Fender skirts, known in Australia and the United Kingdom as spats or covers, are pieces of bodywork attached to or part of the fender that cover the upper portions of the wheels of a vehicle. They are usually used only on rear wheels, but some models have them on all wheels.
Fender skirts are implemented for both aesthetic and aerodynamic reasons. Rather than air flowing into and being trapped in the rear wheel well, it flows smoothly over the bodywork. They are generally detachable to allow for tire changes and installation of snow chains. Automakers have also experimented with integral front wheel fender skirts, as on the 1949–1954 Nash "Airflyte" models and the compact 1950–1954 Nash Rambler, but with success limited by the fact that the front wheels must pivot for steering, extending out from the side of the vehicle slightly. [1] [2] The 1955 Ford Thunderbird introduced rear "fender shields" as a type of fender skirts with an edge molding and a gravel shield. [3] In General Motors parts accessories books, fender skirts are known as fender shields.
First described as "pants", they were used for the streamlining effect by Frank Lockhart on a 1928 Stutz land speed record attempt car. [4] Factory production of fender skirts began with the 1932 Graham-Paige. [5] Aesthetically streamlined designs were copied to mass-produced models. [6] The innovations introduced by Amos Northup, such as the V'd radiators, fender skirts, and sloping beaver-tails, became common after 1933. [6] The fender skirt became a unique styling feature for cars of the past, "making them look like glorious floating boats, classy and elegant." [7]
Fender skirts remained a feature for some time longer on a few cars, particularly large American luxury cars. However, by the 1970s, fender skirts began to disappear from mass-market automobiles.
Fender skirts were often paired with whitewall tires. The extent of the skirt also varied; before the 1950s it was common for all but the very bottom of the rear tire to be covered, while by the 1960s fender skirts only covered some of the top of the tire and were largely absent on cars other than top-line models. For example, starting in the mid-1960s until 1976, the Chevrolet Caprice, Oldsmobile 98, Buick Electra, Pontiac Bonneville, as well as the Cadillac Fleetwood, DeVille, and Calais models used fender skirts. The Cadillac Eldorado models featured fender skirts from 1971 thru 1974. Starting in 1977 only the Pontiac Bonneville retained the use of fender skirts on General Motors' downsized cars. In 1980, the Oldsmobile returned the fender skirts to its 98 model. By 1985, fender skirts disappeared from all standard General Motors cars. In 1989, fender skirts were used again on the Cadillac front-wheel drive Fleetwood models until 1993. For the 1991-1996 model years, General Motors generally incorporated fender skirts into the design of their full-size sedans for the Chevrolet Caprice, Buick Roadmaster, and Cadillac Fleetwood. The General Motors EV1 also had fender skirts.
When making Kustoms, fender skirts are a must accessory to close the rear fenders and add a special kind of sleekness. [8]
In European automobile design, Citroën notably used fender skirts on nearly all models produced between 1950 and 1990, most prominently in the DS, 2CV, Ami, GS, SM, BX, and CX.
To enhance fuel economy, the General Motors EV1 electric car included fender skirts. [9] Mass production models with fender skirts included the first-generation Honda Insight and the Clarity in 2016. In 2013, the limited-production Volkswagen XL1 also used fender skirts.
Although they are available for some new cars as aftermarket accessories (the Chrysler PT Cruiser and Volkswagen Beetle being some examples). The fender skirt accessory may arguably not contribute the aesthetics of modern cars, but look "either tacky, strange, outlandish, or just plain ugly." [7]
Some cities, such as Los Angeles, have fender skirts on municipal buses for safety purposes, as they can prevent items on the road from slipping under the tires.
Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it produced over 35 million vehicles, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory alone.
The Cadillac Eldorado is a luxury car manufactured and marketed by Cadillac from 1952 until 2002 over twelve generations.
LaSalle was an American brand of luxury automobiles manufactured and marketed, as a separate brand, by General Motors' Cadillac division from 1927 through 1940. Alfred P. Sloan, GM's Chairman of the Board, developed the concept for four new GM marques - LaSalle, Marquette, Viking and Pontiac - paired with already established brands to fill price gaps he perceived in the General Motors product portfolio. Sloan created LaSalle as a companion marque for Cadillac. LaSalle automobiles were manufactured by Cadillac, but were priced lower than Cadillac-branded automobiles, were shorter, and were marketed as the second-most prestigious marque in the General Motors portfolio. LaSalles were titled as LaSalles, and not as Cadillacs. Like Cadillac — named after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac — the LaSalle brand name was based on that of another French explorer, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.
The Buick Electra is a full-size luxury car manufactured and marketed by Buick from 1959 to 1990, over six generations. Introduced as the replacement for the Roadmaster lines, the Electra served as the flagship Buick sedan line through its entire production and was offered as a six-passenger four-door sedan with two-door sedan, two-door convertible, and five-door station wagon variants.
The Pontiac Catalina is a full-size, junior series automobile produced by Pontiac from 1950 to 1981. Initially, the name was a trim line on hardtop body styles, first appearing in the 1950 Chieftain Eight and DeLuxe Eight lines. In 1959, it became a separate model as the "entry-level" full-size Pontiac.
