(first posted 5/29/2012) Even though I am retired, I frequently find myself crossing the state for non-income producing reasons. Now I carry a camera. I was minding my own business doing just that when I came across this little attention grabber. There is some commonality, at least of features, between this and the ’48 Windsor we just covered. These coupes have always been favorites of mine despite having too many wheels. Just honest workhorses.
I know some of you will double check to see if it is a 1941. I knew right away that it was most probably from 1941-1946. The grill and the trim on the headlights make it a 1941. It sort of feels like a copy of the Chevy.
Business coupes have been around at least since the Model A. Most car companies produced them. They were designed specifically for the salesman who had to go on the road. Before the internet and before television, salesmen went on the road. Still do actually but back then most of them did not fly.
Dodges were totally redone for 1939, the make’s 25th anniversary. The usual full line of vehicles, including sedans, club coupes, a woodie station wagon-and of course, the business coupe-were available. All models had an 87 horsepower L-head straight six engine with “Floating Power” – a fancy term for rubber engine mounts.
1941s were pretty much the same car, but they did get some new trim and a wider grille.
One interesting thing: the ’41 Dodge appears to be the first car with the headlights integrated into the grille, something that would be all the rage in 15-20 years.
Now that is a long rear deck. When I was a boy these coupes were all over the place. In Business Coupes, the manufacturer normally only installed one seat. There might be a flat board behind the driver and some owners who needed it would install their own seats in the back. Obviously no hassle with seat belts, etc. The trunk was the distinguishing factor in my memory.
Just in case the size of the trunk didn’t come across. Thanks again Google. There are other types of coupes but the business coupe had a rear end that stuck out forever. Like the Sedan Delivery, the early ones had a half ton frame. It had to be heavy duty to tote that trunk when it was full.
One more look at the trunk, this time showing all that space. Let us move away from the rear end.
One thing that the car tells you very clearly is that it has the Fluid Drive.
I did manage to find an image of the early Dodge Fluid Drive, as seen in the cutaway drawing below.
Even I can see some very basic differences between this and a TH 350 or another of a later era. I will leave the explanation to commenters with more expertise than I. Despite memories I have of having driven them, that would be most anyone.
At that point in time the available engine for this car was the “floating” flathead six. Since I could not open the hood, this is (once again) courtesy of Google images. I always get a kick out of these old things with the oil bath air cleaner etc. This would have looked just as “at home” in the engine bay of the 1940 International half ton that I once owned.
I remember seeing one of these around town while I was growing up that had been converted into a pickup. It was a natural. By the time the shoebox Chevs came around the coupe was one of the lightest setups if you wanted to go drag racing. In these earlier times the job of the business coupe was to keep America working, not win drag races. Below is a sample of a Chevy with the pickup treatment. It’s a factory treatment. The bed was removable and you could replace it with a trunk lid.
What I didn’t know was that Dodge also did what you see below. I am unsure if it was released to the American market or not [ED: I think this is an Australian market “ute”]. I am sure it preceded the Ranchero (1957). I also remember seeing a Hudson that looked like this from the forties. I don’t have a clue who was actually first.
I guess the SUV and the Mini Van fill those needs today. I can only think of one Sedan delivery and no business coupes built since the early sixties for the American market. Perhaps you can think of more. The big question is whether either are needed and/or missed by anyone.
It’s your soapbox.
The AMC Gremlin. The last Business Coupe for the American Market.
That’s what I thought: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-trying-to-make-business-coupe-sense-of-the-gremlin/
Ford Focus coupe?
That’s not a business coupe; it’s a two door sedan, or coupe. A business coupe lacks a rear seat, or at best has a minimal one.
I see a mid 1960s Chrysler in the third and seventh pictures and it looks pretty CC-worthy.
1967 Dodge Coronet 2-door hardtop, and I see a V8 emblem on the front fender. The color looks to be Turbine Bronze. I’m also hoping to see a CC on this one.
LOOOOOOVE that Coronet! 2 dr. hardtop to boot!
It’s simply cryin’ for a nice paintjob-you name the color and some nice steelies w/ dogdishes. very nice car! .
There’s also a Winnebago LeSharo back there: Renault-powered fwd. A winner!
1966 Dodge Coronet in both photos.
Right before the war, Chrysler started to lose the styling edge that it had possessed earlier in the 1930s (Airflow excepted). The styling on these always struck me as just a bit awkward. But it didn’t really hurt sales that much. After all, Chrysler (and not Ford) was number 2 of the big 3.
