Today's #DavesCarIDService salutes Finland! No, not the taciturn Scandinavians with the weird language. I mean Detroit, Michigan USA, circa 1957-60, when the Big 3 were in a trilateral space race to produce ever taller, ever sharper, and ever weirder tailfins on their products - like this 1958 Cadillac.
The Los Alamos moment of the tailfin cold war came in 1948, and its Oppenheimer was Harley Earle, head honcho of the GM styling department. In #1 we see the ass end of a 1947 Cadillac, with maaybee a teeny bit fin on the taillight bezel. Meanwhile inside his secret Detroit lab Earle was concocting something that would send shockwaves across the automotive world: the 1948 Cadillac would feature rear fenders with tailfins inspired by the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
It was the first small shot in a tailfin arms race that would last more than a decade.
Cadillac, and GM in general, led that race from beginning to end; approximately 1961, when Detroit mutually agreed to tone down the excess. The tailfin Sputnik moment for GM occurred in 1957. In 1955 crosstown rival Chrysler unleashed their "Forward Look" styling under the direction of Virgil Exner; a shot across the bow was the 1956 DeSoto (#1). But in 1957 all Chrysler brands sported gargantuan, handsome fins, like the 1957 Plymouth Fury (2).
For their part, Ford was sort of a timid participant in competition; the '57 Fairlanes and T-Birds had smallish pointy fins, but they did pull out the stops for the 57 Mercury (3) and Lincoln (4).
The Fins Race was no longer about looking like an airplane, it was about looking like a space ship or intercontinental ballistic rocket.
The apotheosis of the Tail Fin Cold War was 1959. Two minutes to midnight on the Tail Fin Armageddon doomsday clock. Never before, or since, were Detroit's tailfin arsenals so brimming with unbridled destructive power.
1. Cadillac
2. Imperial
3. Ford Galaxie
4. Chevy Impala
But just as it seemed nothing could stop it, the Tail Fin war began to wind down with the 1960 model year. Somewhat coinciding with the phaseout/ retirement of Harley Earl (sorry I misspelled his name earlier) at GM, and his replacement by suave modernist Bill Mitchell. By 1962 fins were passe, out of fashion with the hip New Frontier of the new Kennedy administration.
Somehow Virgil Exner at Chrysler managed to keep the tailfin age alive for a few years while Ford & GM moved on to sleeker, boxier MCM looks. If there was a death knell for fins it was his designs for the 1961-62 Plymouth Valiant (1) and 1962 Imperial (2).
Ahh, but what a time it was. Have a particular tailfin that triggers your aesthetic pleasure? Lemme know in the comments.
Meanwhile I'm gonna try to figure out the mystery cars in the old family photos of readers. To get yours on my To-Do list, simply tag it with #davescaridservice, heed the content guidelines, and keep your damn contemporary politics out of my ID threads.
Hey, whaddaya know? Sis and Pops are wrenching on one of those big finned 1957 Plymouths I featured earlier. Hoping Bro was racing it with the a poly head 318 V8 Golden Commando and not the wimpy flathead 6.
@tggeist
#davescaridservice My #2 sister is jr. shadetree mechanic with Dad. They pulled the motor that mysteriously blew while #1 brother was driving. Dad never knew the real reason was drag racing. https://t.co/IXwcY1ZkZy
*And if my Iowa license plate math is correct, this is a 1963 Delaware County car and probably not far from Field of Dreams.
**While Chrysler (Firepower), DeSoto (Firedome), and Dodge (Red Ram) all had their own version of a Hemi V8 engine in the 50s, Plymouth had a Poly. "Hemi" means hemispherical, or dome shaped, combustion chamber, "Poly" means polyspherical - sort of a half-cylindrical shape.
What a terrific shot of a couple of Great Depression love birds, and I suspect taken during a hot day before the advent of air conditioning. Kind of tough to tell if their car is a 1930 or 31 Ford Model A Tudor from this angle, but I'm gonna go with 1930.
@StarxScott
@iowahawkblog #DavesCarIDService This is my Grandma and Grandpa Simeone next to their car. https://t.co/PixVHP3dpK
I guess we could title this one "love on the rocks." Behind Mom and Dad parked along the rocky shore are a 1937-38 Mopar (Chrysler-Dodge-DeSoto-Plymouth) full size 4 door left, 33-34 Chevy right. Mom & Dad's fashion seem of a more recent era though.
