Autos: Fastback Coming Back Fast

The fast back, a roofline that continues down an auto's back in one un broken convex curve, was abandoned by Detroit in the late 1940s in favor of the greenhouse roof, the sloping L-shape that was later refined by Ford into the much-copied T-Bird roof, a trim, knife-edged affair with angular lines. But for two years auto stylists have slowly been reviving the fastback on some sports models, and this year and next the curve will continue its comeback in at least three Detroit offerings. Last week Chrysler introduced the first of the new fastbacks, the Barracuda, whose startlingly...