The Fluid Drive was a huge selling point in a vehicle in Dodge’s price class before WWII. Pontiac did not offer the Hydra Matic until after the war (IIRC) and even though the Dodge did not shift itself, that fluid coupling mated with the torquey flathead allowed clutch-free second gear driving in most of small town America.
A great find. There are not that many of these out and about anymore.
Fluid Drive as people think of it these days, can be divided into 2 and even 4 categories.
The 1st is the original Fluid Drive which became available in the 1941 Dodge models. It was a fluid drive coupling ahead of a standard 3 speed manual transmission. You could drive it just as a normal 3 speed or leave it in third gear and move from a stop much the same as the early Power Glide transmission in the Chevrolet. It was not offered in Plymouth models and an upgrade of this was offered in DeSoto and Chrysler cars from 1941 on.
The 2nd version is the one introduced in DeSoto and Chrysler models and which became available in the Dodge model in 1949, that was the combination of the same fluid drive coupling ahead of a 2 range / 4 speed semi-automatic transmission (the M6) resembling a normal manual transmission. With this combination you had low range and high range.
The 3rd version had a torque converter in front of the M6 semi automatic transmission introduced with the Chrysler 331 Hemi engine in 1951.
The 4th combination was used in the Plymouth only. Called Hy-Drive. It was a torque converter, fed it’s oil supply from the engine crankcase, ahead of a standard manual 3 speed transmission.
In 1954, the first Power-Flite fully automatic transmissions were introduced throughout the entire Chrysler lineup.
I think the roofline precludes the Gremlin from being a coupe. The spiritual successor of this car ought to be anything with a hatch. The late 60’s early 70’s hatchback Nova was really qualified.
The car in the background is about a 67 Coronet 440. I think you are right but more in the line of an outtake unless Tom want’s more.
I think the Gremlin fails due to a lack of a trunk. That was the thing about the business coupe it had a huge trunk and the parcel shelf where the back seat would have been to carry inventory or samples. Some even did without any sort of bulkhead between the passenger area and trunk so one could stretch out an sleep in them, according to ads I’ve seen.
I always loved these. Especially the late 40’s – early 50’s editions with that HUGE rear end! There was one at the end of our block when growing up, a convertible at that! Of course it was that maroon color that was ubiquitous back then.
My cousins had a business coupe, too – a Chevy, I think. In any case, it had no back seat and I got to ride back there sitting on the floor next to one of my cousins who sat on a suitcase – he was 9 years older – as we took his brother to the train station one day. It was fun.
I must have been around 7 years old. My memory of that ride? I heard my cousins using the “s” word whuch I found funny and started using it myself. I was quickly and strongly advised to cease and desist from saying that! My cousin’s words were gold to me, so I listened whenever they told me what to do, otherwise they gave me a “treatment”!
Fun days I cherish…
Sedan delivery? The Chevy HHR – which is as close as anyone has come to a business coupe in the last fifty years.
Although the PT Cruiser certainly does not have the coupe roofline it rivals any business coupe in carrying capacity for stuff.
Wow, not only the car is long past its time, but the whole class / category it’s in has gone extinct as well! Why does business coupe exists back then? I mean, why do traveling businessmen need a specialized kind of car, why not just use whatever kind of car is available, be it a sedan, wagon, SUV, minivan, whatever, like today?
So what’s the last business coupe around, then? If not quite the exact body configuration, I think the Honda CR-X is sort of a business coupe, isn’t it? Two seats and a roomy trunk? Good fuel economy too.
The business coupe owed it’s existence, and other designs could have filled the bill, because you can’t sell apples off an empty cart. If you sent out a salesman with inventory to sell, he managed to sell.
The HHR is the sedan delivery that I have seen. I think a 5 door hatch is an improvement and so is a minivan. The dictionary says that a coupe is a vehicle with seating for two people with perhaps a small rear seat. There are still coupes but a business coupe has that big expanse in back.
I think the 77 Impala 4 door wagon is the car that I have owned that I would have wanted to be a traveling salesman. You all have mentioned a bunch that would have worked.
What’s particularly interesting is that there were business coupes in a variety of price categories. I’ve even seen a 1936 Packard 120 business coupe.
One reason the business coupe existed was because the fleet buyer was often looking for the lowest possible purchase cost, so why pay for a back seat that would not be used by people and just meant less room for samples/inventory? Some were also marketed w/o anything dividing the trunk from the behind the seat area, or had a fold down panel, so that there was a 6′ long area for sleeping for those salesmen that didn’t carry inventory or lots of different samples.
