Wednesday, July 14, 2010

A Few More from the Exner/Engel Period

Mythical 1962 Fury Commando Sport two-door hardtop. This was a base two-door post coupe, and I chopped it into this svelte pillarless coupe. Though there was a hardtop in the lineup, it looked nothing like this. I based the greenhouse shape of my Commando Sport on photos I've seen of clay models in Exner's studios of the time (thank you Collectible Automobile!) Apparently they were 'watered-down' quite a bit on the way to production, so I've just 'restored' the dramatic clay appearance... Instead of being considered one of his 'oddities' I think it could very easily have been one of his best. Just look at the way his fender bulges work perfectly when the rest of the car is purely styled. I think this could have been a cut-rate Thunderbird type car for Plymouth. I think a true test is that it looks impossibly elegant even with blackwall tires and steelie wheels/hubcaps! "Commando Sport" refers to the name of the top engine in this Fury.

A slightly resto-modded '62 Dodge Dart sedan. This is something like what Chip Foose could do with a simple Exner-bodied Dodge, one of his last 'pure' designs. I think 18 inch whitewalls with 'steelies' and dogdish hubcaps might be a new look! Ex's bodyside sculpting always competed with the extra chrome doodads that Marketing insisted on. Once you remove that stuff, Ex's pure forms are revealed, and they make total sense. I love the slight rise at the cowl. It took Engel a few years to get the money to flatten out this cowl design, a look he hated. The slight rise of the cowl on these Exner cars was meant to evoke the lines of classic speedboats and I think is a very classy touch.

Twelve years before the disco-era Cordoba was introduced, 1963, Chrysler could have made a long-hood, short-deck coupe to combat the Grand Prix, Thunderbird and Riviera in the burgeoning personal luxury coupe market. This was a New Yorker coupe to begin with, and I changed the proportions and simplifed the chrome trim a bit, in a nod to the simpler bodyside fad begun with the '62 Grand Prix. I think this series of large Chryslers is very underrated. They had a two-year-only body, with traces of the fuselage styling that would come in '69. They also had traces of the stillborn S series of large cars, the last styled by Exner as Engel was taking over. By adding the more classic-era proportions of a longer hood, shorter deck and slightly reworked formal C pillar, I think Ex's lines work even better. 

7 comments:

  1. Ah, Casey,

    Two of my favorites -- the 62 Plymouth and 63 Chrylser. Oddly enough, Chrysler built a 2-door New Yorker for the Canadian market but not for the U.S.! I agree that these Chryslers are underrated and pretty much ignored. When did you last see one? I was 14 when they came out and the family was shopping for a new car (our first NEW one since a 39 Pontiac) and at a Chrysler-Plymouth dealer we were looking at a leftover 62 Savoy sedan but there was a dark green 62 Newport sedan on the showroom floor that I fell in love with. We wound up buying a 63 Falcon two-door from the famous Ed Mullane or Mullane Ford (the brother of a neighbor). I would have preferred either the 62 Plymouth or the dark green Newport!

    Paul, New York City

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  2. hey—i bought a '63 Falcon coupe in 1:18 scale last fall, a burgundy pillarless Sprint. It has the 6 cylinder engine though, when most Sprints came with V8 I think. I love scale models of regular family cars like that. i'll post it soon.

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  3. CAsey,

    Of course in my story about the dark green Newport I meant to say 63 not 62 -- although a dark green 62 Newport sedan wouldn't be bad either (I don't think Chrysler had dark green in 62, however).

    Our 63 Falcon was not, unfortunately, a Sprint which, I believe, came only with the 260 cubic inch, 164 horsepower V8. I think that was the point of the Sprint, although you could get the V8 in any Falcon after January 63. Our Falcon was the stripper 2-door sedan with radio and heater as the only options. It was a metallic gold called Champagne, with a matching interior. It even had a manual choke. However, the next year my brother bought a 64 Falcon convertible with the 260 V8 and the 4-speed manual. He got it the day before JFK was assasinated. It was a terrific car and when he was drafted I got to drive it to high school. As cool as it was, it did little to increase my personal cool factor!

    Paul, New York City

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  4. TAKING THE DAY OFF? GOOD FOR YOU. GO LOOK AT MARES PICTURES. VERY PRETTY. SHE HAD A GOOD TEACHER. LOL

    GRANNY

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  5. oddly enough I read the first 63, and didn't notice the second 62. lol. i was just about to post my scale model Falcon for you. it has the 170 cid straight 6, which has a decal on it saying "Special" on it. 170 was the smaller of the sixes thought, right? i know in '70 it was as my mother's Maverick came with a 'big' 200 cid 6 as opposed to the standard 170.

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  6. HI Granny!
    Didn't take the whole day off. It just took the pot of coffee a bit longer to get me going today!

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  7. Your artwork is beautiful. You have a great sense of what cars were supposed to be, "rolling works of art". But, alas, they're like the girl who was never going to be yours. In much the same way, I view the cars of collectible Automobile's "Car Spotter": cars that were once beautiful, and could be still, but in many cases are languishing, rotting into the hillside.(sigh) Keep up the good work. Better yet, go and to Detroit and reignite the flames of passion. pradercomet65@gmail.com

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