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).

Gully

Gully (pronounced guhl-ee)

(1) A small valley or ravine originally worn away by running water and serving as a drainage-way after prolonged or heavy rain.

(2) A ditch or gutter.

(3) In cricket, a position in the off-side field (some 30^o behind square), between point and the widest of the slips (or wicket-keeper if no slip is set); the fielder occupying this position.

(4) In tenpin bowling, either of the two channels at the side of the bowling lane.

(5) To make gullies in the ground or an object

(6) In hydrology, to form channels by the action of water.

(7) In slang, or relating to the environment, culture, or life experience in poor urban neighborhoods; vulgar, raw, or authentic and sometimes used as an alternative to ghetto.

(8) In (US) slang, as gullywasher, an intense, but typically brief rain event, the form dating from 1887.

(9) In Scotland and northern England, a knife, especially a large kitchen or butcher’s knife (the alternative spelling gulley).

(10) In some parts of the English-speaking word, a synonym for valley, especially one heavily wooded; a deep, wide fissure between two buttresses in a mountain face, sometimes containing a stream or scree (although in most traditions gullies are usually dry, water flowing only after heavy rain or a sudden input of water from other drainage systems.

(11) In engineering slang, any channel like structure which is available to be used for some purpose such as ducts or cables (applied to anything from computer motherboards to nuclear reactors).

(12) In engineering, a grooved iron rail or tram plate (mostly UK).

(13) In civil engineering, sometimes used as a descriptor for drop-kerbs, gutters etc.

(14) Of liquid, noisily to flow (obsolete).

(15) In South Asia (chiefly India but known also in Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka, an alleyway or side street.     

1530–1540: Etymologists have traced several possible sources of the word and it’s not impossible the word evolved independently in different places.  It may have been a variant of the Middle English golet (esophagus, gullet), from Old French goulet (the French –et ultimately replace by –y), from Latin gula (throat) and the meaning-shift in the Middle English to "water channel, ravine" may have been influenced by Middle English gylle, gille & galle (deep narrow valley, ravine), hence gill for some time being a synonym.   An alternative source from The French has been suggested as goulet (neck of a bottle).  The use is South Asia is more certain, borrowed from Hindi गली (galī) and the Urdu گَلی‎ (galī) with the spelling evolving under the Raj under the influence of English.  It was inherited from Ashokan Prakrit galī and was cognate with the Punjabi ਗਲੀ (galī) / گَلی‎ (galī), the Gujarati ગલી (galī), the Sindhi ڳَليِ‎ / ॻली, the Marathi गल्ली (gallī) and the Bengali গলি (gôli), the Latin callis, the Italian calle and Spanish calle (street, lane or path).  The first reference (in Scottish English) to the knife (the spelling gully or gulley) dates from circa 1575–1585, the origin unknown.  Gully is a noun & verb and gullied & gullying are verbs; the noun plural is gullies.

Historically, a gully was a natural formation of water flows which was usually dry except after periods of heavy rainfall or a sudden input of water from other drainage systems after more remote flooding or the melting of snow or ice.  Over the years the meaning has become less precise and other words are sometimes used to describe what are understood by many as gullies.  The noun ravine (long deep gorge worn by a stream or torrent of water) dates from 1760 and was from the mid seventeenth century French ravin (a gully), from the Old French raviner (to pillage; to sweep down, cascade), and the French ravine (a violent rush of water, a gully worn by a torrent), from the Old French ravine (violent rush of water, waterfall; avalanche; robbery, rapine).  Both the French noun and verb ultimately came from the Latin rapina (act of robbery, plundering (related to rapine and the source of much modern confusion because “rape” was long used in the sense of “pillage” or “kidnapping”)) with sense development influenced by the Latin rapidus (rapid).  Entries for ravine appear in early seventeenth century dictionaries with the meaning “a raging flood” whereas in fourteenth century Middle English, both ravin & ravine meant “booty, plunder, robbery”, this circa 1350-1500 borrowing of the Latin influenced French word.  Dating from 1832, the noun gulch (deep ravine), despite being of recent origin, is a mystery.  It may have been from the obsolete or dialectal verb gulsh (sink in to the soil) or "gush out" (of water), from the early thirteenth century Middle English gulchen (to gush forth; to drink greedily), the most evocative use of which was the mid thirteenth century gulche-cuppe (a greedy drinker).  Despite the vague similarities, etymologists maintain these forms had no etymological connection with gully.  Other words (trench, culvert, crevasse, chasm, notch, chase, watercourse, channel, gutter gorge watercourse etc), even when they have precise meanings in geography or hydrology, are also sometimes used interchangeably with gully.

Japanese manhole covers (マンホールの蓋 (Manhōru no futa)) can be delightful or functional (in a typically thoughtful Japanese manner, some include a locality map with directions) but usually provide little inspiration for those designing wheels.

