I wonder what it was like fifty years ago.  I mean being a teenage boy during the great years following WWII.  Oh, wait a minute, I do remember and it was great.  It seems my best friend (Richard Haber) and I lived on our bikes.  We lived in Jersey City, New Jersey and would ride our bikes everywhere. Each September we would ride about two miles to the Chevrolet dealer in town and sneak a look at the new models a week or so before the formal release date.  I literally remember looking at the printing embossed in the taillight lens to verify the model year of the car, 1956, it read.

Now, of course, I have a different perspective about the battles between the car companies.  Car companies then really meant the American car companies, G.M., Ford, Chrysler and the others like Nash, Studebaker & Willies. I have written a  few posts about Chrysler’s moves during the second half of 1950s.  Chrysler skipped an entire year and brought out the 1958 cars in 1957 just to get an edge.  The funny thing that I do not remember is what G.M. was doing with the Chevrolet line during the same time frame.  G.M. was also moving quickly. In fact, G.M. had three significantly different designs in 1957, 1958 and 1959.

Let’s start when the fun begins, the 1955 Chevy Bel Air. This was a real breakaway design in more than one way. First, the body style and dimensions were much changed compared with the 1954. Secondly, the V8 engine also introduced in the 1955 model added numerous options to the Chevy line. Also, Air Conditioning was added as an option.

Click Here To See The 1955 Brochure

The 1956 model just built on the 1955 models, but somehow they look much bigger.  The two cars (1955,1956) had the same exact wheelbase but the 1956 model was about two inches longer.  The ’55 front grill was also replaced with a full width grill and the back end started the move towards the “fins craze”.

Click on pictures to Z O O M in.

The next part of this post will explore the 1957 and 1958 models.  Things change a lot and very, very quickly too.

Click here to leave a comment on which car I should post next.

 Notice the front bumpers are cut on both sides of the grill,
I've seen this in several other pictures on the Web.

There is a lot to tell about the 1972 Vega, some of which involves me and an ex-girlfriend in Washington D.C. in 1972.  Well, the girlfriend part is rather boring but Bonnie, was the proud owner of a very simple Vega in 1972, while we were dating.  Her car had a simple 2 speed transmission and was very, very slow.  Apparently, the Vegas were not all like hers, thank goodness.

The Vega was a unique vehicle.  It was a part of a Corporate G.M. project that started in 1969 to help fight off the VW, Toyoto and Datsun lead in the sub-compact car category.  According to Wikipedia, a dedicated team was established under one manager to design and bring the car to market in 24 mouths.  The team succeeded but the car had mixed reviews.  The car won Car Of The Year from major magazines and also made other magazine’s worst cars of all time list.

The cars basic style came from the Fiat 124 sports coupe, the car I was driving in 1972.  Also, the aluminum block engine was originally tested in a Fiat sedan.  Thanks go out to the Italian’s.

1972 models were essentially carried over from 1971 with a few refinements and additions. Vibration and noise levels were reduced by a revised exhaust system and better driveline damping and the rear shock absorbers were revised. The Turbo-hydramatic three-speed automatic transmission and a custom cloth interior were new options and a glove box was added.[19]

Apparently, my ex-girlfriend did not buy the 3 speed option.

Original script logo was replaced in 1973

One other interesting note relates to the cars tenancy to rust.

The original design provided for the full inner fender liners from the beginning. But at a cost review meeting the finance department cancelled the liners, as they would have added $1.14 per side, or $2.28 per car to the product cost. One of the program objectives was to produce a 2,000-pound car to sell for $2,000.00, and every penny was watched. Five years later, after GM had spent millions to replace thousands of sets of rusted-out Vega fenders in the field….

Click Here for extensive information from Wikipeadia on the Chevy Vega

© Fred Winograd copyright 2011

According to the rules of my site, I don’t photograph cars at car shows or even casual car club meetings. It’s all about “seeing the cars in the wild”, meaning on the street. I saw this car in the parking lot of a garage in Layton New Jersey as we drove by. The garage is even pictured on Google Maps. Look up 118 County Road 560, Layton, NJ. Wow, a 1929 car out in the country.

The Franklin Automobile Company was founded around 1902 in Syracuse New York.  It was headed by Herbert H. Franklin who had founded the Franklin Manufacturing Company in 1883, also in Syracuse.  The company was very innovative and manufactured cars until 1934, when the company declared bankruptcy. Here’s a story I picked up from the Web.

A big fan of Franklins was famous airplane pilot Charles Lindbergh. With the banks now in control of the company and calling it quits in 1934, legend has it that Herbert Franklin got up from his desk, grabbed his hat off of the coat hook, and walked out.

This came from a car sales site called Valenti Classics, here is a link to a Franklin they sold. Click Here for for a link to the site

This car, a 1929 was one of about 14,000 cars manufactured that year.  That was about 5,000 more cars than Franklin had ever sold in one year.

The Franklin cars were different. They were quite fast for the day and stressed fuel efficiency.  In fact, the 1929 model shown here could get up 28 miles per gallon, a great deal better than its competitors.  This was due, in large part to the engineering that went into the air cooled engine and the chassis design.

Click on the picture to Z O O M in.

Click on the picture to Z O O M in.

The left hand picture shows what looks like a radiator grill, but the car was air cooled.  This is explained in an article on Wkipedia.

