59 - 61 GM in general but i'd add 62 Bel Air special Bubble as well. This is by far the best of them all !
To the best of my knowledge a bubble top is a 1961 Chevy Impala or Belair 2 door hardtop, also '61 Ponitacs, Olds, and Buicks, as well as the 1962 Belair. I have owned several '61 Impalas and a Belair. Attached is a '61 Impala that I built in the 90's.
I always considered the 61 GM HT and 62 Bel Air HT "bubbletops", although I think the term did become popular refering to the 62 Bel Air, the 61s got it by default since it's the same roof. Most people I know refer to my 61 Olds as a bubbletop. I personally have never heard of the 59-60s or other makes refered to as bubbletops.
>>"Previously the ads may have called it a bubbletop"<< Must refer to classified ads, because manufacturer ads never used the term. I understand the need for a nickname once the '62 'hardtop convertible' roofline was also available, but if that's the true reason, the only technically 'correct' useage (as much as could be here) would be the '62 Bel Air, even if the '61 (and the sister '61 GMs) had the exact same roof. Are there really folk who are going to insist the '61s are NOT 'bubbletops' when this is an enthusiast-generated nickname based on a roofline shape ?? I'd also accept the '59-60s being 'disqualified' from the term, as the explainations here have been pretty logical.
Bubble tops. I know shoe boxes to be '50 Fords and Deuce to be '32 Fords NOT CHEVY II AND NOVAS. . And custons were Mercs and Buicks and Fords not Lowriders How times have changed. Bubble Tops will always be 61/62 Generial Motors 2 door Sports Coups to me.
gads same paint as my 61 'bonneville' I called it a 'bikini top' way bak. I turned down a Ventura like this, from my bro inlaw. gads they were nice lookin. Wanted a new one but it was recession time then.
Exactly right. It was a term (probably first used by enthusiasts) to differentiate between the two distinctively different styles of '62 Chev hardtops. Chev most certainly offered the two styles only because the round top gave better windtunnel for their participation on the Nascar circuit and they didn't want to lose that advantage (although, they did drop the bubble in '63). The only thing I don't know is, did GM offer the bubble option in the rest of their '62 line? You can call any similar shaped top a bubble if you want to, but this is when, where and why the term came into usage.
This is about the most anal thread I have seen so far on the HAMB. In the overall scheme of things, what does it actually matter?
as I understand it the top of the windshield extends farther into the roofline a few inches making the roof shorter, smaller. Years? I don't know, I always thought it was '59-'62. But you guys can argue it out.
just acquired a 62 Impala...and a 61 BUBBLE TOP BUICK.....will use the 61 top on the Impala........and have a true to life, bogus 62 Bubble top Chevy.......... 61/62 Chevy, and the other GM lines that used the same top in those years are the ONLY TRUE BUBBLE TOPS....the rest are only hardtops........and those that think the Fords of that era are bubble tops are dam sure wrong..they are called Starliners. M.
I'm in the "NEED" for a name camp. The 62 Bubble top had to distinguish itself from the Impala roof line. But really who cares, they're all dead sexy!
small world. Im from ND but I was in AZ over spring break this year (around march 18) and I saw that car, most likely in the same showroom as the pics you posted.
btw, a man with a 62 belair "bubbletop" once informed me that the 62 belair has the bubble roof because of NASCAR ties as the bubbletops performed much better in races. As competition cars had to be production models, they put the bubble roof on belairs and those were the ones used in racing. I cant say that this is 100% fact but it sounded good and seems to make sense.
It depends what time period that you are talking about. I never heard the term bubble top before 1962. I even owned a 60 Bel Air ht. The term never existed until 1962. The 62 roof line was a big change. The Bel Air got the nick name "bubble top 62" to differentiate it from the 62 Impala HT roof line.. The guys with the 61s later adopted the term but no one ever referred to a 61 HT as a bubble top until after the 62s had established the nick name. Was it different on the west coast? I don't know I lived on the east coast. Dave Strickler and the other super stockers established it as an iconic image of a 62 409 race car. They ran 61s with the same roof the year before but no body called it a bubble top in 1961. It was just a 61 Chevy with a 61 roof. There are a lot of things in history that get blurred over time. A reasonable person would think that the 61 roof line was a bubble top also if you were not there. That is where the rub comes in. Shoe box, bubble top, Kelsey Hayes wire wheels are all terms that have taken on different meanings that are applied to different things than the term was initially coined for. To me calling a 61 HT a bubble top is misusing the original definition of the nick name. I love the 61 Catalina and yes I have referred to it as a bubble top because that top only existed for 2 years. The meaning has changed through the years. To imply that a 60 Chevy HT was a bubble top is just plain WRONG. IMHO
]59 - 61 GM in general but i'd add 62 Bel Air special Bubble as well. This is by far the best of them all ![/QUOTE] 61 Pontiac Ventura / Catalina i'm with you on that post - axle - see ( post # 61 ) right color right body style below - mine needs work but i like the 61 Catalina's look
I think tommy nailed it. While the original term may have existed to differentiate between two different hard top models of the Chevy, I'll bet it wasn't long before any car with that top became known as a bubble top in casual conversation. Since the '59-'60 had a completely different top why would they ever be lumped in with the '61-'62's. Because I wasn't there in '62 I guess my opinion really doesn’t matter as I wasn't around to know what things were called but this is the way my dad explained it to me when I was a kid calling anything with a big back window a bubble top.
Talk about confusing the issue. #1 contradicts #2. Call'em whatever you like in 61, but it was the only hardtop available,so no need for a special name. As stated ,in 62, the Bel Air Ht came with the 61 roof and became quite popular with drag racers. That was the first time I had ever heard the term bubbletop used. If anybody has any original documentation to the contrary, let's see it. Otherwise, let's put this to rest.
Always heard the term to tell the difference between the two different style hardtops in '62. After the '62's were introduced that's how everyone I knew used the term when discribing which model '62 they were discussing. Frank
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