In the nineteenth century, Modern German picked up Gully from English in the sense of “a road drain, a drainage channel” (synonym: Straßenablauf), the covering of a road drain or gully being Ablaufgitter & Ablaufdeckel.  One adaptation quickly coined was Gullydeckel (manhole cover), the construct being gully + deckel, (an untypically economical construct in German given the usual forms for manhole were Kontrollschacht & Einstiegschacht), an alternative to Kanaldeckel (manhole cover).  Deckel (lid, cap, cover of a container) was an ellipsis of Bierdeckel (beer mat) and also used in humorous slang to mean “headwear, hat” although it was most productive in the formation of compounds with cap in the sense of “an artificial or arbitarily imposed upper limit or ceiling” such as Preisdeckel (price cap), the common synonym being Deckelung (capping).

A German Gullideckel (left), a Mercedes-Benz “Gullideckel” aluminum wheel (centre) and a 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560 SL so equipped.

The alternative spelling was Gullideckel and it was this which was picked up to describe the design of aluminum wheel adopted by Mercedes-Benz in 1982.  The reference is explained by the wheel’s design bearing a similarity to that typically used by German manhole covers although Mercedes-Benz dryly explained their concerns were less artistic or a tribute to Teutonic urban hydrology than a reflection of the imperatives of optimizing the air-flow required for brake cooling and a reduction in drag compared to their earlier, long-serving design.  It was in the 1980s that the greatest improvement in the aerodynamic efficiency of cars was achieved and wheels were a significant, though often little-noticed part of the process.

Top row: Mercedes-Benz C111 at Hockenheimring, 1969 (left).  The C111 series was originally a rolling test bed for the evaluation of Wankel engines ad it was on the C111 that the new wheels (then called “Premier”) were first shown although no production versions (centre) were ever made so wide.  The 6½ inch versions were first used on the 450 SEL 6.9 (right).  Bottom row: A bundt cake tin (left); like the wheels, the tins are made from aluminum but are always cast or pressed, not forged.  A ginger bundt cake (centre) and a lemon blueberry bundt cake with vanilla icing (right).      

The earlier design used by Mercedes-Benz was apparently not inspired by any existing product but the public soon found nicknames.  Introduced in 1969 and soon an option throughout the range except du Grosser (the 600 (W100) 1963-1981) until 1986, the factory initially listed them as the “Premier Wheel” (ie the “top of the range”) but in the public imagination the nicknames prevailed.  First informally dubbed "Baroque" because of what was then considered an ornate design, the name which endured was “Bundt” an allusion to the popular “bundt cakes”, a circular cake with a hole in the centre and there was certainly some resemblance.  Produced by the Otto Fuchs (pronounced fuks) Company of Meinerzhagen (near Cologne), the early versions were all painted silver (though not clear-coated) and available only in a 14 x 6-inch size, 5½ inch versions soon offered to suit the lower powered cars while in the mid-1970s, production began of 6½ inch versions to handle the tyres fitted to the much faster 450 SEL 6.9 (W116) and 450 SLC 5.0.  Demand for the bundt wheel option grew rapidly, forcing Fuchs to add a line of cast wheels in the same design, the casting process able to achieve both higher volumes and a lower unit cost.  The process of forging aluminum requires great heat and immense pressure (Fuchs used as much as 7,000 tons of force) and realigns the granular structure of the material in the direction of the flow, creating a more homogeneous and less porous micro-structure.  Forging renders aluminum as strong as steel for less weight and provides a notably higher resistance to fatigue and corrosion but the process is expensive.  Fuchs also manufactured small runs of a 15 x 7-inch version and today these are much sought after.  Such is the appeal of the style, specialists in the US have fabricated versions in both a 16 & 17-inch format although, being very expensive, they remain rare.  Today, factories often offer a variety of designs of aluminum wheels with some styles available only briefly but for over fifteen years, the bundt was the only one offered.

Fuchs wheels on Porsche 911s in matt metal, (left), polished (centre) & with painted highlights.  The Porsche pedants chide any restorer who finishes the wheels in any manner than that originally done at the factory.  

A half a decade earlier, Mercedes-Benz neighbors in Stuttgart had also designed an aluminum wheel.  Porsche had planned a 1965 release for its new 911 S, at that time the fastest, sportiest version of the 911 which had been on sale since 1963 and the distinctive five-spoke shape would first be sold in 1966 and remain on the option list until 1989, the popularity so enduring it’s since been reprised more than once.  Distinctive though it was, there were really only two requirements for the new wheel: It needed to be durable and light, strong enough to endure the stresses the higher speed of the 911 S and delivering a reduction in un-sprung mass weight significant enough to enhance handling.  The design target was an aluminum wheel which weighted 3 kg (6½ lb) less than steel wheel of the same dimensions.

