Even as I start to type this, I realize that I’m about to dive into the deep end of a filthy, unchlorinated public pool of hypocrisy. And then I’m going to swim around a bit. I feel like I’m being hypocritical because one of the Founding Ideals of this site is that anyone and everyone is welcome, no matter how miserable or boring or obscure or perverse their car obsessions are. And I believe this, with every rusty nut in my soul. At the same time, I think it’s okay to express opinions about cars, even negative ones, because, well, that makes life interesting. Hell, I even let our crankiest, most acerbic writer lambast one of my favorite cars ever, and sure, I also wrote a rebuttal, but the point is sometimes it’s just cathartic to lambast a car, especially one with such a huge following. And that’s what I’m going to do right now, as I tell you that if I learned a drunk, hungry wizard appeared and turned every ’57 Chevy into a nice corned beef sandwich, I’d be just fine with that.
The 1957 Chevy – part of the “Tri-Five” series of cars from 1955 to 1957 – is arguably the most iconic “American” car. I have American in quotes there because it’s not really America – it’s the icon of this idealized 1950s America, the source for what people call Americana, and all of the hokey, overplayed, tired miasma that surrounds it. For a classic car pushing 70 years old, there’s still a shocking amount of them around. About 1.5 million of these were made, and to their credit, it feels like most of those are still kicking, taking up way too many spots at classic car shows, surrounded by those creepy upset kid dolls and with open trunks showing old window stickers and newspaper clippings.
It’s not like the ’57 Chevy was such a bad car – it wasn’t – but it wasn’t that great a car, either. Sure, they had the legendary 265 cubic inch V8 that was introduced in 1955, but the overall engineering was about as unimaginative as you can, ironically, imagine. They handled about as well as most 1950s big American cars, which is to say lousy, like moving a couch on a furniture dolly. You could get them in like 19 different body styles and literally hundreds of two-tone and solid color combinations, and while that’s great and all, I can’t fathom why these became the default 1950s car over any number of their contemporaries.
I mean, when you want a Hawaiian shirt with cars on it, for reasons maybe you don’t feel comfortable admitting, chances are you’ll get something like these:
They’re covered in ’57 Chevys (and maybe some ’56s?), Bel Airs, convertibles, the occasional (and more interesting) Nomad, but all still these same cars. Sure, you can find shirts with other cars, but the dominance of the ’57 Chevy can’t be denied. Or justified, as far as I’m concerned.
I just don’t get why this happened? How did this one particular car get to be so dominant, develop such a colossal fanbase, establish such a massive aftermarket industry, and just come to dominate the mainstream classic car community for so damn long? How did this car end up with its iconic status to the point that it’s become essentially synonymous with ’50s America, and almost the expected follow-up any time anyone even says the year 1957?
There’s certainly other cars with rabid followings and strong associations with a particular time and place and culture and representations in art and Hawaiian shirts and all that, of course. The Beetle comes to mind. But the difference there is that when the Beetle grew in popularity and became an automotive icon in the 1960s and 1970s, at that time, it was somewhat unique in the mainstream culture, at least in America. It was foreign, small, weird, technically strange, and an outlier amongst the mainstream cars around at the time. It stood out. It became popular as a reaction against mainstream culture, which sort of makes its eventual climb to fame more understandable.
But the ’57 Chevy? I mean, it was fine, but was it really all that different than its big competitors of the era? Why did this car:
…get so much more fame and notoriety and lasting legendary status over, say, this car:
Ford actually outsold Chevy in 1957, even. And sure, there’s plenty of love for these cars, but it doesn’t quite reach the ethereal status of the Chevrolet. Or what about one of these:
Dodge certainly had the same sort of over-exuberant jet-age styling as the Chevy, and was maybe even more exaggerated. Hell, even the Nash had a similar sort of dual-fuselage jet-type hood ornament as some of the Chevys:
But, of course, none of these cars reached the level of the Chevy. And they’re just not that different. I mean, sure, there’s plenty of differences, but we’re not talking differences like what the Volkswagen was to American cars of the time. There are differences in details and trim and specs, but if you had to describe all of the cars I showed here just now in general terms – big V8 heavily chromed two-tone sedans with Paleolithic chassis designs – it would apply equally well to any of them.
What’s also surprising is how much the designers of the ’57 Chevy seemed to, well, not like the car. The 1957 model was supposed to be all new, but the new design wasn’t ready, so Chevy’s design team had to tart up the ’56 as best they could to make it feel new and different. The roof and doors and rear deck are carryovers from ’56, but there was a lot of pressure to make the ’57 look different. This Hemmings article notes how the designers felt about the car:
One man who worked on designing the ’57 Chevy is Robert Cumberford, who today lives in France. He distinctly remembers that not a single person who worked on the 1957 car liked the design. He recalls working 84-hour weeks with others in a crash program to design the ’57 model and that Harley Earl wanted the car to look as big as possible. To accomplish that, stylists stretched the fender profile to an extreme length, pushed the headlamps as far apart as possible and took the grille across the entire front end.
