1951 Lincoln Sport Sedan

"Easily recognizable in these views of the Lincoln for 1951 are the sweep of its new full fender styling . . . the richness and spaciousness of its interior luxury . . . and above all, the authoritative impression that here, indeed, is a motor car built to master the highways. And so it is . . . with its deep cushioned ride, the poise of its springing, and the abundant spirit and power of the Lincoln 'InVincible Eight' engine, so silent in operation, so magnificent in performance."

Our pictured Lincoln Sport Sedan from 1951 was jockeyed around by a young and eager driver and thus really lived up to its name. The deep note of its V-8 engine explained the spinning wheels on each slightest bit of gravel. Not that this is a sports car: after all, a Lincoln was intended and built to carry aristocrats or the President of the United States. But if you call out the reserves, as the youngster demonstrated, you can have a lot of fun with it...

Incidentally, this generation of Lincoln cars, introduced in 1949, originally was meant to become a Ford. Developed under styling chief E. T. "Bob" Gregorie, its design was already finished when Henry Ford II replaced his father at the helm of the company. He deemed the prospective Ford being too big to compete with the upcoming Chevrolets, and commissioned a complete restyling. This decision led to a fierce "styling war" between external design consultant George W. Walker and Ford's own design team, who quickly had to come up with new proposals for the 1949 Ford. Walker's proposal finally was chosen for production, while Gregorie's original design now would be shared between Mercury and the entry level Lincoln, because the engineering of this car had already progressed too much to stop the development. Good so, we think, because the Mercury and the Lincoln should become two of the most elegant looking cars of the late 40s, and their styling a big departure from the stuffy previous generation.

Ahead of the windshield, the Lincoln was seven inches longer than the Mercury, to make room for the bigger Lincoln "InVincible Eight" V-8 engine. Still, passenger space was the same in both cars. On that account, the cheaper Mercury actually was the smarter buy if brand image wasn't an issue.

1947 Pontiac Torpedo Sport Coupe

"Refinements in appearance and mechanical design highlight the 1947 Pontiac. Pontiac's reputation as a fine car has long been accepted. Now this reputation is further enhanced ... for here is truly a 'Fine Car Made Finer.' A glance at its striking new styling or a few minutes behind the wheel will tell you what more than a million owners believe ... that Pontiac offers the industry's finest combination of beauty, performance, dependability, economy and value."

The softly sculpted front fender of this Pontiac sure is a comfortable place to take a rest. Yet, rest assured: this won't do any damage to the thick sheet metal. These cars were built in an era when things were made to last, which is one reason why they are still up and running after all the years.

Pontiac followed suit with the general industry trend right after World War II, by selling warmed-over prewar cars. The 1947 Pontiac was essentially a 1942 model with new makeup, sporting a revamped front grille design, fresh chrome trim and wider bumpers. Being merely a better appointed Chevrolet, mechanically it was quite a basic car. You could only opt for a three-speed manual transmission until Pontiac offered the new "Hydra-Matic Drive" automatic transmission for the first time in 1948. The biggest distinction compared to a Chevrolet was the optional inline Eight-cylinder engine, but although running smooth and quiet with good low-rev torque, this iron-cast powerplant was heavy, and so didn't contribute much to make the car livelier.

In Cuba, by the way, "Torpedo" is widely used as a common designation for all sorts of fastback bodystyles, and particularly for Chevrolet's 1949-1951 Aerosedans and their corporate siblings. Yet, this name is clearly inherited from Pontiac, where it ironically was just being used as a model name, no matter if classic sedan, fastback or coupe. Introduced in 1940 for Pontiac's top models, by 1947 it already had been moving down the ladder and was used for the base models. Pontiac's fastbacks now were called Streamliner. We imagine, the name Torpedo did sound pleasant to Cuban ears, and thus over time it became the common-sense designation for these fastbacks. A truly befitting name, don't you think?

1967-1975 Citroën DS

"All the joys of restful motoring are yours in the new Citroën DS 19"

It seems like French carmakers enjoy "reinventing the wheel" when designing new cars. This attitude often led to quirky and eccentric, but sometimes to really advanced constructions, that, in hindsight, bettered the rest, but didn't have much commercial success, because they were ... well, too special. Some of these designs, though, found their well deserved place in automotive history. Citroën cars, such as the prewar Traction Avant, the "french Beetle" 2CV or the "Godess" DS are top-ranked among these classics.

Citroën inherited the eccentric style from the avantgardist mindset of its founder, Andre Citroën. But rather than being a "car guy", Monsieur Citroën was a fanatic promoter of mass production finesse, who constantly strived for unconventional technical solutions on his cars in order to reduce costs and raise quality at the same time. Ironically, when he set out to make the 1934 Traction Avant the most innovative french car of its era, Citroën's interest was not to improve the automobile as such, but merely to save money because he reckoned that an advanced car could be built unchanged over a longer period of time, before the competition would catch up technically. The upshot of this attitude were a really nice car and a bankrupt company, because the massive development costs didn't pay off in form of better sales.

Andre Citroen ultimately had to sell its company to its biggest creditor Michelin in 1934. Luckily, the new Citroen owners continued fostering the avantgardist spirit within the company, and one breathtaking product of this mindset was the DS, launched at the Paris Motor Show in October 1955.

When the DS appeared on the American market as a 1956 model, it literally looked like as if a spaceship on wheels had landed. Mind you, in 1955, the latest fashion in (American) car styling looked like this, this, or this. And although European cars generally sported pretty clean designs, the DS looked super-modern in Europe, too.

The aerodynamic looking body, styled by Citroën's chief designer Flaminio Bertoni, was just the right skin for even more advanced technology underneath, engineered under the lead of André Lefèbvre, who already had been developing the Traction Avant. An unibody construction with easily detachable outer panels, a fiberglass roof and a huge aluminum bonnet to lower the center of gravity, a much narrower track on the rear wheels to allow tighter turning circles and power disc brakes at the front axle were already advanced stuff for these times. But the undisputed highlight of the new DS was the self-adjusting hydropneumatic suspension system which replaced conventional springs and dampers with oil-filled cylinders that were connected to nitrogen-filled compensation spheres. The oil and the gas were separated through a rubber membrane, and the compressible nitrogen would act as a soft "spring", smoothly levelling out most road imperfections. The system worked so well, that the DS ride felt soft-cushioned like in a big Cadillac, yet firm and stable when cornering or braking.

In 1967, after more than a decade of unchanged production, the DS received the first and only facelift which is pictured here (the bumper, taken from an Hyundai, is a Cuban "aftermarket" modification, though). Even then, Citroen's engineers managed to implement eccentric features, like the swiveling high-beam headlights that were connected to the front wheels and illuminated the road even in tight turns. The plastic cover on the headlights indicates that our pictured car wasn't made for the US market: here Citroen DS were sold without these covers, as covered headlights were legally prohibited.