Absolutely! These gals are all smiles in front of a very fetching 1937 Ford Deluxe Tudor sporting lovely wide whitewalls. Would they be of Italian descent perchance? Longtime readers know I loves me those photos of Italian families with their cars.
Holy SCHNITZEL. May I offer your mom a most respectful and gentlemanly hubba-hubba-hubba? Along with a bonus rrrrrowwrr. And her modeling assignment here was on behalf of DKW for its 1956-57 Monza, maybe the best looking DKW ever made.
@Jhensy2001
#DavesCarIDService My Mom, Brigitte Friebe, back in her modeling days in Germany, circa 1956-7. https://t.co/pFYVROh9Xa
Quick reminder to please use the #davescaridservice hashtag with your ID requests, otherwise they disappear into the maelstrom of my mentions. I'll tag this myself to ID in a future episode.
@offshorebella
@iowahawkblog I don't know anything about cars but here are two pics I have. The big crowd is in Texas in the 30s? The other is my dad and grandad in San Diego in the 40s. https://t.co/3mCexlhsUA
*This is how many engagements I've gotten in the last 7 days, it's near impossible to keep track of ID requests without the hashtag to search for them. Pinky promise, if you use it for an old family pic there's a near 100% chance I will get to it.
Holy smokes, look at Pippi Longstockings go! This amazing action shot of world famous bush hurdler Aunt Pat and her flying pigtails also features a 1940 Chevy sedan.
Another swell action shot of bootlegger Dad holding off Jim Roper in the turn. Speed blur prevents precise model year ID, but Dad's driving a 1946-48 Ford coupe, Roper a 1949-50 Olds club coupe.
*photo is also poignant for a Ford guy. Dad's car would be powered by a Ford flathead V8, king of the road for bootleggers and bank robbers since 1932, while Roper's Old was powered by the motor that would eclipse it - the Olds Rocket OHV V8.
Well helloooo Miss Mass! How about I pahk ya cah in Havahd yahd and take you out foh a lobstah roll?
I think we can all agree that she was much easier on the eyes than the ungainly Saab 96 sedan behind her.
Two fine additions to my collection of Bonnies & Clydes. Maye the same couple, but definitely 2 different cars: #2 is definitely 1926-27 Ford T roadster, #1 pretty sure 1927-28 Studebaker EU. Maybe both stolen during a multistate robbery spree.
I mean, talk about your smooth criminals.
As much as I'm tempted to break the tax seal on that amazing whiskey artifact, it would be a shame. So I'll stick to crashing in to liquor stores for my supply. But how about that equally amazing 1940 Ford Deluxe convertible in the snapshots?
Boy howdy, that's a handsome car, and I suspect some ceremonial new car pix.
But I'm intrigued by the book-whiskey concealing apparatus. Was it made that way, or was it a custom project from a hollowed-out book? It appears there was once a Johnny Harper Ford dealership in Colorado, maybe they printed the book as a giveaway to customers.
Kudos to the photographer for the artistic composition here, featuring a young dapper GI-to-be (A+ hat game btw), a stony archway, and a 1936 Chevy Master Deluxe 4 door sedan.
Curious where the archway is; seems to say 'John Nelson' on the keystone.
A few blocks off this freeway is the 1910 Ford Highland Park plant, where most all Model Ts were made. I wonder if Henry was on hand to see what his Tin Lizzy hath wrought. Nearest car, 1937 Ford sedan, up to its left is a fastback 1942 Buick Sedanette.
@RightSandy
Another fun one for #DavesCarIDService - and it's even dated! https://t.co/2JLgt0U8bi
Man, during the Depression even the little kids looked 40 years old. A fantastic image here, with a surprisingly fancy car (tho a bit beat up and a few years old): 1932 Cadillac 355B sedan.
*My own grandma was an Iowa one-room country schoolhouse teacher at the same time, I'll have to share some of those similar photos sometime.
Come on down to Smilin' Grandpa's Used Cars for no hassle deals on late model creampuffs! Free balloons for the kiddies and free Schlitz for Mom & Dad!
