The GM bump

The GM-bump on a radical ’55 Chevy BelAir hardtop hotrod.

The March 2013 issue (#102) of my Hemmings Classic Car magazine has a feature on “Cars of the ‘60s.”

Photo by Richard Lentinello.

To my mind, the cars of the ‘60s aren’t that notable, except among them are one of the prettiest automobile styling jobs ever marketed, the ’61 Pontiac bubble-top two-door hardtop.
On the cover is a 1960 Studebaker Lark convertible.
The Lark was first marketed in the 1959 model-year, and as such trumped the Big Three.

Photo by Jim Donnelly.

The Lark was a first compact-car. The Big Three didn’t get around to marketing compacts until the following year, 1960.
That would be the Ford Falcon, the Chevrolet Corvair, and the Plymouth Valiant.
And only Ford got it right. The Corvair was so different The General had to bring out a Falcon clone, the Chevy II.
The Valiant had the right moves, but its styling was over-the-top. Chrysler-Corporation didn’t get it right until the 1963 model-year. The Valiant became an appliance.
So the Lark is pretty pedestrian, but it got the formula right: a downsized full-size Detroit sedan.
I notice the Lark has a slight vestige of what I called “the GM-bump.”
General Motors couldn’t get away from the curved rear fender.
Their cars of the early ‘50s are straight along the bottom of the side-window, but had pronounced fender-bulges.
Special models, for example the Olds Fiesta and the Buick Skylark dipped the side-window bottom to follow the fender-bulge.
That side-window dip became a trademark. Even the most basic GM models had it, what I called “the GM-bump.” Look at Chevrolet’s cheapest model from that time, the 150. Only the stationwagons didn’t have it.
Ford didn’t have it, nor did Chrysler, although their fins might start where the GM-bump was.
As the decade advanced, the GM-bump became ridiculous. Of course, styling of the late ’50 GM cars was overdone, and Chrysler went wild with fins.
By contrast, the Lark looks almost sensible.
A box with wheels and a motor. Studebaker’s version of the Ford Falcon. (Or should I say the Ford Falcon was Ford’s version of the Lark?)
But look carefully, and you’ll see they couldn’t get away from the GM-bump.
The dip along the bottom edge of the rear-window is slight, but there.

• “The General” is General Motors (“GM”).
• “Studebaker” last assembled cars in Canada March 16, 1966, and shut down its South Bend (IN) plant in 1963.