Every Car Shape Explained

(upbeat music) - You probably know the difference between a station wagon and a hatchback, right? Well, how about a Landaulet and a Brougham? Yes, I don't think so. In today's episode, we'll take a look at the different styles of cars out there: big, small, pointy, and

every

thing in between. We'll give you tools to identify different body styles, examine how they've evolved over time, and get to the bottom of why they're called that. We'll keep this video for passenger vehicles, okay? Because commercial vehicles, motorcycles, vans and trucks could be completely independent episodes. But today it's all about cars.

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Now back to the show. Well, let's dive into the style of car most people are familiar with: the sedan. The main features of the conventional sedan are four doors, a three-box configuration, a closed body, that is, a fixed roof, and the ability to comfortably accommodate four or five passengers between two rows. Sedans get their name from this cool way to enter a party. Human-powered wheelless contraptions have been around forever and go by different names around the world. But in Britain in the 1630s, a sophisticated version emerged called a sedan or simply a sedan. Some people think that sedans are named after the French city of Sedan.

But most of my etymologist friends think it simply derives from the Italian verb sedere, which means to sit. There are different opinions about who first used the word sedan in reference to the body of a car. Some attribute it to the Studebaker models four and six that were marketed as sedans in 1912. Others attribute it to Speedwell, a short-lived automobile manufacturer based in Dayton, Ohio, which in 1911 used sedan to describe its new two-door model. with closed body. car. Sedans are some of the most recognizable cars of the modern era. Sedans are so ubiquitous that before Australia and New Zealand adopted the term, they simply called them cars.

This brings me to our next style of car, the coo. (laughs) Coo. Or the coupe. Or the coupe, depending on how you pronounce it. I say coupe because I'm a red-blooded American and I say words like a tutor. (screaming eagle) And because coupe sounds like a toupee for your car, and that just makes me, that makes me itch. I get hives just thinking about it. Like sedans, coupes have a fixed roof and a three-box configuration, but are sportier and more compact with two doors and a sloping or truncated rear roofline. Like many automotive terms, the word coupe comes from our horse-drawn carriage predecessors, and comes from the French verb coupé, meaning to cut.

The coupe was a kind of cut-down carriage that could seat two people instead of four. With the rear-facing seats essentially cut out, hence the name. The coupe body style has also given way to many variations as it has evolved. The sportiest of the sports coupes is the Berlinetta, introduced in the 1930s and popularized by Ferrari in the 1950s. At the other end of the spectrum is the business coupe, which had enormous trunk space instead of a seat. rear. They became very popular among street vendors. Everyone knows the Deuce Coupé, and who could forget the cozy Coupé?

Sedans and coupes can look very different, so how has the line between them become so blurred? Well, we can thank automakers for going crazy with their naming conventions in the second half of the 20th century. The confusion began once manufacturers released coupes with two body styles. There are two proper seats in the front, with two small seats in the back. Then in the early 2000s, automakers were like, oh, isn't this whole two-and-two thing confusing enough for you? Well, look at these new four-door cars we'll call coupes. Because we love chaos and nothing matters. Mercedes had their CLS class, Mazda had their RX8 with suicide doors in the back.

These quad coupes are at the center of an age-old debate: Can you have a four-door coupe and a two-door sedan? Or does it defeat the purpose of the terms entirely? You know what I'm going to say, I'm going to say yes, it is. Why use words if you're going to take away their meaning? That is wrong. I'm looking at you, BMW. Let's take a look at the four-door BMW X6. With its sleek roofline, you can see why it's marketed as a sports coupe. But that car is as coupe as Dr. Phil is a real doctor. Yes, he is not a doctor.

Let's move on to the station wagon, also known as a station wagon. Unlike the three-box layout of the sedan and coupe, the trucks have a long-body two-box configuration. This means your passengers and cargo areas are in a cabin joined with the actual tailgate hinged to allow easy access to all that junk in the trunk. The station wagon and station wagon names date back to the original use of these vehicles in the early 20th century, which was to transport travelers and their luggage between train stations and rural estates. So pickup trucks started out as commercial vehicles before making their way into suburban life.

Luxury that. These first-generation trucks are a great example of early custom work. Because it's not like you could buy one off the lot in 1910. Taxi drivers with Model T Fords looking for more cargo space would have independent coachbuilders produce custom wooden bodies for their existing chassis. These converted wood-bodied Model Ts were known as Woodies. Eventually, automakers caught on and started making their own pickup trucks. The first assembled on a manufacturer's production line was the 1923 Star Four Model C pickup truck. Pretty cute, right? As time went by, manufacturers improved wooden bodies and replaced them with steel. The 1935 Chevy Suburban was the first all-steel body truck.

