Ponton (car)

Ponton or pontoon styling is an automotive design genre that spanned roughly from the 1930s-1960s, when pontoon-like bodywork enclosed the full width and uninterrupted length of a car body — eliminating previously distinct running boards and articulated fenders.

[2][3] Now largely archaic, the term ponton describes the markedly bulbous, slab-sided configuration of postwar European cars, including those of Mercedes-Benz, Opel, Auto Union, DKW, Borgward,[4] Lancia, Fiat, Rover, Renault, and Volvo—as well as similar designs from North America and Japan, sometimes — in its most exaggerated usage — called the "bathtub" look in the U.S.[5] The term derives from the French and German word ponton, meaning 'pontoon'.

"[7] In 1921, Hungarian aerodynamicist Paul Jaray requested a patent for a streamlined car with an evenly shaped lower body, that covers the wheels and runs parallel to the floor space.

In 1922 the Romanian engineer Aurel Persu filed a patent application for an "aerodynamically-shaped automobile with the wheels mounted inside the aerodynamic body" having a drag coefficient of only 0.22 and received it in Germany in 1924.

The brothers Jankovitz had been close friends with designer Paul Jaray,[13] and the prototype, called the Alfa Romeo Aerodinamica Spider, featured ponton styling[13]—an especially early and clear example of the bulbous, uninterrupted forms that would come to characterize the genre.

MoMA acquired an example for its permanent collection in 1951, noting that the car's "hood, body, fenders, and headlights are integral to the continuously flowing surface, rather than added on.

[16] Rounded, flowing forms, with unbroken horizontal lines between the fenders—the style had identified as "the so-called Ponton Side Design" became "the new fashion in Europe".

[18] The Howard "Dutch" Darrin-designed Frazer won the Fashion Academy of New York Gold Medal for design achievement, and was said to have been the inspiration for the 1949 Borgward Hansa 1500, Germany's first sedan in the ponton style.

[20] The 1947 Studebaker Champion, designed by Virgil Exner and Roy Cole featured an innovative rear end that "surprised Americans who smiled and asked :which way is it going?

Originally the term referred to a design prevalent in the United States in the 1930s where front fenders encased a wheel and terminated in a teardrop point, remaining distinct from the running boards or the body of the car.