Fastback

For other uses, see Fastback (disambiguation).

Continuously sloped roofline: 1967 AMC Marlin fastback coupe

A fastback is a car body style whose roofline slopes continuously down at the back. The word can also designate the car itself. The style is seen on two-door coupés as well as four-door sedans.

History

Art Deco fastback: 1935 Stout Scarab

continuously sloped four-door sedan: 1950s Warszawa M20

Automobile designers in the 1930s began using elements of aircraft aerodynamics to smooth out the boxy-looking vehicles of their day. Some designs that were ahead of their time when exhibited during the early 1930s included "teardrop" streamlining of the car's rear; a configuration similar to what would become known as 'fastback' 25 years later." 'Fastback' was first recognized as a definition by Merriam-Webster in 1954, many years before the term 'hatchback' was popularized and entered the dictionary in 1970. Opinions vary as to whether the terms are mutually exclusive.

A contributor to an automotive-interest website singles out the unusual Stout Scarab from the early 1930s as "[p]ossibly the epitome of the early fastback definition". The Packard 1106 Twelve Aero Sport Coupe, introduced in 1933, is also cited as a fastback that foreshadowed trends which continued into the 1940s.

Starting in 1935, Australian automakers introduced fastback body design that became known as the "sloper". It was first designed by General Motors' Holden as one of the available bodies on Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, and Pontiac chassis. The sloper design was added by Richards Body Builders in Australia to Dodge and Plymouth models in 1937, by Ford Australia in 1939 and 1940, as well as a sloper style made on Nash chassis. According to automotive historian G.N. Georgano, "the Slopers were advanced cars for their day."

Early European fastback automobiles include: Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic, Tatra T87, Porsche 356, Saab 92/96, Standard Vanguard, GAZ-M20 Pobeda, and Bentley Continental R-Type.

Numerous fastbacks were also made in America, where the style was previously called "torpedo back". They included Cadillac's Series 61 and 62 Club Coupes, as well as various models from General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. In 1948, the all new Hudsons were available a fastback body for the Brougham and sedan models.

At the 2007 EyesOn Design annual car show, entries from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s in a class called "Fabulous Fastbacks" included Nash Ambassador, Buick Roadmaster and Hudson Commodore models. A "Return of the Fastbacks" class at this show included examples from the 1960s and 1970s with a Buick Riviera, Ford Mustang Cobra, and an AMC AMX among others.

Aerodynamic advantages

Rear-engined fastback: Porsche 356

Fastbacks provide an advantage in developing aerodynamic vehicles with a low drag coefficient. For example, although lacking wind tunnel, Hudson designed its post-World War II cars to look aerodynamic and "tests conducted by Nash later found that the Hudson had almost 20% less drag than contemporary notchback sedans." The Kamm tail is a related concept.

The trend towards a more steeply raked rear window on traditional three-box sedans blurs the distinction between fastback and notchback designs. However, the roof of a true fastback design slopes down continuously to the rear, most often to the base of the trunk at the rear bumper. There is no distinct change of angle to a rear deck, whereas most four-door cars with steeply raked rear windows have less angled trunk lids; also high tails to maximize cargo space.

In 2008, the fastback design appeared on a concept car that almost defies categorization, the Chrysler ecoVoyager, that "Jack Telnack, former design chief for the Ford Motor Company, declared, 'It's a fastback van.'" New types of crossover vehicles and different body proportions made possible by technological advances and new powerplants, are changing the shape of automobiles. Traditional nomenclature describing distinct vehicle bodies, such as the three-box sedan (engine compartment, passenger cabin and trunk) will vanish.

Fastback types

A hatchback/liftback: 1999 Toyota Celica

Not all fastbacks have fixed rear windows or solid sheet metal. Many models include an integral lifting lid giving access to the trunk area.

Depending on the profile, such vehicles may be liftbacks but are unlikely to be hatchbacks.

A definition of a fastback by Road & Track addresses this distinction: "A closed body style, usually a coupe but sometimes a sedan, with a roof sloped gradually in an unbroken line from the windshield to the rear edge of the car. A fastback naturally lends itself to a hatchback configuration and many have it, but not all hatchbacks are fastbacks and vice versa."

List of fastback cars

Main article: List of fastback automobiles

External links

Media related to Fastbacks at Wikimedia Commons