And by the early 1950s, most other truck-making companies had followed suit. The wagon and wagon models sold well in the 1960s and 1970s, but were eventually eclipsed by other family-style cars in the 1980s and 1990s, such as the minivan and crossover SUV. Related to the truck is one of my personal favorites, the shooting brake. Now all my carriage bosses will know that a draft brake was originally a horse-drawn cart used to transport shooting parties along with all their weapons, ammunition and, I imagine, alcohol. This was in the 1890s, but brakes eventually came to mean a body style combining station wagon and coupe.

This was especially prevalent in the '60s and '70s. Companies offered this type of elongated two-door sports coupes like a '65 Aston Martin DB5. Other companies offered the same body style, but didn't call it a shootout like the Reliant Scimitar. GTE, which sounds like a GTA car. This style of car disappeared for a while, but returned in the 2000s. One of the coolest and strangest of the bunch was nicknamed the clown shoe. It was BMW's Z3 M Couple, and you can see why. Defying conventional definition, the later 2012 Mercedes Benz CLS Class Shooting Brake had four doors instead of two, phew.

And the most recent filming break, the 2018 Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo and Ferrari's first four-wheel drive production model, the FF. People go crazy (bleep) over the FF, myself included. Also the Panamera Turismo and that Mercedes, let's call them minivans, guys, come on. It's almost impossible to talk about trucks without mentioning the hatchback, named for its hatch-style rear door that opens upwards. Many early hatchbacks were actually marketed as small station wagons, such as the 1959 Countryman version of BMC's Austin A40 Farina, predecessor to one of the most iconic hot hatches in history, the Renault 5 Turbo. In reality, the design of the hatchback dates back to the 1930s with the Citroën 11 CV Commerciale.

But the term hatchback didn't appear until the 1970s, when the cars really took off as popular small utility vehicles, especially in Europe. Perhaps the best-known hatchback is the Volkswagen Golf, designed by the genius giant Giorgetto Giugiaro. Who, in 1999, was named automobile designer of the century. The MK1 Golf appeared on the scene in 1974 as VW's next big step up since the Beetle. Before long, it became standard for automotive companies to release hatchback versions of their most popular models. The hatch-door style has even been introduced in luxury vehicles such as the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo and the Audi A7.

If you've ever heard of a hatchback called three or five doors, it's because the hatch is considered its own door in addition to the existing two or four passenger doors. Makes sense. That said, what we see today is more frequently the five-door version, especially in the United States. For some reason we don't like small cars. Even so, our cities are quite crowded and parking is a nightmare. Well, a lot of effort now. (back creaking) Because we're about to talk about limousines. A long, luxurious limousine is popular with presidents, celebrities, and horny teens going to prom. It is driven by a chauffeur with a separation between the driver's compartment and the passenger compartment.

Limousines and limousines are manufactured by converting bodies from existing models. In the United States, the most common versions are cars such as the Town Car, Navigator, Cadillac XTS, Escalade, Chrysler 300, and Hummer H2. Enterprising car enthusiasts have even converted semi-trucks into the world's largest functional limousines. But the longest limousine of all time would have to be the 100-foot-long, 26-wheel American Dream. Just look at this horn! Now look again, and this time, notice that there's a damn helicopter in the back. It was created in 1992 by Jay Ohrberg, known for building movie cars like the De Lorean in "Back to the Future." And the American dream was both impressive and completely unworkable.

It was virtually impossible to drive and eventually fell into disrepair, but not before earning the Guinness Book of World Records title as the world's longest car. Well done, Jay. Like coupe, the word limousine is wrapped up in carriage culture. It originally comes from the name of the Limousine region of France, where shepherds wore a distinctive type of cloak with a raised hood. The roof that extended over the driver's seat in early limousines resembled the hood, hence the name. Originally, limousines without a top over the driver were called saloons. Cadillac was the first to make a motorized saloon in 1916.

But like most of the cars in this video, the meaning of saloon has changed since the early days. Take the classic 1970s Cadillac Brougham landboat for example. A perfect example of the use of saloon in a car that doesn't actually feature this driver, exposed passenger and the closed body style that saloon really means. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, car companies used saloons to specify a higher trim level of a particular model. Chrysler did it with its New Yorker, Ford did it with its Ford Torino. So when it comes to car styles, the name saloon can be a bit of a mouthful.