You can see how widened everything is, the grille, the lights shoved as far to the edges as possible, all to make the car look as massive as possible. These changes seem sort of bonkers when you look at the ’56, which was already an incredibly wide-looking car:
The designer mentioned above, Robert Cumberford, actually once commented on a Dean’s Garage story, where he found an old sketch he did for the 1957 redesign – which he described as an “emergency re-style”:
He says directly that
“It was a thrash, none of us who worked on it liked the damn ’57, and now it’s the one people revere. Go figure.”
Again, this was one of the people who designed the damn car.
But I have to be honest – I don’t think the car is all that bad, really. And I like the two-door wagon Nomad version, especially.
But that said, I cannot fathom why this particular year and model ended up becoming so wildly dominant in the classic car scene. I remember so many local car shows that seemed to have rows and rows of these things, and I’ve seen them on so much bad art that romanticizes Route 66 and paints in James Dean and Marilyn Monroe in front of ’57 Bel Airs, and I’m just sick of them. I don’t get it! I never have, and I likely never will.
I feel like in recent years the saturation of ’57 Chevys is abating a bit, as the population that really latched onto them is getting older and less likely to take them out. I’m not exactly sure how the market is for these things still – it seems pretty steady, maybe with a slight decline – but I can’t help but think we’re only a few decades out from a time when the last of the people who genuinely give a crap about these cars has died off, and there will be a massive glut in the market of unwanted ’57 Chevys, complete with stacks of Hawaiian shirts and trunks full of award plaques.
Maybe then I’ll get interested, when they’re so cheap and undesired that you can buy one for pimples and cram in the drivetrain from a Nissan Leaf and use it as your electric around-town car, or something. Who knows.
What I do know is that if I never see another ’57 Chevy again, I think I’ll be just fine. I’m happy to hear all the arguments why I’m not just wrong, but wrong and ugly, and deep down I know I have the abuse coming. But I just couldn’t keep quiet any longer.
Top photo and all images: Chevrolet unless otherwise noted
I’m sick of seeing them as well. Where I live in the mid-west, they are EVERYWHERE at shows.
However, I do kind of like 55’s that are set up as gassers, and I like Nomads because wagon.
If I had to pick a period in the 1900s for cars that had significant appeal, the 1960s had some beautiful ones.
Particular to the 1964-66 Pontiacs here. The body style, roofline, wide stance, stacked and frenched headlights. Sure, it was the same as every other GM stablemate in most ways, but damned if Pontiacs didn’t have a clean, refined look that really set them apart from everything else. Even Ford, Chrysler, and AMC copied elements of that styling for their own cars.
Then they lost the plot in ’67 and they became progressively less attractive, less defined vs their corporate siblings, and well, we know the rest.
finally. Someone important has said it. Just one more thing the Boomers have fetishizied
I love Americana. Big, Chrome, American land yachts. I am also 30 going on 75, so there’s that.
My only connection to a ’57 Chevy is “chrome, chrome, chrome, bop bop a loo bop”
If you were a kid in the 80s and watched Garfield specials you’ll know what I’m talking about.
As many of these as I see, there’s always about three times as many first gen Camaros at any given car meet. They almost blend into the background more than the tri-fives. Might just be that the nifty ’50s cars rusted more in the Midwest, though. I think the engines and transmissions of Chevys contributed to the survival rate we see today vs harder to fix Ford and Chrysler and other GM products.
It never even occurred to me that people thought the ’57 Chevy was an amazingly good car.
The styling is absolutely iconic, and it has the original sbc, but everything else is no different than other ’50s American cars.
We need the 59 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz to regain its top spot as THE iconic 50s car. At least that was the pinnacle of excess. Rude Dog would NOT be seen driving the dweebs around in anything but the best.
In the middle of this story is a post highlighting what a great vehicle the VW microbus was, and how much Jason loves it. The microbus was terrible by contemporary standards in safety, acceleration, reliability, handling, braking, ride, NVH, and did you ever try driving one in winter? The heater is a joke and the defrost function really does not work at all, both could kill you in the event that a head gasket leaked…which happened all the time in the air cooled engine. The Chevy, several years older, had immeasurably better reliability and sophistication.
I friggin love “The Cumberford Perspective” in Sports Car Market.
I’ve always said the 57 was the Toyota Camry of classic cars. I don’t hate them, they’re a good ubiquitous car, but hardly the most interesting thing out there. As a weekend classic though, there’s a lot to be said for easy to find parts.
