; secure; enclosed, watertight; strong, fortified), from the Proto-West Germanic fast, from the Proto-Germanic fastu & fastuz (firm) (which was the source also of the Old Frisian fest, the Old Norse fastr, the Dutch vast and the German fest), from the primitive Indo-European root past- (firm, solid), the source for the Sanskrit pastyam (dwelling place).  The original meaning of course persists but the sense development to “rapid, speedy” dates from the 1550s and appears to have happened first in the adverb and then transferred to the adjective.  The original sense of “secure; firm” is now restricted to uses such as “hard & fast” description of track conditions in horse racing but the derived form “fasten” (attach to; make secure) remains common.  Back was from the Middle English bak, from the Old English bæc, from the Proto-West Germanic bak, from the Proto-Germanic bakam & baką which may be related to the primitive Indo-European beg- (to bend).  In other European languages there was also the Middle Low German bak (back), from the Old Saxon bak, the West Frisian bekling (chair back), the Old High German bah and the Swedish and Norwegian bak; there are no documented connections outside the Germanic and in other modern Germanic languages the cognates mostly have been ousted in this sense by words akin to Modern English ridge such as Danish ryg and the German Rücken.  At one time, many Indo-European languages may have distinguished the horizontal back of an animal or geographic formation such as a mountain range from the upright back of a human while in some cases a modern word for "back" may come from a word related to “spine” such as the Italian schiena or Russian spina or “shoulder”, the examples including the Spanish espalda & Polish plecy.  Fastback is a noun; the noun plural is fastbacks.

1935 Chrysler Imperial C2 Airflow (top left), 1936 Cadillac V16 streamliner (top centre), 1936 Mercedes Benz 540K Autobahnkurier (Motorway Cruiser) (top right), 1948 Pontiac Streamliner (bottom left), 1948 Cadillac Series 62 (bottom centre) and 1952 Bentley Continental R (bottom right).

Although it was in the 1960s the fastback became a marketing term as the range of models proliferated, it was then nothing new, the lines appearing on vehicles even before 1920, some of which even used the teardrop shape which wind tunnels would confirm was close to optimal, as least in terms of reducing drag although it would be decades before the science evolved to the point where the importance of the trade-off between drag and down-force was completely understood.  To some extent this was explained by (1) so many of the early examples being drawn from aviation where shapes were rendered to optimize the twin goals of reducing drag & increasing lift and (2) road vehicles generally not being capable of achieving the velocities at which the lack of down-force induced instability to a dangerous extent.  Rapidly that would change but there was quite a death toll as the lessons were learned.  By the 1930s, streamlining had become one of the motifs of the high-performance machinery of the era, something coincidently suited to the art deco moment through which the world was passing and in both Europe and the US there were some remarkable, sleek creations.  There was also market resistance.  Chrysler’s engineers actually built one of their sedans to operate backwards and ran tests which confirmed that in real-world conditions the results reflected exactly what the wind-tunnel had suggested: it was quicker, faster and more economical if driven with the rear bodywork facing the front.  Those findings resulted in the release of the Airflow range (1934-1937) and while the benefits promised were realized, the frontal styling proved to be too radical for the time and commercial failure ensued.  People however seemed to like the fastback approach (then often called “torpedo style”) and manufacturers added many to their ranges during the 1940s and 1950s.

Ford Galaxies, Daytona, 1963 (top), 1966 Dodge Charger (bottom left), 1968 Plymouth Barracuda (bottom centre) and 1971 Ford Torino (bottom right).

Ford in 1962 inadvertently provided a case study of relative specific efficiencies of rooflines. The sleek Starliner roof on the 1961 Galaxies used in NASCAR racing sliced gracefully through the air and while sales were initially strong, demand soon slowed and the marketing department compelled a switch to the “formal roofline” introduced on the Thunderbird; it was a success in the showroom but less than stellar on the circuits, the buffering induced by the steep rear windows reducing both stability and speed.  Not deterred, Ford resorted to the long NASCAR tradition of cheating, fabricating a handful of fibreglass hard-tops which would (for racing purposes) turn a convertible Galaxie into a Starliner.  Unfortunately, to be homologated for competition, such parts had to be produced in at least the hundreds and be available for general sale.  Not fooled by Ford’s mock-up brochure, NASCAR banned the plastic roof and not until 1963 when a “fastback” roofline was added was the car’s competitiveness restored.  Actually, it wasn’t really a fastback at all because full-sized cars like the Galaxie had become so long that even a partial sweep from the windscreen to the rear bumper would create absurd proportion but the simple expedient of a sharply raked rear window turned out to work about as well.  Even on intermediates like the Dodge Charger and Ford Torino the pure fastback didn’t really work, the result just too slab-sided.  The classic implementation was when it was used for the shorter pony cars such as the Plymouth Barracuda and Ford Mustang.

1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 Coupé (top left) & 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500 (top right); 1971 Ford Mustang 351 Coupé (bottom left) & 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 429 Super CobraJet SportsRoof.

The fastback for a while even influenced roofs not fast.  The original Mustang coupé (1964) was a classic “notchback” but such was the impact in the market that later in the year a fastback was added, joining the convertible to make a three body-style range.  The fastback’s popularity was bolstered by Carroll Shelby (1923–2012) choosing that style for his Shelby Mustangs which over the course of half a decade would evolve (or devolve depending on one’s view) from racing cars with number plates to Mustangs with bling but it would also influence the shape of the coupé.  By 1971 the fastback Mustangs (by then called “SportRoofs”) had adopted an even more severe angle at the rear which was dramatic to look at but hard to look through if inside, the almost horizontal rear window restricting visibility which made the more upright coupé (marketed as “Hardtop”) a more practical (and safer) choice.  However, such was the appeal of the fastback look that the profile was fastbackesque, achieved by the use of small trailing buttresses which made their own contribution to restricting reward visibility although not to the extent of some, like Ferrari’s Dino 246 which in some jurisdictions was banned from sale for just that reason.

