Hooper Empress Line

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The Hooper Empress Line (originally: The New Look ) is a design concept for automobile bodies that goes back to the London body manufacturer Hooper and which was one of the preferred design patterns for British luxury cars in the 1950s . The Empress Line is a link between the Razor Edge design of the 1930s and the pontoon shape that defined the post-war era. The creator was Hooper's chief designer Osmond Rivers . Hooper originally created the Empress Line for the Daimler Motor Company , but appropriately designed bodies were also available for chassis from other manufacturers. The term Empress (German: Kaiserin) was also a model name used by the factory, but only for appropriately designed bodies on Daimler chassis. Hooper's competitor Freestone & Webb copied the Empress Line in the 1950s. Finally, 30 years later, Cadillac cited the concept for the compact luxury sedan Seville , thus establishing a short-lived trend in the USA .

classification

The Hooper Empress Line is one of the last independent design concepts in independent body construction, which came to an end at the beginning of the 1960s with the establishment of the self-supporting body . Vehicles with an Empress-Line body were very expensive luxury items at the time of their creation. Today they are "highly desirable" classics.

Body shop

Before the Second World War , the European automobile manufacturers in the luxury class produced almost exclusively only chassis that were ready to drive without bodies. The bodies came from independent bodywork companies who designed and manufactured them either on behalf of the respective plant or individual customers. This mode of production persisted in Great Britain into the late 1950s. In the inter-war period , there were more than 200 companies in the British Isles that were active in the body shop. Few of them, however, achieved national importance; some also developed their own style. The Hooper & Co. company was one of the most renowned body manufacturers of this time and manufactured luxurious bodies for luxury vehicles without brand ties until the 1930s.

Hooper and Daimler

Closely associated with Hooper: Daimler Motor Company

One of Hooper's customers was the Daimler Motor Company from Coventry , which had belonged to the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) since 1910 . Daimler regularly supplied vehicles for the British royal family and other ruling houses, among others . In 1938, BSA also took over the Hooper Company, which then became the preferred body supplier for Daimler's top models.

Daimler's Docker era

While both Hooper and Daimler were known for restrained, conservative vehicles and bodies until the outbreak of World War II, the image of both companies changed at the end of the 1940s. The trigger was Lady Norah Docker , the wife of BSA chairman Bernard Docker , who received a seat on Hooper's board of directors after the marriage. The extroverted Norah Docker initiated, among other things, a number of unusually designed show cars that caused a sensation, but were sometimes viewed as "hair-raising" by the British public. Some sources see Norah Docker's appearance as a reason for the loss of reputation and the demise of the Daimler brand.

The development of the Hooper Empress Line falls in Daimler's Docker era. It has been described in press releases as the result of a collaboration between Osmond Rivers and Norah Docker. In the literature, however, there is consensus that Osmond Rivers is the actual originator of the concept. A substantial contribution by Norah Docker is commonly disputed: "What Lady Docker added to Rivers' flowing lines was nothing more than a touch of honest vulgarity" at the annual show cars .

After Hooper had shown several show cars from 1948 and produced one-offs that featured some elements of the Empress Line , series production of Empress bodies for Daimler chassis began in 1950 . The first model, the Empress I , was exhibited at the Earls Court Motor Show in the fall of 1950. A little later, Empress- style bodies were also available for Rolls-Royce and Bentley chassis. Production continued until Hooper's production was discontinued in 1959.

terminology

Osmond Rivers initially referred to the design concept as The New Look . At the factory, Hooper only used the term Empress for superstructures that were intended for the chassis of the Daimler Motor Company. If bodies with a comparable design were built on chassis from other manufacturers, Hooper, on the other hand, did not use the term. Regardless of this, it has become established in automotive literature and on the classic car market to refer to Empress Line for all bodies that were designed according to the Empress pattern , regardless of the specific chassis on which they were built.

description

Like other designers, Osmond Rivers looked for ways during the Second World War to find a transition from traditional forms of the 1930s to the pontoon form, whose defining role in post-war design was already foreseeable. After the end of the war, individual bodywork companies experimented with pure pontoon bodies for Rolls-Royce and Bentley chassis, among them Hooper's competitor James Young , whose C10M design was characterized by completely smooth flanks. However, these attempts were unsuccessful; James Young only built three coupes with the C10M design. Osmond Rivers didn't go as far as James Young. He combined the Razor Edge design, which was popular in the pre-war era, with elements of the pontoon shape, thus creating an independent link between the two concepts.

