The Only Cars The Golden Bowtie Produced 80 Years Ago

War is bad for business, unless you’re an arms dealer. It puts the economy into decline, makes people not spend, and can affect supply lines. When World War Two broke out, the US was in one of the better positions compared to the rest of the world to weather the storm. While there was a huge industrial effort to produce as much equipment, weapons, and vehicles for the army as possible, people back home had to get around and still needed new cars. General Motors was one of the most popular automotive companies at this time – with the onslaught of Japanese and Korean brands not even being a twinkle in the eye of their CEO’s eyes at the time – and they had some of the most impressive industrial capabilities, too.

So what did you get for your money in the world of 1940s Chevys? How did 1940s Chevrolet evolve its designs at this time? And have any of those models survived to this day? Well, in this article, we will seek to answer each of those questions, looking at five different new models from the time period, before finishing up with the model that is still going strong over 60 years later.

The AK Series Pickup

The Classic 40s Truck

The first in this list of 1940s Chevy cars isn’t a car at all. The Chevrolet AK Series was the 1940s equivalent of a Silverado, and launched in 1941. It was a light-duty truck and was sold until 1947. The AK was developed alongside a vehicle we will see next on this list, the Deluxe, and used that car’s base engine, a 216 cubic-inch/3.5-liter six cylinder making 90 horsepower. If you wanted some more muscle, the optional ‘Load Master’ 235.5-cid six-cylinder offered a tiny bit more power but made a lot more torque for towing.

Although the AK Series was only around for a few years, not even seeing the end of the decade, it did make an impact on how General Motors truck design would change going forward. Before the AK Series, Chevrolet trucks were very similar in styling and design to their sedan counterparts. The AK Series was the first to give the Chevrolet truck its own design with its distinctive grille.

The Deluxe

The Bread And Butter Sedan

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The Deluxe was the big ticket 1940 Chevy sedan. It was a market leader and spawned multiple bodies, two spin-off models, and even lasted into the 1950s with tweaks and improvements. But, was it all just hype, or did Chevrolet make the Deluxe a genuine good offering?

Developed alongside the AK Series Truck, the Deluxe also launched in 1941. By its end, it had a starting price of $1,492, or $33,515.50 in today’s economy. The Deluxe was a reasonably priced sedan with modern features and lots of customization. Early cars used a 216 cu-in/3.5-liter inline-six ‘Victory Six’ engine that made 85 horsepower at 3,300 rpm, being improved later in the decade to a dizzying 90 hp. This engine was attached to a “three-on-the-tree” manual column shifter with manual synchromesh. It had a vacuum-assisted shift that allowed drivers to easily change gears with a flick of a finger. To stop the Deluxe, the brakes were hydraulic with all-wheel drums. The interior was of a different era with cloth bench seats, a metal dash, and a single speaker radio, critical for listening for updates about the war across the pond. The Deluxe was such a success for Chevrolet that it had two spin-off models, but what made them different?

The Fleetline/Fleetmaster

A Cost-conscious Cadillac

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The Fleetline/Fleetmaster is a confusing line of different models and sublines, but we will make sense of it all. Originally, the Chevrolet Special Deluxe Series AH Fleetline was a spin-off of the Deluxe model for the first two years of the 1940s. It was sold exclusively as a sedan for the 1941 model year and then as both a ‘Sport Master’ sedan and ‘Aerosedan’ two-door coupe. When the US entered the War, Fleetline production was put on hold at the end of 1942. This version of the Fleetline sold 110,000 units when all was said and done.

Fast-forward to 1946 and Chevrolet introduced the Fleetmaster model. The Series DK Fleetmaster was the flagship model for the Chevrolet brand, replacing the pre-war Chevrolet Special Deluxe. It was available in two-door town sedan, four-door sport sedan, two-door sports coupe, two-door convertible, and four-door station wagon body styles and, even more confusingly, included the previously mentioned Fleetline sedan and coupe variants as a lower-cost subline. It used the same 3.5-liter six-cylinder and saw various updates and revisions till the end of the 1940s, when the whole model line was absorbed into the new 1949 2100 GK Series Chevrolet Deluxe, as a trim level.

Read the full article on CarBuzz

This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.