'49 and fine...... - a photo on Flickriver

'49 and fine......

Part fastback coupe, part two-door sedan, the 1949 Buick Super Sedanet, Model 56-S, offered style and practicality in one package. Buick promised, "Here the long sweeping lines of a Coupe hide the surprising roominess that highlights Buick for '49. Swing those doors wide open—step in and stretch out in comfort that most sedans can't match."

The sedanet body style wasn't new—Buick had created one since before World War II, but GM's oldest division offered an all-new design on the revised GM C-body platform. Sharing its lines with the larger Roadmaster Sedanet, Model 76-S, the Super rode on a 121-inch wheelbase, 5 inches shorter than the Roadmaster's. Overall length measured 209.5 inches, again 5 inches shorter than the Roadmaster. Still, accommodated by wide doors, six adults could occupy the roomy interior, which was as big as a sedan inside.

The design updates vaulted Buick into the fray of the all-new styles that consumers clamored for following the war. Ned Nickles, Buick's head of design from 1947 until 1959, led the team that gave Buick new life in 1949. Doing away with curvy fenders that swept down from the front and low along the doors until the lines reached the rear quarter panels, Buick's stylists gave the division a look that started with a fender nearly as high as the hood, and it followed a horizontal line back, just below the greenhouse.

Nickles was also responsible for perhaps the most lasting part of the 1949 redesign. He modified his own 1948 Buick by punching four small portholes on either fender, each fitted with a small light bulb connected to a spark plug wire. The lights fired off individually with each cylinder. Buick president Harlow Curtice liked the look (sans lights) and ordered portholes punched into the fenders of the Super and Roadmaster models for 1949, which were already well along the design phase.

The chrome-ringed "Venti-Ports" (later just VentiPorts) became a signature design feature that continues to this day on certain models and has been copied by many other manufacturers, domestic and foreign. Buick also used the Venti- Ports to distinguish between models. While the Special had none in 1949, the redesigned Super had three on each side, and the Roadmaster four on each side, giving the top-level Buick range the most.

Venti-Ports were technically functional in 1950, allowing hot air to pass between the warm engine bay. By 1951, the portholes were closed, rendering the design flourish 100-percent decorative. Curiously, in 1949, Buick designers put the Venti- Ports on the fenders, but in 1950 they were on the sides of the hood, and back to the fenders again in 1951.

While other car companies were releasing OHV V-8 engines, Buick soldiered on with its Fireball straight-eight, aka "Dynaflash." Buick's claim to fame from its founding had been its "valve-in-head" (OHV) engines, during an era when almost every competitor had an L-head (side-valve) engine. For 1949, Buick made the Fireball in two displacements: 248 cubic inches in the Special and Super models, and 320-cu.in. in the Roadmaster.

The Super's 248-cu.in. straight-eight featured a 6.6:1 compression ratio, which was slightly higher than the version in the Special. In Super guise, the engine received a 115-horsepower rating, 5 more than in the Special. Buick replaced the 248 during 1950 with a 263-cu.in. straight-eight that would last until 1953, when the first "Nailhead" V-8 debuted in the Roadmaster. By 1954, the Dynaflash Eight was out of production.

Buick instituted a host of minor refinements for 1949 with the goal of making its cars quieter and smoother, as well as easier to drive. The company introduced synthetic engine rubber mounts for isolating engine vibrations, marketing these as "Hi- Poised Engine Mountings." It also offered a foot-operated parking brake and a streamlined fuse panel behind the dashboard.

In the 1949 Super, a three-speed manual transmission was standard, but buyers could also opt for the Dynaflow automatic, which was standard in the Roadmaster. Perhaps the biggest and most influential development out of Buick in the immediate postwar years, the Dynaflow changed the way we drive. As the first mass-produced, commercially available automatic transmission with a torque converter, the Dynaflow allowed for more care-free driving and opened the experience of getting behind the wheel to a whole new group of people who may never have learned how to properly shift a car.

The Dynaflow was markedly different from the four-speed Hydra-Matic used by Oldsmobile and Cadillac. Perhaps one commonality between the two transmissions came in the form of both being "battle tested," as both the Hydra-Matic and a torque-converter- based Torqmatic were used in World War II tanks.

