Touring car
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A touring car, or tourer, is an open car seating five or more.[1] Touring cars may have two or four doors. Often, the belt line is lowered in the front doors to give the car a more sportive character. They were often fitted with a folding roof and side curtains.[2] Engines on early models were either in the front, or in a mid-body position. Touring cars evolved into the modern sedan/saloon body style.
The touring car style was popular in the early 20th century, being a larger alternative to the runabout and the roadster. By the mid-teens in the United States, the touring car body had evolved into a variety of types, with the four-door touring car, equipped with a convertible top, being the most popular body style offered.
The majority of Model T's produced by Ford between 1908 and 1927 were four and then three-door models (with drivers sliding behind the wheel from passenger seat) touring cars, accounting for 6,519,643 cars sold out of the 15,000,000 estimated Model T's built. In terms of percentage, the 5-passenger touring car model was Ford's most popular body type and accounted for 44% of all Model T's (cars, trucks and chassis) sold over the model's eighteen-plus year life span; Ford's second most popular body style during the same period was its Model T based truck.
Side curtains, when available for a particular model, could be installed to protect passengers from wind and weather by snapping or zipping them into place; otherwise, drivers and passengers braved the elements. When the top was folded down, it formed a bulky mass known as the "fan" behind the back seat: "fan covers" were made to protect the top and its wooden ribs while in the down position.
The popularity of the touring car began to wane in the early 1920s when cars with enclosed passenger compartments became more affordable, and began to consistently out-sell the open cars.
[edit] See also
- Barchetta – an Italian style of roadster or spyder developed for racing cars after World War II
- Phaeton body – similar to a touring car, but initially lighter and more sporting
- Roadster – a.k.a. "spider" or "spyder", open car similar to a touring car, but with only one row of seats. Usually with emphasis on performance, may be considered to be a "single" phaeton.
- Runabout (car) – a light, open two-seat car, similar to a roadster but with emphasis on economy instead of performance.
- Torpedo (car) – a touring car with an unbroken body line from the radiator to the back of the car.
[edit] References
- ^ Stein, Jess, ed. (1975) [1968]. The Random House College Dictionary (Revised ed.). New York, NY USA: Random House. p. 1389. ISBN 0394436008. "touring car, an open automobile designed for five or more passengers."
- ^ The Macquarie Dictionary of Motoring. Sydney, Australia: Macquarie Library. 1986. p. 485. ISBN 0949757357.
