Coupes Without B Pillars --Again
Proving once again that there is little new under the sun, Mercedes-Benz is hailing itself as an engineering genius for developing a new coupe, the just-released CLK with no B pillar.
That’s the pillar that typically divides the front and rear side windows and supports the vehicle’s roof. It also causes a blind spot of varying dimensions, depending on the car, for the driver and interferes with the wide-open feeling that should be part of a coupe. (A vehicle’s pillars, or roof supports, are alphabetically listed starting at the windshield, or A, pillar.)
Mercedes says that because all four side windows of the CLK coupes (there’s a CLK320 with V-6 power, starting at $44,565, and a CLK500 with a V-8 engine, starting at $52,865) retract fully without a B pillar to interfere, you get that “open, airy feel that conventional coupes cannot match.”
It used to be that the absence of a center, or B, pillar defined the coupe, and American car makers set the standard (think 1955 Chevy Bel Air coupe, 1963 Lincoln Continental, 1965 Mustang, 1972 Pontiac GTO, and the list goes on).
But that was when the government did not require car makers to meet roof crush standards--imposed in the early 1980s to help protect occupants in the event of a rollover. With the standards came the need to stiffen and strengthen roofs, and the wide-open “pillar-less” coupe gave way to the modern hardtop coupe, with a solid pillar, often hidden behind a blacked-out section of the rear side window.
Mercedes had best sing its praises about its coupe coup quickly, though, because others are not far behind. Advances in engineering and metallurgy make it possible to design cars that can meet all the crash and crush standards without center pillars, and there are a number on the way.
Among the most notable: Mazda’s upcoming RX-8, a four-door coupe with no B pillar; and Honda’s Element, a boxy, four-door vehicle with doors that swing out like barn doors to create a gaping, pillar-less opening for loading bicycles, beer kegs, dorm furnishings or anything the target 20-to-30-year-old male buyer can stuff inside.
Cadillac’s upcoming XLR coupe, which debuted over the weekend at Pebble Beach, also is B pillar-less.
Still, some might argue that Mercedes is singing a little out of tune: GM’s Saturn unit introduced a three-door coupe in the 2001 model year that had a B pillar on the passenger side but none on the driver’s side, where the small third door provided access to the rear seat.
Autonomy Platform
General Motors Corp. has developed a body to fit the Autonomy “skateboard” fuel-cell platform (Highway 1, Jan. 23) it introduced at the Detroit auto show in January.
Autonomy is a flat, wheeled platform that contains most of the electronics and power train for a vehicle. It looks like an oversized skateboard and is designed to accept a variety of body styles.
The first one is the Hy-Wire, built over the last eight months and scheduled to get a public introduction Sept. 26 at the Paris auto show.
GM developed Hy-Wire’s chassis and body for the Autonomy’s electronic drive-by-wire system that eliminates many of the mechanical and hydraulic links common in conventional cars.
It uses a trio of hydrogen tanks mounted in the center of the chassis to power a single, transverse-mounted electric motor that drives the front wheels.
GM says the power train is the same as what it used on its 2001 HydroGen 3 fuel-cell test vehicle and should give Hy-Wire a top speed of 97 mph and a range of 60 miles.
