The photographs of city streets '70s and early' 80s, everything looks almost the same as today. Most of the buildings, the clothes (excluding the pads under the arms). But that is very different - all the cars look like square boxes, especially compared to the sleek rounded bodies of almost any modern car.
This transformation, which is not so often point out, one of the most significant, occurred with the machines over the last 50 years. And it happened in the US for several years, since 1986. You can even name the exact year when some models have become streamlined - Buick LeSabre, which in 1991 was much more angular than in 1992.
And in the years that followed cars became more streamlined. But why?
It turns out that there are three interrelated reasons: European visual trends, government installation on fuel economy, and new technologies that make it easy to design and produce a rounded shape.
It all began with the European luxury designs h4> By the 1980s, the idea of making streamlined cars did not shine novelty. It is just the opposite, out of fashion in the United States. Smooth cars 1930, such as the Chrysler Airflow, had a sleek look, especially to reduce air resistance.
But Airflow, and other sleek cars, sold poorly, giving way to a square car. In the 1970s, virtually all car bodies produced in the United States, were clear, sharp angles and few curves. They all looked like three connected by a box - the hood, cabin and trunk.
1975 Chevy Caprice i>
But in Europe, the fuel cost is always more expensive, and designers, especially in Germany, began earlier work with aerodynamic shape. This tells Penny Spark [Penny Sparke], author of "One Hundred Years of styling» [A Century of Car Design]. In the 1960s and '70s the manufacturers of expensive cars like Porsche, BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz were the first to return to the market streamlined body.
One of the first examples of the Porsche 911 has become known, which was quite sleek yet in 1963:
The Porsche 911 1969 i>
And this aesthetic gradually became associated with luxury cars, both in Europe and in the United States, where they are imported. And of course, writes historian David Hartman [David Gartman] in the book "Auto Opium: A Social History of American car design» [Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design]: «The American automakers have started to copy the European aerodynamic design in the mid-1980s x to attract wealthy buyers ».
More than any other company has tried to Ford, transferring the design to the mass market. Designer Uwe Bahnsen [Uwe Bahnsen] is first created with the European Ford Sierra 1982, which has become much more streamlined his contemporaries:
1983 Ford Sierra i>
Critics design smashed to smithereens, calling him a "jelly mold", and the first car sold poorly. But eventually I got used to it - especially when other manufacturers began to copy her look for their models.
In the US, Ford designer Jack Telnak [Jack Telnack], who worked in the European team, before transferring to North America in 1980, is responsible for the appearance of rounded shapes in cars. His 1983 Ford Thunderbird was severely curved through testing in a wind tunnel. And this appearance soon moved to a mass model with the 1986 Taurus.
1983 Ford Thunderbird i>
1986 Ford Taurus i>
Now it does not look remarkable, but at the time it seemed futuristic. The machine even starred in the movie "Robocop", the story that developed in the near future. According to Hartmann, «Taurus is uniquely designed for the segment of young, well-educated buyers, which appealed and BMW».
The strategy worked, Taurus has been a big hit with huge sales, and rescued a floundering company. And also inspired others to copy the design.
Improve fuel economy h4>
Aerodynamic testing 2011 Chevy Cruze using smoke i>
Partly streamlined design so quickly replaced the previous one, and remains with us still, for purely physical reasons. The streamlined body and tilted windshield is less resistant to wind as the air flow around them more easily. This means that burn less gasoline when traveling the same distance at the same speed.
Along with the premiere of the Taurus automakers for the first time faced with the standards for fuel economy. Since 1978, the fuel economy of cars sold in the US, should continue to increase, and finally reached a level of 27, 5 miles per gallon in 1990 [8, 6 liters per 100 kilometers].
Automakers have already achieved a certain economy, improve the performance of engines and other components, but the sleek design easier and cheaper task of further improvement. "One designer from Ford claims that if the increase in mileage by 1/10 of a mile per gallon fuel by changing the contents of the engine compartment would be worth $ 200- $ 300 million, a simple improvement in aerodynamics reached mileage gains on 3/10 - 4/10 miles on gallon for next to nothing, "- says Hartmann.
Automakers do tightly wind tunnel and Calculation of aerodynamics, and engineers began to work more closely with the designers. And in a few years, almost all the cars began to look like the Taurus, once seemed futuristic. "They all look the same, since all have been through a wind tunnel, all designed to save fuel," - writes Larry Edsol [Larry Edsall], author of several books on the history of car design.
Technology facilitated the creation of curves h4>
The designer of the Chrysler uses the latest computer program in the early 1990s, i>
This design was made possible by several key technological breakthroughs. For decades, designers create vehicles using clay, wood and other materials. In the 1980s, they began to use computer models.
"It is much easier to make these forms on your computer than from a tree" - said Spark. "It has given automakers an opportunity to create such smooth curves." The production technology is also easier and cheaper production of streamlined forms of aluminum.
As a result, after the shift in the 1990s, becoming a streamlined body. These changes can have a good track, looking at a modern car, which now looks very square: Scion xB.
2008 Scion xB i>
Yes, he has a great body and a square. But the ribs still more rounded than a real square car body 80 - even more so than in this futuristic breakout as 1986 Ford Taurus
