Back to the future! Predictions For The Upcoming 1958 Cars! - from the April 1957 issue of 'Popular Science' magazine. Mart3406 =========================
1958 was GM's 50th anniversary. So Harley Earl wanted more chrome on the cars to celebrate this. Personally, I love the '58s. Especially the Buick and Olds.
-> IMO <- Chrysler's 'best' looking year was '57, Plymouth hit the jackpot at '58, and Dodge nailed it in '59.
In '58 I couldn't believe it. The '57 cars looked so much better than the '58s at GM. All that chrome. I hated them. 52 years later they look pretty good.
I remember as a kid in '58 when - and before - the new cars came out. My brother and the neighbor kids had friendly compe***ion trying to be first to identify the new cars as they sped along the road we lived on, which was one of the main routes to GM's ****ord MI Proving Grounds. We'd often get glimpses of the new models several months before they were in the showrooms, as some of the GM engineers would drive them to/from home sometimes. I remember not liking the double headlights and "gawdiness" of some of those chrome-laden '58 tanks but got over it as I got older. As the '58s aged I still remember seeing especially the Fords and Chevies becoming "cyclops" - Michigan cancer (rust) had taken its toll from salt gathering in the headlight eyebrows and rot thru till the lights from one side or the other fell out of the fenders.
Back in 1964 a friend that I worked with had a cool '57 Chevy that he would get into trouble with, well his Dad told him the next time he got in trouble the Chevy was gone and he'd have to drive something a little slower.....WELL! He did get into trouble again and his Dad was not kidding around, he sold the Chevy and bought the kid a '58 Buick Century 2 door hardtop. I remember it was lime metalic and it was lowered with some cool hubcaps and that was about it...a sharp looking car as I remembered but not all that fast!
I posted a heads up a while ago about a show on Modern Marvels on the history channel ***led Chrome. They showed some cars of the fifty's, including the "king of chrome" 58 olds. The show repeats at midnight. It's a pretty good watch.
YA! I just watched that show on the History channel, I loved that Chrysler Building gonna have to go check that out. Here are a couple shots I took of Rod Powell's '58 Buick with the Caddy fins and before the top was put back on. Pictures were taken back in the early 1990's, can't remember where it was but that is Gloria Remo and her granddaughter walking by in the one picture (everybody knows Gloria don't they?). By the way this car ended up as the poster car for Hot August Nights over in Reno, NV again in the early 90's (use to have the t-shirt).
I always preferred the tri-fives until I bought my '58 Biscaynne in April of '61. That was one sweet, fast Chevy. I sold it to get married, I should have kept the Chevy and stayed single.
The Jalopy Journal
