Chrysler Corp. actually began giving their hardtops names right from day
one.
Chrysler hardtops were called Newport. The name first appeared in the 1949
folder, even though the Newport 2-door hardtop did not appear until 1950, in
Windsor, New Yorker and Town & Country series. The Chrysler Imperial
Newport 2-door hardtop appeared for 1951.
Chrysler also used Nassau for the lower priced Windsor hardtop and St.Regis
for a higher priced New Yorker hardtop in 1955 and 1956. When the 1957
models arrived, no more names for the hardtops. They were just hardtops.
DeSoto called their first hardtop in 1950 the Sportsman, in the Custom
series. DeSoto also used Seville in 1956 (Firedome) and 1959 (Firedome and
Fireflite). DeSoto last used the Sportsman name in 1959, and did not use
any special names in 1960 and 1961.
Dodge's first hardtop, a 1950 Coronet, was called the Diplomat. Dodge used
the name Lancer from 1955 to 1959 for their hardtops and convertibles.
Story has it that Nash wanted to call their new compact car the Diplomat, to
go along with the larger Ambassador and Statesman, but could not as Dodge
had already filed the name with the AMA. Thus the new compact was called
Rambler.
Plymouth introduced its first hardtop in 1951, in the Cranbrook series - the
Belvedere. The Belvedere became a full series in 1954 (mid-1953 in Canada)
and did not use a name for their hardtops after that.
Similarly, the Canadian Plymouth-based Dodge has its first hardtop, in the
1951 Regent series - the Mayfair. The Mayfair became a full series in
mid-1953 and Chrysler of Canada did not bother with special names for Regent
and Mayfair hardtops after that.
In the export field, neither the Dodge Kingsway nor the DeSoto Diplomat used
special names for the hardtops, instead referred to them as "special coupe"
and "special sedan".
Imperial began using Southampton in 1956, and was the last to use a name for
the hardtop, using the Southampton name through 1962.
This was an industry-wide trend, with every manufacturer giving a name to
their hardtops at one time or another during the 1950's. Even the British
Hillman had a name for its Minx hardtop - Californian, while the French
Simca called their Aronde hardtops Grand Large (Big Big?) and Monaco.
Bill
Vancouver, BC
> 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
>
>
>
>
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