Interestingly, I had a mid 20yo colleague who emigrated from Cuba (to somewhere not the USA), He imported a 55 from USA, because apparently it was the more desirable model from his childhood. Double win for him because that’s the cheaper one now.
Being Boomer enough to have had a draft number, but not so Boomer as to go full kool-aid, I find the best case for the tri-five crap is supplying the front suspension for Corvair vans and pickups. Beyond that, there is no love here for that old crap, nor the old trucks everyone seems to love. Spent every work day in mid ’60’s to early ’80’s pickups of all brands, can’t make me go back.
My screen name signifies the old domestic junk I care for, and VS 57 is the designation of the McCulloch supercharger mounted to my ’54 Kaiser Manhatten 2dr.
I’m a child of the 80’s, and I don’t like them. I can, however, ignore them. Others like them and that’s perfectly fine. Typical attitude of trying to cancel anything you don’t like is tiring.
I think you may have missed the part of the article where Jason specifically says it’s fine if people like them. No one is trying to cancel the 70 year old car. Unless of course it has an opinion about *** CARRIER LOST ***
Torch is the last person to try and cancel anything automotive. Try reading again, slowly.
I feel like this went from a 57 Chevy rant to a Boomer rant. It would be interesting to count how many times the word Boomer is used in the comments. Is there such a thing as Boomer envy? It should be tagged. Boomer, Boomer Boomer.
Thus far you represent 2/3 of it.
Well, to be fair I think Torch is Gen X so it should be tagged as a slacker rant.
But no one cares about nor remembers Gen X….
rant warranted
As I kid of the 90s that was inundated with 60s muscle car stuff, I saw way too many of these as well and I am damn well over them too. I also find it odd that it was the single car chosen as the icon of all things 50s, but I will say that compared to the other 50s sedans you have pictured above, the tri-fives are the best looking, so that probably had something to do with it. And my guess is they just got used in the right movies or TV shows through out the 50s and later to lock in the idea of them. Also, the complete ubiquitousness of the small block Chevy was started with these cars so that definitely helped.
When we think 1930s or “hot rod” there is only one answer: the ford Model A (or Great Depression I guess). It’s the only thing that is more ubiquitous than the 57 Chevy, I feel they both just got latched onto for some reason.
All that aside, while I will never own one of these, I do much more appreciate the 55, much cleaner. the 57 always looked like they just tacked trash all over it, now you tell me thats actually what the designers did! The Nomad is also solidly cool looking, but even then, nah I have had my fill of these things.
keeping Torching!
I’ve had conversation with my brother about this topic, sitting in a 1950s themed Diner where the kids meals come in cardboard fold up 1957s Chevys, Why? What I really want to know is; if I were to buy a Hawaiian Shirt with a 1980s car on it, what would it be?
That’s OK. You’re too young to appreciate these cars. The simple explanation is that the appeal is not so much the car, but the time in which the car and its fans existed. The car is just a symbol of the people who grew up in that era. I think at the core you already know this.
I think you’ve hit it on the proverbial head. Every generation has their nostalgia. Saw an early Subaru Brat at a show yesterday and it was my favorite car there. Never mind the modern Ferraris, McLarens, and Bugatti around the corner.
It’s totally generational. And a little bit of weirdness mixed in.
But he makes the valid point of why the ’57 Chevy? There are so many interesting American cars from the ’50s that are almost forgotten, yet the ’57 Chevy is overused to the point of genericism. I don’t think there are many cars from other eras that can lay claim to that level of sheer ubiquity.
What’s the ’57 Chevy of, say, the ’90s? The bubble Taurus? The Oldsmobile Silhouette? The B-body Buick Roadmaster? There isn’t a single car that represents the ’90s (or any other decade for that matter) the same way the ’57 Chevy has an absolute chokehold on ’50s iconography.
The ’57 Chevy of the ’90s is a teal Geo Tracker. I will not explain further.
The teal-and-purple, absolutely.
This. (With the graphics package, of course.)
I’ve just been told it’s the R34 GT-R and by heck, I think they’re right.
Inextricably linked with the pop culture of its era? ☑
Overinflated value? ☑
An abundance of tacky clothing featuring its likeness? ☑ ☑
If we’re talking about the culture of the United States, I have to disagree. There were no R34’s legally on American roads until just last year. As for the GT-R’s presence in the American collective consciousness, that didn’t really begin to take effect until the release of 2 Fast 2 Furious in 2003 and the popularity of Gran Turismo on the original PlayStation. And even then it was more an obsession of a specific group of automotive Fanboys rather than a part of the culture of the decade.