1965 Rambler Marlin (top left), 1967 AMC Marlin (top centre), 1968 AMC Javelin (top right), 1969 AMC AMX (bottom left), 1974 AMC Javelin (bottom centre) and Lindsay Lohan in 1974 AMC Javelin (bottom right).

American Motors Corporation was (until the arrival of Tesla), the “last of the independents” (ie not part of General Motors (GM), Ford or Chrysler) and at its most successful when filling utilitarian niches the majors neglected, their problem being their successes were noticed and competition soon flooded the segments they’d profitably created.  As a result, they were compelled to compete across a wider range and while always a struggle, they did for decades survive by being imaginative and offering packages which, on cost breakdown could be compelling (at one point they joined Rolls-Royce as the only company to offer sedans with air-conditioning fitted as standard equipment).  Sometimes though they got it wrong, and that they did with the Marlin, introduced in 1965 as a fastback based on their intermediate Rambler Classic.  Although the fastback was all about style, AMC couldn’t forget their history of putting a premium on practicality an accordingly, the roof-line grafted on to the classic also ensured comfortable headroom for the rear-seat passengers, resulting in a most ungainly shape.  Sales were dismal for two seasons but AMC persisted, in 1967 switching the fastback to the full-sized Ambassador line which all conceded was better though that was damning with faint praise.  More successful was the Javelin (1968), AMC’s venture into the then lucrative pony-car business which the Mustang had first defined and then dominated.  The early Javelins were an accomplished design, almost Italianate in the delicacy of their lines and the fastback was nicely balanced.  Less balanced but more intriguing was the AMX, a two seat “sports car” created in the cheapest way possible: shorten the Javelin’s wheelbase by 12 inches (300 mm) and remove the rear seat.  That certainly solved the problem of rear seat headroom and over three seasons the AMX received a generally positive response from the press but sales never reached expectations, even a pink one being chosen as the car presented to Playboy magazine's 1968 Playmate of the Year not enough to ensure survival and when the Javelin was restyled for 1971, the two seat variant wasn’t continued although AMX was retained as a name for certain models.  The new Javelins lacked the subtlety of line of the original and the fastback part was probably the best part of the package, much of the rest rather overwrought.  The pony car ecosystem declined in the early 1970s and Javelin production ceased in 1974 although it did by a few months outlive what was technically the first pony-car of them all, the Plymouth Barracuda.

1969 Norton Commando Fastback.

The Norton Commando was produced between 1968-1977.  All Commandos initially used the distinctive tail section which, like the fuel tank, was made of fibreglass and the slope of the molding instantly attracted the nickname “fastback”, an allusion to the body-style then becoming popular for sports cars.  It was the first British motorcycle built in volume of “modern” appearance but, apart from the odd clever improvisation, much of the engineering was antiquated and a generation or more behind the coming Japanese onslaught which would doom the local industry.  In 1969, as other models were added to the Commando range, all of which used more conventional rear styling, the factory formally adopted Fastback as a model name for the originals which remained in production, upgraded in 1970 (as the Fastback Mark ll), fitted with much admired upswept exhausts.  With minor changes, after only four months, it was replaced with the Mark III which served until 1972 when the Mark IV was released, the most notable change being the fitting of a front disk brake.

1970 Norton Commando Fastback (with retro-fitted disk brake).

One interesting variant was the Fastback Long Range (LR) which, although in production for almost two years during 1971-1972, only around 400 were built, most apparently exported to Australia where the distance between gas (petrol) stations was often greater than in Europe or the US.  Although there were other detail differences, the main distinguishing feature of the LR was the larger capacity (in the style of the earlier Norton Atlas) petrol tank, a harbinger of the “Commando Interstate” which became a regular production in 1972 and lasted until Commando production ceased in 1977 by which time it constituted the bulk of sales.  Fastback production ended in 1973 and although some were fitted with the doomed 750 “Combat” engine, none ever received the enlarged unit introduced that year in the Commando 850.

1965 Ford GT40 Mark 1 (road specification) (left), 1967 Ford GT40 Mark IV (J-Car prototype) (centre) and 1967 Ford GT40 Mark IV, Sebring, 1967.

Impressed by Ferrari’s “breadvan”, Ford, this time with the help of a wind-tunnel, adopted the concept when seeking to improve the aerodynamics of the GT40.  Testing the J-Car proved the design delivered increased speed but the resultant lack of down-force proved lethal so the by then conventional fastback body was used instead and it proved successful in the single season it was allowed to run before rule changes outlawed the big engines.

1966 Fiat 850 Coupé (top left), 1970 Daf 55 Coupé (top centre), 1974 Skoda 110 R (top right), 1972 Morris Marina Coupé (bottom left), 1972 Ford Granada Fastback (later re-named Coupé) (bottom centre) and 1973 Coleman-Milne Granada Limousine (bottom right).

