GM Media Archive The bubble top reemerged in the mid 1980s for this 1985 Buick Wildcat concept car. GM Media Archive The bubble-topped 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special was a two-passenger sports car concept exhibited at that year’s GM Motorama. Exceptions were most likely publicity photos and auto shows. GM Media Archive Bill Mitchell’s Corvette-based XP-700 had a clear bubble detachable hardtop that probably received little use. True bubble top cars with a fully transparent roof were not practical due to serious heating issues in daytime, but the bubble top idea did not vanish. GM’s styling history toying with the “Bubble” Shown is the “double bubble” Skylark IV proposal. GM expended hundreds of millions of dollars for these re-engineered ’61 models, so let’s take a closer look. Mitchell’s approach to design did away with the rounded lines and domed hoods that Earl preferred, and replaced those features with crisp, lean-looking forms. This was at the point when the design work for all-new ’61 models began. He was appointed as the head of Design in late 1958, when the founder of the styling department, Harley Earl, retired. The 1962 Bel Air Sport Coupe is also highly sought after.Īn all-new look for GM’s cars emerged for 1961 under the leadership Bill Mitchell, GM Design chief. Chevrolet kept the bubble-top roof once more, in 1962 - but only for the Bel Air Sport Coupe - then it was gone from GM in favor of more formal notchback designs. These cars are often referred to as a “bubble top.” (The two-door hardtops using the longer C-body - Oldsmobile’s Ninety-Eight, Buick’s Electra/Electra 225 and Cadillac’s Series 62 coupe and Coupe deVille - had a slightly different rear window and are generally not considered bubble tops.) The 1961 B-body two-door hardtops are among the most desirable of GM’s early-1960s automobiles, especially Chevrolet’s 1961 Impala and Pontiac’s 1961 Ventura, which are at the top of many enthusiasts’ “want” lists. GM took the idea to its apex more than six decades ago with its 1961 two-door hardtop models that made use of the full-size B-body design. For instance, GM’s 1959 models had wraparound windshields that arched up into the steel roof, and curved rear glass that had the profile of a bubble top. Steel-roofed, semi-bubble-top cars emerged from designers’ drawing boards in the latter part of the 1950s. Even tinting the Plexiglas and including a retractable roof shade did not solve the interior heating problem. However, common sense prevailed driving a car with a transparent roof was like driving a greenhouse on wheels, as was shown with the 1954-’56 Ford Skyliner and 1954-’55 Mercury Skyliner featuring a tinted transparent roof panel. Automotive writers predicted that bubble-topped cars would soon be in production. also exhibited concept cars with the bubble-top theme, such as the 1955 Lincoln Futura (the car altered into the “Batmobile” for the ’60s “Batman” TV show). General Motors debuted various bubble-top concept cars at its traveling auto show, the GM Motorama, with cars such as the 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special, 1956 Buick Centurion and its trio of turbine-powered Firebird concepts. Inspiration for the bubble-top theme most likely came from fighter planes of the time, such as the F-80 Shooting Star and the F-86 Sabre Jet. One of the more interesting automotive styling ideas to emerge in the 1950s was the “bubble top.” It was a popular concept in the early 1960s among customizers such as Daryl Starbird, who completed his first bubble-topped full custom (the Predicta) in early 1960. These “bubble top” Chevrolets are among the most desired by Chevy enthusiasts. Impala, Impala Super Sport and Bel Air Sport Coupes, all built on the B-body platform, received the bubble-like rear window. A look back at GM’s hottest hardtops – The “Bubble Top” invasion
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