Hardtop history (was: Chrysler Corp name game?)

[Christopher Hoffman <imperial67@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hugh hemphill/hugtrees@xxxxxxxx wrote:
> Why is it called a hardtop anyway?

D^2 is correct in stating that the term was originally coined by GM as
"hardtop convertible." This is twofold.

One was the marketing effort to convey the airy lightness of riding in the
car with all the windows down. With no full B-pillar in the way, the breezy
feeling was much like that of a convertible (remember, folks, this was
before cars commonly had air conditioning and people actually opened their
windows while driving... all the windows, and all the way down!). So it
combined the security of a hard steel top with something like the effect of
a convertible.

The other aspect was that of engineering: In order to achieve the structural
integrity necessary for the car to stay tight (well, as tight as cars were
back in '49 when the GM models came out), they used the stronger frame of
the convertible model (rather than the two-door sedan), the result being,
quite simply, a convertible with a permanent hardtop.

Legend has it that when Ford's designers went to see what all the fuss was
about with this new body style, they were disappointed that the car was not
in fact a convertible at all. A few years earlier (actually the late 30s,
but with WW2, that was really only a few production years back, since time
had stood still in the auto industry for six years or so), Peugeot had
produced a car with a mechanically retractable steel roof. This, it seems,
is what the Ford folks expected to see in the new Holiday (Oldsmobiles),
Coupe de Villes (Cad) and Rivieras (Buick).

While both Ford and Chrysler rushed their 2-door hardtops to market within a
few years, it took Ford another seven years to bring a true "hardtop
convertible" to market with the '57 Skyliner. By then, the term had been
simplified to more manageable and accurate "hardtop" and it had grown to
include four-doors and even wagons across the industry.

By 1955 Chrysler started naming their hardtop body styles, too (Newports for
Chrysler and 1955 Imperials, Southamptons for Imperials starting in 1956).
As far as I can tell, no other body styles got names that weren't directly
attached to trim levels except for Ford: from basic "Tudor" and "Fordor"
sedans (get it?) to the truly unusual Crown Victorias and Sun Valleys (with
the glass roofs) and eventually Breezeway Mercurys and Lincolns.

The circle began to close by the time the 1970s rolled around, when Ford
inserted a full B-pillar back into their sedans but retained the frameless
side glass and called it a "pillared hardtop" despite the apparent oxymoron
therein. By 1973, Ford's 4-door hardtops were gone, and their last 2-door
was in 1978. GM lost their true hardtops after 1976 (downsized Eldorados,
Rivs and Toronados kept the stub B-pillar but used a fixed quarter window,
denying the effect, up through 1981 or 1982).

And of course, bringing it back to this forum, the last of the four-door
hardtops from anyone were the 1978 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham and Newport.
By then, they were not called anything but hardtops. Then again, a Newport
Newport? Or would my '78 have been a Chrysler New Yorker Brougham Salon
Southampton? No car's big enough for all that badging!

Chris in LA
67 Crown 4dHT
78 NYB Salon 4dHT