The Europeans took to the fastback style, not only for Ferraris & Maseratis but also to add some flair (and profit margin) to low-cost economy vehicles.  It produced some rather stubby cars but generally they were aesthetically successful and the Skoda 110 R (from Czechoslovakia and thus the Warsaw Pact’s contribution to the fastback school of thought) lasted from 1973-1980 and as the highly modified 130 RS gained an improbable victory in the 1981 European Touring Car Championship against a star-studded field which included BMW 635s, Ford’s RS Capris & Escorts, Audi GTEs, Chevrolet Camaros and Alfa Romeo GTVs.  It was a shame comrade Stalin didn’t live to see it.  Generally, the Europeans were good at fastbacks but the British had some unfortunate moments.  In fastback form, the appearance of the Morris Marina was from the start compromised by the use of the sedan’s front doors which meant the thing was fundamentally ill-proportioned, something which might have been forgiven if it had offered the practicality of a hatchback instead of a conventional trunk (boot).  A dull and uninspiring machine (albeit one which sold well), the Marina actually looked best as a station wagon, an opinion many hold also of its corporate companion the Austin Allegro although the two frequently contest the title of Britain’s worst car of the 1970s (and it's a crowded field).  Even Ford of England which at the time was selling the well-styled fastback Capri had a misstep when it offered the ungainly fastback Granada, many made to look worse still by the addition of the then fashionable vinyl roof, the mistake not repeated when the range was revised without a fastback model.  Compounding the error on an even grander scale however was coach-builder Coleman-Milne which, bizarrely, grafted the fastback’s rear on to a stretched Granada sedan to create what was at the time the world’s only fastback limousine.  Although not entirely accurate, there are reasons the 1970s came to be called “the decade style forgot”.

Landau

Landau (pronouned lan-daw (U) or lan-dou (non-U))

(1) A light, four-wheeled, traditionally horse-drawn, two or four-seated (the original landau was for two passengers) carriage with a top made in two parts that may be let down or folded back, the two meeting over the middle of the passenger compartment; in four-seat versions, the front and rear passenger seats would face each other, an arrangement now often called “vis-a-vis seating”.

(2) By extension, a style of automobile based around the design of landau carriages, usually a limousine or sedan-like with a partially convertible roof arrangement, the most rearward part retractable.

(3) A model name for automobiles now with no precise definition but which is usually applied to vehicles with some variation in the treatment of the roof (though not necessarily a configuration).

1743 (1723 in the German): Traditionally thought named after the German city of Landau, where such carriages were first made and called landauers, following the model of the berliner, a carriage with origins in the city of Berlin.  The city of Landau in der Pfalz (Landach in the Palatine German and usually clipped to Landau) is an autonomous (kreisfrei) town in the southern Rhineland-Palatinate.  Land was from the common Germanic element land (land, territory (which obviously endures in English), from the Proto-Germanic landą, from the primitive Indo-European lend- (land, heath); it was cognate with the Proto-Celtic landā.  The origin of the second element is disputed.  The noun plural is landaus.

The Landau

Murkier still though is the opinion of some etymologists that the name of the carriage was really from the Spanish lando (a light four-wheeled carriage drawn by mules), from the Arabic al-andul and the claim by the Germans was just blatant commercial opportunism.  If one accepts the orthodox etymology, in 1723 when first displayed in the city of Landau, the description landauer meant one thing: a two-seater horse-drawn light carriage configured with four wheels on two sprung axles and with a fabric top which could be thrown back (ie lowered) to the rear.  It was a luxury vehicle and much admired but the reaction of customers suggested a larger market beckoned if a four-seat version was available.  Accordingly, production commenced on what was essentially two of the two-seaters joined together, the seats in the traditional (viv-a-vis) arrangement of two benches facing each other and the fabric roofs duplicated, one hinged from the rear, one from the from front and, when erected, meeting in the centre above the passengers.  Access to the compartment was provided by one or two side-doors, the upper section of which was a framed glass window which could be removed (and later even wound-down) and it is to these vehicles that the origins of the modern convertible may be traced, the sense being of something which easily may be converted from open to closed .  In the records of the time, there are drawings of these four-seat carriages with a single fabric roof (a la the two-seat original), hinged from the rear but it’s not clear how many, if any, were built.

Before there were landaus, another carriage had provided an entry in the etymological record.  Designed probably in the late 1660s by a Piedmontese architect under commission from the quartermaster-general to Frederick William (1620–1688; Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia 1640-1688), several of what came to be known as berliners were used by the elector to travel from Berlin to Paris, then a trip of 1,055 km (655 miles) and upon arrival, the elegant but obviously robust vehicles caused a sensation and immediately the design was copied by Parisian coachbuilders attracted by the ease of construction, efficiency of space utilization and critically, the economical use of materials which made them cheaper to build.  Lighter and with a lower centre of gravity which made them also safer, the French named them berlines in honor of their city of origin and quickly they began to supplant the less practical and frankly uncomfortable state and gala coaches which had been the definitive seventeenth century carriage.

The origin of the Berliner is undisputed but there have long been “alternative facts” contesting the genesis of the landau.  The orthodox history is that carriages in the style which came to be associated with the landau were first built in Landau and thus known as landauers, mentioned in Goethe's (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749–1832) epic-length poem Hermann and Dorothea (1796-1797):

Constantly, while he thus spoke, the crowds of men and of women

Grew, who their homeward way were over the market-place wending;

And, with the rest, there also returned, his daughters beside him,

Back to his modernized house on the opposite side of the market,

Foremost merchant of all the town, their opulent neighbor,

Rapidly driving his open barouche,—it was builded in Landau.

Lively now grew the streets, for the city was handsomely peopled.

Many a trade was therein carried on, and large manufactures.