Franklin’s were often rather odd-looking cars, although some were distinctly handsome with Renault-style hoods. Starting in 1925, at the demand of dealers, Franklin’s were redesigned to look like conventional cars sporting a massive nickel-plated “dummy radiator” which served as an air intake and was called a “hoodfront”. This design by J. Frank DeCausse enabled the Franklin to employ classic styling.

Click Here for more information from Wikipeadia

© Fred Winograd copyright 2009, 2011

At the risk of getting too much of a good thing, I am posting yet another Studebaker, this time a 1954 Commander.  To me this car is a fantastic example of Studebaker styling leadership.  The car was first released in 1953 when most of the US car companies were selling bathtub shaped vehicles that were at least 1.5 times as big.  Unfortunately, this was not rewarded by growing sales. The notable exception to this was Chevrolet’s release of the Corvette in 1954, the same model year this car was released.

I don’t think these exhaust pipe extenders are original.

I found this information on the net.

The sleek European styling of the 1953-1954 Studebaker Commander Regal Starlight/Starliner was matched by equally nice interiors trimmed mainly in vinyl or (for 1954 only) cloth, both color-keyed. There was also a slightly less posh DeLuxe-trim version of the fixed pillar Starlight offered in both years.

Click Here for more information on this Post War Car

NOTE – Some of you who look at my site often may also recognize the street setting this car was photographed in. It is the same place I photographed this 1957 Golden Hawk last year. In fact, I have a suspicion that the owner of both of these cars is the same; just a guess. Click on the picture for a link to the related post.

Click on pictures for LINK to the Golden Hawk post.

© Fred Winograd copyright 2011

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This is a very small car. After looking at the “modern” Minis, its amazing to see one of the original cars, especially an Estate Wagon, it seems tiny. This Mini belongs to a San Francisco resident who purchased the car in the Guernsey Islands just off of the northwest coast of France. Somehow, the UK seems to own the island, but I digress. I spoke to the owner briefly but did not ask her the year of the car. I’m estimating it to be a 1979, based on what I can see from the Web.

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That’s my niece standing next to the car. She loved the car too. The picture on the right shows the rounded cornered rectangular grill. This was a major change for the Clubman variety of Mini. The interior is also supposed to be different but I did not photograph that part of the car (darn it).

To me, one of the things that places this car near 1980 is the Mini Cooper logo at the back. Maybe someone reading this can better determine the actual year of the car.

I found this bit of trivia on the net as well:

The station wagon, without wooden frames, called Traveler hours. For the deluxe version of the British Leyland decided to focus on a substantial restyling inside and outside. It was thus launched, again in 1969, the Mini Clubman. Compared to the classic version Clubman differed only in the frontal (elongated and squared) and indoors (with redesigned dashboard and seats).

Click Here for a site that has more information on this model

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I returned home from college in Texas to find one of my good friend’s younger brother had just purchased a brand new 1967 GTO convertible.  Robert, who was working and also attending culinary school loved that car and would crash and total it less than a year later. Robert was not seriously hurt, except in the checkbook. He did go on to have a great career in Restaurant Consulting, but I bet he still remembers  buying this car more than most other things in life.

I got this picture in Saucoilito a few weeks ago at a local marina parking lot.  I met the owner who told me he purchased the car from a guy in Chicago in the late 1980s.  He had the car trucked back to California and has loved the car ever since.

This car, also known as “The Great One” had a 400 cubic inch V8 and many other spoty options.  It is one of the 60s most famous cars.

We traveling to Ashland Oregon earlier this year and we ran across this car near the ball field.  It’s not the proper color scheme but the car looks to be in great shape. Have a look at the interior shot just below. That part looks very original.

I found this information on the net. It was interesting.

Post-war years

Civilian production at Dodge was restarted by late 1945, in time for the 1946 model year. The “seller’s market” of the early postwar years, brought on by the lack of any new cars throughout the war, meant that every automaker found it easy to sell vehicles regardless of any drawbacks they might have. Like almost every other automaker, Dodge sold lightly facelifted revisions of its 1942 design through the 1948 season. As before, these were a single series of six-cylinder models with two trim levels (basic Deluxe or plusher Custom).

Click Here for a site that has more information on this Post War Dodge Cars

© Fred Winograd copyright 2011

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During the mid 1950s the US automakers got into a real race by dressing up their huge cars with fins and heavy chrome trim.  This car was released in late 1954 just before the craze began and it shows two small fins at the rear.  These would be enlarged in 1956 and dramatically expanded in 1957 ( Click Here for more information ) and would continue to grow for several years.

In 1957, Chrysler took a big risk and skipped the planned 1957 models and brought out the 1958 instead. This was the beginning of the “fins and chrome” race in Detroit.

Also, hi to my friend Richard Haber who drove one of these right after high school. His was a fancier model with black and white paint job, as I recall. Thinking back, his might have been a 1956.

This was Buick’s first “Muscle Car”.  It had a 401 CI engine and all of the convertibles and hardtop convertibles had a stiffer frame for added stability.  I recently saw an Ebay auction that was bidding up a rich looking version of this car.  At the time, the bidding was at $17,600 with a day to go before completion.  I’ll check and see where the auction ended.

This car is not yet ready for the car show; but it’s close.  A little body work and a new paint job will do this car a lot of good.

I found this information on the net. It was interesting.

Click Here for a site that has more information on this model

© Fred Winograd copyright 2011