Four-door hardtops

(Photo by Richard Lentinello.)

The June 2011 issue of my Hemmings Classic Car Magazine arrived the other day.
I’ve gotten so I really like Classic Car Magazine, largely because of its head-honcho, Richard Lentinello.
He seems biased toward the great cars of my youth, American cars of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s.
I suppose this is the love of Boomers, although I’m pre-Boomer, born in 1944.
On the cover is a ’57 Olds Fiesta station-wagon, pictured above.
“35 fun-to-drive station-wagons you must own,” the cover blared.
“I don’t want 35 station-wagons!” I said.
The Fiesta was a special breed, a molding of the pillarless four-door hardtop with the station-wagon body.
The pillarless four-door hardtop was an engineering nightmare.
The rear doors were hinged on pillars that don’t go into the top like a sedan.
The body had to be strong enough to not sag out of alignment, and misalign the doors.
That B-pillar also had to accommodate closing latches for the front doors.
But most important, it had to not fall out of alignment, to allow the doors to close properly.
The four-door hardtop debuted in the 1956 model-year.
Even Chevrolet had one, pictured below.



The roof contributed to body stiffness.
But it’s long and open, spanning two doors per side.
At least it’s not a convertible, which had no top-bracing at all, and had to rely on additional frame members.
Convertibles were horrible, prone to cowl-shake, the shaking of the front cowl which mounts the dashboard and the windshield.

A TR250 (very similar to my car — same color).

My TR250 had that. It was an open roadster with a vinyl top. It was an aluminum ladder.
I remember the first time I road-tested a 1972 Chevrolet Vega GT, how much stiffer it was. It was a two-door GT coupe, with a steel top, and B-pillars clear to the roof.
Imagine flipping a four-door hardtop.
Looks nice but no rollover protection at all.
Part of what adds rollover protection to recent cars is B-pillars to the roof.
Also of note are the famous Oldsmobile flipper hubcaps, the darling of hotrodders and car-customizers in the late ‘50s.
By 1957 Oldsmobile was becoming a flaccid turkey, bloated and heavy.
Early ‘50s Oldsmobiles were far more attractive, especially the Rocket-88; essentially a Chevrolet with a modern overhead-valve V8 engine.