Razor Edge and Pontoon Shape

Starting point: Razor Edge Design (Bentley Mk. VI with Hooper superstructure)
Smooth car sides: pontoon shape on the Chrysler Thunderbolt

The Razor Edge Design (alternatively: Sharp Knife Design ) dates back to 1935 and goes back to Hooper's London competitor Freestone & Webb. In the second half of the 1930s, it was one of the preferred design concepts for British luxury class sedans. The Razor Edge design is characterized by a short rear of the vehicle with a steeply sloping C-pillar, as if cut off with a sharp knife, which only ends at the lower end of the body at the height of the bumpers. The trunk is tight and apparently put on. As was customary in the pre-war era, the front and rear fenders of the Razor Edge design are free-standing and extend laterally over the body. The line of the rear fenders also ends at the bumpers. The same applies in many cases to a trim strip that runs horizontally in the front part of the car and swings downwards in the area of ​​the C-pillar.

A special feature of the pontoon shape, on the other hand, is the smooth flanks without molded fenders. The idea for this came from the USA . Designers such as Raymond Loewy , Harley Earl and Alexis Tremulis have been developing corresponding concepts since the late 1930s. One of the first cars to consistently implement the pontoon shape was Tremulis' Show Car Chrysler Thunderbolt from 1941, and the Kaiser and Frazer models launched in 1946 were among the first mass-produced passenger cars with pontoon bodies .

Empress Line as a link

Empress Line on a Daimler DB18

On the Empress Line , Osmond Rivers took over the pre-war design for the front section. The bonnet tapers towards the front and ends in an almost vertical radiator grille. There are molded fenders to the left and right of it. At the rear, however, there are no free fenders. As is usual with the pontoon shape, the structure is so wide that it easily extends beyond the rear wheels. In this way, an interior width is achieved in the passenger compartment that far exceeds the dimensions possible with conventional design. The rear wheels are usually not visible. They are usually completely covered by so-called spats . At the rear there are again elements of the Razor Edge design . These include the short rear with the sloping C-pillar, the attached trunk and the decorative strip, which also slopes downwards in the rear area. Finally, a special feature of the Empress Line is the integration of the front fenders into the design of the vehicle flanks. The fenders on the Empress Line are curved in the form of an "inverted parabola" over the entire side of the vehicle and only end at the lower rear end of the car, where they meet the C-pillar and the trim strip. The profile of the fenders was often - but not without exception - emphasized by a high-contrast two-tone paintwork. The details vary from model to model. They were developed step by step and adapted to the respective chassis.

Most of the Empress bodies are designed as four-door limousines ( saloons ); only a few vehicles are closed two-door or convertibles. Initially, the four-door models had two side windows on each side (so-called Four Light Saloons ); Larger chassis usually had three side windows ( Six Light Saloon ).

Further development: Evolved Empress

Evolved Empress : Special body for the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud

The Empress Line bodies, which Hooper built for Daimler, Bentley and Rolls-Royce chassis, followed the original concept of Osmond Rivers until the mid-1950s . The Docker Daimler, which caused a sensation from 1951, brought a further development of the Empress Line from 1951 , which mainly affected the rear end. It was initially limited to the exhibits and unique items, including two vehicles for the Armenian businessman Nubar Gulbenkian , which have gained some importance in the classic car scene. From 1956 the further developed version as Evolved Empress was also available as standard, but only for chassis from Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Daimler chassis, on the other hand, were only occasionally provided with appropriate bodies at the customer's request.

Special features of the Evolved Empress are a rounded rear roof section and a very long rear overhang, which, compared to the original Empress Line concept, enables a significantly larger trunk. Here, too, the fenders slowly run out to the rear bumper. Often - but not consistently - the front headlights are embedded in the fenders and covered by a Perspex pane . The question of whether the Evolved Empress can be considered a success is answered differently.

