These days, auto manufacturers are really unsure what to call their mundane body styles... VW made a big sedan called the "Phaeton" and luxury car companies are making 4 door curved roof fastbacks and calling them "Sport Coupes". Audi, Jaguar, Nissan... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
I'd look good in a deluxe phaeton. I've never seen a real one. I wonder what the production numbers were? Rich
Here you go, Rich.... Phaeton ..... 1930 ....... 1931 Standard ... 16,479 ..... 4,076 Deluxe ....... 3,946 ....... 2,229
Hey Rich, you can find all of the model A production numbers here.... http://www.ahooga.com/info/product.shtml ...
Interesting to read Ford's description of the Phaeton, in light of all the AMBR hullabaloo: Here, as in the new Ford Roadster, you see the straight, unbroken sweep of line that contributes so much to the beauty of all the new Ford bodies. The windshield folds flat when desired . . . Add no roll-up windows and you have a four door roadster. Like it or not.
I'll take one of each! Okay, if I had to choose, I guess I'd take a Phaeton (I guess I'm a bit biased), a Roadster, a Victoria, and a Deluxe Sedan. You know, one for whatever weather condition and passenger manifest...
looke like I have 1 of 79,000 and 1 of 148,000 Crazy they made that many more tudors than coupes exactly double!?
Not quite twice as many. 2 x 79,000 = 158,000. I used a calculator so I like to think I'm tough like your signature says.
I am just a coupe kind of guy, I have had convertibles but there is something about a short, round roof that is the cat's meow for me.
Roadster, Deluxe Phaeton, Coupe, those would be my top three. But I aint picky, if anybody has one of any kind they want to give away I'll take it!
RE: new cars. We have a Pontiac G6 on the lot with a retractable top...............they call it a sunroof..................wtf?
The coupe has a wider seat that can accommodate three people - peoples asses must have been smaller in 1930.
I'm suprised at how many 2 passenger car were produced back then, roadsters and coupes. Hell, today its tough to buy a 2 (door) passenger pick-up! Could things have been that different back then? I thought every one had a bunch of kids to help out on the farm?
I like the Victoria, probably because there were fewer of them than coupes or sedans. Victorias have been a lot of different things over the years. For ford 1931-34, they were a club coupe or a bustle-back 2-door sedan; in the '50s they were a hardtop, sometimes with a glass roof; and in the '90s they were a 4-door sedan. Packard made a 4-place convertible in the '30s with no quarter windows, and called it a Victoria. I think originally it was a variety of horse-drawn carriage dating from the Victorian era.
I have wondered why Ford, especially, made so many body styles during the depression, when the cost of tooling was obviously expensive. Why would they need a 3-window and a 5-window coupe in the same year? Or a Tudor sedan and a Victoria? I kinda answered my own question when it occurred to me that Ford used a lot of different vendors for their bodies during that period -- different makers for the 3W than for the 5W, for example. I'll bet that Edsel said to Budd, or Murray, or whichever vendor it was, "you can build us a different style of coupe body than those other guys, if you care to. Of course it will need to be a style that I approve of, and the tooling will be at your expense." I've never read anything to support this notion, but it makes sense to me.
Nice to see that the Cabriolet was labeled a chick car. Maybe that's why somebody channeled and threw an Olds in mine....
Beautiful cars, all of them. I've found my taste in cars has evolved over the years and I've moved more towards model A & T Fords. Explains our '29 Special coupe and '26 T speedster. Would trade it all for an A roadster. The colors were a home run.
Im a little biased too.. Bob and the boys at MF'ers start my build this summer! My model a list: 1. Phaeton (room for the whole fam) 2. Roadster 3. Tudor 3b. 5 window
Your post prompted some thoughts : 1 frame and drive train fits all. Today's manufactures don't do it that way. Current year caries to next years truck - sort of. Many models use same body parts so actual differences and required tooling are reduced.