Simon Cars - Designer Nickles Ned

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Designer: Ned Nickles

Ned Nickles became head of the Buick studio in 1947 with Harlow Curtice as the Buick chief, and Curtice straight away had the new Buicks restyled to be less radical and this delayed their introduction. As a result these 1949 Buicks ended up looking somewhat similar to the 1948 Buicks, except one feature; VentiPorts. Ned Nickles added lighted portholes to his own car which flashed in synchrony with the spark plugs, and these ended up as non-lighted decoration on Buicks from then on. Also introduced in 1949 was the hardtop coupe, a kind of fixed roof convertible. Ned Nickles is credited with designing this with engineer Ed Ragsdale. Ned Nickles was still at GM when he created a new design that was proposed to be a LaSalle II Coupe. Head of the Studio Bill Mitchell picked this up and it was offered to Buick, Cadillac and Oldsmobile, and finally produced by Buick as the 1963 Riviera. Later it would become both Cadillac and Oldsmobile.

Buick Roadmaster Dynaflow 1949 Convertible front

Buick Roadmaster Dynaflow 1949 Convertible. The Roadmaster engine was the largest 5.2-litre straight-eight fireball engine giving 150bhp. The 'Dynaflow' referred to a Torque Converter transmission available on the RoadMaster and so popular that Buick had to double production. One-piece windscreens appeared in 1950, but the 'sweepspear' on the flanks was to be a continuing feature on the larger Buicks for years to come.

Buick Special 1958 Convertible. Designer Ned Nickles reworked the GM B-body to give it a square look for the final year of this body before the 1959 new shell. The grille contained 160 chrome squares to catch the light, and new quad lamps sat above. Missing from the front wings in 1958 were the 3 'ventiports'.

Buick Special Riviera 2-door hardtop 1958. Called the 'Chrome Queen' on account of the huge amount of chrome lavished on the cars, as GM competed against Chrysler in the bad taste stakes. Things changes in 1959.

Buick Riviera GS 1966. For the 1966 model year the Riviera was rebodied with a new version of the E-body that for 1968 would also be given to the front wheel drive Cadillac Eldorado and Oldsmobile Toronado.

Buick Roadmaster Dynaflow 1949 Convertible - VentiPorts. Designer Ned Nickles fitted four lights on each side of his Buick, wired to flash with each cylinder to simulate the firing of the engine. On seeing these Harlow Curtice sanctioned fitting them onto production cars, and although they might have provided ventilation within weeks they became non-functional. Larger engined Buicks were given 4 VentiPorts whereas less models only got 3.

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key text: This is the page introducing Simons love of cars from the website RedSimon which is a series of photo albums of Simon GP Geoghegan.
The names of Pinin, Farina, and Pininfarina are also considered
There are also notes on Pininfarina
as well as the car maker
and links tothat car maker
see also my Picasa car albums
withe even more on RedSimon
Simon is also a contributor to SuperCars.Net
And also to Wikipedia
Photos may be purchased from PhotoBox