Porsche had also used the Otto Fuchs Company, impressed by the foundry having developed a new manufacturing process which, instead of using a cast rim, manufactured it in one piece from an alloy made of 97% aluminum with the remainder composed mostly of magnesium, silicon, manganese & titanium, the technique still used by the company today.  The five-leaf clover design was based on nothing in particular and was done in-house by Porsche, the only change from the original prototype apparently a smoothing of the scalloped shape which first adorned the spokes.  The design proved adaptable, the original 15 x 4½-inch wide wheels growing eventually to eight inches when fitted to the rear of the 911 Turbo (930), the additional rubber required to tame the behavior of a machine which some labeled the “widow maker”.  Later designs have offered various specific improvements but none has matched the charm of the original and Fuchs have continued its manufacture for later model 911s, some in larger diameters to accommodate advances in suspension geometry and tyres.

Gas-burners: Lindsay Lohan using gas-burner as improvised cigarette lighter, Terry Richardson (b 1965) photo-shoot, 2012 (left), two of Mahle GmbH’s magnesium wheels (centre) and a 1971 Porsche 911 T so equipped.

The five spoke wheel is a matter of particular interest to the originality police in the Porsche collector community and great attention is paid to date-stamping and paint, it being very important that where appropriate the wheels variously should either be unpainted or painted in a certain way in a certain color.  Deviations from what the factory did are not tolerated.  Although five-leaf clover design never picked-up an association with other circular shapes like manhole covers or cakes, there was another Porsche wheel which did.  Produced by Mahle GmbH and quickly dubbed “gas-burners”, they were available on the 911, 912 & 914-6 between 1970-1972 and although generally not thought as attractive as Fuchs’ creations, the “gas-burners” have a cult following based on pure functionality: Pressure cast in magnesium and available only in a 15 x 5½-inch format, at 4.3 kg (9½ lb) they’re said to be the lightest 15-inch wheel ever made, more svelte even than the 15 x 6-inch units Michelin rendered in glass fibre & resin for the Citroën SM (1970-1975).

Aunger magazine advertisement, 1974.  Not all wheels use an existing circular product as a model.  A style popular in the 1970s, it was known colloquially as the “jellybean”, “slotted” or “beanhole”.

Gullwing & Gull-wing

Gullwing & Gull-wing (pronounced guhl-wing)

(1) In aviation, an airplane wing that slants briefly upward from the fuselage and then extends horizontally outward (ie a short upward-sloping inner section and a longer horizontal outer section).

(2) Of doors, a door hinged at the top and opening upward (applied usually to cars but can be used in aviation, aerospace and architecture).

(3) Anything having or resembling (extended and partially extended) wings of a gull (and many other birds).

(4) In electronic hardware, a type of board connector for a small outline integrated circuit (SOIC).

(5) In historic admiralty jargon, a synonym of goose wing (a sail position).

Gull is from the Middle English gulle, from the Brythonic, from the Proto-Celtic wēlannā (seagull) and was cognate with the Cornish guilan, the Welsh gwylan, the Breton gouelan and the Old Irish faílenn.  The noun Gull was used (in a cook-book!) to describe the shore bird in the 1400s, probably from the Brythonic Celtic; it was related to the Welsh gwylan (gull), the Cornish guilan, the Breton goelann; all from Old Celtic voilenno-.  Gull replaced the Old English mæw.

The verb form meaning “to dupe, cheat, mislead by deception" dates from the 1540s, an adaptation by analogy from the earlier (1520) meaning "to swallow", ultimately from the sense of "throat, gullet" from the early 1400s.  The meaning was the idea of someone so gullible to “swallow whatever they’re told”.  As a cant term for "dupe, sucker, credulous person", it’s noted from the 1590s and is of uncertain origin but may be from the verb meaning "to dupe or cheat".  Another possibility is a link to the late fourteenth century Middle English gull & goll (newly hatched bird" which may have been influenced by the Old Norse golr (yellow), the link being the hue of the bird’s down.

Wing was from the late twelfth century Middle English winge & wenge (forelimb fitted for flight of a bird or bat), applied also to the part of certain insects which resembled a wing in form or function, from the Old Norse vængr (wing of a bird, aisle etc) from the Proto-Germanic wēinga & wēingan-.  It was cognate with the Danish vinge (“wing”), the Icelandic vængur (wing), the West Frisian wjuk (wing) and the Swedish vinge (“wing”), of unknown origin but possibly from the Proto-Germanic we-ingjaz ( a suffixed form of the primitive Indo-European root we- (blow), source of the Old English wawan (to blow).  It replaced the native Middle English fither, from the Old English fiþre & feðra (plural (and related to the modern feather)) from the Proto-Germanic fiþriją, which merged with fether, from the Old English feþer, from the Proto-Germanic feþrō).  The meaning "either of two divisions of a political party, army etc dates from circa 1400; the use in the architectures was first recorded in 1790 and applied figuratively almost immediately.  The slang sense of earn (one's) wings is 1940s, from the wing-shaped badges awarded to air cadets on graduation. To be under (someone's) wing "protected by (someone)" is recorded from the early thirteenth century; the phrase “on a wing and a prayer” is title of a 1943 song about landing a damaged aircraft.