Empress design at Hooper

Starting in 1950 , Hooper built the bodies of the Empress Line for Daimler in small series for three different Daimler chassis. The vehicles named Daimler I to IV were special models that were offered as high-priced alternatives to the respective standard bodies.

Daimler: Empress I-IV series models

Empress III (Daimler Sportsman)
Six Lights : Empress Mark II (Daimler Regency Mark I)

The first version was the Daimler Empress I, which is based on the chassis of the Daimler DB18 or its successor Consort . In this version, the Empress is a Four Lights Saloon , so it has two windows on each side of the vehicle. At £ 3,450, the Empress I was more than twice as expensive as the standard Mulliners- bodied Consort . It was produced in 97 more or less identical copies; there were also six convertibles and a few individual pieces with individually adapted bodies.

The Daimler Regency was positioned above the DB18 / Consort , which differs from the smaller model with its larger and more powerful engines. The standard version of the Regency Mark I (1951 to 1953) has a Barker body . As an alternative to it, Daimler had the Empress II in its range, a sedan in the Empress style ( Six Lights Saloon ) with three windows on each side . He made 33 cars. Outwardly almost identical was the Empress IIA, which used the drive technology of the Regency Mark II (1954 to 1955) and was produced 58 times. From 1955 to 1957, the Empress III was finally available parallel to the third Regency generation - albeit not with their technology - of which only 14 vehicles were built.

There were also bodies in the style of the Empress Line for Daimler's chauffeur limousines . At the customer's request, Hooper had already manufactured individual bodies in Empress style on the chassis of the DE36 (“Straight Eight”) sedan, which was produced from 1946 to 1953, although these were not called Empress. For the successor DK400 (initially: Regina) introduced in 1954 , Daimler offered a special series with six-light bodies in Empress style in addition to the standard body built by Abbey Panels . It was almost twice as expensive as the standard sedan. By 1959, depending on the source, seven or eight of these cars had been built. They are unofficially referred to as the Empress Mark IV; However, this term was not used at the factory.

Other Daimler bodies in the Empress style

The last Docker Daimler : Golden Zebra from 1955

Even before the presentation of the Empress I series model, Hooper had implemented elements of the Empress Line in individual cars . The first Daimler, whose body Broad Empress Line was wearing was one as Green Goddess designated show car of 1948, based on the chassis of the state limousine Daimler DE36 and as a conceptual forerunner of the so-called Docker Daimler applies. The term Empress has not yet been used with him. At the customer's request, Daimler produced six or seven replicas of the Green Goddess .

In 1951 the tradition of the so-called Docker Daimler began: every year until 1955, Daimler presented unusually designed show cars at the British Motor Show that caused a stir but were perceived as vulgar. Osmond Rivers allegedly designed them in collaboration with Norah Docker. They were based on different chassis from Daimler's series models. All Docker Daimlers - the Golden Car (1951), Blue Clover (1952), Silver Flash (1953), Stardust (1954) and Golden Zebra (1955) - have, like the standard Empress models, free-standing front fenders that span the entire length Run out of carriage length; the rear wheels are also enclosed by the body. However, the rear overhangs are significantly longer than on the Empress I-IV; With the exception of the Golden Car , the trunk is clearly defined. The Docker Daimlers each remained unique. However, they were conceptual forerunners of the Evolved Empress series.

The Empress Line and Evolved Empress for Bentley and Rolls Royce

Empress Line: Rolls-Royce Phantom IV (1951)
Evolved Empress : Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud

In addition to the Daimler chassis, Hooper also equipped Bentley and Rolls-Royce chassis with Empress- style bodies at the customer's request in the 1950s .

