Landau (automobile)

The Landau began as a carriage design with a folding fabric top consisting of two sections supported by external elliptic springs.

[6] The top was designed with separate folding front and rear sections that raised or lowered independently or locked together in the middle to cover the carriage.

[15] As automobile-based hearses became popular, they "borrowed the landau bar flourish as an homage and an attempt to add a touch of Old-World class.

"[15] Since the mid-1940s, hearses in the United States commonly feature chrome bow-shaped landau bars on the simulated leather-covered rear roof sides.

[16][17] The landau bars have become a symbol of a funeral car to the point that hearse manufacturers continue to add them to "limousines as a matter of tradition.

[22] No other convertible featured anything like the Nash Rambler Landau with the fabric top that slid back to open along the fixed side rails.

The 1962 Landau was a hardtop that included a padded vinyl roof in white or black with simulated S-bars with a raised wing Thunderbird emblem on the C-pillars.

[29] The C-pillar was visually extended into the rear door window area and covered to match the vinyl top, with the landau bars helping camouflage the cut line.

[31] The Town Landau two-door version was reintroduced as a mid-1977 model as the most luxurious Thunderbird that included many standard comfort and trim features.