Those big finned Buick drum brakes with little airscoops on the backing plates on the ’32 Coupe here yesterday are a testament that Buick was noted for its cultivation of high-capacity drum brakes. And how better to show that off than with non-rotating big air scoops on their Motorama-mobile for 1954, the Wildcat?
Here’s a closer look at that front wheel. Pretty bizarre, but than that was the point of these GM Motorama cars.
The ’54 edition of the Wildcat wasn’t the first to sport these; here’s the ’53 Wildcat I with slightly less obvious scoops.
Apparently the scoops didn’t exactly wow the audiences enough, so the Wildcat II was remodeled with wire wheels and a few other changes.
Stunning automobiles. I have always liked seeing them.
Is that a dog in the first photo? Something doesn’t look right.
I noticed that, as well. Looks like a poodle with two noses and three eyes!
When the photographer told everyone to say “Cheese”, Fifi wasn’t listening and moved.
It should be a cat.
The white convertible 2-seater is spectacular. Never saw that one before–
’53 front & the old ’49 tail-lights.
Low, smooth fender skirts. And Dagmar’s till forever!
Very different from the Olds Fiesta of the time ….no badge engineering on this one.
Photo’d to give a hazy, shadowless appearance, & clear color definition.
omg !
Incidentally, GM officially called them Buffer Bombs, not Dagmars. GM had a name for everything. (Most people just called them Bazooms Out To Here.)
Those cutouts are fake retro. Real race cars didn’t have cutouts, they just had completely open wheels. I think the cutout shape MIGHT have originated as a color scheme in the ’30s, seen on Auburns, Duesenbergs, and Bantams. The shape was associated with Sakhnoffsky, but he probably wasn’t the first to use it.
Auburn:
https://www.mecum.com/lots/HA0413-150093/1934-auburn-850y-phaeton/
Bantam:
https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/hf15/hershey/lots/r225-1938-american-bantam-roadster/180731
The fender cut-outs remind me of the Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa.
Yes, it does reminisce the Ferrari
Buick hung on to their drum brakes even as disc brakes were becoming more popular and demonstrating their superior performance, especially with fade resistance. They did not let them stagnate however. In the late 50’s as their cars got heavier there was concern over brake fade during testing. Buick engineers went to work and developed huge finned aluminum drums. The extra size was mitigated with the aluminum and the mass and fins dissipated heat. By the late 50’s Buick had some of the best brakes in the industry.
Now we know where the inner Terminator came from.
This car is quite striking in person. I believe it may still be at the Buick History Museum in Flint.
Those 1953 Wildcat front wheel brake cooling ducts look like they were made from the air cleaner assembly of a 1952 Oldsmobile.
The Wildcat II pictured is a re-creation. Really dug deep on this one. Never saw those scoops before on any GM show car! Neat
There is a clone, but the original exists too, at the Alfred Sloan Museum. As far as I know, the one in the last image is the original, but I could possibly be wrong.
Exactly how do those wheel covers work?
Are they mounted on the axel so they don’t spin with the tire?
Would not that cause problems with unspring weight? I realize it is a show car, but….
They’re mounted on the end of the stationary hubs. The additional weight is minimal.
Squack! What’s the deal with that wrinkled metal in the wheelwell? Makes the car look like it’s been hit.
What wrinkled metal? Are you referring to the reflections of the chromed pieces? Or?
No, I see it too.
I think it may be a bit a dirt or smudge from the actual old print.
This wrinkled metal.
It’s not wrinkled metal. It’s reflections on the chrome of the light that was placed behind the front wheel. Look at bigger picture again; it’s obvious that the photographer placed hidden lights behind the wheels. And the light shining up is reflecting on the curved polished or chrome metal there, as it’s wont to do.
A curved chrome object will make curious reflections like that.
I usually can interpret curves and contours of reflections such as this what you describe, but this one refuses to look like anything but reflections on wrinkled black-painted metal for me. I get what you’re saying; it’s not a matter of incomprehension, just this image won’t resolve for me. I’ll toss it on the pile with those “stare-o-gram” things some people (myself not included) can look at and go “Oh, cool, a tall ship” or whatever.
Look at the reflections on the bumper and headlight; they’re sort of “wrinkled” too. It’s the nature of reflections of curved objects on other curved shiny objects.
There’s obviously no real wrinkled sheet metal in this show car. Our brains try to make sense of what our eyes see. Having seen this effect (or noticed it) many times before, “wrinkled metal” never occurred to me, even for a moment. Once our brains have made sense of a previously unidentified object, we can’t see it any other way anymore.
Google “reflections on chrome” and you’ll see lots of it, and never see “wrinkled metal” again.
https://www.google.com/search?q=reflections+on+chrome&sxsrf=ALeKk00jPcKPoE2vnupkkOB-UwFuozcZsA:1616437175284&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjHrYndwcTvAhUv2FkKHQ8UDfIQ_AUoBHoECAUQBg&biw=1513&bih=896#imgrc=GJolwMbC0PkqYM
The chrome strip above/outboard the headlamp I can see almost simultaneously as perfect but its shape distorts whatever it’s reflecting (which is certainly the case), and as dinged and buckled (which is certainly not the case).
If I could see that black-painted wheelhouse metal illuminated more evenly, so I could get a fix on its actual contours, I could shake the wrinkled-metal illusion easily. I can almost get there from here, but so far no luck. Workin’ on it.
There’s this one:
And this, which shows some of the effect.
One last point: the whole inner fender liner on these was chromed, and it was curved, so reflections were prone to exhibit this effect. That is the simple and final explanation.
Oh!! Knowing it’s chrome and not black paint makes it suddenly resolve and pop into focus for me.
Brains are weird.
Obviously it was a concept, but was there ever any talk of the specifics of functionality or construction?
Did the wheel have large openings to get air to the drum?
What sealed the stationary “Scoopcap” at the rotating wheel, to keep cooling air from blissfully exiting there and bypassing the drum?
So much for sharing spindle production cost with Oldsmobile. Lol
What would’ve been the life expectancy of a “Scoopcap” on 1954 Chicago streets? Sunset plus 20 minutes of the first day? LoL