Until 1955, work for Bentley and Rolls-Royce followed almost exclusively the original Empress Line with free-standing front headlights and a short rear. For Bentley, Hooper initially designed a two-door four-lights body (design number 8282). From 1950 onwards, a total of ten vehicles were built from this version, known as the Sports Saloon , of which seven were based on the chassis of the Mark VI and three on that of the R-Type . A derived four-door variant with three side windows (number 8294) was far more successful. Hooper built a total of 53 copies of it, 14 of them for the Mark VI and 39 or 41 for the R-Type. An only slightly changed Rolls-Royce version of the four-door design 8294 appeared in 1954 for the Silver Dawn , which technically corresponded in large parts to the Bentley R-Type. It was built twelve times. The most widespread Rolls-Royce version with an Empress- style body was the four-door touring sedan based on the Silver Wraith , of which Hooper made around 50 pieces. There were also numerous individual items, including a four-door sedan based on the Phantom IV , which was commissioned by the Iraqi Prince Regent.

For the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud , released in 1956, and its sister model Bentley S1 , Hooper produced bodies in series according to the Evolved Empress concept with a long rear end, for which there were no counterparts at Daimler. Hooper offered Four and Six Light Saloons on this basis ; there were also a number of differently shaped covers for the rear wheels. The bodies were available on short and long wheelbases. A total of around 50 Bentley chassis and around 35 Rolls-Royce chassis were clad in Evolved Empress style. These included a few unique pieces with a coupé body.

The Empress design at Freestone & Webb

Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn by Freestone & Webb (1954)

Hooper's competitor Freestone & Webb from the London borough of Willesden took up Osmond Rivers' Empress Line concept for the first time with a Bentley-based show car introduced in July 1952 . A little later, Freestone & Webb began to mass-produce Empress- style bodies . They remained on offer until 1958.

Freestone & Webb's interpretation of the Empress Line differed in some details from Hooper's series designs. Freestone & Webb only built six light saloons with three side windows. The rear design is based on the Daimler Golden Car presented in 1951 . Longer rear overhangs and a more sloping C-pillar make the Freestone & Webb design look more stretched and slimmer than Hoopers Empress Line . All doors are hinged at the front. The bodies of the first series have a spacer plate between the rear door opening and the removable wheel covers ( Spats ). This detail, which was perceived as inelegant, was only omitted in the second series, which was introduced in 1955.

Freestone & Webb realized the first draft about 15 times. One body was built on a Bentley Mark VI chassis, seven or eight almost identical on the chassis of the successor R-Type and five or six for the largely identical Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn. An elongated version with straight lines was built around 15 times for the Rolls Royce Silver Wraith by 1957. Another, slightly modified version of the design appeared in 1957 for the Bentley S1 (13 cars) and the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I (approx. 10 vehicles).

Neoclassical design in the USA (1980–1987)

Cadillac Seville (1985)
(Chrysler) Imperial Frank Sinatra Edition (1982)

The first half of the 1980s saw a short-lived neoclassical fashion wave in the United States, in which traditional British design played an essential role. The automobile company General Motors picked up individual elements of the Razor Edge design for the second edition of the Cadillac Seville (K platform). The design has been called busteback many times in the USA ; Numerous publications explicitly refer to Hooper or the Hooper Empress Line in their description . The design is often attributed to Bill Mitchell ; in fact it was the work of Cadillac chief designer Wayne Kady . The aim was to give the small but expensive Seville, which was equipped with front-wheel drive for the first time in this generation , a "classic look" and thus to upgrade it optically.

The Seville has a straight but steeply sloping C-pillar and a trunk lid that appears to be attached; In addition, the trim strip below the belt line on the rear of the vehicle is bent downwards. Unlike the Hooper Empress Line , the rear wheels are not covered.

The second series Seville was temporarily very influential in the US. Both Chrysler and Ford took it up in the following period for some of their luxurious intermediate models. However, they limited themselves to stylized the attached trunk by means of a bead in the rear fenders. Chrysler found such a weakened Hooper tail on the personal luxury coupé Imperial (1981-1983) designed by Tom Tjaarda , and at Ford on the smaller Lincoln Continental (1982-1987), whose shape Jeff Teague was responsible for. Outside the United States, this trend has had no impact.