The Pontiac Bonneville is a model line of full-size or mid-size front-engine rear drive cars manufactured and marketed by Pontiac from 1957 until 2005, with a hiatus for model years 1982-1986.
In the automotive industry, rebadging is a form of market segmentation used by automobile manufacturers around the world. To allow for product differentiation without designing or engineering a new model or brand, a manufacturer creates a distinct automobile by applying a new "badge" or trademark to an existing product line.
The H platform, or H-body, refers to two different automobile platforms produced by General Motors.
The B platform is a full-size, rear-wheel drive, body-on-frame car platform, that was produced by General Motors (GM) from 1926 to 1996. Originally made for Oldsmobile and Buick, all of General Motors's five main passenger car makes would use it at some point. It was closely related to the original rear-wheel drive C and D platforms, and was used for convertibles, hardtops, coupes, sedans, and station wagons. With approximately 12,960,000 units built, divided across four marques, the 1965–1970 B platform is the fourth best selling automobile platform in history after the Volkswagen Beetle, Ford Model T, and the Fiat 124.
The Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser is an automobile that was manufactured and marketed by Oldsmobile from 1971 until 1992. Marking the return of Oldsmobile to the full-size station wagon segment, the Custom Cruiser was initially slotted above the intermediate Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, ultimately above the later mid-size Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser.
The Buick Roadmaster is an automobile that was built by Buick from 1936 until 1942, from 1946 until 1958, and then again from 1991 until 1996. Roadmasters produced between 1936 and 1958 were built on Buick's longest non-limousine wheelbase and shared their basic structure with the entry-level Cadillac Series 65, the Buick Limited, and after 1940, the Oldsmobile 98. Between 1946 and 1957 the Roadmaster served as Buick's flagship.
The Cadillac Series 61 was Cadillac's mainstream product model range. It was priced and equipped more modestly below the limousine, GM D platform Cadillac Series 85, Cadillac Series 90, Cadillac Series 72, Cadillac Series 67, and Cadillac Fleetwood Series 75. It was upgraded to the Series 62 in 1940 only to return to production in model year 1941, replacing the cancelled LaSalle Series 50. While production was suspended from model years 1943–1945 due to World War II, it remained as the junior level product line until 1951. The size, equipment list and quality level were the most popular with buyers who wanted a prestigious luxury car that was usually driven by the owner, while the longer cars were chauffeur driven. It combined the most popular features of the previous Series 60 and Series 65 and was priced at the same level as Buick products of the time.
Arlington Assembly is a General Motors automobile factory located in Arlington, Texas. The plant has operated for more than 60 years and today manufactures large SUVs from GM's divisions Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac.
Fender is the American English term for the part of an automobile, motorcycle or other vehicle body that frames a wheel well. Its primary purpose is to prevent sand, mud, rocks, liquids, and other road spray from being thrown into the air by the rotating tire. Fenders are typically rigid and can be damaged by contact with the road surface.
An opera window is a small fixed window usually behind the rear side window of an automobile. They are typically mounted in the C-pillar of some cars. The design feature was popular during the 1970s and early 1980s and adopted by domestic U.S. manufacturers, most often with a vinyl roof.
A scraper is an informal term to describe a modified American-made luxury/family car, usually a General Motors model from the 1980s to current vehicles, typically enhanced with after-market rims. Scrapers are popular in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California, usually associated with the hyphy music and lifestyle movement. An example of hyphy is shown in the E-40 lyrics "sittin' in my scraper watching Oakland gone wild". A scraper is a general description and can refer to a number of different model cars. Popular models include the Buick Regal and LeSabre, Pontiac Bonneville, Buick Century, Oldsmobile Delta 88, Buick Riviera, Buick Reatta, Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, Pontiac Grand Prix, Lexus SC, Chevrolet Caprice Classic, and Chevrolet Impalas, as well as full size conversion vans such as the GMC Vandura. Supercharged automobiles are particularly sought after due to their high performance.
A continental tire or a continental kit is a term used in the United States for an upright externally-mounted spare tire located behind an automobile's trunk, made popular by the Continental Mark Series, which carried a simulated continental tire until 1998.
Hi-risers, are a type of heavily-customized automobile, typically a full-size, body-on-frame, rear-wheel drive American sedan modified by significantly increasing the vehicle's ground clearance and adding large-diameter wheels with low-profile tires. Depending on the model and style of body, autos customized in this manner can be labeled "box" or "bubble".
A brougham was originally a car body style where the driver sat outside and passengers seated within an enclosed cabin, — deriving the configuration from the earlier brougham horse-drawn carriage. Similar in style to the later town car, the brougham style was used on chauffeur-driven petrol and electric cars.
GM C platform, also known as the C-Body, was a front wheel drive (FWD) automobile platform used by General Motors' Cadillac, Buick and Oldsmobile divisions for their full-sized automobiles from 1985 through 1996, sharing unibody construction, transverse engine configuration, rack and pinion steering and four-wheel independent suspension.