Forgotten Classic: Nash Cooper Airflyte Spied on California Highway

Just when a suddenly busy day job combined with a heat wave to produce a certain blogospherical languor around here, reader Daniel Lu sent some photos of a car we'd featured 9 summers ago, still serving its owner with style on a California highway.

It's Dennis Varni's Nash Cooper Airflyte, a stock-looking '51 Nash Rambler Airflyte wagon hiding a modern (as in BMW) Mini Cooper chassis. The Cooper wheels behind Nash hubcaps are a clue, but you'd need to get close to the car to see that, just as we did back in June 2017, when Dennis gave us a tour of his garage*…  

Here's that front-drive Mini Cooper powertrain, for anyone who missed our 2017 post...

The bathtub shape of early Fifties Nash styling somehow became friendlier when it was scaled down by stylist Theo Ulrich for the 100-inch wheelbase Rambler series, which first appeared in 1950...

…but that was as a single model, a convertible here shown serving Lois Lane in an episode of TV's Adventures of Superman series that ran from '52 to '58.

The convertible coupe with roof side rails, B and C pillars in place to provide rigidity with Nash's innovative unit body-chassis, was joined by the wagon and Country Club hardtop without the B pillar (below) in 1951.  As part of Nash chief George Mason's strategy to avoid associating small size with cheapness, the Ramblers were well-equipped, with standard heaters and radios, and the ragtop came with a power-operated top. Body styles were unchanged for '52.

Nash offered a new Pinin Farina Rambler design in '53 for the same 3 models. In keeping with the "well-equipped" theme, the '53s came with a continental kit, an external metal-covered spare tire to save trunk space. The cars echoed Farina's design for the big '52 Nash line, and lost a bit of their cheery bathtub character, but kept their skirted front wheels, which weren't exposed until '55, after George Mason died.  This resulted in a useful decrease in turning circle...

For 1954, Nash launched Rambler 4-door sedans and wagons on a 108" wheelbase to go with the 2-door body styles, and merged with Hudson to form American Motors in May of that year. Hudson-badged Ramblers were offered by Hudson dealers, an early example of what the British called "badge engineering." A prospering US, recently emerged from the Korean War, enjoyed an economic boom that would drive record car sales in 1955, the year of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. President Eisenhower would sign the Federal-Aid Highway Act in '56, promoting the Interstate highway system. The winds of change were blowing, and compact cars were just part of those changes...

Photo Credits:

All recent photos of the Nash Cooper in action were generously donated by Daniel Lu.  Engine and wheel photos are by the author.  Other photos were sourced as follows:

Monochrome convertible:  Smith & Wesson Forum.

Country Club in color:  GAA Classic Cars.

Yellow '53 convertible:  Consumer Reports.

Monochrome '54 wagon:  American Motors

*Footnote:

Our original post on the Nash Cooper Airflyte was posted June 5, 2017 as "Your Grandpa's Nash Reimagined".  Later that year, we posted photo essays on Dennis Varni's other cars, including a Jaguar D-Type, Lamborghini Miura, Graber-bodied Alfa Romeo 2500, Maserati 200S, and a unique Bulletnose Studebaker woody wagon.

Roadside Attraction: LeMay Museum Part 2-----Independents and Oddballs

Among the roughly 3,000 cars the LeMay family collected, there were plenty from what we'd today label as independent manufacturers.  In this context "independent" means not part of Detroit titans Ford, Chrysler or General Motors.  These car makers included Pierce-Arrow in Buffalo, Willys Overland in Toledo, and Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg in Auburn, Indiana.  And of course they included Detroit's Packard, who produced the cars above during their time as the leader in the upper crust car market.  On the left, a 1923 model, next to a blue '30 and a gray '31, all with Packard's inline 8-cylinder side-valve engine.

The 1919 Stanley Model 735B, made in Watertown, MA, showed the independence of the company's founding brothers F.E. and F.O. Stanley by avoiding an internal combustion engine altogether.  Like all other Stanleys made starting in 1897, it was powered by a steam engine, in this case a rear-mounted 2-cylinder, 20 horsepower unit, while the boiler with famous safety valves was at the front, behind those sleepy-looking headlights...

The Duesenberg J was the flagship of the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg and was featured in Part 1 of this report, but we couldn't resist a closeup of the radiator and hood ornament that fronted the 265 hp,  32-valve twin-cam inline eight.

