Spearing the Whales

Ever since the 1957 autos swooshed onto the market, with all of their fins, fantails and flanges, they have been the object of an extraordinary amount of comment. Some of it has been admiring, some has been funny, and some--from motorists who want more fish and less fin --has been downright bitter. Last week in the New Republic (circ. 29,453), Cartoonist Robert Osborn had his say (see cuts) with sharp effect.

Exurbanite Osborn (TIME, April 6, 1953), who personally drives a four-passenger 1951 British-made Riley ("It's the most marvelous green color and the wheels aren't square"), thinks the 1957 cars are "ludicrous" ("Why, you can't even get into the things"). His idea of what a car should be: a cross between a French Bugatti and the 1914 Packard he grew up in. One is beautifully disciplined; the other, "once you "got in you could walk around in it." Asks Osborn: "Why is it, when Detroit can produce an engine as fine as they do, that esthetically their taste, design and judgment aren't worth a damn? Why, the new models look like great swollen whales!"

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