Best looking car of the 1950's?

[hotrodalex]

[dazzleman]

[280Z Turbo]

It's hard to top the '56 Ford.

[dazzleman]

It's hard to top the '56 Ford.

We had one when I was little.

[r0tor]

1959 lotus elite I saw on my classics car this morning was fantastic

[68_427]

[Rupert]

1959 lotus elite I saw on my classics car this morning was fantastic

Elite

[Laconian]

300SL and DS.

[hotrodalex]

[Byteme]

1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk

[shp4man]

Me likey! 

[MexicoCityM3]

[Mustangfan2003]

Chrysler should've built this

[hotrodalex]

I like how that has the big wheel look but doesn't have huge belt lines or slab sides. Modern designs could learn a thing or two from the 50s and 60s. Another part that's nice is the bottom of the bodywork that tucks in to give it a clean look - no "bodykit" necessary to make it look good.

[2o6]

Designs of the 1950's also have hilariously poor space management.

[hotrodalex]

Example?

[2o6]

Example?

Are you fucking serious? Look at any profile of practically any car from that era.....there is a lot of length and width on old cars, but very little of it is used actually for the cabin.


Modern cars are very space efficient, and are are more comfortable; not just because of the advances in suspension and manufacturing technology - they're designed from the ground up to be far more accommodating.

[hotrodalex]

They also have massive trunks and roomy engine compartments.

The passenger compartments are usually pretty roomy. Front bench seats for 3 across, dashboards that aren't super complicated or stick out in the footwell, etc. And if you think a modern car can match the comfort of a huge Lincoln or Cadillac, you obviously haven't ridden in one. It's like riding on a cloud. Just don't go around a corner.

[FoMoJo]

Designs of the 1950's also have hilariously poor space management.

It wasn't a, particular, requirement of the time.  For that matter, I can't recall 'space efficiency' ever being mentioned in the advertising back then...although those buying a Nash Metropolitan may have considered it.  However, most domestic vehicles held 6 adults quite comfortably with a large trunk and lots of room under the hood to work on the engine. 

[FoMoJo]

Great looking car.  Great times for the domestic manufacturers; though '55 was the year of the 'new' models with very slight changes for the '56s; new style, new engines, new suspension, beginning of the modern era.  Reminds me of the first time a saw a 'new' Ford.  It looked just about like this one; though a '55 with black where the yellow is.  We were playing baseball and a guy was showing off his parent's new car and drove it onto the outfield just when the batter popped a flyball.  It landed on the roof of the car.  Funny as hell at the time.

[FoMoJo]

1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk

I had a '57 Silver Hawk for a couple of years.  Looked about the same.  Very stylish with a fairly potent 289 V8...minus the paxton supercharger.

[Northlands]

Designs of the 1950's also have hilariously poor space management.

No shit. It's not like cars had been mass produced for all that long. It was still in it's infancy and people still considered vehicles luxuries. They weren't living in the things like they are now. You could say the same for the 60's, 70's and 80's as well.

[Byteme]

It wasn't a, particular, requirement of the time.  For that matter, I can't recall 'space efficiency' ever being mentioned in the advertising back then...although those buying a Nash Metropolitan may have considered it.  However, most domestic vehicles held 6 adults quite comfortably with a large trunk and lots of room under the hood to work on the engine.

I could easily smuggle two people into the drive in theater in the trunk of my 63 Chevy Belaire.

[Byteme]

Great looking car.  Great times for the domestic manufacturers; though '55 was the year of the 'new' models with very slight changes for the '56s; new style, new engines, new suspension, beginning of the modern era.  Reminds me of the first time a saw a 'new' Ford.  It looked just about like this one; though a '55 with black where the yellow is.  We were playing baseball and a guy was showing off his parent's new car and drove it onto the outfield just when the batter popped a flyball.  It landed on the roof of the car.  Funny as hell at the time.

Many forget that in 1957 Ford outsold Chevrolet.  personally I think the 57 Ford is the better looking car. 

[hotrodalex]

I could easily smuggle two people into the drive in theater in the trunk of my 63 Chevy Belaire.

Could probably fit one under the hood, too.

[FoMoJo]

Many forget that in 1957 Ford outsold Chevrolet.  personally I think the 57 Ford is the better looking car. 

I agree.  A very restrained but elegant design in the era of fins gone crazy.  Up here, we had the Meteor which was a relabelled Ford with the bit of cosmetic changes.  I like, especially, the front grille design even better than the Ford...

[GoCougs]

Not so fast, guys . As is known about 1957 it depends on how the numbers are tabulated. Chevy actually sold more cars in calender year 1957 (mostly MY1957, some leftover MY1956). Ford however sold more MY1957 than Chevy sold MY1957 during calender year 1957. Also known is that both the Edsel and the Impala debuted in MY1958 - one went on to crash and burn (and helped put one particular automaker back into 2nd place in 1958 where it remains to this day) and the other went on to sell 200k, 400k, 700k, and finally 1MM units annually by 1965.

[280Z Turbo]

I don't like the '57 Ford. The protruding, hooded headlamps look strange.

[GoCougs]

It does look a bit disjointed. For '57 I like Mopar's fronts the best (integrated quad headlights):

Plymouth:



Dodge:



Desoto:

[dazzleman]

Great looking car.  Great times for the domestic manufacturers; though '55 was the year of the 'new' models with very slight changes for the '56s; new style, new engines, new suspension, beginning of the modern era.  Reminds me of the first time a saw a 'new' Ford.  It looked just about like this one; though a '55 with black where the yellow is.  We were playing baseball and a guy was showing off his parent's new car and drove it onto the outfield just when the batter popped a flyball.  It landed on the roof of the car.  Funny as hell at the time.

I'm very partial to that car because my grandparents had one and gave it to my parents when I was little.  It's the first car that I remember.

I remember the ignition was to the left of the steering wheel.  Funny the things you remember.