But here's one that couldn't be simpler: the Microcar. It's a car that is micro! These small vehicles have small engines, usually 700 cubic centimeters or less. Many of which were originally designed for motorcycles. And it is for that reason that many of the first microcars did not even have the ability to reverse. Microcars can be fourwheels, like a BMW Isetta, or three wheels, like the micro-style, Peel P50. - Oh, oh my God. - Microcars emerged after World War II, initially in Germany and the United Kingdom, as an alternative to motorcycles with better weather protection. One of the first to appear was the Bond Minicar from 1949.

This looks like something you would buy your rich son. It only weighed about 300 pounds and used a barely 50cc engine. One of the rarest microcars is the egg-

shape

d Bruutsch Mopetta from the 1950s. Baby Mopetta! Only 14 of these things were produced and only five remain today. But when the Mini burst onto the scene in 1959, microcar customers traded in their single-seaters for these roomier, more powerful vehicles that were still small and affordable. In the '90s, however, microcars made a bit of a comeback with the tiny Smart Fortwo. Another style and variation that can dramatically affect the overall look of a car is the fastback.

A fastback has a single, uninterrupted slope from the roof to the rear bumper that makes the car sleeker and more aerodynamic. The precursors of modern fastbacks are the teardrop-

shape

d cars of the 1930s. And by the early 1940s, a fastback body style could be had from almost every domestic manufacturer. Fastbacks are usually coupes, but can be sedans like the old VW Bugs. An early example of a fastback is this stunning Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic, an extremely rare car. There are only a few of them in the world. One of them changed owners in 2010 for $40 million. Later fastbacks include the classic '67 Mustang, such as the Bullet Mustang, the MK1 Plymouth Barracuda, the Kia Stinger is a fastback, and of course the Porsche 911, which has continuously maintained its fastback appearance from its debut in 1963 until today, very impressive. .

Fastbacks can be confused with notchbacks, but the term notchback actually implies a horizontal trunk lid. It is usually reserved to distinguish it from fastback models of the same car. As in the 1970s, there was a Chevy Vega that came with both versions. Then there is the Kammback, also known as the Kamm tail or K-tail. This automotive styling feature arose from an early need to improve automobile aerodynamics. A Kammback tilts downward like a fastback, but then cuts abruptly vertically. It's like a fastback with the rear cut off. The most common Kammback out there has to be the Toyota Prius.

But the coolest is probably the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, the design developed and named after German aerodynamicist Wunibald Kamm in the 1930s, was found to minimize drag, reduce fuel consumption and provide more stability to the vehicle at speeds. higher. It was the addition of Kammback to the race car that finally allowed Ford to overtake Ferrari at Le Mans. Notable Kammbacks since then include the Ferrari 250 GTO, the '60s, the Datsun 240Z, and technically the latest Tesla Model Y. You know that narrow-in-the-center body with a rounded front and voluptuous rear? I'm not talking about the peanut mobile, I'm talking about what you would wash those big, rock-hard peanuts with.

A refreshing bottle of Coca-Cola. Cola bottle styling can be achieved by pinching the waistline of a car or adding sharper curves over the front and rear wheel arches. Unlike other styles based on horse-drawn carriages, the Coca-Cola bottle design was inspired by aeronautics and the narrow-waisted fuselage of supersonic aircraft. The style was named for its resemblance to a classic contoured Coca-Cola bottle placed on its side. It's actually not far off, as both the bottle and the car's styling were developed by industrial design legend Raymond Lowey. Like I knew it was similar, but I didn't realize it was the same guy.

The man designed everything from cars to toasters, stamps, jukeboxes, coffee shops and airplane interiors. That's called outreach, people. He introduced the sleek new Coca-Cola bottle body in 1962 on the Studebaker Avante Gran Turismo. Chevy followed a year later with a '63 Corvette Stingray and dramatized the style on its '68 Corvette. It became even more widespread in the '70s when Nissan, Mitsubishi and Toyota offered the Coke bottle style on multiple models. A more recent example is the Dodge Challenger, which was also one of the first Coca-Cola bottle style cars in the '70s and, frankly, my favorite.

I'm really glad they kept it for the current one. A completely different class of cars are convertibles. If I have learned anything about convertibles, it is that you have to keep your sunscreen in the glove compartment. If I've learned two things about convertibles, it's that there are many different names for convertibles. First, let's break down the basics, shall we? A convertible is a car with a roof that can be folded or removed. Most are two-door models, although there are four-door convertibles. You can get a hardtop convertible whose retractable roof is made of steel, aluminum, or plastic.

Or a soft top made of materials such as vinyl or canvas. However, the age-old question is: what is the difference between a convertible and a cabriolet? And honestly, it's not much. Cabriolet is essentially just a European term for convertible. It comes from the name of, as you may have guessed, an old carriage that had a hood that could be raised or lowered depending on the weather. But both terms can be used interchangeably and only nerds will bother about it. (man screaming) You know what? To make up our minds once and for all, let's call them convert-briolets, okay?