The 1933 Hupmobile Series I-326 below featured a 302 cubic inch, inline 8 cylinder L-head engine sending 109 hp to the rear wheels through a 3-speed gearbox.  Detroit's Hupp Motor Car Company would fold in 1940, after making the rear-drive Skylark model based on body dies from the discontinued Cord 810 front-drive car from Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg.  For cars from the A-C-D combine, keep reading...

This Auburn Model 850Y cabriolet appeared the year after that Hupmobile, with sweeping new clamshell fenders and a lower, more streamlined profile than earlier Auburns.  The inline eight made by A-C-D's Lycoming Division produced 115 hp from 280 cubic inches, and sent power to the rear wheels through a 3-speed manual gearbox.  

The rumble seat at the rear of the 850Y offered space for 2 passengers, while others could huddle out of the weather under the convertible top.  The colorful, highly detailed '34 styling was part of A-C-D head E.L. Cord's  effort to attract sales during the Great Depression...

So was his second effort to offer an advanced car with front-wheel drive.  The Cord 810 stunned crowds when in appeared at New York's Auto Show in November 1935.  It followed the front-drive Cord L-29 offered from 1930 to '32, but didn't resemble that car, or any other car, in most ways.  For one thing, there was no traditional radiator grille in Gordon Buehrig's streamlined body design; chromed horizontal louvers wrapped around what was quickly named the "coffin nose".  Then there were those hidden headlights, which you cranked up out of the teardrop fenders at night...  

Along with hiding the headlights, Buehrig got rid of the running boards that were then standard features below the door sills (as on that blue Auburn).  The Cord 810 was low enough that you didn't need that step to get in.  A 288 cubic inch V8 drove the front wheels through a 4-speed, electric pre-selector gearbox, and made 115 hp. In 1937, the 812 version added a supercharger that raised power to 190.  Cord also offered Sportsman and Phaeton convertible models, and sticker prices ranged from $1,995 to $3,575. 

With the Great Depression grinding on, though, fewer than 3,000 drivers got a chance to sit behind this control panel, set below a windshield that could be opened for ventilation...

Two years after the last cars offered by Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg, Packard built the stately Super 8 convertible for 1939.   The 320 cubic inch inline eight made 135 hp, and the chassis, introduced in '37, featured independent front suspension.

All the fascination wasn't concentrated at the top end of the size or price scale during this period. This 1939 Crosley convertible featured a 2-cylinder, air-cooled engine driving the rear wheels and making about 120 hp less than the Packard, but boasted 50 mpg fuel economy.  The convertible from the Cincinnati company sold for $325 in '39, its first year.  On the same 80 inch wheelbase as the BMC Mini that would show up 2 decades later, it's a charmer...  

Like the Crosley, the 1937 Fiat Topolino (Italian for little mouse) was a front-engined, rear-drive car, and its 569cc inline four made about the same power.  Drivers could make the most of that power with a 4-speed gearbox.  Top speed was similar to the Crosley, around 50 to 53 mph.

The American Bantam was a version of the English Austin built in Butler, PA.  The black and yellow 1939 model at the LeMay is a Hollywood roadster on a 75 inch wheelbase.  The 46 cubic inch inline 4 made 20 hp.  The American Bantam Car Company made the very first Jeep prototype in 1940 in answer to US Army specifications for a light, all-terrain vehicle.  Though Willys and Ford got the big production contracts, Bantam produced Jeeps at the Butler factory throughout the war, and never went back to car production.

Crosley went back to car production after WWII, with a new engine, a 44 cubic inch (750cc) overhead cam inline four that became a favorite of amateur road racers.  From 1949, Crosley offered a 2-door, 4 seat sedan, a wagon, a Hotshot 2 seat roadster good for 85 mph, and this little fire truck, one of which hung out at our neighborhood amusement park near Chicago. 

Before the end of car production in 1952, there was also a fiberglass roadster body called the Skorpion made for the Crosley chassis by a California firm.  The LeMay Museum acquired theirs, one of maybe a hundred, in 2020...

Sales of microcars took off in Europe during the Suez Canal crisis in 1956, and one of those was the Messerschmitt KR200 built from 1955 to '64.  A  rear-mounted 191cc two-stroke single cylinder powered the single rear wheel and offered 4 speeds forward or in reverse because crankshaft rotation could be reversed.  The sideways-opening canopy offered access but not much ventilation.