>Yet the ’57 Chevy is overused to the point of genericism
Yes, you make a good point. You are exactly right. The term “57 chevy” is now a gereric term to describe cars of that style and vintage. Yes there are some old farts who can detail what makes a ’57 a ’57, but most folks can’t. However those folks do know the overall style and look, and of course that evokes the culture, society, life, and politics of the era. It takes people back to that era when they were young.
I’m totally with Torch on this. I don’t even bother looking at Tri-Five Chevys at car shows anymore. They all look the same to me. Once you’ve seen one, you feel like you’ve seen them all. But I don’t feel like that applies to the VW Beetle. For some reason, even though the yearly changes were slight, I still gravitate to Beetles even though the size and shape never changed. There’s an approachability and friendliness of Beetles the Tri-Fives lack. The Tri-Fives are just a car. The Beetle feels like a tried and true friend.
I give a pass to Nomads. They’re rarer than their stablemates and there’s a coolness to them.
Another Chevy I would be fine with seeing turned into corned beef sandwiches are Chevelles. Again, it’s a car where once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. There’s nothing unique or special about the ones I see at car shows, and they aren’t inviting.
Agree with you on the Chevelles. The BOP offerings at the time felt much more interesting. One of the “seen one, seen them all” issues I have with 57s is that people don’t mod them much anymore, since they’re more valuable. When I see them at car shows, it’s like being at the Chevy dealer. My buddy’s dad had a 56 4 door that he did in a bellflower style. Much more interesting, but he couldn’t give it away when it was time to sell.
Maybe why I don’t mind the Blasphemi. Gasser style, but a real, honest to goodness drag car.
Chevelles look like every muscle car at once, and they look borderline bizarre on their stock wheels/tires. Just this gigantic slab of metal sitting on top of the skinniest wheels and like 6 inches of gap to the wheel wells. Horrendous. They look almost 100% better on wheels/tires with decent specs that aren’t Torq Thrusts or Cragars.
B o o m e r s
As a kid growing up in the 80’s, I always thought it looked boring and dorky. I think the size and proportions were mostly to blame for that. I much preferred the 55 or 56. The 57 was just too big and chromy. That being said, I do appreciate them a lot more now.
I’ve hated them too but I’m starting to get it. Apparently they were good used cars. I can understand maybe the baby boomers, who’s *parents* bought these cars new mind you, probably see them as reminders of a safe and uncomplicated time when they were kids. Later, a few of them probably drove them as hand-me-down family cars, or bought them used. Then, they were part of the background as they boomers progressed (cough cough glided, with little friction) in life: college, first job, first apartment, first lay, etc.etc. Reliably there. I feel that way about my beloved and mourned 83 Civic. Not the best car, and of bit of a risk ($2k for a 100k mile car? yikes), but it was with me, never failing, thru the best and worst times of my young life, and exceed my expectations a million times. Camrys are dull too, but how many families now have one (or an Accord, GM3800, etc. etc.) that have seen family-car duty, passed down to multiple kids, yet still survive and solider on, either still in the family or on its 5th owner still seen running around town? That’s the kind of car you remember, and tell stories about at Thanksgiving, over and over and over again. I love the 57 Virgil Exner Chryslers. They’re amazing. But the quality was sh*t. That’s the kind of car you hate forever because it took your money or let you down.
Autopian contrarian hot takes strikes again. Please don’t take notes from Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith
That’s not contrarian. Contrarian is tri-fives are the most overhyped collector car. I hate tri fives, I’ve always hated tri fives, and I do not see a world in which I do not have the greatest disdain for them.
You’re not wrong, I prefer the plainer look of the 55 with its Ferrari like grille over the increasingly chromed later models. I suppose part of the appeal of these 55-57 cars is they mark the start of the small block V8, and they are also a good size and shape relative to the 58 Chevy, and the 348 V8.
I think these are going to fade as Boomers age out, just as Model A Fords fell off a cliff as their peak enthusiast generation died off. I’m Gen X and while I’m aware of 60s muscle cars and 50s cars I have far more interest in the 70s and 80s cars I grew up with.
I think they’re cool but overhyped. I just hate the ones with the flame paint jobs and chrome plated heads and all that. I like the other 57 big three cars just as much. It’ll be interesting to see what the next “overhyped classic” will be in the next 20-30 years. I’m a young guy and my friends all like 70s and 80s cars. Probably the fox body mustang or f bodies.
I seem to recall quotes from bands expressing similar sentiments that Robert Cumberford states about the ’57 for songs the artists thought were throw-off fillers, but went on to be big hits. Todd Rundgren’s “Bang the Drum All Day” comes to mind.
Maybe rushed, unfiltered-by-committee artistic expression is more pure or visceral than something watered down by critical thinking.
Ever been in the back seat of ’57 Chevy? You could hold a dance or Thanksgiving dinner back there. Maybe some ’57 popularity owes to its space to consummate private activities.