And the deals don't stop there! Ask Grandpa about blowout specials on his (near to far) 1947-48 Frazer Standard, 1941 Ford, 1940-41 Lincoln Zephyr, 1940 Oldsmobile, and 1941 Plymouth!
*Mister Rollbar provided several other dandy photos from his Grandpa's car lot which I will save for future episodes. And now onto the street & wilderness mystery speed round portion of our programming.
I can say with 100% certainty the subject is a 1955-56 Buick 4 door hardtop. (ht @KieranEleison)
Today's #DavesCarIDService salutes Finland! No, not the taciturn Scandinavians with the weird language. I mean Detroit, Michigan USA, circa 1957-60, when the Big 3 were in a trilateral space race to produce ever taller, ever sharper, and ever weirder tailfins on their products - like this 1958 Cadillac.The Los Alamos moment of the tailfin cold war came in 1948, and its Oppenheimer was Harley Earle, head honcho of the GM styling department. In #1 we see the ass end of a 1947 Cadillac, with maaybee a teeny bit fin on the taillight bezel. Meanwhile inside his secret Detroit lab Earle was concocting something that would send shockwaves across the automotive world: the 1948 Cadillac would feature rear fenders with tailfins inspired by the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
It was the first small shot in a tailfin arms race that would last more than a decade.Cadillac, and GM in general, led that race from beginning to end; approximately 1961, when Detroit mutually agreed to tone down the excess. The tailfin Sputnik moment for GM occurred in 1957. In 1955 crosstown rival Chrysler unleashed their "Forward Look" styling under the direction of Virgil Exner; a shot across the bow was the 1956 DeSoto (#1). But in 1957 all Chrysler brands sported gargantuan, handsome fins, like the 1957 Plymouth Fury (2).
For their part, Ford was sort of a timid participant in competition; the '57 Fairlanes and T-Birds had smallish pointy fins, but they did pull out the stops for the 57 Mercury (3) and Lincoln (4).
The Fins Race was no longer about looking like an airplane, it was about looking like a space ship or intercontinental ballistic rocket.The apotheosis of the Tail Fin Cold War was 1959. Two minutes to midnight on the Tail Fin Armageddon doomsday clock. Never before, or since, were Detroit's tailfin arsenals so brimming with unbridled destructive power.
1. Cadillac
2. Imperial
3. Ford Galaxie
4. Chevy ImpalaBut just as it seemed nothing could stop it, the Tail Fin war began to wind down with the 1960 model year. Somewhat coinciding with the phaseout/ retirement of Harley Earl (sorry I misspelled his name earlier) at GM, and his replacement by suave modernist Bill Mitchell. By 1962 fins were passe, out of fashion with the hip New Frontier of the new Kennedy administration.
Somehow Virgil Exner at Chrysler managed to keep the tailfin age alive for a few years while Ford & GM moved on to sleeker, boxier MCM looks. If there was a death knell for fins it was his designs for the 1961-62 Plymouth Valiant (1) and 1962 Imperial (2).Ahh, but what a time it was. Have a particular tailfin that triggers your aesthetic pleasure? Lemme know in the comments.Meanwhile I'm gonna try to figure out the mystery cars in the old family photos of readers. To get yours on my To-Do list, simply tag it with #davescaridservice, heed the content guidelines, and keep your damn contemporary politics out of my ID threads.Hey, whaddaya know? Sis and Pops are wrenching on one of those big finned 1957 Plymouths I featured earlier. Hoping Bro was racing it with the a poly head 318 V8 Golden Commando and not the wimpy flathead 6.*And if my Iowa license plate math is correct, this is a 1963 Delaware County car and probably not far from Field of Dreams.