A Gull in flight (left), inverted gull-wing on 1944 Voight Corsair (centre) & gull-wing on 1971 Piaggio P.136 (Royal Gull) (right).

In aviation, the design actually pre-dates powered flight (1903) by half a millennium, appearing in the speculative drawings of flying machines by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and others, an inevitable consequence of being influenced by the flapping wings of birds.  There were experiments, circa 1911, to apply the gull-wing principle to some of the early monoplanes in a quest to combine greater surface area with enhanced strength but it wasn’t until the 1920s it began widely to be used, firstly in gliders for some aerodynamic advantage and later, powered-aircraft.  In powered aircraft, the gull-wing offered little aerodynamically but had structural advantages in that it allowed designers more easily to ensure (1) increasingly larger propellers would have sufficient clearance, (2) undercarriage length could be reduced (and consequently strengthened) and (3) wing-spans could slightly be reduced, a thing of great significance when operations began on aircraft carriers, the gull-wing being especially suited to the folding-wing model.  Depending on the advantage(s) sought, designers used either a classic gull-wing or the inverted gull-wing.  The correct form is for all purposes except when applied to the the (1954-1957) Mercedes-Benz 300 SL coupé is the hyphenated gull-wing; only the 1950s Mercedes-Benz are called Gullwings.

1945 Jamin-Bouffort JB.

Cars with gull-wing doors had been built before Mercedes-Benz started making them at scale and the principle was known in both aviation and marine architecture.  One was the 1945 Jamin-Bouffort JB, the creation of French aeronautical engineer Victor-Albert Bouffort (1912-1995) who had a long history of clever, practical (and sometimes unappreciated) designs.  The Jamin-Bouffort JB was a relatively small three-wheeler built using some of the techniques of construction used in light aircraft, the gull-wing doors the most obvious novelty.  Anticipating the 1950s boom in micro-cars, there was potential but with European industry recovering from the war, most effort was directed to resuming production of pre-war vehicles using surviving tooling and there was little interest in pursuing anything which required development time.  Monsieur Bouffort would go on to design other concepts ahead of their time, some of his ideas adopted by others decades after his prototypes appeared.

Bugatti Type 64 with gull-wing body fabricated using original conceptual sketches on 1939 Type 64 chassis.

In 1939, Jean Bugatti drew up plans for the Type 64, a vehicle with gull-wing doors, his sketches an example of the great interest being shown by European manufacturers in aerodynamics, then called usually streamlining.  Although two Type 64s were completed in 1939, neither used the gull-wing doors and it would be another eighty-odd years before Bugatti’s design was realised when collector & president of the American Bugatti Club, Peter Mullin (b 1941), arranged the fabrication of the coachwork, based on the original drawings.  Built in exactly the same way craftsmen would have accomplished the task in 1939, the body was mounted on the surviving Type 64 chassis (64002), united for the first time with what Jean Bugatti called papillon (butterfly) doors which all (except the French) now call gull-wings.

Mercedes-Benz and the gull-wing.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL prototype (W194).

By 1951, although the Wirtschaftswunder (the post-war German “economic miracle”) still lay ahead, structural changes (the most important being the retreat by the occupying forces in the western zones from the punitive model initially adopted and the subsequent creation in 1948 of the stable deutschmark), had already generated an economy of unexpected strength and Mercedes-Benz was ready to make a serious return to the circuits.  Because the rules then governing Formula One didn’t suit what it was at the time practical to achieve, the first foray was into sports car racing, the target the ambitious goal of winning the Le Mans 24 hour race, despite a tight budget which precluded the development of new engines or transmissions and dictated the use of as much already-in-production as possible.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL prototype (W194).

It was the use of a production car engine designed not for ultimate power but smoothness, reliability and a wide torque band which ultimately dictated the use of the gull-wing doors.  The engine was the 3.0 litre (183 cubic inch) M186 straight-six used in the big 300 limousines and its two door derivatives, of advanced design by the standards of the time but also big, tall and heavy, attributes not helpful to race-car designers who prefer components which are compact, light and able to be mounted low in a frame.  A new engine not being possible, the factory instead created a variation, the M194, which used the triple-carburetor induction of the 300S coupés in an improved cylinder head, the innovation being the iron-block now lying at a 50^o angle, thereby solving the problem of height by allowing it to be installed while canted to the side, permitting a lower bonnet line.  Using the existing gearbox, it was still a heavy engine-transmission combination, especially in relation to its modest power-output and such was the interest in lightness that, initially, the conventional wet-sump was retained so the additional weight of the more desirable dry-sump plumbing wouldn’t be added.  It was only later in the development-cycle that dry-sump lubrication was added.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL space-frame (W194).