Bentley Empress II

In 1987 the term Empress II, which had been used from 1951 for the Empress variant of the Daimler Regency, was revived. Hooper & Co. Coachbuilders, a successor company of the traditional car body manufacturer, used it for a two-door coupé based on the contemporary Bentley Mulsanne Turbo . The body of the Mulsanne has been heavily modified; the Bentley Empress II does not take up any stylistic features of the Hooper Empress Line . The front section is inclined and the C-pillar runs at a flatter angle. There was also a particularly high-quality interior. Five copies of the very expensive car were made by 1991, two of them with left-hand drive.

literature

  • David Culshaw, Peter Horrobin: The Complete Catalog of British Cars 1895-1975 , Poundbury, Veloce Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-1-845845-83-4
  • Halwart Schrader: Jaguar type compass - passenger cars since 1931 , Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-613-02106-4
  • Heiner Stertkamp: Jaguar - The complete chronicle from 1922 to today , 2nd edition, Heel-Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-89880-337-6
  • Brian Long: Daimler & Lanchester. A Century of Motor History , Longford International Publications, 1995, ISBN 1899154019
  • Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, David Burgess-Wise: Daimler Century . Patrick Stephens Ltd., 1995, ISBN 1-85260-494-8
  • James Taylor: Coachwork on Rolls-Royce & Bentley 1945–1965 , Herridge & Sons, Beaworthy, 2019, ISBN 978-1-906133-89-4
  • Richard Townsend: Docker's Daimlers. Daimler and Lanchester Cars 1945 to 1960 , Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2017, ISBN 978 1 4456 6316 6
  • Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 .