The Isetta 300 made by BMW under license from Italy's Iso was also popular in this period. With a rear-mounted 298cc single-cylinder air cooled 4-stroke sending 13 hp to single rear wheel (4 wheels were an option) through a 4-speed gearbox, it was briefly imported into the US in BMW's 4-wheeled version.  That the design originated from a firm making refrigerators (Iso was from isotherm) sheds new light on that sideways-opening front door, doesn't it?

The LeMay has a collection of pickup trucks from the period before pickups were lifestyle accessories, and were likely to be driven by farmers like my uncle, for example.  The 1947 Studebaker M15 pickup could carry hay bales or construction materials on a 120-inch wheelbase with 80 hp from its flathead six.  It's a friendly-looking thing...

But then, Studebaker seemed to specialize in friendly-looking vehicles during this period. The South Bend, Indiana firm made history with the first truly modern postwar car body with Loewy Studios' design for their '47 model, especially the Starlight Coupe with its wrap-around rear window under a cantilevered roof.  For the 1950 model year, they updated this car with the famous bullet nose...

And by 1951, the year Studebaker brought out their V8 engine, they curved the grille below the nose into a kind of smile.  If the Studey Bullet Nose doesn't make you smile, you may have no sense of humor...

Studebaker's 1963 Avanti went from design sketches to running prototypes in a year, after a top-secret effort by Loewy Studios designers huddled in Palm Springs with an assignment to revive Studebaker's reputation for cutting-edge design. The 4-place GT coupe featured front disc brakes, a built-in padded roll bar, and an aerodynamic fiberglass body with air intake below the bumper, with covered headlights above it.  Supercharged versions of the standard V8 were available to customers, and the car set speed records at Bonneville.

These photos show the inward-curving flanks of the "Coke bottle" fuselage and the rearward slant to the wheel openings that imbue the form with a sense of movement.  Over 4,600 Avantis were sold before Studebaker abandoned US car production during the 1964 model year.  Ford's Mustang arrived to attract the youth market in the middle of that year, and Chevy's 1967 Camaro styling always seemed like a smooth jazz version of the edgy, cool jazz, hipster Avanti.  

Kaiser-Frazer founded its car building operation in 1945 after Henry Kaiser's shipyards had supplied Liberty ships for the war effort.  Though the company tried front-drive prototypes, the production cars offered were mechanically prosaic, with Continental flathead sixes like those in Checker cabs driving the rear wheels.  Body designer Howard "Dutch" Darrin was allowed to supersede his original, slab-sided body design with this glassy, curvy new shell for 1951, and Kaiser offered possibly the first hatchbacks, with up and down opening tailgates in 2 and 4-door versions, in lieu of station wagons.  They kept the outdated flathead six power, though, offering supercharging in 1954.  This 1953 Dragon model with fabric roof cover and special interior trim made 118 hp, but its sticker price of $3,924 would've bought a Chrysler V8.  Because of that price tag, Kaiser sold only 1,277 Dragons.

Ironically, though Kaiser and Willys passenger car production ended in the US after the 1955 model year, Kaiser's Jeep division outlived all the other independents. Kaiser bought Willys- Overland in 1953 for its Jeep division and related government contracts, and it kept American Motors going after that company bought Jeep from Kaiser in 1970.  Renault took a share in AMC Jeep in 1978 and sold the whole company to Chrysler in 1987, with Fiat taking a share in 2009, and Fiat Chrysler merging with PSA (Citroen and Peugeot) to become Stellantis in 2021.  The constant in the three most recent takeovers is the SUV boom in the US, which made the Jeep division a prize in all of them. 

Photo Credits:

3rd, 6th & 11th from top (Stanley, Auburn & Cord) + 3rd & 8th from bottom ((Kaiser + pickup trucks):  Duncan Mackenzie

10 from top (Cord Control Panel):  Wikimedia

All other photos are by the author.