A barouche was a large, open, four-wheeled carriage and historians of the industry suggest Goethe was describing a landauer and Jane Austen (1775-1817) in Emma (1816) spoke of a “barouche-landau” which combined “…the best features of a barouche and a landau" although the blend was apparently “not a popular innovation” and noting this critique, Austen scholar Jennifer S Ewing, Library Director at Southern California Seminary in El Cajon, pondered whether the “… choice of carriage itself speak to the elusiveness of the Sucklings in Emma, always promised, but never realized?  Such is the way of modern academic deconstruction but carriages were important in Austen’s writings, the size and style of a man’s carriage used to establish the measure of his wealth and social distinction so she was a keen observer of such things.

A more dramatic story is that associated with the epic journey by Austrian Archduke Joseph (1678–1711; Holy Roman Emperor & King Joseph I of Austria 1705-1711) who in 1702 arranged a fleet of 77 coaches to carry him and his entourage of 250 from Vienna to Landau, there to take the command at the siege of what was then the a French border fortress.  It’s claimed the feat of moving the 250 men in 14 daily stages was so extraordinary that the coaches were forever associated with the town of Landau, the French soldiers also so impressed they took the name back to Paris.  It’s a romantic story but Goethe and Austen are more persuasive.

The theory of an Arabic origin of the name is interesting, the argument being the Arabic al-andul (litter, cars (and related to the Sanskrit hindola (a swinging cradle or hammock; an ornamental swing or litter in which figures of kṛṣṇa are carried during the Swing-festival in the light half of the month śrāvaṇa))) came into Spanish as lando (four-seat cart drawn by mules) from which it migrated in the form landau into English & French and was only then brought into German by popular etymological reinterpretation with the place name Landau and formed into landauer.  The Arabic derivation has the advantage that there’s no reliance of anecdotal tales of military adventure or historically dubious claims of manufacturing innovation but it’s wholly inconsistent with the chronology of verified evidence.  The word as the name of a carriage was documented in German in 1723 (and in English by 1743), but there's no trace in Spanish until 1830 and most etymologists think even then likely that it is more likely from the French than the Arabic.

Landaulet and Landaulette

The landaulette was a body style developed early in the twentieth century by car manufacturers and specialist coachbuilders, the construct being landau(l) + -ette (from the Middle English -ette, a borrowing from the Old French -ette, from the Latin -itta, the feminine form of -ittus.  It was used to form nouns meaning a smaller form of something).  A landaulette was distinguished by the compartment being covered by a convertible top while the front remained enclosed (although a landaulette rear-section was sometimes combined with the sedanca de-ville coachwork which had an open section also at the front (sometimes with a detachable top), leaving only a central portion with a permanently fixed roof.  It was once a very popular style used in taxis (in the days before air-conditioning) and was a feature of many parade limousines used for figures such as heads of state when they wished to be more visible to large crowds.  This use is now rare because of concerns about security, some of the old state-cars used in the wedding business, most brides concerned with matters other than assassination.  In the UK, historically, landaulette was used when referring to motor vehicles while the older landaulet was reserved for horse-drawn carriages.

Landaulet, the construct being landau(l) + -et (from the Middle English -et, from the Old French –et & its feminine variant -ette, from the Late Latin -ittus (and the other gender forms -itta & -ittum).  It was used to form diminutives (loosely construed) and was, after the first few years of the twentieth century, always the form used on the continent and refers to the same coachwork as landaulette.  Both words are now rare and it’s only specialists who are likely to apply them correctly.

Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100) Landaulet (long-roof).

Mercedes-Benz, at a leisurely pace, produced 59 600 Pullman Landaulets, twelve with a convertible top which covered the entire rear passenger space, the remainder with a shorter top which exposed only the rear-most seat.  Purchased usually for parade use or other ceremonial occasions, most were built with the six-door coachwork but there were a few which used the four-door body and the vis-a-vis seating.

Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100) one-off landaulet on the short wheelbase (SWB) platform.

The factory for decades provided the Vatican with papal landaulets, used in parades and sometimes they travelled with popes to foreign lands.  After the assassination attempt on John-Paul II, the concept was refined, the convertible top replaced with bullet-resistant clear panels and popes now less frequently appear in open-top cars.  Clockwise from top left: 300d (W189) papal throne, 300d (W189), 600 (W100), 300SEL (W109), S500 (W140), 300GD (W460), G500 (W463), ML500 (W166).  Just about everybody quickly dubbed the new cars "popemobiles".

Rolls-Royce Phantom V (1959-1968) State Landaulet by Mulliner Park Ward (MPW).

Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022; Queen of England the UK and other places, 1952-2022) and Prince Philip (1921-2021) in Mercedes-Benz 600 Landaulet, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, state visit, June 1965.  This 600 Landaulet is one of twelve "long roof" cars (often informally styled as the "Presidential") in which the folding fabric roof extended over the whole of the rear compartment.  The remaining 46 600 Landaulets were "short-roof" models where the metal roof extended further rearwards, the fabric over only the rear-seat area.

The 1961 Lincoln Continental (Secret Service code X-100) in which President John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; US president 1961-1963) was assassinated could be configured as (1) a four-door convertible or, (2) a landaulet with a solid top attached above the driver’s compartment.  It was sometimes also used with a protective Perspex shield for the rear compartment but, infamously, this wasn’t used on the day of the assignation.  After the events in Dallas it was modified to include much more protective equipment and returned to the Secret Service’s White House fleet.

X-100 unprotected (left) and with an array of some of the roof accessories which enabled it to be configured as a four-door convertible, a landaulet or a sedanca de ville (although it was never seen as the latter) (right).  Interestingly, Lincoln's companion division, Mercury, in 1969-1970, sold a version of its full-sized Marauder two-door hardtop as the X-100, nominally a high-performance model but actually using an un-modified (360 horsepower) 429 cubic inch (7.0 litre) version of its 385-series V8.  The X-100 was essentially an attempt to be in 1965 what the "letter series" Chrysler 300s had been between 1955-1965 but the moment had passed and the days of the "banker's hot-rods" were done.  The X-100 was never replaced.