**While Chrysler (Firepower), DeSoto (Firedome), and Dodge (Red Ram) all had their own version of a Hemi V8 engine in the 50s, Plymouth had a Poly. "Hemi" means hemispherical, or dome shaped, combustion chamber, "Poly" means polyspherical - sort of a half-cylindrical shape.What a terrific shot of a couple of Great Depression love birds, and I suspect taken during a hot day before the advent of air conditioning. Kind of tough to tell if their car is a 1930 or 31 Ford Model A Tudor from this angle, but I'm gonna go with 1930.I guess we could title this one "love on the rocks." Behind Mom and Dad parked along the rocky shore are a 1937-38 Mopar (Chrysler-Dodge-DeSoto-Plymouth) full size 4 door left, 33-34 Chevy right. Mom & Dad's fashion seem of a more recent era though.Absolutely! These gals are all smiles in front of a very fetching 1937 Ford Deluxe Tudor sporting lovely wide whitewalls. Would they be of Italian descent perchance? Longtime readers know I loves me those photos of Italian families with their cars.Holy SCHNITZEL. May I offer your mom a most respectful and gentlemanly hubba-hubba-hubba? Along with a bonus rrrrrowwrr. And her modeling assignment here was on behalf of DKW for its 1956-57 Monza, maybe the best looking DKW ever made.Quick reminder to please use the #davescaridservice hashtag with your ID requests, otherwise they disappear into the maelstrom of my mentions. I'll tag this myself to ID in a future episode.*This is how many engagements I've gotten in the last 7 days, it's near impossible to keep track of ID requests without the hashtag to search for them. Pinky promise, if you use it for an old family pic there's a near 100% chance I will get to it.Holy smokes, look at Pippi Longstockings go! This amazing action shot of world famous bush hurdler Aunt Pat and her flying pigtails also features a 1940 Chevy sedan.Another swell action shot of bootlegger Dad holding off Jim Roper in the turn. Speed blur prevents precise model year ID, but Dad's driving a 1946-48 Ford coupe, Roper a 1949-50 Olds club coupe.*photo is also poignant for a Ford guy. Dad's car would be powered by a Ford flathead V8, king of the road for bootleggers and bank robbers since 1932, while Roper's Old was powered by the motor that would eclipse it - the Olds Rocket OHV V8.Well helloooo Miss Mass! How about I pahk ya cah in Havahd yahd and take you out foh a lobstah roll?
I think we can all agree that she was much easier on the eyes than the ungainly Saab 96 sedan behind her.Two fine additions to my collection of Bonnies & Clydes. Maye the same couple, but definitely 2 different cars: #2 is definitely 1926-27 Ford T roadster, #1 pretty sure 1927-28 Studebaker EU. Maybe both stolen during a multistate robbery spree.I mean, talk about your smooth criminals.As much as I'm tempted to break the tax seal on that amazing whiskey artifact, it would be a shame. So I'll stick to crashing in to liquor stores for my supply. But how about that equally amazing 1940 Ford Deluxe convertible in the snapshots?Boy howdy, that's a handsome car, and I suspect some ceremonial new car pix.
But I'm intrigued by the book-whiskey concealing apparatus. Was it made that way, or was it a custom project from a hollowed-out book? It appears there was once a Johnny Harper Ford dealership in Colorado, maybe they printed the book as a giveaway to customers.Kudos to the photographer for the artistic composition here, featuring a young dapper GI-to-be (A+ hat game btw), a stony archway, and a 1936 Chevy Master Deluxe 4 door sedan.
Curious where the archway is; seems to say 'John Nelson' on the keystone.A few blocks off this freeway is the 1910 Ford Highland Park plant, where most all Model Ts were made. I wonder if Henry was on hand to see what his Tin Lizzy hath wrought. Nearest car, 1937 Ford sedan, up to its left is a fastback 1942 Buick Sedanette.Man, during the Depression even the little kids looked 40 years old. A fantastic image here, with a surprisingly fancy car (tho a bit beat up and a few years old): 1932 Cadillac 355B sedan.*My own grandma was an Iowa one-room country schoolhouse teacher at the same time, I'll have to share some of those similar photos sometime.Come on down to Smilin' Grandpa's Used Cars for no hassle deals on late model creampuffs! Free balloons for the kiddies and free Schlitz for Mom & Dad!