I’m sorry to say today’s “business coupe” is an SUV, usually an Escalade. Executive office with store room in the back.
This is a neat car. Striking front styling, ten years ahead. Always thought the ’55 Nash was the first headlight-grille design. Cool.
Or maybe a clapped out F-150 with one of those hinged bed covers?
Maybe it’s not how it was intended to be used, but my 1st gen New Beetle hauls all manner of stuff in the back (seat down)… That said, I love the proportions of this car (the Dodge), and it ranks pretty close to the top of my list of Old Cars I’d Like to Own.
It’s Herbie!
Ha, great picture! That’s still what I expect to see under the new one’s rear hatch.
This must be a business coupe for a Bosch salesman.
40 horse WOOT ! .
-Nate
That 4th picture, well, illustration, really is gorgeous! That shade of brick red and the detail in particular w/ the front passenger side tire is sublime.
I’m saving that picture, thanks!
You can thank Tom for that.
Actually, thank oldcarbrochures.com!
Love that olcoupe Lee great find and unfortunately not something we got new here. We got all the body styles but WW2 started in Sept 1939 and interupted supplies. The only thing delivered were military grade cars with painted over chrome a friend has a 1940 Hillman all hes done is clean off the chrome trim. The coupe Utility is an Aussie model thats how they were designated and every manufacturer fielded a ‘ute’ from 34 when Fords Lew Brandt invented the first one. I do remember seeing a ute conversion of a 38 Chev coupe that could be removed it seemed a clever idea never realised it came from GM Ive never seen another one and NZ would be the only place for them we didnt get utes from OZ we made our own from anything laying around.
The only sedan deliveries that I can think of built since 1960 are the first generation Falcon, the Pinto, the Vega and the aforementioned HHR.
I’ve seen an HHR, I’ve seen a Falcon sedan delivery, but I’ve never seen a Vega or Pinto sedan delivery.
Studebaker also had a sedan delivery in the early 60’s.
Called a panelvan out here and was part of every manufacturers line up since the early 50s especially Australian cars, they simply put a roof over the ute bed and viola- van.
I saw a very similar car a few years ago, painted a very mid-70s orange. Too bad I only had a first generation 2 megapixel camera at the time. A couple other shots are available on the cohort for your viewing enjoyment…
It’s my understanding that, as time went by, some manufacturers dropped their Business Coupes in favor of “utility sedans”, which were just regular pillared 2-door models with no back seat. When was the last true Business Coupe offered, in terms of a car having its own unique body style with a shorter passenger compartment and longer trunk?
Hard to say. I think both Mopar and chev had the type you are talking about in about 52. That is from memory because I don’t think the manufacturers broke them down that way.
Some say the 57 Chev 150 business coupe existed. However, from the outside you couldn’t tell. It was just a normal coupe with no back seats and I think the real intent was racing.
Note: Your comment about ‘floating power’ being a fancy word for rubber engine mounts need further explanation. Chrysler pioneered this method of mounting the engine in the 1931 Plymouth. It consists of only 2 mounts…one at the front high up and the other at the back low down. It lets the engine vibrate through its natural ‘path’ and keeps things flexible enough so the vibration doesn’t extend to the rest of the car. It was quite unique and was especially effective on the 4 cylinder engine of that early Plymouth, since 4 cylinders have a lot more vibration than the later in-line 6s. Just thought you’d like to know!
The top one is my papa’s car in Iola, TX!!!
That is correct. Saw it and shot it when I was doing a job at the youth camp “camp sonshine” in Keith. He has quite a selection but the business coupe was the one I could shoot best from the street. Also the most interesting.
Next time, knock on the door. He wouldn’t mind at all!
my brother actually bought this car about a year ago. its undergoing restoration
It must have been a bummer having a flat tyre – you would have had to unload all of the merchandise to get to the spare!
I keep thinking thesd be an excellent bootleggers/moonshiners vehicle a la Thunder Road
CC effect. This morning I was reading an old Collectible Auto article about Rhys Miller who designed the headlights inside the grille. He was unhappy that his design got modified away from the “clean, fast-looking unit” he had in mind.
Pretty amazing that up until the 1949 second series you could get this body style in everything from a Plymouth stripper to a Chrysler New Yorker. Guess you had to be quite a successful “peddler” to make your call in a Chrysler!