What stages did the development of automobile appearance go through? What are the characteristics of each stage?

The development of automobile body forms has mainly gone through several stages: carriage, box car, beetle car, boat car, fish car and wedge car.

horse-and-buggy era

The earliest car basically followed the form of carriage, so it was called "horseless carriage". The English name "Sedan" refers to the luxury carriage used by European nobles. 1908, Ford Motor Company of the United States produced the famous Model T, which was originally a minibus with a tarpaulin and became the representative of a horse-drawn cart.

The era of horse model of automobile can also be said to be the prehistoric era of automobile modeling, because the automobile has no its own modeling style.

box wagon

1986, French Ben Hart and Rabaco made the world's first enclosed car, which was also the beginning of the box car. 19 15, Ford motor company of the United States produced a car different from the horse model, which was called a "box car" because of its appearance as a big box with doors and windows. Box cars attach importance to ergonomics, have large internal space, are comfortable to ride, and have the reputation of mobile homes. However, the large air resistance hinders the forward speed of the car and puts forward new requirements for the development of the car.

The beetle

In the later period of van era, people began to realize the importance of air resistance. The air resistance of a car is not only related to the windward area and speed, but also related to the longitudinal shape of the car. The more streamlined the car, the smaller the resistance in front and the smaller the vortex in the back. Therefore, people are committed to the design of streamlined body. 1934, the Airflow brand car of Chrysler Automobile Company of the United States adopted a streamlined body for the first time, which was the pioneer of streamlined cars. 1937, Fernand Porsche, a multi-design genius, began to design cars with the appearance of Beetle. However, the beetle-shaped car also has some disadvantages, one is the narrow passenger activity space, and the other is the instability of crosswind.

Ships and cars

The boat-shaped car adopts the design method of placing the cabin between the two axles. From the appearance, the whole vehicle looks like a ship, which is called a boat-shaped vehicle. Ford V8 car produced by Ford Company 1949 is the representative of boat car. The boat car is superior to the Beetle car in appearance and performance, which solves the problem of unstable crosswind of the Beetle car. However, because the tail is too long, it forms a ladder shape, which will produce strong air vortex when driving at high speed, which will affect the speed increase.

Fish car

In order to overcome the defect that the tail of a boat-shaped car protrudes backward too much, and strong air vortex will be generated when the car is driving at high speed, people have developed a fish-shaped car like a fish back. 1952, Buick of American General Motors Company opened the era of fish car. The advantages of ship-type vehicles are basically retained. But it's not perfect. The rear window of the car has a large inclination and area, which reduces the strength of the car body and the temperature inside the car is high. When the car is driving at high speed, it is easy to produce great lift, which reduces the adhesion between the car and the ground and reduces the driving stability and handling stability of the car.

Wedge car

After a lot of exploration and experiments, the designer found a new type of wedge. This kind of car leans the whole body forward and the back of the body is as straight as a knife. This kind of car can effectively overcome the lift. The first car designed according to the wedge shape was 1963 Qibeike Abenti car. Wedge modeling is widely used in racing cars. For example, the Italian Ferrari sports car in the 1980s is a typical wedge.

Every period of automobile appearance evolution is constantly developing new automobile shapes, which not only improves automobile performance, but also develops automobile aesthetics. We believe that the appearance of cars will be more and more developed in the direction of high performance and beauty.