Rolls-Royce Phantom IV State Landaulet by Hooper.

A bespoke creation produced exclusively for heads of state and crowned royalty (the "crowned" bit an important status symbol in royal circles) and never offered for sale to the public (a distinction shared only with the Mercedes-Benz 770K (W150; 88 made 1939-1943) and the Bugatti Royale (7 made, 1927-1933), Rolls-Royce between 1950-1958 made only 18 Phantom IVs, one of which was a ute (a light pickup truck) used by the factory until it was scrapped.  The Phantom IV's other footnote in Rolls-Royce history is it was their first and last passenger car powered by a straight-8 engine.

Daimler DS420 Landaulet by Vanden Plas.

Vanden Plas made only two Daimler DS420 Landaulets but many have been converted by coachbuilders (and some folk less skilled), the results said to be variable.  Many of the converted landaulets were used in the wedding trade, there presumably being genuine advantages for brides with big hair.  The DS420 was in production between 1968-1992 and used the platform of the big Jaguar Mark X (1961-1970; in 1967 slightly revised and re-named the 420G), the sales of which had never met expectations, failing in the home market because it was just too big and in the US because the factory chose to use 3.8 & 4.2 litre versions of the XK-Six as the powerplant rather than the 4.6 litre Daimler V8.  The underpinnings of the Mark X (the advanced suspension design and the four-wheel disk brakes) were several generations ahead of the US competition but the XK-Six was underpowered and lacked the torque required in what was a heavy machine.  A 5.5 litre V8 version with a well-integrated air-conditioning system would likely have been a great success in the US.  However disappointing the Mark X might have been, the long and lucrative career of the DS420 meant that eventually, the platform proved one of Jaguar's most enduringly profitable.

Marriage of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer, 29 July 1981 (left), marriage of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson, 23 July 1986 (centre) and marriage of Prince William to Catherine Middleton, 29 April 2011.

Maintained in the Royal Mews, the state landau carriage was built in 1902 by Messrs Hooper for Edward VII (1841–1910; King of the UK & Emperor of India 1901-1910) and first used by him on the day of his coronation procession through London.  Extensively used since, it’s lasted well, unlike the marriages of some of the royal couples who have sat in it to and from the church.  Clearly not superstitious, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge choose the 1902 Landau although Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided not to risk the curse, riding instead in one of the five Ascot landaus in the Royal Mews.

The fifth generation Ford Thunderbird Landaus, 1967-1971

1969 Ford Thunderbird Landau Coupé (429).

In what was a case study of supply responding to demand, the Ford Thunderbird which in 1955 had debuted as a two-seat convertible, was re-designed for 1958 as a four-seater, sales immediately rising.  Having already made the correct decision in 1955 to position the T-bird as a “personal car” rather than a sports-car and being rewarded with something which outsold the Chevrolet Corvette more than twenty-fold, it was obvious to rely on (what probably still is) the biggest “big-data” metric of all: what people are prepared to pay for.  Thus the T-bird continued successfully until 1966 as a four-seat coupé and convertible.  By 1967 however, Ford needed to consider not just the competing products of other manufacturers but also the corporation’s own proliferating range, the wildly successful Mustang and its new, up-market derivative, the Mercury Cougar, both of which (and not just at the margins) overlapped the T-bird’s lucrative niche.  Additionally, Lincoln had released a two-door version of the Continental so the T-bird needed somehow to appeal to those considering competitor vehicles yet try to avoid excessive cannibalizing sales within the corporation.

1967 Ford Thunderbird Landau Sedan (428).

Thus the fifth generation Thunderbird (1967-1971), the convertible gone (not to return until the one-off retro-car of 2002-2005), the coupé was joined by a four-door sedan, suicide doors added not just as a novelty but because, as had been the case with the 1961 Lincoln, the wheelbase was just a little too short comfortably to accommodate conventional hinging.  With Lincoln’s four-door convertible in its last days because of declining sales, no such T-bird was offered.  Quite how sincere Ford was in trying not to impinge on Mercury and Lincoln attracted attention even at the time.  The 1967 Thunderbird was the most expensive car on Ford’s list, attracting buyers who ticked much on the option list and they tended to leave the showroom costing much more than any other Ford or Mercury, the most expensive, the four-door Landau Sedan, sitting within a few hundred dollars of an entry-level Lincoln.

1969 Ford Thunderbird Landau Sedan (390) with vinyl roof removed.  In the quest for good taste, removing vinyl roofs from cars of that era is popular but on the four-door T-birds, they really need to be maintained.

By 1967, the US industry had long come to regard words like “landau” and “brougham”, once technical terms from coach-building, as just handy marketing terms, a brougham now something with more bling and a landau, usually a car distinguished often by sometimes oddly-shaped windows added to the C-panel and the increasingly bizarre ways in which vinyl would be glued to the roof and Ford wasn’t alone in adding fake “landau irons” (sometimes called “landau bars”) to cement the association.  Actually last used as a functional device for a convertible top in 1962 on the Mercedes 300d Cabriolet D (w189), they’d come to be adopted as a decorative flourish on C-pillars, thought to impart come link with the big cabriolets of the 1930s with which they were most associated.  On the two-door T-bird Landaus, that’s how they were used but on the four-door, they gained a new functionally: Disguising unfortunate styling.

The much admired “wrap-around” rear compartment: 1971 Ford Thunderbird Landau Coupé (429).