The calculations made suggested that with the power available, the W194 would be competitive only if lightness and aerodynamics were optimized.  Although the relationship between low-drag and down-force were still not well-understood, despite the scientific brain-drain to the US and USSR (forced and otherwise) in the aftermath of the war, the Germans still had a considerable knowledge-base in aerodynamics and this was utilized to design a small, slippery shape into which the now slanted straight-six would be slotted.  There being neither the time nor the money to build the car as a monocoque, the engineers knew the frame had to be light.  A conventional chassis was out of the question because of the weight and they knew from the pre-war experience of the SSKL how expensive and difficult it was to reduce mass while retaining strength.  The solution was a space-frame, made from tubular aluminum it was light, weighing only between 50-70 kg (110-155 lb) in it’s various incarnations yet impressively stiff and the design offered the team to opportunity to use either closed or open bodies as race regulations required.

However, as with many forms of extreme engineering, there were compromises, the most obvious of which being that the strength and torsional rigidity was in part achieved by mounting the side tubes so high that the use of conventionally opening doors was precluded.  In a race car, that was of no concern and access to the cockpit in the early W194s was granted by what were essentially top-hinged windows which meant ingress and egress was not elegant and barely even possible for those of a certain girth but again, this was though hardly to matter in a race car.  In this form, the first prototypes were built, without even the truck-like access step low on the flanks which had been in the original plans.

1952 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL production coupé (W194).

Actually, it turned out having gull-wing windows instead of gull-wing doors did matter.  Although the rules of motorsport’s pettifogging regulatory body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (the FIA; the International Automobile Federation) were silent on the types and direction of opening doors and, in the pre-war era they had tolerated some essentially fake doors, their scrutineers still raised objections during inspection for the 1952 Mille Miglia.  The inspectors were forced to relent when unable to point to any rule actually being broken but it was clear they’d be out for revenge and the factory modified the frame to permit doors extending down the flanks, thereby assuming the final shape which would come to define the gull-wing door.  Relocating some of the aluminum tubing to preserve strength added a few kilograms but forestalled any retrospective FIA nit-picking.  To this day, the FIA's legions of bureaucrats seem not to realise why they’ve for so long been regarded as impediments to competition and innovation.

Le Mans, 1952.

First tested on the Nürburgring and Hockenheimring in late 1951, the W194, now dubbed 300 SL for promotional purposes, was in March 1952 presented to the press on the Stuttgart to Heilbronn autobahn.  In those happy days, there was nothing strange about demonstrating race cars on public highways.  The SL stood for Super Leicht (super light), reflecting the priority the engineers had pursued.  For decades, it was said by many, even normally reliable sources, that it stood for sports Sports Leicht (sports light), and the history of the Mercedes-Benz alphabet soup was such that it could have been either way (the SSKL of 1931 was the (Super Sports Kurz (short) Leicht (light)) and from the 1950s on even the factory 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.  Ten W194s were built for the 1952 season and success was immediate, second in the Mille Miglia; a trademark 1-2-3 result in the annual sports car race in Bern and, the crowning achievement, a 1-2 finish in the twenty-four hour classic at Le Mans.

Neither usually the most powerful nor the fastest car in the races it contested, the 300 SL nevertheless so often prevailed because of a combination of virtues.  Despite the heavy drive-train, it was light enough not to impose undue stress on tyres, brakes or mechanical components, the limousine engine was tough and durable and the outstanding aerodynamics returned surprising good fuel economy; in endurance racing, reliability and economy compensate for a lot of absent horsepower.

Nürburgring, 1952.

After the triumph at Le Mans, the SL won at the Eifelrennen and was then entered into in a race on the Nürburgring and to shed some weight, engineers converted three of the coupés to roadsters, emulating the body of one of the original ten which had been open-topped from the start.  To avoid any unpleasantness with the FIA, the section of the doors extending into the side of the car was retained and a smaller windscreen was installed to improve aerodynamics and afford the driver some protection from the weather and bugs unfortunate enough to be caught in the path.  The roofectomy reduced weight by about 100 kg (220 lb) which presumably helped, the four finishing in the first four places.

Winning W194, 1952 Carrera Panamericana Mexico, the metal struts were an ad-hoc addition after a bird strike.

One final adventure for the year yielded a perhaps unexpected success.  In November 1952, the factory entered two coupés and two roadsters in the third Carrera Panamericana Mexico, a race of 3100 kilometres (1925 miles) over five days and eight stages, their engines now bored out to 3.1 litres (189 cubic inches) increasing power from 175 bhp (130kw) to 180 (135).  The cars finished 1-2-3 although the third was disqualified for a rule violation and the winning car endured the intrusion at speed of a vulture through the windscreen.  Unlike the 300 SL, the unlucky bird didn’t survive.  There was however one final outing for the W194.  In 1955 it won the Rally Stella Alpina, the last time the event would be run in competitive form, one of many cancelled in the wake of the disaster at Le Mans that year in which 84 died and almost two-hundred injured.  Coincidently, that accident involved the W194’s successor, the 300 SLR.

