I was a graphic designer for many years before I found my way into the warm, welcoming embrace of automotive journalism, and one of the things I learned in my years of designing all manner of things is that if you want to add a bit of life and action to an image, make it diagonal. Designs with a stable horizontal or vertical alignment can be balanced or grounded, but they’re not going to have the exciting dynamism (to steal all carmaker’s favorite PR word, maybe now eclipsed by “DNA”) of a diagonally-oriented design. Maybe that’s why there’s so many images in brochures of cars climbing hills, very diagonally.
I found three nice examples without even trying very hard: that wonderful Steyr Puch 500, possibly the best license-built Fiat 500 variant of them all, is the one up top there, and it’s climbing a pretty significant hill: a 30% grade, according to the brochure, the most it can climb. I wonder how fast it can climb that grade? My Changli can climb hills, but my kid can run up them faster – this is why I wonder.
That Corvair is blasting up a good hill, too, and that one is the Monza, the first turbocharged car (well, along with the Oldsmobile Jetfire) to be sold in real quantities. These Monzas could make 150 hp, which is really damn impressive for an early-to-mid-’60s car. Also, why does the wind just seem to be affecting the kid? Oh, maybe the windshield?
Here’s the third hill-climber, a Toronado, which allegedly, is more in than “ho-hum” driving, a pretty bold statement. I also just realized that all three examples I found by chance all have drive wheels at the same end as their engines: two rear-engine/RWD cars and one front engine/FWD car. No driveshafts here! I wonder if that means something?
Speaking of hills and climbing, maybe it would be wise to watch an old hillclimb, complete with cars, climbing hills:
Don’t forget about that diagonal thing for your next design project, even if it’s just, say, a lost hamster poster or something. Everything is more exciting at an angle!
I just want to point out that 150hp was not “really damn impressive” even in the early 60s. It was very good for a compact economy car like the Corvair, Falcon, and Valiant.
In 1962 Ford was selling cars with factory 375hp 390s.
Psst, Torch, a first-gen Corvair’s gotta say “Spyder” under the Monza badge to have a turbo. This one doesn’t, so its output would be somewhere between 80-102 HP (110 if it were a ’64, which it’s not), as the Monza trim could be had with any of the naturally-aspirated engines. The flat six is decently torquey, though, so any of them would do fine on that San Francisco hill.
Classic examples of the proclivity for acclivities in design.
I think showing vehicles on hills is required with brands like Donkervoort, Vandenbrink, VDL, Waaijinberg and Spyker. They must use the Dutch angle.
LOL, google ‘Dutch angle’ for a funny treat.
woah
Not as good as ‘Dutch rudder’.
Okay, THIS one is NSFW.
Yeah, I figured. GG Andy I., but I decided to stay away from that search term today.
I was expecting something NSFW. Reading about Dutch Angle is SFW, and enlightening. We’ve all noticed Dutch Angle, and now we know this effect has a name. Cool.
In 1989 or so a bartender at the restaurant where I was working was in the process of acquiring a Fiat Multipla (!!) that was sitting in a local farmer’s field; he brought the glovebox manual to work one night and it was particularly fascinating to read. Among the bits of advice the manual dispensed was how to climb hills (complete with charts and graphs, etc) and for particularly steep hills they said to go up in reverse because the reverse gear had a ratio tall enough to handle such steep grades. Now one wonders if the bartender was successful in his quest for acquisition and what he had to deal with in terms of rust thanks to the Multipla being “farm fresh” (as they say here in East Tennessee about cars that have been sitting in fields.)
My Fiat 500 has a similar “How to Drive” manual with lovely cartoon illustrations and fantastic advice. I would like every new driver (and a few oldtimers) to read it.
A great tip I learned years ago is that if you are having trouble getting traction in the snow on a hill in a front wheel drive vehicle, drive up in reverse.
The Corvair is driving against the type face, while the Toronado (thought that was a cut of beef) is with the type face.
That is enough to make a kid’s hair stand up!
Unless they are in reverse — cunning sods do not show if the reversing lights are on.
Reverse used to be the lowest gear going and if you could not go up forwards, you could backwards. Bit like life really….
RWD vs FWD.
Pretty cool to see that film of a hill climb from 1949. They still hold hill climbs today and there’s many a video of such hill climbs replete with passengers bouncing (‘bumping’ as in the 1949 film) in surprisingly successful efforts to improve traction. It can be a hoot to see, especially when it’s families with children or grandchildren, pipsqueaks that they are, contributing to such efforts at gaining traction. And the various iterations of the Austin 7 are always fun to watch, especially with some having horsepower barely in the double-digit territory.
A couple examples of such videos:
https://youtu.be/dkcTxMcChQ0?si=S0-Mb4f83whzs7rP
https://youtu.be/3qj-usfMO6Q?si=xWp02pRjbrOcxE_X
As a bonus the angle allows the subject to be bigger and fill more of the frame.
::squints at lead picture::
A Styr Puch 500 is rated to climb a 30% max grade, huh?
::copies into MS paint, takes some point coordinates, does some calculations::
Well, those ladies are in trouble, because they’re sitting on a 39% grade. I hope no one they care about is standing behind them.
Of course, the photographer might have just tilted their camera a bit…
Never really understood that saying.
If I can get my ho to hum, I’m having a pretty good time.
I decided to put Torch’s advice into action and pulled up the developer console, located the <body> element, and manually added the style ‘transform: rotate(30deg);’ which sure enough made this page diagonal. It was certainly exciting! I mean, it was also unusable, but definitely exciting.
This puts an interesting slant on things.
Something mysterious is going on in the Steyr picture. The driver’s ponytail is clearly not obeying the rules of gravitation. Witchcraft?
The power of hairspray!
And now I’m going to have a John Waters theme song in my head all morning…
It means a lot to have the engine and drive wheels together, but you of course knew that 🙂
Here my favourite video on that subject: https://youtu.be/Pj_U2sKiIHQ
As a current graphic designer, all I have to add is damn you, Torch, for getting Duran Duran stuck in my head.
Torch, just as an historical touchstone – and, clearly, for no other reason – check into the “boufant” hairstyles of the Monza’s day and the once substantial use of hairspray.
And, of note and unlike the other images, the Monza is climbing a real hill past (mostly) vertical buildings.
I once climbed to the top of Lookout Mountain in my 1917 Stephens touring car. The grade near the top is very steep and I resorted to first gear. I swear I could feel every piston stroke as the car clawed it’s way to the peak.
For the record, my Fiat 500 is pretty gutsy and would get there. My Corvair Monza (also NOT a turbocharged Spyder) would breeze up the hill without breaking a sweat.
Holy crap you seem to have some great cars.
Right? We need to know more. What else is in your collection?
BMW 2002, Austin Healey 3000, Lotus Eleven, NA Miata. Alas, no Toronados.
When you get back on your feet, anytime you want to do a Jason Drives segment let me know. I am in Atlanta. Here is a picture of my Stephens on top of Lookout Mountain. https://photos.app.goo.gl/G8CLhyLCWszBmcHk8
That’s right, the one in the picture is a regular NA Monza, not a turbocharged Monza Spyder, just a dress up package that added bucket seats and extra chrome. There was also technically a 4 speed manual on the floor, but you could order the Powerglide with the Monza also
Of course the wind is just affecting the kid. I remember stories of the convertible PT Cruiser wind deflector drastically lessening wind noise and buffeting in the rear seats.
That Monza team could have learned something from those Chrysler folk