Just as the suicide doors had been a necessity, so too were the landau irons (which some coachbuilders insist should be called "carriage bars"), used to conceal the ungainly way the desired shape of the C-pillar had been achieved on a wheelbase too short, the vinyl roof another unavoidable trick to draw attention from what would otherwise have been obviously extraneous metal if painted.  The four-door T-birds are probably the only car ever made where a vinyl roof improved rather than detracted from the appearance and the fake landau bars helped too.  Some hearses are built with large expanse of something solid to the rear rather than glass and on those, fake landau bars are added as a flourish to reduce the effect of the slab-sidedness.  Ford’s aesthetic trick was clever but didn’t much help in the showroom, the four-door a slow seller which wasn’t replaced when the sixth generation was released only as a (very big) coupé which went on to great success.

The Ford (Australia) Landau (P5;1973-1976)

Even at the time, to many the Ford Landau can't have seemed a good idea.  Sales of large (compact in 1973 US terms) coupés had dropped precipitously since their brief burst of popularity and the only thing on the market which might have been a competitor, the Chrysler by Chrysler hardtop, had been dropped earlier in the year after eighteen months of disappointing sales.  Ford's own hardtop, debuting late in 1972 had come too late to enjoy much of the earlier fad which probably was a warning of sorts but it also meant there was a warehouse full of hardtop shells for which demand had almost evaporated.  Thus the Landau, a two-door version of Ford Australia's new LTD, a (much) stretched and (much) blingified Falcon, the parts-sharing meaning the Landau could be brought into production at modest cost; from the Detroit parts-bin came Mercury hidden-headlight assemblies and Thunderbird wheel-covers, the later marvelously intricate but so vulnerable to impacts with Australia's high kerb-sides they were soon replaced with units which protruded less.  Underneath lay the familiar combination of Ford's 351 cubic inch (5.8 litre) Cleveland (335) V8 and FMX automatic transmission, the most notable mechanical innovation being the country's first locally produced (as opposed to assembled) car with four-wheel disk brakes, Ford even claiming the numbers of Landaus produced as counting towards the brakes being homologated for series-production racing, the rationale being the Landau's mechanical similarity to the Falcon GT hardtops used in competition.  It sounds improbable but that's how things used to be done.

The Landau's other "mechanical" difference from standard Falcon hardtops was some sheet-metal crudely welded into the rear-window apertures so a more "formal" roofline could be fashioned.  The welding seams were never finished to a fine standard because one feature of the LTD & Landau was a padded vinyl roof which, handily, covered the imperfections.  A padded vinyl roof is a really bad idea because it means a layer of porous foam rubber sits between the vinyl and the ferrous metal of the roof, the moisture accumulating and the rust soon starting, proximity to the coast and the tropics dictating how soon and ultimately to what extent.  It sounds improbable but that's how things used to be done.  Still, it was plush inside, lashings of (real) leather, much (fake) timber and four bucket seats (though despite the bulk of the thing the rear compartment was cramped and the cut-down windows made travel a claustrophobic experience) through the highlights were two real affectations, a twenty-four hour analogue clock and aviation inspired controls for the air-conditioning, recalling those installed rather more extravagantly on European machinery like the Facel Vega.  Just so people knew they were looking at something classy, pressed into the padded roof (about where the welding seams were being hidden) was a (wholly fake) coat of arms with lions rampant, two more escutcheons glued-on inside to comfort the passengers.

As a road car it was capable, even rapid by the standards of the time and the new brakes really were (pre-ABS) world class.  For commuting or touring it was a comfortable and effortless experience, at least for two although it could be hard to manage in urban conditions, the hardtop's already marginal rear-visibility further compromised by the loss of glass and the combination of the coupé's lowered roofline and almost flat rear window meant the rearward view was like looking through a slit.  That was unfortunate because the hardtops had been designed with series-production racing in mind so the rear fenders flared outwards allowing wide tyres to be fitted without modification to the bodywork.  Reversing a Landau could be a challenge but it was one not many took up, fewer than 1400 sold in a three-year run.  The timing of the release had been unfortunate for not only was it now in a dying market segment but within three months, the first oil shock hit.  The 351 V8, even it's more efficient (pre-emission control) form was always thirsty but in the Landau with all the luxury bits and pieces adding some 440 lb (200 KG) to the anyway hardly svelte Falcon Hardtop, it was worse.  When the P6 LTD was released in 1976, although one P6 Landau prototype had constructed for evaluation, the coupé was quietly dropped but now, the survivors are a collectable, one popular modification the removal of the vinyl roof and the proper finishing of the welded cover-plates.

1973 Ford Landau.  Ford added just about whatever could be added to justify the Landau's high price-tag.  The aviation-inspired sliding air-conditioning controls delighted many (although some dismissed them as "an affectation") and the turbine-style wheel-covers were imported from the Detroit parts-bin; while the intricate details were impressive, the "beehive" shape rendered then vulnerable to Australian kerbs and so much damage was reported they were soon replaced with flatter units.  The leather on the seats was real (and Australian grown) and the 24-hour clock was unique in the era but unfortunately, the budget didn't extend to real timber and the "woodgrain" on the instrument panel was plastic.

Rimbellisher

Rimbellisher (pronounced rhim-bell-lysh)

A decorative ring attached to the rim of a car's wheel.