1953 300 SL Prototype.

The 300 SL was re-engineered for the 1953 season, the bodywork now made from magnesium, lighter even than aluminum, the design of which had seen the car return to the wind-tunnel after which it gained a revised front section which not only reduced drag but also improved cooling by optimizing airflow to the radiator and engine compartment.  Power rose too.  Again drawing from wartime experience with the DB60x V12 aero-engine used in many German warplanes, direct fuel-injection was introduced which boosted output from 180 bhp (135 kw) to 215 bhp (158 kW).  Nor were the underpinnings neglected, the rear suspension design improved (somewhat) with the addition of the low-pivot single-joint swing axle (which would later appear on some production 300 SLs) while the transmission was flanged on the rear axle, not quite a transaxle but much improving the weight distribution.  The wheelbase was shortened by 100 millimetres (4 inches) and 16-inch wheels were adopted.  Even disk brakes were considered but the factory judged them years from being ready and it wouldn’t be until 1961 that they appeared on a Mercedes-Benz, more than half a decade after others had proved the technology on road and track.  There was however one exception to that, a disc brake had been installed between propeller shaft and differential on the high-speed truck built in 1954 to carry the Grand Prix cars between the factory and circuits in Europe.

The revised 300 SL however was never raced, the factory’s attention now turning to the Formula One campaign which, with the W196, would so successfully be conducted in 1954-1955, an off-shoot of which would be the W194’s replacement, the W196S sports car which would be based on the Grand Prix machine and dubbed, a bit opportunistically, the 300 SLR (Sport Leicht Rennen (Sport Light-Racing)).  Such was the impression made by the futuristic W194 that it would inspire production of the road-going 300 SL Gullwing (W198), 1400 of which were built during 1954-1957 (including 29 with aluminium bodies).

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (W194) (1954-1957).

Although the public found them glamorous, the engineers at Mercedes-Benz had never been enamoured by the 300 SL’s gull-wing doors, regarding them a necessary compromise imposed by the high side-structure of the space-frame which supported the body.  Never intended for use on road-cars, it was the guarantee of the US importer of Mercedes-Benz to underwrite the sale of a thousand gull-wing coupés that saw the 300 SL Gullwing enter production in 1954.  The sales predictions proved accurate and of the 1400 built, some eighty percent were delivered to North American buyers.  The W198 300SL was the model which became entrenched in the public imagination as “the Gullwing” and it’s the only instance where the word doesn’t need to be hyphenated.  Glamorous those doors may have been, they did impose compromises.  The side windows didn’t roll down, ventilation was marginal and air-conditioning didn’t exist; in a hot climate, one really had to want to drive a Gullwing.  There was also the safety issue, some drivers taking the precaution of carrying a hammer in case, in a roll-over, the inability to open the doors made the windscreen the only means of escape and roll-overs were perhaps more likely in a Gullwing than many other machines, the behavior of the swing axles sometimes inducing unwanted behavior in what was one of the fastest cars on the road although, in fairness, on the tyres available in the 1950s that was less of an issue than it would become on later, stickier rubber.

Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR (W196S), Stirling Moss & Denis Jenkinson, Mille Miglia, Italy, 1955.

The 300 SLR (W196S) was a sports car, nine of which were built to contest the 1955 World Sportscar Championship.  Essentially the W196 Formula One car with the straight-eight engine enlarged from 2.5 to 3.0 litres (152 to 183 cubic inches), the roadster is most famous for the run in the 1955 Mille Miglia in Italy which was won over a distance of 992 miles (1597 km) with an average speed of almost 100 mph (160 km/h); nothing like that has since been achieved.  There's infamy too attached to the 300 SLR; one being involved in the catastrophic crash and fire at Le Mans in 1955.

1955 300 SLR (W196S “Uhlenhaut” coupé). 

Two of the 300 SLRs were built with coupé bodies, complete with gull-wing doors.  Intended to be used in the 1955 Carrera Panamericana Mexico, they were rendered instantly redundant when both race and the Mercedes-Benz racing programme was cancelled after the Le Mans disaster.  The head of the programme, Rudolf Uhlenhaut (1906-1989), added an external muffler to one of the coupés, registered it for road use (such things were once possible when the planet was a happier place) and used it for a while as his company car.  It was then the fastest road-car in the world, an English journalist recording a top speed of 183 mph (295 km/h) on a quiet stretch of autobahn but Herr Uhlenhaut paid a price for the only partially effective muffler, needing hearing aids later in life.  Two were built (rot (red) & blau (blue), the names based on their interior trim) and for decades they remained either in the factory museum or making an occasional ceremonial appearance at race meetings.  However, in a surprise announcement, in June 2022 it was revealed rot had been sold in a private auction in Stuttgart for a world-record US$142 million, the most expensive car ever sold.  The buyer's identity was not released but it's believed rot is destined for a collection in the Middle East.  It's rumoured also the same buyer has offered US$100 million should an authentic 1929 Mercedes-Benz SSKL ever be uncovered.  

