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This is more like it. In one simple profile revision, from whalelike fastback four-door to tough-looking aerodynamic sport wagon, Porsche's Panamera has been transformed from a car I wouldn't want to be seen driving into something I actually could covet. The concept of a fastback four-door sedan is intriguing, but making one genuinely attractive is a difficult task. General Motors managed it from 1949-51 with Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile, basically because the roof tapered inward quite sharply in plan view and because, by our contemporary standards, they were pretty big cars, allowing a long roofline. But many other attempts, including the 1949 Lincoln, GM's late-'70s downsized four-doors, and Porsche's first sedan, have ranged from grotesque to ghastly.

The new 2014 Corvette Stingray may share precious little with the previous sixth-generation Corvette, but there is one common thread. In 2004, Chevrolet rolled out the C6 Corvette coupe in Detroit and then waited several weeks to unveil the convertible variant at the Geneva Motor Show. Fast-forward nine years: weeks after the C7 coupe was unveiled in Detroit, the new Corvette convertible will make its first appearance in Switzerland.

Edsels weren’t always ugly.

October 1954
Standing in a grungy old industrial building in Detroit, I had just been given a glimpse of a brilliant automotive future. Barely nineteen, I'd been probationally employed by General Motors for only a month or so when we newcomers in the Styling Section orientation studio were allowed to see one of the "dream cars" intended for the 1955 Motorama show. That car was the La Salle II roadster, and the man telling us about it was Charles Chayne, GM's engineering vice president. I was deeply impressed by the little sports car, its V-6 engine, and the conversation I had with Chayne, owner of a Bugatti Royale. At that time, only Lancia had ever made a V-6. It was used in the Aurelia sedan and its GT derivatives, one of which had, incredibly, won the grueling Targa Florio open road race, defeating all-out racing sports cars. It was an exciting moment, one I've never forgotten.