1940s: A portmanteau word, the construct being rim +‎ (em)bellish +-er and originally a trademarked brand of the Ace company.  Rim was from the tenth century Middle English rim, rym & rime, from the Old English rima (rim, edge, border, bank, coast), from the Proto-Germanic rimô & rembô (edge, border), from the primitive Indo-European rem- & remə- (to rest, support, be based).   It was cognate with the Saterland Frisian Rim (plank, wooden cross, trellis), the Old Saxon rimi (edge; border; trim) and the Old Norse rimi (raised strip of land, ridge).  Rim generally means “an edge around something, especially when circular” and is used in fields a different as engineering and vulcanology.  The use in political geography is an extension of the idea, something like “PacRim” (Pac(ific) + rim) used to group the nations with coastlines along the Pacific Ocean.  The use in print journalism referred to “a semicircular copydesk”.   The special use in metallurgy described the outer layer of metal in an ingot where the composition was different from that of the centre.  The word rim is an especially frustrating one for golfers to hear because it describes the ball rolling around the rim of the hole but declining to go in.

Embellish dates from the early fourteenth century and was from the Middle English embelisshen from the Anglo-French, from the Middle French embeliss- (stem of embelir), the construct being em- (The form taken by en- before the labial consonants “b” & “p”, as it assimilates place of articulation).  The en- prefix was from the Middle English en- & in-.  In the Old French it existed as en- & an-, from the Latin in- (in, into); it was also from an alteration of in-, from the Middle English in-, from the Old English in- (in, into), from the Proto-Germanic in (in).  Both the Latin and Germanic forms were from the primitive Indo-European en (in, into) and the frequency of use in the Old French is because of the confluence with the Frankish an- intensive prefix, related to the Old English on-.) + bel-, from the Latin bellus (pretty) + -ish.  The –ish suffix was from the Middle English –ish & -isch, from the Old English –isċ, from the Proto-West Germanic -isk, from the Proto-Germanic –iskaz, from the primitive Indo-European -iskos.  It was cognate with the Dutch -s; the German -isch (from which Dutch gained -isch), the Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish -isk & -sk, the Lithuanian –iškas, the Russian -ский (-skij) and the Ancient Greek diminutive suffix -ίσκος (-ískos); a doublet of -esque and -ski.  There exists a welter of synonyms and companion phrases such as decorate, grace, prettify, bedeck, dress up, exaggerate, gild, overstate, festoon, embroider, adorn, spiff up, trim, magnify, deck, color, enrich, elaborate, ornament, beautify, enhance, array & garnish.  Embellish is a verb, embellishing is a noun & verb, embellished is a verb & adjective and embellisher & embellishment are nouns; the noun plural is embellishments.

The –er suffix was from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere, from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz, thought most likely to have been borrowed from the Latin –ārius where, as a suffix, it was used to form adjectives from nouns or numerals.  In English, the –er suffix, when added to a verb, created an agent noun: the person or thing that doing the action indicated by the root verb.   The use in English was reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (the Anglo-Norman variant -our), from the Latin -ātor & -tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  When appended to a noun, it created the noun denoting an occupation or describing the person whose occupation is the noun.  Rimbellisher is a noun and the noun plural is rimbellishers.  All other forms are non-standard but a wheel to which a rimbellisher has been fitted could be said to be rimbellished (adjective) white the person doing the fitting would be a rimbellisher (noun), the process an act of rimbellishing (verb) and the result a rimbellishment (noun).

Jaguar XK120 with wire wheels (left), with hubcaps (centre) and with hubcaps and rimbellishers (right).

The Jaguar XK range (1948-1961) was available either with solid or wire wheels and while the choice was usually on aesthetic grounds, those using the things in competition sometimes had to assess the trade-offs.  The wire wheels were lighter and provided better cooling of the brakes (especially those connected to the rear wheels which were covered with fender skirts (spats) when the steel wheels were fitted.  In many forms of motor sport that was of course a great advantage but the spokes and the deletion of the skirts came at an aerodynamic cost, the additional drag induced by the combination reducing top speed by a up to 5 mph (8 km/h) and increasing fuel consumption.  It was thus a question of working out what was most valued and in the early days, where regulations permitted, some drivers used wire-wheels at the front and retained the skirts at the rear, attempting to get as much as possible of the best of both worlds (the protrusion of the hubs used on the wire wheels precluded them from fitting behind the skirts).  Jaguar XK owners would never refer to their wheels as “rims” although there may be some who have added “rims” to their modern (post Tata ownership) Jaguars.

Hofit Golan (b 1985) and Lindsay Lohan (b 1986) attending Summer Tour Maserati in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, July 2016.  The Maserati Quattroporte is a 1964 Series I, fitted with steel wheels and rimbellishers.

Among certain classes, it’s now common to refer to wheels as rims, and the flashier the product, the more likely it is to be called a “rim”.  Good taste is of course subjective but as a general rule, the greater the propensity to being described as a rim, the more likely it is to be something in poor taste.  That’s unless it actually is a rim, some wheels being of multi-part construction where the rim is a separate piece (and composed sometimes from a different metal).  In the early days of motoring this was the almost universal method of construction and it persisted in trucks until relatively recently (although still used in heavy, earth-moving equipment and such).  However, those dealing with the high-priced, multi-pieced wheels seem still to call them wheels and use the term “rim” only when discussing the actual rim component.

1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III four-door cabriolet with coachwork by German house Voll Ruhrbeck, fitted with the standard factory wire wheels (left) and 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III fixed head coupé (FHC) with coachwork by Belgium house Vesters et Neirinck, fitted with the “Ace Deluxe” wheel discs which fitted over the standard factory wire wheels (right).  The coupé, fabricated in Brussels, was unusual in pre-war coachbuilding in that there was no B-pillar, the style which would become popular in the US between the 1950s-1970s where in two & four-door form it would be described as a “hardtop”, the nomenclature which would over the years be sometimes confused with the “hard-tops” sometime supplied with convertibles as a more secure alternative to the usual “soft top”.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the first known instance of rimbellisher in print was in The Motor (1903-1988) magazine in 1949 although they seem first to have been so-described when on sale in England in 1948.  The rimbellishers were a new product for the Ace Company which in the 1930s had specialized in producing disk-like covers for wire-wheels.  That might seem strange because wire wheels are now much admired but in the 1930s many regarded them as old-fashioned although their light-weight construction meant they were often still used.  What Ace’s aluminium covers provided was the advantage of the lighter weight combined with a shiny, modernist look and they were also easy to keep clean, unlike wire wheels which could demand hours each month to maintain.