1970 Mercedes-Benz C-111 (1968-1970 (Wankel versions)).

Although the C-111 would have a second career in the late 1970s in a series of 5-cylinder diesel and V8 petrol engined cars used to set long-distance endurance records, its best remembered in its original incarnation as the lurid-colored (safety-orange according to the factory) three and four-rotor Wankel-engined gullwing coupés, sixteen of which were built.  The original was a pure test-bed for the Wankel engine in which so many manufacturers once had so much hope.  The first built looked like a failed high-school project but the second and third versions were both finished to production-car standards with typically high-quality German workmanship.  Although from the school of functional brutalism rather than the lovely things they might have been had styling been out-sourced to the Italians, the gull-winged wedges attracted much attention and soon cheques were enclosed in letters mailed to Stuttgart asking for one.  The cheques were returned, apparently there had never been plans for production even had the Wankel experiment proved a success.  The C-111 was fast, the four-rotor version said to reach 300 km/h (188 mph), faster than any production vehicle then available.

1991 Mercedes-Benz C112.

The C112 was an experimental mid-engined concept car built in 1991.  Designed to be essentially a road-going version of the Sauber-built C11 Group C prototype race car developed for the 1990 World Sports-Prototype Championship, it was powered by the 6.0 litre (366 cubic-inch) M120 V12 used in the R129 SL and C140/W140 S-Class variously between 1991-2001.  The C112 does appear to have been what the factory always claimed it was: purely a test-bed for technologies such as the electronically-controlled spring & damper units (which would later be included on some models as ABC (active body control)), traction control, rear wheel steering, tyre-pressure monitoring and distance-sensing radar.  As an indication it wasn't any sort of prototype intended for production, it offered no luggage space but, like the C111 twenty years earlier, it’s said hundreds of orders were received.  It was 1991 however and with the world in the depths of a severe recession, not even that would have been enough for a flirtation with thoughts of a production model.  After the C112, thoughts of a gull-wing were put on ice for another two decades, the SLR-McLaren (2003-2009) using what were technically “butterfly” door, hinged from the A-pillars.

2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS-AMG (2101-2014).

The factory’s most recent outing of the gull-wing door, the SLS, which used the naturally aspirated 6.2 litre (379 cubic inch) M159 DOHC V8, was produced between (2010-2014), a roadster version also available.  To allay any doubt, it was announced at the time of release that SLS stands for Super Leicht Sport (Super Light Sport) although such things are relative, the SLS a hefty 1600-odd kg (3,500 lb) although, in fairness, the original Gullwing wasn’t that much lighter and the SLS does pack a lot more gear, including windows which can be opened and air-conditioning.  In the way of modern marketing, many special versions were made available during the SLS’s relatively short life, even an all-wheel-drive electric version with a motor for each wheel.  Such is the lure of the gull-wing motif for Mercedes-Benz, it’s unlikely the SLS will be the last and a high-priced revival is expected to become a feature of the marketing cycle every couple of decades but we're unlikely to see any more V8s or V12s unless perhaps as a swan-song, AMG indicating recently they expect their 4.0 litre (244 cubic inch) V8 to remain in production for another ten years, Greta Thunberg (b 2003) and her henchmen the humorless EU bureaucrats permitting.

Lindsay Lohan at the Nicholas Kirkwood catwalk show, London Fashion Week 2015 with a prop vehicle (one of the gull-wing DMC DeLoreans modified closely to resemble the one used in the popular film Back to the Future (1985)).

Tesla Model X with falcon-wing doors.

Such was the allure of the 300 SL’s gull-wing doors that in the shadow they’ve cast for seventy-odd years, literally dozens of cars have appeared with the features, some of questionable aesthetic quality, some well-executed and while most were one-offs or produced only in small runs, there’s been the occasional (usually brief) success and of late some Teslas have been so equipped and with the novelty of them being the back doors, the front units conventionally hinged.  Tesla calls them “falcon wings” because the design was influenced by the bird.  However, the biomimicry was (for obvious reasons) not an attempt to gain the aerodynamic advantages of the falcon’s wing shape which affords exceptional maneuverability in flight but simply an adoption of the specific bone structure.  Unlike the fixed structure of the classic gull-wing door, the Tesla’s falcon-wing is fitted with an additional central joint which permits them to be opened in cramped spaces, aiding passenger ingress and egress.  Some Tesla engineers have however admitted the attraction of them as way to generate publicity and (hopefully) attract sales may have been considered during the design process.

