Road & Track, Fifties Style

September, 1954—From the Contents page cover blurb: With these heady ingredients—a German Porsche Super, a Swedish Hasselblad camera, and a bright California wall—Photographer Rolofson has created a masterful "piece-de-resistance" for our September cover.

November, 1956—From the Contents page cover blurb: Through the bright flowered parks of Turin, home of Italy's great "carozzerias," drive some of the world's most advanced automobiles. Pictured on our November cover is Pinin Farina's "Super-Flow" Alfa Romeo (page 31) with transparent front fenders of plastic.

June, 1958—From the Contents page cover blurb: The French Citroen ID-19 is posed in a Riviera-like setting in California's Pacific Palisades. Adding her charms to the scene is lovely Mme. Colette Garnier, also of Paris. The Ektachrome cover is by Raph Poole.

M Y   C O L L E C T I O N — Perusing a few cartons of old car magazines I've had packed away, I found several years of Road & Track published in the 1950s. Scanned for your viewing pleasure, lol, you'll find issues posted here from 1954, '56 and '58. The covers are so elegantly stark compared with today's over-designed travesties, it's really an eye opener. 

I've designed magazines in the past, fashion magazines for Fairchild Publications in NYC, yachting publications for Embassy publications, and books of all sorts for GPP, Lyons and Falcon, so I feel I'm qualified to call the font-heavy, graphics-heavy, photoshop-filter-heavy covers of today a total mess. They are mostly a tribute to poorly understood software and a need to "one-up" the recent graphics grad sitting next to you, rather than any sort of aesthetic understanding of the subject matter. No matter what publication I worked for in my almost 30 year career, I almost always found that the majority of people in the art department were always working towards the next job, never really understanding their current publication and it's requirements. 

The back pages are just as interesting to me as the front covers. Jaguar frequently bought the back cover of R&T and you'll find two of their full page ads here, a full color studio shot, complete with haute couture and a live feline, and a black-and-white exterior shot using examples of the "typical" Jaguar owner; a handsome airline pilot, a doctor, and various stereotypical well-to-do people, with a chauffeur bringing up the rear. You'll also see an illustrated two-color ad for the then-new Triumph TR-2, an example of an almost simplistically enlarged newspaper ad for the venerable British marque.

For a bit more information on the beyond-fabulous Alfa "Super-Flow" click here. It doesn't seem to have survived to the present day, but there were others in the series that did.

British Car Show Today on Our Town Green

Part 1: Jaguar

There was a British car show on our town green today. I was surprised at the number of cars there, at least 35. Most were in concours condition, or as close to concours as drivers get, I didn't see any trailers there. The Best-in-Show was the Wedgewood Blue XK120 Roadster, above.

The flawless interior and the classic DOHC inline 6 engine of this XK120. For more information about this famed and long-lived powerplant, click here.

An equally beautiful and desirable XK150 Coupe. I have Road & Track magazines from the 1950s and early 1960s, and Jaguar's full-page ads featured cars just like this, complete with wide whites. Elegant beyond belief, if you ask me! Grrrrrrr!

One of my personal favorites, the XJ12C, a mid '70s model, complete with period vinyl roof and pillarless construction. This car's silver metallic paint, black roof and red leather interior is just the way I'd like mine. The powerful 5.3 liter 12 cylinder engine would be icing on the cake!

Late '50s Jaguar Mark 1, in 3.4 Liter guise I believe. For more information, click here. These were the smaller of the two Jag saloons during that period, and eventually was developed into the Mark 2 of the early-mid sixties, one of the best sports saloons of the time.

"The greatest crumpet catcher of all time." 

—Henry N. Manny III, late, great auto journalist.

"The dumb blonde of sports cars." 

—Phil Hill, late, great race driver and author.

What else can be said about the Jaguar XK-E, or E Type, as it was also known that hasn't been written in a million magazine and newspaper articles? Whether it was an early 3.8 with glass covered headlights and recalcitrant Moss gearbox, or a late V12 with its awkward extended wheelbase, this car IS Jaguar pure and simple, the car that made Jaguar a household name throughout the world.