The Ace company's publicity material from the 1950s.

In the post-war years the rimbellishers became popular because they were a detail which added a “finished” look.  They were a chromed ring which attached inside the rim of the wheel, providing a contrasting band between the tyre and the centre of the wheel, partially covered usually by a hubcap.  Ace’s original Rimbellishers were secured using a worm-drive type of fastening which ensured the metal of the wheel suffered no damage but as other manufacturers entered the market, the trend became to use a cheaper method of construction using nothing more than multiple sprung tags and with the devices push-fitted into the well of the wheel, some scraping of the paint being inevitable.  Rimbellisher (always with an initial capital) was a registered trademark of the Ace company but the word quickly became generic and was in the 1950s & 1960s used to describe any similar device.  Interestingly, by the mid 1950s, Ace ceased to use “rimbellisher” in its advertising copy and described the two ranges as “wheel discs” and “wheel trims”.

The early versions did nothing more than produce a visual effect but the stylists couldn’t resist the opportunities and some rimbellishers grew to the extent they completely blocked the flow of air through the vents in the wheels and that adversely affected the cooling of the brakes, the use of some of the new generation of full-wheel covers also having this consequence.  The solution was to ensure there was some airflow but to maintain as much as possible of the visual effect, what were often added were little fins and for these to work properly, they needed to catch the airflow so there were left and right-side versions, an idea used to this day in the alloy wheels of some high-price machinery.

1969 Pontiac GTO with standard trim rings (left) and 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge supplied without trim rings (right).

Ace in the early 1950s had distributers in the US and both their rimbellishers and full-wheel covers were offered.  They took advantage of the design which enabled the same basic units to be used, made specific only the substitution of a centre emblem which was varied to suit different manufacturers.  Ace’s market penetration for domestic vehicles didn’t last because Detroit soon began producing their own and within a short time they were elaborate and often garish, something which would last into the twenty-first century.  The Americans soon forgot about the rimbellisher name and started calling them trim-rings and they became a feature of the steel “sports wheels” manufacturers offered on their high-performance ranges in the years before aluminium wheels became mainstream products.  The trim-rings of course had a manufacturing cost and this was built into the price when the wheels were listed as an option.  The cost of production wouldn’t have been great but interestingly, when General Motors’ Pontiac division developed the “Judge” option for its GTO to compete with the low-cost Plymouth Road Runner, the trim-rings were among the items deleted.  However, the Judge package evolved to the point where it became an extra-cost option for the GTO with the missing trim-rings about the only visible concession to economy.

Mercedes-Benz W111s: 1959 220 SE with 8-slot rimbellishers (left), 1967 250 SE with the briefly used solid rimbellishers (centre) and 1971 280 SE 3.5 with the later 12-slot rimbellishers which lacked the elegance of the 8-slots.

Like many companies, Mercedes-Benz used wheel covers as a class identifier.  When the W111 saloons (1959-1968) were released in 1959, the entry-level 220 was fitted with just hubcaps while the up market twin-carburetor 220 S and the fuel-injected 220 SE had rimbellishers (made by the factory, not Ace).  Within a few years, the use of rimbellishers was expanded but by the mid-1960s, the elegant 8-slot units mostly had been replaced with a less-pleasing solid metal pressing (albeit one which provided a gap for brake cooling).  That didn’t last and phased-in between 1967-1968, the company switched from the hubcap / rimbellisher combination to a one-piece wheel cover which included the emulation of a 12-slot rimbellisher.  There were no objections to the adoption of one-piece construction but few found the new design as attractive as the earlier 8-slot.

MG publicity photograph (left) showing MGA and Magnettes, the former fitted with the Ace Rimbellishers which were a factory option.  The MGA (right) uses a third-party rimbellisher which was physically bigger and overlapped the edge of the rim to a greater degree.  The factory versions are preferred by most because they better suit the MGA's delicate lines.

MGA Coupé (left) with the rare Ace Mercury Wheel Discs (right).

Rarely seen however are the Ace Mercury Wheel Discs which were at various times a factory option also on the ZA-ZB Magnettes (1953-1958), MGB (1962-1980) and Midget (1961-1979).  The Ace Mercury was not exclusive to the MG range and was widely available from aftermarket suppliers in a variety of sizes and all that distinguished the MG units was that Ace supplied them to the factory with an octagon-shaped MG centre badge.  Some have been seen with a (fake) eared spinner in the style of a knockoff nut but these were never available from the factory.  The Mercury was made from bright anodized aluminium and thus was both lightweight and corrosion-resistant but somewhat fragile if subjected to stresses which which steel would easily cope.  The small louvers operate as air scoops when the wheels are rotating, pulling in cooling air and directing it through the holes in the wheel to assist in cooling the brakes; the set of four was thus supplied in left & right-hand pairs and needed to be installed with the louvers’ open edge “facing the breeze”.  The design was changed in 1959 when the wheels were revised and at the same time the Rimbellishers were deleted from the option list because they no longer fitted the new wheels (although third-party rimbellishers could still be used).

1966 Jaguar Mark X with factory rimbellishers.