Bricklin SV-1 (1974-1975, left) and DMC DeLorean (1981-1983, right).

Two of the best known of the doomed gull-wing cars were the Bricklin SV1 and the DeLorean, both the creations of individuals with interesting histories.  Malcolm Bricklin’s (b 1939) first flirtation with the automotive business was his introduction into the US market of the Subarus, built by the Japanese conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries.  Having successfully imported the company’s scooters for some years, the model Mr Bricklin in 1968 chose was the 360, a tiny, egg-shaped device which had been sold in Japan for a decade, the rationale underlying his selection being it was so small and light it was exempt from just about any regulations.  Although really unsuited to US motoring conditions it was (at US$1300) several hundred dollars cheaper than a Volkswagen Beetle and had a fuel consumption around a third that delivered by the even the more economical US-built cars so it found a niche and some ten-thousand were sold before that gap in the market was saturated.  Ever imaginative, Mr Bricklin then took his hundreds of unsold 360s and re-purposed them essentially as large dodgem-cars, renting unused shopping-mall car-parks as ad-hoc race tracks and offering “laps” for as little as $US1.00.  He advertised “no speed limits” to attract the youth market but given the little machines took a reported 56 seconds for the 0-60 mph (0-100 km/h) run, reaching the legal limit in a car-park would have been a challenge.  Mr Bricklin achieved further success with Subaru’s more conventional (in a front wheel drive (FWD) context) 1000 and the corporation would later buy out his US interests for was thought to be a most lucrative transaction for both parties.

1969 Subaru 360 Deluxe.

His eponymous gull-winged creation was the SV-1 which, although nominally positioned as a “sports car” was marketed also as a “safety-vehicle” (hence the SV).  It certainly contained all of the safety features of the time and in that vein was offered mostly in lurid “high visibility” colors although the prototypes for an up-market “Chairman” version were displayed in more restrained black or white.  It was ahead of its time in one way, being fitted with neither ash-trays nor cigarette lighters, Mr Bricklin not approving of smoking and regarding the distractions of lighting-up while at the wheel a safety hazard.  Whether in stable conditions the car could have succeeded is speculative but the timing was extraordinarily unlucky.  The V8-powered car arrived on the market in 1974 shortly after the first oil shock saw a spike in the price of gasoline and in the midst of the recession and inflation which followed in the wake of that.  Between its introduction and demise, the costs of the SV1 more than doubled and there were disruptions to the production process because supply problems (or unpaid bills depending on who was asked) meant the AMC engine had to be replaced with a Ford power-plant.  By the time production ended, some 3000 had been built, but, not discouraged, Mr Bricklin would go on to import Fiat sports cars and the infamous Yugo before being involved with a variety of co-ventures with Chinese partners.

1970 Pontiac GTO.

John DeLorean (1925–2005) was a genuinely gifted engineer who emerged as one of the charismatic characters responsible for some of the memorable machines General Motors (GM) produced during its golden age of the 1950s & 1960s.  Under Mr DeLorean’s leadership, Pontiac in 1964 released the GTO which is considered (though contested by some) the first “muscle car” and the one responsible for the whole genre which would flourish for a crazy half-dozen years and in 1969 the Grand Prix which defined a whole market segment.  Apparently, the Grand Prix, produced at a low cost and sold at a high price was one of the most profitable lines of the era.  Given this, Mr DeLorean expected a smooth path to the top of GM but for a variety of reasons there were internal tensions and in 1973 he resigned to pursue his dream of making his own car.  It took years however to reach fruition because the 1970s were troubled times and like the Bricklin SV1, the DeLorean Motor Company’s (DMC) gull-winged DeLorean was released into a world less welcoming then had been anticipated.  By 1981, the world was again in recession and the complicated web of financing arrangements and agreements with the UK government to subsidize productions could have worked only if the design was good, demand was strong and the product was well-built, none of which was true.

1969 Pontiac Grand Prix 428 SJ.

As the inventory of unsold cars grew, so did the debt and desperate for cash, Mr DeLorean was persuaded (apparently without great difficulty) to become involved in the cocaine trafficking business which certainly offered fast money but his co-conspirator turned out to be an FBI informant who was a career criminal seeking a reduced sentence (on a unrelated matter) by providing the bureau with “a big scalp”.  At trial in 1984, Mr DeLorean was acquitted on all charges under the rule of "entrapment" but by then DMC was long bankrupt.  In the years since, the car has found a cult following, something due more to its part in the Back to the Future films than any dynamic qualities it possessed.  It was competent as a road car despite the rear-engine configuration and the use of an uninspiring power-plant but, apart from the stainless-steel bodywork and of course the doors, it had little to commend it although over the years there have been a number of (ultimately aborted) revivals and plans remain afoot for an electric gull-wing machine using the name to be released in 2024 or 2025.