American Car Spotters Guide - 1940

The Second World War caused the end of civilian car and truck production in US manufacturers' European plants but domestic production was well up on 1939 and sales totalled 3,717,385 cars and 754,901 trucks and buses (compared with 2,888,512 and 700,377 respectively in 1939). Most 1940 models had restyled bodywork. Among the innovations were sealed-beam headlights, and concealed running boards were generally adopted. Military production was also stepped up. In addition to fulfilling European orders for military trucks, production for national defence was increased.

To direct this production, William S. Knudsen, president of General Motors, moved to Washington at the invitation of President Roosevelt. Dodge received contracts for 20,000 trucks for the US Army and the first 'Jeep' was produced by American Bantam. The Automotive Committee for Air Defense was formed on 30 October to facilitate aircraft production, and Ford and Packard were contracted for the manufacture of Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engines respectively.

Hupmobile Skylark

Even though the Cord Automotive Company ceased operations in 1937, the Cord 812 design was re-marketed almost immediately in 1940, as ailing automakers Hupmobile and Graham-Paige tried to save money, and revive the companies, by using the same body dies. Except for their similarity to the 810, their four-door sedans, the Hupp Skylark and the Graham Hollywood, were unremarkable. Retractable headlights gave way to plain headlight pods, and power came from a standard front-engine/rear-wheel drive design. While Hupp Motor Company built a few prototypes in 1939 that gained them sales orders for the 1939 model year they did not have the resources to manufacture the car.

Graham Paige stepped in offering to build the Hupmobile Skylarks on a per piece contract basis. Graham built a combined 1850 units for sale in the 1940 model year. Hupmobile closed before the 1941 model came around. Of the 1850 cars produced in the 1940 model year by Graham only about 450 were the Hupmobile Skylarks. Graham continued to build the Hollywood late into 1941. They stopped production in November of that year having only built a rumored 400 units. The Hollywood was powered by a supercharged Continental in line six making 124 HP, almost 50 less than the original supercharged Cord.

Also see: 1940 Automobile Ads Published in the USA