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'33 Silver Arrow work-up


Mahoning63

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Thanks. Have a personal preference for fastbacks when the rear overhang is short, notchbacks when longer. GM fastbacks of mid-thirties to 1940 are good example of former. Silver Arrow has a longer rear overhang, actually was one of the first to market and very advanced. My notchback version would not have the Silver Arrow's severe inward taper of the body as it wraps around the rear fenders and forms the decklid.

Here's a convertible version on 136" wheebase.

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Edited by Mahoning63 (see edit history)
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Here's a variation that attempts to work within more "hardpoints" of the production 836/1236, specifically the shorter rear overhang and its consequent bumper location. Also employs the designers trick of a dropped window sill for a lower look, as Pierce had long done on its phaetons and sporty touring cars. Windshield and roof are lowered a bit from last work-up. What strikes me is how straightforward it would have been/would be to adapt this coachwork to a production chassis. If the production grill were to be used, which would look wonderful, the effort would largely be a matter of fabricating a new body. Composite wood construction would allow sheet aluminum to be used for the exterior surfaces, which would make life much easier for the fab shop. Perhaps wider seats from a '36-38 coupe, were they available, could be used. Would probably leave steering wheel location as is rather than attempt to move outboard as I think the Silver Arrow did. Doors could easily be front hinged and production door handles could be used. Decklid might be a bit high for this work-up.

Update: lowered the decklid and roof slightly.

9/8/13 Update: added vent windows, lengthened doors.

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Edited by Mahoning63 (see edit history)
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Hi

Great-looking Silver Arrow variations! Oh, the lost opportunities the new ‘34 management let pass are mind-boggling. While they had a reputation for very conservative styling as well as bespoke quality, the Silver Arrow demonstrated they could break out with something radical yet still very elegant. What a shame once they’d presented such a progressive concept they then failed to follow up with a production line that really embodied those idea. The ‘34-’35 Silver Arrow coupes are nice but a rather pale effort by comparison to the original.

So, in the vein of follow-up Silver Arrow variations, discussions between myself and Mahoning63 inspired these designs and a watercolor rendering. The black & white line drawings are developed sketches, a bit rough. Some are from the approach that Jimmy Hughes and Phil Wright might have taken….then a heavy influence of Letourneur & Marchand took hold! Enjoy!post-89230-143142180236_thumb.jpg

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Wonderful watercolor and sketches, Steve. Really highlights the inherent potential of the basic Silver Arrow design.

As to mgmt and the '34s, one wonders when the '34 cars were actually conceived. If it was just after the January '33 NY Auto Show, which would have given Pierce 9 mos to tool the '34 cars - a typical period for wood composite construction from what I understand - then mgmt would have been informed by feedback on the Silver Arrow and offerings from other makes, particularly Packard. I read in an auto design history book written many decades ago that Pierce did a survey of the Silver Arrow show car soon after the NY Auto Show and found that folks liked its slanted back but not its straight through front fenders. This turned out, of course, to be opposite of what the buying public ultimately chose over the coming decades but in 1933 it appears that auto design and public preferences were far from settled. It may explain why Pierce went in the direction that it did with the production version of the Silver Arrow in '34. But there's more...

Look at these designs from the May 1933 Chicago World Fair's Century of Progress. Included are the Silver Arrow, Ford-Briggs rear-engined precursor to Lincoln Zephyr (not sure if this was initially at the show, which ran for a year), Cadillac Sixteen Aerodynamic Coupe, Packard Dietrich Sport Sedan and Duesenberg Twenty Grand. The Packard was shown at the earlier NY Show in January and I always felt that it directly influenced Pierce's '34 Club Sedan, though I have no direct evidence to prove it other than the obvious design similarity. The Caddy Aero Coupe may well have influenced the production Silver Arrow as much as the survey did, and Pierce may have created it in short order after the Caddy appeared at the Chicago Fair in May. The production Silver Arrow is really nothing more than a new roof and decklid grafted onto the 2-dr coupe's rear lower quarter panels and riding on the 5 inch longer wheelbase, the result of the 144" wheelbase's 5 inch longer front doors. If all this is true, then Pierce was following more than leading. The late-arriving '34 836A with its hint of extended decklid is a mystery car. Where did Pierce come up with the idea for it? Was it earlier influence from Studebaker and that company's strong feeling that the public wanted a larger trunk, which they touted with their '34 Land Cruiser? Did the Duesy Twenty Grand or ealier Stutz Monte Carlo sedans with integral trunk influence it? Why didn't the Club Sedan get the treatment? Was that car conceived too early to be influenced by these other forces? There is so much that is unknown about Pierce thinking in those days.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Came across this article on the Silver Arrow many years ago, contained some interesting info. One thing that jumped out at me was at the end where they said that Phil Wright wanted to do a "Golden Arrow" next. Hmm... wonder what that would have looked like?

Inspired, fiddled with the colors of the Silver Arrow Victoria work-up to make it look gold. Made the doors straight-cut so that when opened, no running board would interfere with ingress/egress, and show a production door handle and front door hinges. In another attempt got the car to come out white, which would have looked sweet with gold accents in addition to all the chrome.

Edit: just reread the article. Contains a few not-so-small mistakes.

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Edited by Mahoning63 (see edit history)
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  • 3 weeks later...

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