History What did people think of tail fins back when they were new?

If it doesn't stick up above the beltline is it really a fin?

That pretty much leaves Cadillac and Chrysler products in the finned category in the mid-late 50's and early 60's.

 

Ah, ok, I can understand that... If it makes you feel better, I saw this at a car show a couple years ago, and I thought it was pretty cool.

But as a rule, I think that Detroit styling hit its lowest point from 1958-1960, and theres a reason why cars changed SO DRASTICALLY in 1960, even the unwashed m***es had enough by then. Most of the cars in that period were so over the top they were grotesque.

 

LOVED 'em! Here is my 1963 Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild entry. I took fins to the limit. Two of my favorite all-time car designs are the 1959 and 1960 Chevys.

 

Fins were very fashionable for a time then fashions changed.

You have to understand the demographics and changing market trends. Right after WW2 the car companies could sell everything they made. Then in 1949 the 'seller's market' turned into a 'buyer's market' and compe***ion returned. A funny thing happened about this time, deluxe models and medium priced cars outsold the cheap models for the first time. Any car maker could tell you his best selling model would be the cheapest black sedan and it had been that way since the Model T. But suddenly, everyone wanted bigger - fancier - more powerful cars.

A striking example was Plymouth, traditionally one of the Big 3 best selling low priced cars, was actually outsold by Buick, one of the more expensive medium priced models. In 1953 and 54 Plymouth made a smaller, more practical, economical car and got their brains beaten out by Chevrolet who bragged their car was the biggest and heaviest in the low price cl***, and Ford with their hot V8 engine. And even Buick.

Plymouth retaliated by making subsequent models longer, lower, wider, with more room inside, a new V8 that was the biggest and most powerful in a low priced car, and the biggest tail fins in the industry. That was 1957 and they smashed all sales records that year. Experts said they could have sold even more cars, but the factory could not turn them out fast enough.

This was the period when chrome, tail fins, big V8s, air conditioning, and power accessories of all kinds were popular not to mention 2 tone and even 3 tone paint jobs.

An era came to an end after 1960. As early as 1956 car sales began to droop. In 1957 or 58 the country went into a recession. All cars suffered a large drop in sales for 1958 except for the low priced, practical Rambler and Thunderbird, who had a new 4 seater car to sell.

In 1959 Studebaker brought out the Lark which was a hit, and saved the company. In 1960 all the majors introduced new 'compact' cars, the Falcon, Corvair and Valiant. All were successful, and from 1961 on everyone toned down the styling in general and tailfins especially and even the bigger cars were reduced in size and given less gaudy styling.

So, tail fins were fashionable for a while but the fashion came and went as fashions do.

One thing can be said on the side of practicality which is that properly designed tail fins add a lot of stability at high speeds, and can be felt as low as 50 - 60 MPH in cross winds. With the new interstate highways opening up in the fifties, a new car with OHV V8 and low body with tail fins had a big advantage over the older cars with flathead engine and no tail fins when it came to cruising the interstate at 70 MPH for long periods.

In this respect Chrysler built cars were the best as they had the best design of tail fins for stability and the only ones wind tunnel tested.

 

It seems funny now, but at one time Detroit HAD to have a new style to sell every year or go out of business. They could have the best car on the road, if they produced the same car for 2 years without major changes sales would drop 30% no matter how good the car was. And continue dropping every year until they reached 0.

This is why all cars got a major face lift every year, and an all new look every 2 or 3 years. Not to do so meant death. So every time you bought a new car, a big chunk of your money went to a team of hatchet men whose job was to make you look like a bum in a year's time.

The independents couldn't afford to do this which is one reason they went out of business.

That was the rule from the fifties until the mid to late 70s. Now it doesn't seem to matter. Cars have become just another appliance and nobody cares about style, any more than if they were so many fridges or toasters.

Unless you understand the role fashion played, and the rapid changes in consumer taste, it is impossible to understand a lot of what went on in the auto industry and in the country generally.

 

Spot-on ***essment.

The fins were of dubious value for this, but you are right - they at least went to the wind tunnel to test them. Here is a link to their work and findings: http://freeshopmanual.com/uploads/pdf/Chrysler-Styling-and-Aerodynamics.pdf

 

Chrysler was the most technically innovative detroit car maker pretty much across the board at the time, torsion bars, hemis, ram-sonic intake tuning, first alternator, EFI (admittedly a total failure, but they were trying to push the envelope) ect. Their land yachts handled much better than the compe***ions land yachts...
Sad thing is, and this speaks volumes to the subject we are talking about here, that technical leadership never did translate into leadership in sales.

 

It didn't help that the headlights were falling out of rusty fenders before the first car payment.

(I know, because I have three of these things)

 

Loved them . First car I drove ( and rolled later ) was a 59 Plymouth fury . Still like them , maybe that's why I'm putting them on my COE and my wife has a 59 Chevy wagon . Also loved duck tails ! Real Smoooth . Blue

 

Hell, I just liked the fact that Horsepower kept increasing every year. Fins? some were OK, some - not so much.

