as some of you know, I am a nerd when it comes to old cars. Cars come in many categories of body shapes. But there was one such car that stood out to me as a very strange oddity. It’s a sedan with the small cab space of a 2 seater car. When most people think of coupes these days, the refer to sporty 2-door cars with enough backseat room for a dog or a short adult or 2. But the business coupe was not sporty at all. It looked like it’s family car sedan counterparts, but the cab was very small, no back passengers, and had an elongated truck (or boot for you limeys).
This kind of car perplexed me. Why would anyone buy a slow moving non-sports car with such a small cab? Even during that time period (1900s-1951). Some business coupes had ruble seats where the trunk would flip open and convert into an open air seat. It was excellent for double dating.
But the business coupes without the rumble seat always seemed impractical and useless to me. Until I did more research.
in the early 20th century, telecommunications was in its infancy. Corporations had traveling salesmen working for them. Moving from city to city, moving all their wares with them. Stored all away in those oversized trunks. They didn’t bring their kids or their pets on these work trips, so they only needed a small interior cab.
But after television became more available in the 50s, corporations could now just broadcast their sales ans marketing, without relying on traveling salesmen any longer. On top of all that, the American sports coupe and convertibles had just been introduced. Corvettes and Thunderbirds. From England we got triumph, Jaguar, MG, and from Germany we got Porsche. These sporty coupes were actually fun to drive and go fast. The business coupe met its demise shortly after.
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