History The Year in Cars: 1932

Here's another series at Mac's Motor City Garage.com inspired in part by conversations with HAMBers. Thanks for your ideas and insights.

This is called The Year in Cars -- instead of focusing on a particular make, theme, styling feature, mechanical topic, etc. it's pick a model year. 1932, a seminal year for American cars, seemed like a good place to start. The intent is be short on the historical blabbering, long on historical facts and photos, with tons of original factory images.

The Year in Cars | Mac's Motor City Garage.com

 

Thanks for the nice response!

 

I get a blank page when I used the link in post one.

Then I tried getting to that 1932 article with your permanant link, and that also leads to a blank page.


could be my older browser, but I lost interest at this point.........

 

I also got a blank page yesterday,,

It seems I am going to have to add another page to my want list! HRP

 

working fine for me....

 

What a great show of1932 vehicles. Thanx for the amazing review, saw plenty o rides I have never seen. Very cool! ~sololobo~

 

It seems to work fine in Chrome and IE but I redid the links anyway. Please let me know if there are any more problems and if so, what browser you are using. Thanks for your help, much appreciated!



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X2 on that!!!

 

Really sharp lookin set up with great pictures! I'm liking the Oldsmobile Sport Coupe.

 

Wow. I'm in love.

 

A bunch of pictures on that link of cars that I've never seen before.

<<< I have a '32 Oldsmobile coupe body that I'm using on my hot rod project. It will never look anything like that stock one, since parts are nearly impossible to find for it.

 

I have two...1932 Rockne...

 

Good eye.

That's the car referred to in the article, the '32 Graham Blue Streak. The rendering is idealized, but this car is often credited as the first volume production model with skirted (arch filled in) front fenders, laid back grille, and radiator cap hidden under the hood. Designer Amos Northrup.

 

Cool stuff, thanks for posting.

 

Yes, it's my outdated browser. After you reset things, I could see some text at the very bottom of the page, above where it says comments. The comment thing was the only thing I could see before. I then used my sons PC to see the pics & slideshow.


Anyways, I agree on 32 being the big push towards "style". Also agree on the Blue Streak comments...Always thought the Reo Royale was right up there...not to mention the Auburn, L29, Duesenberg, etc.

I see you chose to use Nash outdated "first series 32's", instead of the "real" 32 that came out in March 32, as the "second series". Second series are easy to spot on a side view, as they have hood vent doors, instead of the usual louvers. That 2nd series is what is in my avatar...a lowly 6cyl 2dr conv sedan, the little baby of the 7 models, ending with the extra long W/B Ambassador 8, which was referred to as the Kenosha Duesenberg back then.

Nash and GM were the only 2 car co's to turn a profit in 32. Nash cheated a bit by using up the leftover 31 body shells with some new fenders, grilles etc, on that first series, then redesigned the entire car for 2nd series...making the first series quite hard to find proper parts for, these days.

 

Great point about Nash and a good story in its own right.

Another interesting way to approach 1932 as a pivotal year in American auto styling: Take the 1932 model year out of the annual progression for a moment and directly compare the 1931 and 1933 models to each other. It's an eye opener.



1931 vs. 1933 Fords:

 

It is really surprising the extent of the changes in two years.

 

Great stuff Bill, thanks! Bunch of beautiful cars.

 

Whoa, nice. I can honestly say I have never seen a Rockne done as a fenderless hot rod coupe.

While there are some obvious differences, one can't help but notice some similarities to the Deuce 3W. Was the body mfg'ed by Studebaker?

 

Thanks for posting this. Very cool.

 

What a great ride. So many cars I've never seen. Thanks.

 

That's a great web site, lots of info there including the XR6 of Tex Smith's. I remember when the build was followed in Hot Rod Magazine in the early 60's.

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

Possibilities for the next feature years: 1903, 1924, 1949, 1955.

Any suggestions? What do you think?

 

Maybe 1959? They all started to build cars so big the hwy depts of gov't had to immpose width restrictions by 61 (62?). Didn't the 60 Merc get the dubious "honor" of the widest car ever manufactured? Just rambling thoughts...

 

Good point. It was the end of the road for the chrome baroque era.

 

Here's an in-depth followup on the story above with more photos and info and based in part on the discussions here. Thanks for you your input!


More on the Year in Cars: 1932 | Mac's Motor City Garage.com

 

I neglected to mention: the two Buicks above are photographed on the roof of the GM Research Center, which Harley Earl comandeered as an outdoor viewing area for his styling studio. The Research Center (aka the Argonaut Building) is just across Milwaukee St. from the General Motors building in Detroit.

 

A very good thread...I'm kinda partial to my 32 Studebaker President - hot rodded in 1975! It makes the purists cringe and will make many break out the "Bored with Ford" t shirts....thanks for the postings. To answer a previous question - I'm fairly sure Studebaker made the Rockne bodies - I know they made all the Studebaker bodies themselves.

Ever noticed how all the "big" 32's appear to be factory chopped.