From left, 1949 Mercury, 3 1949 Fords, 48-49 Hudson, 49 Chevy, 49-50 Packard. Nice lineup.And the deals don't stop there! Ask Grandpa about blowout specials on his (near to far) 1947-48 Frazer Standard, 1941 Ford, 1940-41 Lincoln Zephyr, 1940 Oldsmobile, and 1941 Plymouth!*Mister Rollbar provided several other dandy photos from his Grandpa's car lot which I will save for future episodes. And now onto the street & wilderness mystery speed round portion of our programming.I can say with 100% certainty the subject is a 1955-56 Buick 4 door hardtop. (ht @KieranEleison)
yes
Today's #DavesCarIDService salutes Finland! No, not the taciturn Scandinavians with the weird language. I mean Detroit, Michigan USA, circa 1957-60, when the Big 3 were in a trilateral space race to produce ever taller, ever sharper, and ever weirder tailfins on their products - like this 1958 Cadillac. ... The Los Alamos moment of the tailfin cold war came in 1948, and its Oppenheimer was Harley Earle, head honcho of the GM styling department. In #1 we see the ass end of a 1947 Cadillac, with maaybee a teeny bit fin on the taillight bezel. Meanwhile inside his secret Detroit lab Earle was concocting something that would send shockwaves across the automotive world: the 1948 Cadillac would feature rear fenders with tailfins inspired by the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
It was the first small shot in a tailfin arms race that would last more than a decade. ... Cadillac, and GM in general, led that race from beginning to end; approximately 1961, when Detroit mutually agreed to tone down the excess. The tailfin Sputnik moment for GM occurred in 1957. In 1955 crosstown rival Chrysler unleashed their "Forward Look" styling under the direction of Virgil Exner; a shot across the bow was the 1956 DeSoto (#1). But in 1957 all Chrysler brands sported gargantuan, handsome fins, like the 1957 Plymouth Fury (2).
For their part, Ford was sort of a timid participant in competition; the '57 Fairlanes and T-Birds had smallish pointy fins, but they did pull out the stops for the 57 Mercury (3) and Lincoln (4).
The Fins Race was no longer about looking like an airplane, it was about looking like a space ship or intercontinental ballistic rocket. ... The apotheosis of the Tail Fin Cold War was 1959. Two minutes to midnight on the Tail Fin Armageddon doomsday clock. Never before, or since, were Detroit's tailfin arsenals so brimming with unbridled destructive power.
1. Cadillac
2. Imperial
3. Ford Galaxie
4. Chevy Impala ... But just as it seemed nothing could stop it, the Tail Fin war began to wind down with the 1960 model year. Somewhat coinciding with the phaseout/ retirement of Harley Earl (sorry I misspelled his name earlier) at GM, and his replacement by suave modernist Bill Mitchell. By 1962 fins were passe, out of fashion with the hip New Frontier of the new Kennedy administration.
Somehow Virgil Exner at Chrysler managed to keep the tailfin age alive for a few years while Ford & GM moved on to sleeker, boxier MCM looks. If there was a death knell for fins it was his designs for the 1961-62 Plymouth Valiant (1) and 1962 Imperial (2). ... Ahh, but what a time it was. Have a particular tailfin that triggers your aesthetic pleasure? Lemme know in the comments. ... Meanwhile I'm gonna try to figure out the mystery cars in the old family photos of readers. To get yours on my To-Do list, simply tag it with #davescaridservice, heed the content guidelines, and keep your damn contemporary politics out of my ID threads. ... Hey, whaddaya know? Sis and Pops are wrenching on one of those big finned 1957 Plymouths I featured earlier. Hoping Bro was racing it with the a poly head 318 V8 Golden Commando and not the wimpy flathead 6. ... *And if my Iowa license plate math is correct, this is a 1963 Delaware County car and probably not far from Field of Dreams.
