And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
The 59. I always wondered who the heck designed that!
Me too. My dad had a blue 59 El Camino and my mom had a red 30 Impala. I took the driving test in 1970 in a 1965 Bel Air station wagon with a 4 speed and a 327. My uncle had a blue over white 64 Impala. Our whole extended fambly were Chev people. Still are, mostly. I have a blazer and an S10 and my wife has an equinox.
What you need is comparison shots of all the rear ends for the different makes for 1959. As I'm sure you know, 1959 was the year of the largest tailfins. We need to see the 59 rear ends for Pontiac, Cadillac, Chevy, Ford, etc... I used to have a 1959 Pontiac Star Chief, but my favorite car was always the 1959 Cadillac Series 62. Big fins!!
My understanding is that the engineers finally perfected a method to make those big fins, bigger than ever the '57, and then the designers had to figure out a way to incorporate them into the design. If they had gone straight up (ala 1957), that would have created a blind spot for the driver and also wouldn't have been "different" enough to entice new buyers. So sideways it was. My Mom had one. Backed out of the driveway too close to my Dad's 55 Chevy and left a crease all down the side like she hit it with a giant can opener. I was born shortly after that, so apparently they made up.
I actually owned the '59. It was my first car, bought my senior year in high school. It did not help me at all in the chick department, which was the only reason I bought it. But it did run faithfully for up to 2 months at a time. lol.
I always thought the 58 was the most stylish of this series -- sort of an "Art-Deco" look. The 59 looked garish and the 62 made the car look like it was "taking a dump"
I own a 63 Impala -- not because of the rear end look, but because it's a 4spd ,dual quad, positraction 409 -- the real thing
I was set to get my learners permit and my parents 72 Impala gave up the ghost two months before I got it. Had to learn to drive in a 78 Chevy Monza which was not Chevy’s greatest effort.
Supposedly the '59 and '60 models would get light in the rear at serious speed due to those fins. My '60 felt squirrelly, so maybe. Buddy had a '58, but it looked odd after the '56 he had. Both of those ragtops were the same years that I had them, the '62 and '64 were both SS hardtops. At some point I ended up with a '69 El Camino, which was my last Chevy, I think. Got into bikes, so it mostly became trucks after that. Traded the El C for a '73 Norton.
I like every single one of those rear ends.
ReplyDeleteOff topic, seems if American Digest is down. It's domain is blocked.
ReplyDeleteIt's back up @ 12:00.
DeleteMe too. My dad had a blue 59 El Camino and my mom had a red 30 Impala. I took the driving test in 1970 in a 1965 Bel Air station wagon with a 4 speed and a 327. My uncle had a blue over white 64 Impala. Our whole extended fambly were Chev people. Still are, mostly. I have a blazer and an S10 and my wife has an equinox.
ReplyDelete60 not 30
DeleteTook my driving test in a 1970 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. A real land yacht.
DeleteWhat you need is comparison shots of all the rear ends for the different makes for 1959. As I'm sure you know, 1959 was the year of the largest tailfins. We need to see the 59 rear ends for Pontiac, Cadillac, Chevy, Ford, etc... I used to have a 1959 Pontiac Star Chief, but my favorite car was always the 1959 Cadillac Series 62. Big fins!!
ReplyDeleteMy father had a 59 sedan. Yup that rear end was about as butt-ugly as Kim Kardashian's
ReplyDeleteSame size, too.
Delete59 designed by a praying mantis
ReplyDeleteHad to be a stoner.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that the engineers finally perfected a method to make those big fins, bigger than ever the '57, and then the designers had to figure out a way to incorporate them into the design. If they had gone straight up (ala 1957), that would have created a blind spot for the driver and also wouldn't have been "different" enough to entice new buyers. So sideways it was. My Mom had one. Backed out of the driveway too close to my Dad's 55 Chevy and left a crease all down the side like she hit it with a giant can opener. I was born shortly after that, so apparently they made up.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the face of an outer space alien - with fangs.
ReplyDeleteThis really needs to start from '55. It's missing three classics.
ReplyDeleteI actually owned the '59. It was my first car, bought my senior year in high school. It did not help me at all in the chick department, which was the only reason I bought it. But it did run faithfully for up to 2 months at a time. lol.
ReplyDeleteMy best buddy in HS had a green 59 station wagon handed down from his dad. Not a real chick magnet.
DeleteSorry, but i have always thought th 59 was the coolest of all. And that dashboard! No other impala had that much daring do going on.
ReplyDeleteI always thought the 58 was the most stylish of this series -- sort of an "Art-Deco" look. The 59 looked garish and the 62 made the car look like it was "taking a dump"
ReplyDeleteI own a 63 Impala -- not because of the rear end look, but because it's a 4spd ,dual quad, positraction 409 -- the real thing
I was set to get my learners permit and my parents 72 Impala gave up the ghost two months before I got it. Had to learn to drive in a 78 Chevy Monza which was not Chevy’s greatest effort.
ReplyDelete'58 Ok. The rest, hideous.
ReplyDeletepersonally, I liked the '61 and '63.
ReplyDeleteIt was the Jet Age inspiration during that time.That's about the time they started screwing up the T-Bird.
ReplyDeleteI have seen the 1959 described as looking like a suspicious vampire
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that Ford and Chrysler never had a Corvette equivalent.
ReplyDeleteThat was Daddy's car.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the evolution. I lived through it but the progression of the design never occurred to me.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly the '59 and '60 models would get light in the rear at serious speed due to those fins. My '60 felt squirrelly, so maybe. Buddy had a '58, but it looked odd after the '56 he had. Both of those ragtops were the same years that I had them, the '62 and '64 were both SS hardtops. At some point I ended up with a '69 El Camino, which was my last Chevy, I think. Got into bikes, so it mostly became trucks after that. Traded the El C for a '73 Norton.
ReplyDelete