The Future is Here

The local Jaguar dealer brought three brand new models, the XK Coupe, the XF sport sedan, and the drop-dead gorgeous XJ sedan, in black above. This car has had its share of criticism since it was introduced last year, for its avant-garde C pillar treatment and its completely futuristic and nontraditional interior, but I'm here to say, that as soon as I saw it in person I was in love. Granted, in its black metallic livery, the black C pillar trim was nearly invisible, and the odd shut/cutline of the rear trunk almost disappeared, but the more I walked around it, the more I "got" the design. It's the future, with just the slightest nod to the past. It's forward-thinking, it's sleek, it looks like a million bucks going a million miles an hour, while sitting still, and I want one, I want one, I WANT ONE, lol. I'm completely sold on the C pillar and would take a long-wheelbase version in white, just to fully showcase the modern detailing. The design of this XJ is a gigantic F*** You to the established luxury car makers like Mercedes Benz, BMW and Lexus, with their too staid, or too forced styling these days. It's every bit as shocking and gorgeous as the XK-E was in 1961 if you ask me. Grace, Space and Pace incarnate. Now all I need is a spare $100K or so. Considering I turned in my spare change last week to buy groceries, I won't have to wait long, right? 

: )

Next: Part 2, The rest of the field of MGs, Triumphs, Austin-Healeys, and a few others.

Original Dealer Brochures From the Seventies; It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

Maserati-powered Citroën SM: exotic in every way. When's the last time you saw one though? The European version came with headlights under glass, including one set which swiveled with the front wheels as you cornered to light your way, but US regulations demanded these less-than-svelte round fixed sealed beams. Lexus, among a few other high-end brands have recently reintroduced swiveling headlights for their cars, although today's are Xenons and are electronically controlled. All images clickable to enlarge, of course.

BMW's now-classic 1600/2002 series set the stage for Bimmer's world domination in recent years. Their recent 1-series of small cars is supposed to be evocative of the 2002 models, but I think they missed the mark a bit.

Jaguar has gone from being part of a large UK conglomerate, British Leyland, to being a division of the Ford Motor Company to being currently owned by Tata Motors of India, which also bought Land Rover from Ford a couple of years ago.

C O L L E C T I O N — When I was young, my dad always drove me around to the various car dealers in our area, and even brought me to Manhattan to see the imported cars' large dealerships. I collected dealer 'literature' or brochures, and I can honestly say that this period of marketing/advertising was the greatest influence in my later publication design career and of course, my inspiration for the way I present my car chops today.

Follow the jump for three more import car brochure covers from the '70s.

Seen in Town

Seeing a Jaguar E-Type is a rare event these days, especially an early version in perfect condition. This gorgeous specimen was seen in my town yesterday; it stopped me in my tracks—well on my wheels—I was riding my bike as usual. Glass-covered headlights signaled this convertible as a pre-1968 model—I'm going to guess that it's a '66 or '67. The anthracite exterior coordinated perfectly with the dark russet/henna interior, a lovely not-quite-red leather. Parked behind our excellent private bookstore, R.J. Julia, this E-Type—also known as the XK-E—was sporting-out-of-state license tags. Coincidentally, Kathy Lee Gifford was about to give a talk at the bookstore. Maybe this was her car, lol? Click each photo to see this rarity in much greater detail.

R.J.Julia Bookstore

Jaguar's newest XJ coupé. Thanks, Tata.

C H O P — Jaguar XJ coupe. This is a seemingly simple coupe-from-sedan chop, made from the elegant and exceedingly odd new XJ saloon. The overall shape of the new 4 door is gorgeous, the detailing, inside and out, almost obsessively delivered, yet the strange black plastic C pillar trim is beyond odd. I also find the shutline for the trunk very awkward on the saloon, and the taillights too large! : )

There were a lot of detailed yet small photoshop changes I had to work into this chop. I've 'corrected' the trunk shutlines, removed the C pillar trim, and added a band of chrome on the trunk below the Jaguar leaper logo. I did this not only to break up the large flat panel of trunk lid, but to give a handhold other than the edge of the trunk. Of course, the trunk would be powered, so there might not be too many hands used on it, but i like the look of if anyway, almost plinth-like even though the license tag is in the bumper.  I also shortened the top of the taillights, stopping their climb towards the rear window. The roofline was lowered ever-so-slightly.

I'd like my new coupe hybrid-powered as well, an advancement I read that Tata is well along with for the sedan. I feel great things are coming for Tata's new brands, Jaguar and Land Rover.