**While Chrysler (Firepower), DeSoto (Firedome), and Dodge (Red Ram) all had their own version of a Hemi V8 engine in the 50s, Plymouth had a Poly. "Hemi" means hemispherical, or dome shaped, combustion chamber, "Poly" means polyspherical - sort of a half-cylindrical shape. ... What a terrific shot of a couple of Great Depression love birds, and I suspect taken during a hot day before the advent of air conditioning. Kind of tough to tell if their car is a 1930 or 31 Ford Model A Tudor from this angle, but I'm gonna go with 1930. ... I guess we could title this one "love on the rocks." Behind Mom and Dad parked along the rocky shore are a 1937-38 Mopar (Chrysler-Dodge-DeSoto-Plymouth) full size 4 door left, 33-34 Chevy right. Mom & Dad's fashion seem of a more recent era though. ... Absolutely! These gals are all smiles in front of a very fetching 1937 Ford Deluxe Tudor sporting lovely wide whitewalls. Would they be of Italian descent perchance? Longtime readers know I loves me those photos of Italian families with their cars. ... Holy SCHNITZEL. May I offer your mom a most respectful and gentlemanly hubba-hubba-hubba? Along with a bonus rrrrrowwrr. And her modeling assignment here was on behalf of DKW for its 1956-57 Monza, maybe the best looking DKW ever made. ... Quick reminder to please use the #davescaridservice hashtag with your ID requests, otherwise they disappear into the maelstrom of my mentions. I'll tag this myself to ID in a future episode. ... *This is how many engagements I've gotten in the last 7 days, it's near impossible to keep track of ID requests without the hashtag to search for them. Pinky promise, if you use it for an old family pic there's a near 100% chance I will get to it. ... Holy smokes, look at Pippi Longstockings go! This amazing action shot of world famous bush hurdler Aunt Pat and her flying pigtails also features a 1940 Chevy sedan. ... Another swell action shot of bootlegger Dad holding off Jim Roper in the turn. Speed blur prevents precise model year ID, but Dad's driving a 1946-48 Ford coupe, Roper a 1949-50 Olds club coupe. ... *photo is also poignant for a Ford guy. Dad's car would be powered by a Ford flathead V8, king of the road for bootleggers and bank robbers since 1932, while Roper's Old was powered by the motor that would eclipse it - the Olds Rocket OHV V8. ... Well helloooo Miss Mass! How about I pahk ya cah in Havahd yahd and take you out foh a lobstah roll?
I think we can all agree that she was much easier on the eyes than the ungainly Saab 96 sedan behind her. ... Two fine additions to my collection of Bonnies & Clydes. Maye the same couple, but definitely 2 different cars: #2 is definitely 1926-27 Ford T roadster, #1 pretty sure 1927-28 Studebaker EU. Maybe both stolen during a multistate robbery spree. ... I mean, talk about your smooth criminals. ... As much as I'm tempted to break the tax seal on that amazing whiskey artifact, it would be a shame. So I'll stick to crashing in to liquor stores for my supply. But how about that equally amazing 1940 Ford Deluxe convertible in the snapshots? ... Boy howdy, that's a handsome car, and I suspect some ceremonial new car pix.
But I'm intrigued by the book-whiskey concealing apparatus. Was it made that way, or was it a custom project from a hollowed-out book? It appears there was once a Johnny Harper Ford dealership in Colorado, maybe they printed the book as a giveaway to customers. ... Kudos to the photographer for the artistic composition here, featuring a young dapper GI-to-be (A+ hat game btw), a stony archway, and a 1936 Chevy Master Deluxe 4 door sedan.
Curious where the archway is; seems to say 'John Nelson' on the keystone. ... A few blocks off this freeway is the 1910 Ford Highland Park plant, where most all Model Ts were made. I wonder if Henry was on hand to see what his Tin Lizzy hath wrought. Nearest car, 1937 Ford sedan, up to its left is a fastback 1942 Buick Sedanette. ... Man, during the Depression even the little kids looked 40 years old. A fantastic image here, with a surprisingly fancy car (tho a bit beat up and a few years old): 1932 Cadillac 355B sedan. ... *My own grandma was an Iowa one-room country schoolhouse teacher at the same time, I'll have to share some of those similar photos sometime. ... Come on down to Smilin' Grandpa's Used Cars for no hassle deals on late model creampuffs! Free balloons for the kiddies and free Schlitz for Mom & Dad!
From left, 1949 Mercury, 3 1949 Fords, 48-49 Hudson, 49 Chevy, 49-50 Packard. Nice lineup. ... And the deals don't stop there! Ask Grandpa about blowout specials on his (near to far) 1947-48 Frazer Standard, 1941 Ford, 1940-41 Lincoln Zephyr, 1940 Oldsmobile, and 1941 Plymouth! ... *Mister Rollbar provided several other dandy photos from his Grandpa's car lot which I will save for future episodes. And now onto the street & wilderness mystery speed round portion of our programming. ... I can say with 100% certainty the subject is a 1955-56 Buick 4 door hardtop. (ht @KieranEleison)
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