Forgotten Classics: Lancia Flavias by Pininfarina, Vignale and Zagato

In the late Fifties, the Pesenti family that had taken over Lancia after Gianni Lancia's racing expenditures had bankrupted the firm sought a design to fill the gap between small V4 Appia and upper-crust V6 Flaminia. Engineer Antonio Fessia came up with an aluminum horizontally-opposed four, initially in 1.5 liter form, driving the front wheels through a 4-speed transaxle and with 4-wheel disc brakes (2 firsts for an Italian car). The flat four was the first for Lancia, which had gained fame with its V4 Lambda in the Twenties before producing V8s and then the first production V6 with the 1950 Aurelia.  The body design of the Flavia sedan, however, appeared to have been designed (unlike, for example, the Citroen DS) to show no hint of its advanced engineering. Instead, it was boxy, slab-sided and charmless. The year after production started, Lancia attempted to remedy this, not by restyling the sedan, but by launching 3 sports versions by 3 different carrozzeria: a coupe shown above by Pininfarina, a cabriolet by VIgnale, and a lightweight Sport by Zagato. The Pininfarina coupe turned out to be the most popular of the three, with production topping 19,000 units, most of these being the 1.8 liter.

The instrument panel signaled the deluxe GT character of the car, which substituted a steeply-angled floor shift for the column shift in the sedan.  The roof and side window design were similar to that on Pininfarina's Ferrari 250 GT 2+2, though the Lancia received horizontal tail lights...

Starting in 1962, there was also a cabriolet version designed by Giovanni Michelotti and built by Vignale.  The car's restrained lines seemed aimed at the same clientele of doctors or lawyers that adopted the Pininfarina coupe. The dark blue over tan color scheme of this example seems to suit its personality.

Unlike the later PF coupes, the Vignale cabriolet used the same instrument cluster as the Flavia sedan, a decision that seemed to undercut the sporting character of the car. Though Flavia berlinas originally came with a steering column-mounted shift lever to go with the less-sportive ribbon speedometer; the coupes and cabrios had a floor shift controlling 4 speeds.

Of the 1,601 specimens of the Vignale Flavia produced, only 40 were confirmed to have right-hand drive like the silver example below, which also features the optional hardtop.  Production of the Vignale cabrio ended after 1967.

The Zagato-bodied Flavia Sport, also introduced in 1962, was aluminum-bodied, and equipped with either a 1.5 or 1.8 liter four and 4-speed transaxle, though some higher-performance fuel-injected 1.8 versions featured a 5-speed.  Just under 630 examples rolled out of Zagato's workshops, including 3 prototypes, and 512 of these had the larger engine. They all, however, had somewhat polarizing styling by Ercole Spada.  This included a folded version of the vaguely shield-shaped grille, and chunky proportions belying the car's light weight.

Like Vignale, Zagato adopted the Flavia sedan's instrument cluster, and it seems a bit more surprising in this context. 

The rear view shows off side windows that curve into the roof, recalling the Panoramica* show cars Zagato built in the late Forties and early Fifties, but unlike on those cars the rear windows create a discontinuity with the front door windows.  The backlight is concave, anticipating a theme that would appear on some GM production cars, and the low rectangular shape of the rear wheel arch seem out of character with the car's sporting intentions.  The Zagato and Vignale cars, unlike the PF coupe, use tail lights from the Flavia sedan.

Production of Zagato's Sport ended after 1967, and Ercole Spada's proposal for a successor car reflected contemporary trends at the same time it suggested a design language that could be applied to the rest of Lancia's product line. 

The Flavia Super Sport Zagato prototype shown above and below, one of two built in 1967-68, represented Spada's response to the creased, wedge-shaped cars then appearing from Giugiaro at Ghia. Spada managed to include plenty of curves as well, in profile, plan and section. This car, from the Lopresto collection, is the 2 liter prototype from 1968; a 1.8 liter car to the same design appeared in the previous year.

This modernist take on the traditional shield-shaped Lancia grille gives the nose more character than the grille on Zagato's Fulvia Sport, or on the various 1960s Lancias from Pininfarina, Touring or Vignale.  Like the crisply creased and sleekly proportioned profile of the Super Sport, it could have served as a template for establishing a strong Lancia identity across the rest of the line.

Unlike the Zagato Sport, the Super Sport received an instrument panel designed for the car.

In the photo below, the 1.8 liter Super Sport prototype shows off its concave rear window, which is better integrated into the form than on the previous Sport model.  The 1.8 liter engine in it was actually a new unit based on the Type 820 two-liter, and with the same 80mm stroke. Elio Zagato, son of founder Ugo, liked this car so well he used it as his personal transport for years.  It's possible to imagine a whole line of Lancias based around this design, including sport wagons, sedans, and spiders.  Instead, company management decided to pursue a less risky path...