The two-speeds in the Dynaflow should not be confused as automatically shifted. In regular use, the Dynaflow started out in the high gear, with power from the engine "converted" to the transmission's output by a five-element torque converter that included two turbines and two stators. The Dynaflow's torque converter, fed by an engine-powered external oil pump, functioned by feeding oil in the spinning converter across a series of turbines, the shape and size of the blades directly related to the converter's function. At low speeds, the converter could increase output by a factor of 2.25:1, while at higher engine speeds it acted as a 1:1 ratio. Low gear, which was a more traditional planetary gear, was engaged only manually by the driver, with no clutch required.

Though Dynaflow negatively affected fuel efficiency and driveline responsiveness, its design greatly appealed to customers, so much so, that by 1950, some 85 percent of Buick buyers opted for this shiftless transmission. And Buick sales in 1949 reached new heights when approximately 400,000 customers drove home in new Supers, Specials, and Roadmasters, on the strength of Dynaflow as much as the new designs.

by Terry Shea
10/23/2018

Source: Hemmings

BUICK CLUB OF AMERICA
P.O. Box 360775
Columbus, Ohio 43236-0775

www.buickclub.org

___________________________________________

Andy’s story

Some might remember Andy from the Shell station in Hickory Corners. That would have been right around the summer of 1940. Although war was raging in Europe, many Americans turned a blind eye to events some four thousand miles away. On December 7, 1941 everything changed for Americans. Our lives were suddenly thrown into a boiling cauldron when, Imperial Japan mercilessly attacked American military bases on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Andy felt it was his duty to volunteer. After completing 8 week basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky Andy was assigned to Ft. Lewis, Washington for AIT (Advanced Infantry Training). He along with thousands of other young men were on the road to fulfilling the increasing demand for combat soldiers. After completing 16 weeks training at Ft. Lewis, Andy was considered ready for deployment to a combat unit in the Pacific theater, men desperately needed to fill the depleting ranks. He soon found himself in a here to fore unknown place called, Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. A chaotic place rife with danger and death.

It was on the eleventh day in the jungles of Guadalcanal that Andy received a serious but not fatal wound to his right thigh, miraculously missing his femoral artery but resulting in a fracture to his right femur bone. Much to his joy Andy saw a friend with whom he’d had a conversation the night before. He wore a triumphant look of satisfaction, shook hands with Andy and grinned as stretcher bearers carried Andy away with a bloody bandage around his thigh. God or chance—depending on one’s faith— had spared his life and lifted his burden of further fear and terror in combat by awarding him a “million-dollar wound”. Andy had done his duty. The war was over for him. He was in pain, but he was lucky. Many others hadn’t been as lucky the last couple of days.

Thankfully, the medics were able to get Andy to an aid station in fairly rapid time, however, Andy would endure many painful treatments and a long arduous healing process over the next many months and even into the coming years. After being honorably discharged from the Army, Andy came home but by this time his parents had moved from Michigan to a small town in Illinois. Not being one to sit around despite continuing pain in his leg, his first priority was to find a job. A friend mentioned to him that Herb Brewster might be selling his gas station in Odell, just outside of town on Route 66. Well Andy had money saved up, he was a good mechanic and he had certainly enjoyed his days working at the Shell station in Michigan so the possibility of owning and running his own station was right up his alley. He wasn’t sure if he could still handle the type of work he was doing before the war with his “bum leg” but he sure as heck wanted to give it a shot. Long and short, Andy met with old Herb, made an offer and it became a done deal.

So now we see Andy with the usual smile on his face, greeting customers and doing well despite having to walk with a slight limp. For the heavy work, he hired a young kid in town who turned out to be a cracker jack mechanic and a good all ‘around worker. And by the way, Andy also met a sweet, pretty brown eyed gal and there’s talk around town that the two of them are fixin’ to get hitched.

Well folks this pretty well sums up Andy’s life today and what the future holds is, God willing, a long and happy one.

…………..and hope ya’all enjoy and have a long happy life.

(Sure as Hell beats the news on TV & the Internet these days………… )

Taken on: June 25, 2022

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Groups appears in: • Automotive Artistry • Car Art - Wheeled Art opted out of 30/60 more » • BUICKS OF A VINTAGE NATURE ONLY • 1940's vehicles and nostalgia • Graphic Car Art • Photoshopped Cars, Trucks & Bikes • Stuff on Show "opted out of 30/60" « less

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Camera:	Canon EOS 7D
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