Web links

Commons : Hooper Coachwork  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Some late versions of the Empress Line for Rolls-Royce and Bentley have open or only partially covered rear wheels.
  2. ↑ In October 1955 Daimler replaced the Regency Mark II with the more powerful and faster One-0-Four. From a technical point of view, the Empress did not make the switch from the Regency Mark II to the One-0-Four. The Empress III offered in parallel to the One-0-Four is based on the chassis of the previous Sportsman (DF306 / 307) and is also powered by its 3.5-liter engine with 130 bhp (96 kW; 132 PS). See Richard Townsend: Docker's Daimlers. Daimler and Lanchester Cars 1945 to 1960 , Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2017, ISBN 978 1 4456 6316 6 , p. 46.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brian Long: Daimler & Lanchester. A Century of Motor History , Longford International Publications, 1995, ISBN 1899154019 , p. 209.
  2. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 , Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 .
  3. ^ Brian Long: Daimler & Lanchester. A Century of Motor History , Longford International Publications, 1995, ISBN 1899154019 , p. 202.
  4. ↑ a b History of Hoopers on the website www.coachbuild.com (accessed on February 4, 2020).
  5. ↑ Classic Cars Special: English classic cars. Issue 7/8/9 1994, p. 36.
  6. ↑ Tim Hogarth: The Dazzling Lady Docker: Britain's Forgotten Reality Superstar , Scratching Shed Publishing Ltd., 2018, ISBN 978-0995586147 , p. 178.
  7. ^ Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, David Burgess-Wise: Daimler Century . Patrick Stephens Ltd., 1995, ISBN 1-85260-494-8 , p. 258.
  8. ^ Brian Long: Daimler & Lanchester. A Century of Motor History , Longford International Publications, 1995, ISBN 1899154019 , p. 213.
  9. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 128.
  10. ↑ Description of a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I with an individual body in the style of the Hooper Empress Line (accessed on February 2, 2020).
  11. ↑ Sales advertisement for a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith with an individual body in Empress style (accessed on February 3, 2020).
  12. ↑ Description of a Bentley R-Type with an Empress Line body (accessed on February 5, 2020).
  13. ^ Illustration of a Bentley Mark VI with a C10M body by James Young (1948) (accessed March 13, 2020).
  14. ^ James Taylor: Coachwork on Rolls-Royce & Bentley 1945–1965 , Herridge & Sons, Beaworthy, 2019, ISBN 978-1-906133-89-4 , p. 96.
  15. ↑ James Taylor: Coachwork on Rolls-Royce & Bentley 1945–1965 , Herridge & Sons, Beaworthy, 2019, ISBN 978-1-906133-89-4 , p. 91.
  16. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960. Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 114.
  17. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960. Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 55.
  18. ^ The story of Freestone & Webb on www.coachbuild.com (accessed February 7, 2020).
  19. ↑ Markus Caspers: Designing Motion: Automobildesigner from 1890 to 1990, Birkhäuser, 2016, ISBN 9783035607772 , p. 55.
  20. ^ Richard M. Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars 1940-1970 , Publications International, Beekman House, 1980, ISBN 0-517-294648 , p. 233.
  21. ↑ Roger Gloor: All cars of the 50s: 1945 - 1960 , Motorbuch-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 9783613028081 .
  22. ^ Richard Townsend: Docker's Daimlers. Daimler and Lanchester Cars 1945 to 1960 , Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2017, ISBN 978 1 4456 6316 6 , p. 44.
  23. ↑ a b c James Taylor: Coachwork on Rolls-Royce & Bentley 1945–1965 , Herridge & Sons, Beaworthy, 2019, ISBN 978-1-906133-89-4 , p. 93.
  24. ^ Richard Townsend: Docker's Daimlers. Daimler and Lanchester Cars 1945 to 1960 , Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2017, ISBN 978 1 4456 6316 6 , p. 33.
  25. ^ Brian Long: Daimler & Lanchester. A Century of Motor History , Longford International Publications, 1995, ISBN 1899154019 , p. 213, m. Fig. Of the two-door model on p. 207.
  26. ^ David Culshaw, Peter Horrobin: The Complete Catalog of British Cars 1895–1975 , Poundbury, Veloce Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-1-845845-83-4 , p. 112.
  27. ^ Brian Long: Daimler & Lanchester. A Century of Motor History , Longford International Publications, 1995, ISBN 1899154019 , p. 235.
  28. ^ Richard Townsend: Docker's Daimlers. Daimler and Lanchester Cars 1945 to 1960 , Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2017, ISBN 978 1 4456 6316 6 , p. 61.
  29. ^ Richard Townsend: Docker's Daimlers. Daimler and Lanchester Cars 1945 to 1960 , Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2017, ISBN 978 1 4456 6316 6 , p. 79.
  30. ↑ a b c James Taylor: Coachwork on Rolls-Royce & Bentley 1945–1965 , Herridge & Sons, Beaworthy, 2019, ISBN 978-1-906133-89-4 , p. 93.
  31. ↑ Sales advertisement for a two-door Mark VI in the style of the Empress Line (referred to there as Razor-Edge-Design ) (accessed on February 7, 2020).
  32. ^ Andrew Noakes: 100 Years of Bentley , White Lion Publishing, 2019, ISBN 9781781319154 , p. 100.
  33. ^ Ard op de Weegh, Kay Hottendorff: The Fate of the Sleeping Beauties , Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2010, ISBN 9781845840709 , p. 134.
  34. ↑ James Taylor: Coachwork on Rolls-Royce & Bentley 1945–1965 , Herridge & Sons, Beaworthy, 2019, ISBN 978-1-906133-89-4 , p. 54.
  35. ↑ a b James Taylor: Coachwork on Rolls-Royce & Bentley 1945–1965 , Herridge & Sons, Beaworthy, 2019, ISBN 978-1-906133-89-4 , p. 55.
  36. ↑ NN: Featured Listing: Style and '80s vibe 1983 Cadillac Seville. journal.classiccars.com, January 31, 2020, accessed March 15, 2020 .
  37. ^ A b Thomas E. Bonsall: The Cadillac Story: The Postwar Years , Stanford University Press, 2004, ISBN 9780804749428 , p. 128.
  38. ↑ James M. Flammang: Standard Catalog of American Cars , 1976-1986, Krause Publications, 1990, ISBN 9780873411332 , p. 79.
  39. ↑ NN: 1976-1979 Cadillac Seville. howstuffworks.com, 2007, accessed March 15, 2020 .
  40. ^ MGC: The Motor City's Bustleback Era, 1980-87. macsmotorcitygarage.com, February 5, 2019, accessed March 15, 2020 .
  41. ↑ Jeff Koch: The Neoclassic Bustleback. hemmings.com, December 2012, accessed March 15, 2020 .