Not surprisingly given its financial trouble and a need to cast a wider net, what Lancia did authorize for production next was a complete Flavia Type 819 sedan restyle that appeared in May 1967. Next, a new Pininfarina Type 820 coupe was the last Lancia designed before Fiat took over the company late in 1969, and was introduced at the Geneva Show in March 1969. Engine displacement was increased to 1,991 cc, placing the car in the increasingly popular 2-liter class. Fuel-injected and carbureted versions were offered from the beginning.  The sedan would gain a new grille with the 2000 engine, losing the Flavia name in March 1971.  Your faithful scribe has been hanging out with this carbureted, 4-speed PF coupe for half a dozen years...

It's a 1970 model, and though at first glance looks like a light restyle of the 1962 design, there are almost no interchangeable body panels between the two. Drivers faced the same instrument layout, but initially the only wood was on the steering wheel.  Fiat changed that for 1972, reintroducing wood veneer on the dash. 

Our example has the Lancia Flavia nameplate flanking the trunk latch, with a small "2000" script above the right tail light.  For the 1972 model year, Fiat would rename the series Lancia 2000, and drop the Flavia nameplate.  Of the special-bodied models, only the Pininfarina coupe was continued once the 1.5 and 1.8 liter engines were dropped.  According to Richard Langworth, 6,791 of the the Flavia 2000 and 2000 series coupes with the Type 820 engine were built.  Other changes on the PF 2000 coupes for '72 were deletion of the hood scoop, adoption of bright metal trim around the grille, and substituting stainless steel for chromed bumpers.  All appear on the silver HF below our subject car.

As with the smaller, more rally-oriented Fulvia V4 cars, Lancia offered an HF version of the Flavia coupe, renamed 2000HF when this version was launched late in 1971.  Only 1,229 left the factory before production closed for 1975. Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection replaced the Kugelfischer mechanical injection offered on earlier Flavias, and a 5-speed transaxle and power steering were also offered.  Also new for '72 were Girling disc brakes replacing the 4 Dunlops on earlier cars. In 1970, the 14" alloy wheels were standardized, replacing the 15" steel ones that appeared on the earliest Series 2 PF coupes like mine.

This 1973 example shows off alloy wheels and a chrome-framed, black-finished grille.  Under the hood, the geometry of the engine is concealed, unlike on Lancia's V4s and V6s, by intake plumbing and accessories. One misses the visual clarity of the V-engined Lancias, but specialists liked the low profile and center of mass, and employed the drivetrain in a couple of mid-engined prototypes.*

The HF has the wood veneer dash and instrument cluster Fiat brought back, but details are different from the dash in our 1970 car; for one, the 3 small instruments centered in the binnacle are now in a 2 over 1 arrangement.  Despite the 2000 HF's refinement, Lancia's sporting program was headed elsewhere under Fiat management.  A Fulvia HF* won the Monte Carlo Rally the year before this '73 HF was built, and the mid-engined Lancia Stratos* would win the World Rally Championship in 1974, '75 and '76.  In the WRC, Lancia's all-wheel drive Delta Integrales would take all Constructors' Championships from 1987-92, and 4 Drivers' Championships.  But the Stratos story has been told in our blog before*, and the Delta story will need to wait for another day.

*Footnote:  Zagato Panoramica bodies on Maserati and Ferrari chassis appear in "Body by Zagato Part 1:  Ferrari and Maserati in the Fifties", posted here on March 31, 2020.  Fulvia HFs were surveyed here in "Hi-Fi: Racing Red Elephants from Lancia", posted Oct. 3, 2016, while mid-engined Flavia-powered specials were the focus of "The Etceterini Files Part 15", posted Oct. 26, 2018. The Lancia Stratos is featured, along with a doomed effort to revive it, in "Lost Cause Lancias", our post for February 15, 2018. 

Photo credits: 
Top & 2nd from top:  bringatrailer.com

3rd:  Wikimedia
4th & 5th:  bringatrailer.com
6th:  RM Sotheby's Auctions
7th thru 9th: bringatrailer.com
10th thru 12th:  George Havelka

13th:  carrozzieri-italiani.com

14th:  classicdriver.com

15th thru 18th:  the author

19th thru bottom:  classicautoinvest.fr