The years just before World War II saw much change at Chevrolet. The new 1939 bodyshell got a major redo for 1940. Another new design arrived for’ 41, clearly a cousin but mostly fresh. To many, Chevy was never better than it was in 1941.
Chevy’s new A-body, shared with the junior Pontiac and Olds, didn’t look any larger, but passengers liked its extra interior room, shown by a three-inch stretch in front seat width. Outside, the familiar running boards seemed to be missing, but they were actually concealed by the lower door sheetmetal. Sealed-beam headlamps were new, and were integratedwith the front fenders for the first time.
Riding a three-inch-longer (116-inch) wheelbase and measuring 196 inches stem to stern, the’ ‘Fashion Plate for , 41" was a bright, perky entry in the low-price arena. Its bold, neat horizontal grille, obviously borrowed from Buick yet memorably Chevy, lured many buyers into the showrooms. And why not? The Depression seemed to be gone for good at last, aided by a national economy gearing up for an ever more likely war effort. Chevy’s brisk’ 41 styling was the sort of thing long expected of Harley Earl’s Art & Colour Studio. Compared to this year’s dated, rather lumpy Ford it was sleek and refreshing yet fashionably practical.
The odds-on favorite of the younger set was the Special DeLuxe coupe, a sharp and lively car with an 80-mph top speed, 0-50 mph acceleration of about 14 seconds, and an $800 base price. Sure, the business coupe sans back seat cost a few dollars less, but the five-seat model was a bigger seller, with 155,889 units. That didn’t quite match the top-selling Special DeLuxe two-door Town Sedan-228,458-but it did overwhelm the four-door Sport
Sedan and its 59,538 units. Remaining Special DeLuxe choices were the wood-body wagon, the costliest’ 41 at $995 and the scarcest at just 2045 units, and the sporty cabriolet with vacuumoperated soft top, priced at $949. Buyers content with a little less trim and fewer amenities looked to the four-model Master DeLuxe line, priced from $712 to $795. All told, Chevy built over a million ’41 cars, a new record. Some 60 percent were the costlier Special DeLuxe models.
But base price was just the beginning. Many owners went wild on accessories, a wide selection that was hard to resist. Fender skirts, spotlights, backup lamps, Guide rectangular foglamps, ‘washboard" front fender chrome, a grille guard and a fold-down rear guard were some of the exterior spruce-up items. Inside, the symmetrical woodgrain dash might hold a clock or one of several radios, including a five-band shortwave set. Turn signals and two-tone steering wheel (with built-in spinner) were other extras.
Mechanically, the’ 41 Chevy was much as before. The familiar "Stovebolt Six" in its reworked, 216.5-cubic-inch 1937 guise got a new cylinder head and 6.5:1 compression that boosted output to 90 horsepower, a gain of 5 bhp, and all models acquired Maurice Olley’s controversial "Knee-Action" independent front suspension. Vacuum shift, introduced as a 1939 option, was another new standard. Gear changing required only fingertip effort as the lever traveled only a tiny distance, but shifting was sluggish and many owners eventually converted to manual transmission. A midyear addition to the line was the $877 Fleetline sedan, a forecast of 1942 and early-postwar styling. Looking like a scaled-down C-body Cadillac, it had blind rear roof quarters and a notchback shape with a more formal air. An impressive 34,162 were sold for the model year.
Though the coupe and cabriolet have long been the most prized ’41s, all these Chevys are sharp and very desirable. Some consider this to be one of the best-looking low-priced cars ever, and one of the nicest cars of any kind. This was unquestionably a vintage year for Chevrolet, and it seems almost everybody has owned a ’41 at one time or other. We suspect most of those folks wish they still did.
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