It rolls straight off the tongue. Then there's the roadster, also known as a spider or spyder, with a Y, which is pretty much the same as a convertible/cabriolet, it just sounds fancier. Technically, a true roadster has two seats and no weather protection whatsoever. The terms roadster and spyder can be used interchangeably, but they have very different origins, okay? Roadster comes from an old American term that designates a good traveling horse, companion. Spyder, with a Y, on the other hand, gets its name from, don't worry, it's not a, yes, it's actually a carriage, from the 19th century.

And it looked very spider-like. This two-door carriage perched high on abnormally large wheels was also called a phaeton. It was faster and more dangerous than others at the time and was therefore used more as a sport than for travel. Modern roadsters have kept alive this emphasis on sportiness and style over safety and functionality. Many original roadsters and spyders eventually evolved to have roof and window options, leading to the terms roadster, spyder, convertible, and cabriolet becoming intertwined. And then the fact that spyder is spelled with an I and a Y adds to the confusion. A good rule of thumb to keep things clear is that if a car is Italian, it is almost always spelled with an I.

And that's because Italians don't have the letter Y in their alphabet. (gun cocking) Great. Another class of two-seater convertible sports cars is the Barchetta. See how it looks like a skiff or speedboat? No wonder, since Barchetta means small boat in Italian. A Barchetta is like a roadster in that it is compact and truly topless. But instead of a full windshield, it has a short, transparent wind deflector. Which, I know, sounds like the same thing as a windshield, but it's not. There are already plenty of convertible cars, and we haven't even gotten to semi-convertibles like the Landaulet yet.

With a name like that, you better believe it used to be a carriage, okay? However, unlike the Brougham, where the driver was exposed and the passengers covered, a Landaulet has a fixed roof over the driver's side, but an adjustable convertible top at the rear for the passengers. They often have a partition separating the driver from passengers, similar to limousines, but these types never became popular as a daily vehicle. There were the type of cars that political figures would use in political processions. But that didn't really last due to safety concerns. A much cooler and more common semi-convertible is the Targa roof.

It's kind of like a convertible coupe. The rear part of the roof is fixed, but there is a removable or folding panel over the front seats. Although it was not the first car to have removable roof panels, the 1966 Porsche 911 Targa popularized the style. It is named after the Targa Florio, a Sicilian road on which Porsche had recently done very well. All types of cars can have Targa Tops, but because Porsche trademarked the name, manufacturers simply can't call it that. The ND Miata RFs had a Targa-style roof and a C4 Corvette. Some people think that T-top and Targa Top can be interchanged, but in reality there is a little difference, because T-tops have a non-removable rigid bar that runs from front to back called a T-bar.

You could say that the shape The most elegant automobile is the Wedge automobile. (upbeat music) Some of the most iconic pointy boys, such as the De Lorean DMC-12, the Lancia Stratos and the Lamborghini Countach, emerged in the '70s and '80s. The true wedge cars were more futuristic concept cars or racing cars experimental ones that were not really practical. Although some of them made it to production. The grandfather of the wedge car is the same one who designed the Golf MK1. The man of many Gs, Giorgetto Giugiaro. My back hurts. Now, it seems crazy to go from something as cool as a wedge car to something as aggressively normal as an SUV, but that's what we're going to do.

The defining features of an SUV are increased ground clearance, a higher ride height, four-wheel drive, and off-road capabilities beyond its role as a passenger car. Sometimes they have two doors like the old Bronco or Blazer, or four doors like most of today's SUVs. There was a time when SUVs were produced in a body-on-frame style, where the separate body was mounted on the chassis of a light truck. This method differentiates SUVs from crossovers, which are smaller but similar vehicles with less off-road capabilities and get better fuel economy. Which use a unibody construction and a car-based platform. An example of a perfect crossover is the Toyota RAV4 from the mid-90s.

What really opened this type of vehicle to the market segment. But now that SUVs are frequently manufactured with unibody construction, the delineation is a bit debatable. And SUV has basically become an umbrella term that includes crossover. Very well, that's all. Those are the different types of bodies I have for you today. Let me know in the comments if there are any that I didn't really cover that you'd like to know more about, like trucks. Guys, make sure to subscribe to Donut. We do a show every day, it's pretty crazy. We're all going a little crazy about it, okay.

We do it for you. Follow Donut at donutmedia, follow me at @nolanjsykes on Instagram and Twitter. Be kind, until next time.