Page 4 - The Kellner Affair Sample Pages

CHAPTER 1: THE RISE Of AERODyNAMICS
In 1930, Voisin presented designs on chassis that set new outer limits for extreme hood length coupled with lack of packaging.
(L’ Illustration)
such a long time ago anyway. Let us step back to the world of the summer concours d’élégance basking in the sun, the autumn Salon de l’Automobile where new models could be ordered for next year’s season, and where aerodynamic car design was beginning to change things permanently. This story starts with the people who designed these cars, their background, the currents and trends that in uenced them, their talent, their aspirations, and their artistic endeavor.
The French, late 1920s to early 1930s
By the late 1920s, French automobile design had become aesthetically very appealing, but at the same time pointlessly statuesque and regal: a at and beautifully designed chromed radiator, anked by large and handsomely balanced free-standing headlights gave way to an inordinately long, low and suggestive hood that terminated in a narrow and at windshield that was only marginally inclined. In most cases, long, owing open fenders over the large-diameter wheels swept into exquisitely fabricated horizontal running boards, although more sporting efforts such as several of the Delage D8 chassis bodied by Figoni and lowered Voisin chassis could be tted with cycle fenders and a step plate, thereby doing away with the running board altogether.
On longer chassis, the body itself often terminated pleasingly over the rear axle line, and ended with a non-integrated and squared-off trunk with one or two vertical spares attached – although some few bodies carried a pair of encased sidemounts in the front fenders, American style. The sides of the hood and body remained at or had only little curvature, but had become an aesthetic playground for graceful beltline interpretations where each carrossier sought to de ne his own recognizable signature style, ranging from the elegant and austere to wild Art Deco fantasies. In 1930, Voisin
The 1930 Bucciali brochure exempli ed the fascinating and graphically beautiful but arid nature of Art Deco car design. (Peter Larsen)
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