Several times a week, if not daily, I listen to the chatting of the car guys. Not the Car Talk - Tom and Ray or the auto parts guys - Manny, Moe and Jack, rather it's a group of blogosphere buddies that go by such names as: Casey/artandcolor, PhantomX, Woody T, Marius and Paul, NYC.
They come up with car chops that exceed already peerless design. Stuff like "pillared construction in torsional rigidity" - what did he say? They move front wheels forward, lower roofs, change keypads from the door to a vertical position on the B pillar - in short they make cars more stylish and many times more functional.
But I have just one question, What Happened to the Wind Wing? You remember, don't you? That little window shown on the car above that allowed you to drive with your front window down and still not get your perfectly coiffed hair blown out of shape.
We have become a pampered society today, going from our air-conditioned homes, to our air-conditioned offices in our air-conditioned cars. But if we had our wind wings back we could made do without the AC and just have that nice breeze of air blowing past to cool us off.
OK, so that won't work out in California where cars don't move on the freeways, rather they just huddle together on the roadways and exchange vehicular fluids. But wouldn't it be great if they offered a non-Californian Wind Winged car model.
Good Morning Annie!
ReplyDeleteI think there are really four reasons that wind wings(or vent windows) fell out of favor. The first is air conditioning - no explanation needed. The second was aerodynamics - they created drag when opened and the engineers were trying to maximize fuel efficiency. Thirdly, they added production complexity to the door assemblies - and every manufacturer has attempted to streamline factory times and costs. But what I really think was the root reason for their demise is that they added to warranty claims and initial quality survey negative points. Vent windows were very prone to wind noise - if they didn't seat perfectly you were going to hear a wind whistle. The easy way out was to simply eliminate them.
I know, X and I think that is so sad. I have wind noise in my Beetle and not one wing to show for it, well except for the two that I wear on occasion.
ReplyDeleteso funny, Annie! Hoohoo always bemoaned the loss of the wind wing, or vent window as she called them. She like to 'flick her ashes' out that little window. "Flicker Window" was another name for them in Hoohoo-speak. Love that Mercury Sun Valley in your picture. That was a hardtop convertible with an optional green plexiglass roof over the front seat. That's a '54 I believe, a gorgeous car.
ReplyDeleteI always thought they made cars look cleaner and cooler without them, but then I never smoked like Hoohoo. I had a Lincoln from the mid '80s that had little windows in the front doors, but they went down into the doors. there was only one window button and when you pushed it 'down' the little window went first then the big one dropped.
glad to be awakening the inner Car in you, Annie!
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ReplyDeleteI NEED TO BE AWAKEN BUT I DO THINK I'M HOPELESS WHEN IT COMES TO TALKING CARTALK. WE'VE HAD OVER FIFTY CARS IN OUR MARRIAGE SO A CAR IS JUST A CAR TO ME UNLESS IT'S A SPORT CAR. THEN I'LL SIT UP AND TAKE NOTICE. CARS WERE ALWAY GRAMPS HOBBY. HE NEVER SAT ON A BAR STOOL OR CHEATED SO WHEN HE WANTED TO BUY ANOTHER CAR I NEVER SAID NO. IT WAS HIS HARD EARNED MONEY THAT BOUGHT THEM SO WHY NOT. EXCEPT NOW THAT MONEY SURE WOULD COME IN HANDY. I ASKED HIM THE OTHER DAY IF HE COULD NAME ALL OF THEM AND HE SAID YES. NOT ME. I ONLY HAD A COUPLE OF FAVORITES.
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