What 50's era car would you want to have?

[JDgreen227]

Roy, I know what SUV means....was kidding that my registration for a $50,000 GMC shows STATION WAGON...perhaps that wasn't clear. Jinman said people would NOT spend money on a luxury station wagon...but apparently I did.

 

[toppop52]

My HHR is called a half ton truck by Chevy, but Maryland calls it a sport wagon, same as my 2 door Tahoe, but my 4 door Z71 Tahoe is a multi purpose vehicle, same as my shop van, which is supposed to classed as a truck since it has no rear seating. They call my wife's Pacifica a van for reasons known only to them but her mini van is called a multi purpose vehicle. I'm so confused!

 

[turnkey4099]

Hello All, I reckon a studebaker, what lines, I think it may have been called a hawk. (unsure)
regards vince.

Studie Hawk came in either Silver or Golden (top model). Great body but just standard 50s engineering. I lusted after one coming back from my first tour overseas. Had it all lined up, dealer had the twin radio antennas already mounted when their financing turned me down.

Came to engineering, none of the US models had great improvements over the basic "car". Poor cornering, bad weght distribution, etc. It wasn't until the lat 60s that there ws much happening as far as making cars great fun rigs on the street.

Sports cars? There wasn't one built in the US. Before eveyone brings up 'vette and t-bird they were just the basic road cars with very nice bodies. Performance back then was all "straight line" or, in the race circuits, "stand left and stand on it". None could handle the twisties like the furinners...of course the furriners didn't build but the very high end cars that were really great for just covering long distance, too small.

Harry K

Harry K

 

[Gonerafting]

My father had a 1957 Belair Convertible with a Fuel Injected engine back in that day, it had a white top and a kind light purplish blue exterior. I would love to find one of those. I've never seen another one like it on any of the auctions. It had 500 miles on it when he bought it from the owner of the Dealership in Everett, Washington. It was truly beautiful. I remember listening to the song, " It was an itsy bitsy bikini in the back seat. I was six, lol.

 

[KentT]

Sports cars? There wasn't one built in the US. Before eveyone brings up 'vette and t-bird they were just the basic road cars with very nice bodies. Performance back then was all "straight line" or, in the race circuits, "stand left and stand on it". None could handle the twisties like the furinners...of course the furriners didn't build but the very high end cars that were really great for just covering long distance, too small.

Harry K

Harry K

Zora Arkus-Duntov would certainly disagree with your opinion when it came to Corvettes. He joined GM after seeing the 1953 model on the show car circuit and led the transformation of the Corvette into a serious sports car.

After joining GM in 1953, Zora changed the Corvette from a turntable darling into one of the most respected sports cars in the world. It started slowly... a suspension tweak, some aerodynamic work, then the V8 high-performance camshaft, and fuel injection. Later would come independent rear suspension, pure-bred race cars and daring prototypes. Suddenly, "The General" was more alive than ever. Corvettes began to appear in racing paddocks at places like Pebble Beach and Sebring alongside Mercedes, Jaguars and Porsches. As the years passed, the Corvette would become the best selling sports car in the world and like, blue jeans and Marlboros, the Corvette would become known for its brash American character.

Source: National Corvette Museum - Hall of Fame [Zora Arkus-Duntov]

Just because they weren't 100hp 4-cylinders screaming 7,000 RPM in 3rd gear around pylons, or sub-200HP 6-cylinders running through the twisties, doesn't mean they weren't serious sports cars for their day. They used the brute force of the American V8 (HP + torque) to establish their reputation, even winning every single race of one Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) classification, for example...

Corvette Racing History:
Corvette Racing History: The Making of a Performance Icon

Most importantly, they were mass-produced, at a fraction of the cost of high-performance foreign sports cars.

Certainly there were heavy "luxo-slugs" made and sold, in addition to lower performance cruisers, but Corvettes have had (and continue to have) a special place in the sports car world. Today's ZR-1 is a 200+ MPH vehicle that is quite competitive with the Italian supercars that cost almost 10 times as much...

T-Birds, on the other hand, were always just cruisers, and NEVER took road performance and racing seriously... that's the areas that Caroll Shelby addressed with his Cobra or Mustang Cobra...

 

[turnkey4099]

I had so many great 50s cars that I would love to have back now that it is hard to choose just one.

But one of my very favorites was my 1959 Ford Skyliner retractable hardtop as seen here on Youtube. Ford Fairlane Skyliner 1959 Retractable Hardtop, opening & closing - YouTube

I saw one of those parked on mainstreet in this small town a few years ago during a car show. Talked to the owner who said the top still worked. My brother was one of the lead mechanics at Lou Bell Motors, Lewiston, Id at that time and he _hated_ that car. Said it took 2 mechanics a couple aides and time, time, time to keep all of those motors, switches etc. operating.

It was one nice car.

How come no one has voted for the Edsel? Biggest bomb of the era. IIRC they were all built on the Ford production line, never got the factory going and they were much of a hodge podge of parts from other cars.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

Am sure he meant well, but I am wondering if I incorrectly duplicated a thread. BTW, the latest issue of Hemmings Classic Cars (Feb. 2012) arrived today, the very first editorial comment is by the editor in chief, Richard Lentinello, and he bemoans the fact that most of todays new cars are silver, white, black, and grey. He went on to say such depressing shades of color make the highways look like a funeral procession because they are that somber. He then says the Fifties and early Sixties color palettes gave cars character, and more importantly they gave their owners a sense of individuality, because rarely were two cars exactly alike. Earlier on in this thread I noted that my wife's silver Saturn L-300 was pretty much like a hundred other cars you could see on the road in any given day....BLAND, BORING, MUNDANE.

How many interior colors can you get on a new car today? Black, tan, grey, beige....BORING.

In the Fifties you could get a hundred or more fabric and color choices...

Sorry for rambling, gonna go drool over HCC, this issue has a theme on 1958 models....drool, drool, drool.....:laughing:

It was the two-tone paint jobs that made the big diffence...that and body styles that stood out. Back then you could identify most makes and models at one glance a block away. Today? YOu can't tell one from another without a close look.

Harry K

 

[Egon]

It was an itsy bitsy bikini in the back seat./QUOTE]

Some might say the back seat was the best feature.

 

[Egon]

It was an itsy bitsy bikini in the back seat./QUOTE]

Some might say the back seat was the best feature of the 50's cars.

 

[Gonerafting]

It was an itsy bitsy bikini in the back seat./QUOTE]

Some might say the back seat was the best feature of the 50's cars.

I could not agree with you more, but at 6 years old, I was not hormonally challenged! LOL