 

Man, one of my school teachers had a '57 Desoto Adventurer HT in the mid sixties. We all thought it was MEGA-cool(because it had a HEMI, not because of the fins), but with all the built-in **** traps, the fenders were rotting right off it, ESPECIALLY the headlight brows.
I wanted the motor out of that car BAD, even back then, but I was six or seven, it just wasnt happening. I think the whole car wound up going for s**** around 1970...
Around the same time, one of my friends dads had a 300J with dual afbs and a solid cam, BAD *** yacht. Later on, the son had a '70 roadrunner 383 4 speed 3.91 car and an AAR. The AAR got t-boned on the a-pillar by someone running a red light and was totalled...

 

The SAE paper you link to says the fins on 57 Chrysler built cars reduce steering correction up to 20% in cross winds at normal highway speeds which hardly seems 'dubious'.

For a direct comparison, you could drive a 1961 Chrysler and a 1962 Chrysler which used the same body shorn of fins. Andy Granatelli set speed records with both, and reported that the 61 was definitely more stable at high speeds.

Not all tail fins were functional in fact most were not. GM and Ford were mostly of the non functional type, Chrysler's were always functional.

Cadillac pioneered tail fins in 1948 and kept them in a toned down form, longer than anyone else.

 

There was a lot to pick from in the 50's, depending on where you looked. Beauty is in the hand of the beerholder.

 

We were hot rodders in 1954 so we were there and the new cars of the 50's were quite spectacular to all of us gear heads.

 

Understatement...

 

George, I can see it now; the worlds first radio flyer wagon with a HEMI in it.

 

man, the mere mention of any of the "Bat" series alfas was enough to put my old man over the edge...and not in a good way... I actually thought they were kinda cool...

 

Colin Chapman who was from an aircraft background and a designer of the purely functional school, built this Lotus 8 sports car in the fifties. I don't think the fins were to generate showroom traffic. He didn't have a showroom.

 

This was the dawn of the space age and the m*** introduction of high technology into everyday life (microwave ovens, transistor radios and TV remotes made their first appearances). Hype about 'flying cars' was everywhere. The car makers were looking for a break with past styling and to leave no doubt that these were 'modern' designs, this was it. The cars got longer and lower, and the vestigial separate fenders finally vanished. Cars were no longer 'boxes' with tacked-on trim, the designs became much more integrated. And love 'em or hate 'em, you had little trouble in telling them apart. Did some wretched excess occur? Without a doubt, but Virgil Exner's '56-59 'Forward Look' designs still stand out in any crowd and manage to make almost all of their compe***ors models look a bit dowdy. One of the few times that a m***-produced line of cars featured the imprint of a single designer so thoroughly, unlike the 'design by committee' found elsewhere.

Because this was such a radical break from the past, it quickly became obvious that there were limits on where it could go, so by 1960 everyone was toning it down. But it was a perfect reflection of an era, even if it was short-lived.

 

I wasn't there either, but at 40 have asked similar questions. Different time, each year had a new design or an updated design, not like now when the stuff looks the same for 10 years. It was a big deal when the new models came out.

Hot rodders were likely scoping out available engines, waiting for the new models to get wrecked, or back in the parts dept seeing what short blocks could be ordered over the counter.

 

he (IIRC, it was actually Frank Costin that designed the bodies on both cars) toned it down a lot by 1955, and built an icon... Form follows function.

 

Why they were Henry Ford meets George Jetson.



They were stylish. Back when fins were king everyone wanted to own the latest. Mid Century Modern, Cosmic baby.

 

Every car nut should own one before ur demise...I had a 1957 Chevy in 1987,i drove it and enjoyed it then I got over it and moved on.....next..

Sent from my SM-N910T using H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Sure. I think you mean this one.

 

Jeeeez.
People really get worked up over the damnedest stuff!
Tailfins typified an era when jet planes and space flight were new and exciting to people.
The future held promise of an exciting new and better life, the new age of the Atom and outer space was just around the corner.
At this point in our American culture, everyone wasn't an expert on everything and so freaking cynical and negative. People were EXCITED and OPTIMISTIC about the future and the potential it AND America held. I liked them then and I like them now.
Nothing sacred about them, just the times.
I have to say I liked those times better, not nearly as much cynicism, thoughtlessness and outright hatred . Nowadays EVERYBODY has a strong opinion on EVERYTHING down to the most trivial thing, usually based on nothing but ******** and hot air.
America accomplished a lot when we were optimists, not so much now that every ***hole insists on having everything their own way in everything .
Tailfins?? I'll take 'em!
UPWARDS AND ONWARDS!!!

 

car makers bogus claims!!!! Nooooooo, when did that happen?
I'll fire up the old Electramatic O Drive Turbo Hydro TorqueOmatic FlashFIRE EIGHT and just drive away.
Customs? 99% of "customs are HIDEOUS, done by "designers" with no sense of....design. Few cars even were suitable for customizing, the 49 Merc and Ford were perhaps the best. By the 60's, "customizing" was just bizarre and pretty pointless, no matter how traditional it was. Look at "custom" Corvettes. God help us!

 

Jeez Gary everyone else seems to be pretty relaxed and having fun with it, take it easy there...

 

Golly George! Didn't mean to startle you!!!

 

hey Gary, I just have your best interests at heart, dont want to see your blood pressure go up...You dont by-chance own a '58 merc do you?