Show me a nice old car

^^1959 Cadillac... unique appearance for this year, and has become iconic of the era. When I was a teen our family had a similar-bodied 1959 Chevrolet Belair which also had distinctive tailfins.
 
Another rear quarter photo. "The new Pontiacs are in early this year!!" Rolleiflex 2.8C, Fuji Acros 100, Rodinal 1:50

Nighttime, lots of ambient streetlights.

No, I didn't buy the car.

xDeDnG.jpg
 
The early-60's Pontiac Tempest had an interesting mechanical "experiment"... a long slender driveshaft running in a long curved housing from the engine to a rear transaxle and independent rear suspension. The standard motor was a slant-four derived from the 389 V-8 from the "full size" cars, IIRC. But there was also a new aluminum 3.5 liter V8 shared with other GM compacts and the British Rover. Interesting times!
 
Doug said:
The early-60's Pontiac Tempest had an interesting mechanical "experiment"... a long slender driveshaft running in a long curved housing from the engine to a rear transaxle and independent rear suspension.
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The "rope drive" if I remember correctly. :)
 
I'm not sure what the point of it was... The transaxle moved weight rearward for better handling balance, and the independent rear suspension should reduce unsprung weight for better handling... but IIRC it had swing axles which due to the camber changes are not much benefit to handling. Could this and the oddball half-V8 motor have been engineering exercises just to be different?
 
Advert for a 1958 Cadillac

Advert for a 1958 Cadillac

Cadillac%201958-X2.jpg


Just after seeing the '59 model (above) I saw a framed advert for the '58 version. It was in a shop behind heap of second-hand stuff, vases etc, and I had to borrow my wife's phone and lean over them to get the picture with reflections and a poor crop. I hope I've managed to correct most of the problems.

It's not my idea of a good looking car, btw.

Regards, David
 
A good find David. I used to think this era of US (and UK pale imitiations) were a bit on the large size and rather bulky, but have come to respect them as excellent representations of their era. A friend who mainly restores UK and European cars loves them as decidedly robust, reliable and well made.
 
CharlesDAMorgan said:
A good find David. I used to think this era of US (and UK pale imitiations) were a bit on the large size and rather bulky, but have come to respect them as excellent representations of their era. A friend who mainly restores UK and European cars loves them as decidedly robust, reliable and well made.
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I was tempted by it but mostly by the frame but I've too many photo's etc in frames and not enough wall...

So I left it there for someone else with a spare fiver to spend.

I was hoping to put a picture here of a "mystery" car as we used to have; a Bond Equipe, but I only have slids from that era and a few PR pictures I scrounged from BL.

Regards, David


PS To add to the mystery I scrounged a sticker saying "Serviced by Aston Martin" and put it on the rear screen. Everyone in this village in those days was a farm hand, a clicker or an outworker in the boot and shoe trade but there were one or two of us commuting to distant parts and ASL was just down the road then.
 
David Hughes said:
Cadillac%201958-X2.jpg


Just after seeing the '59 model (above) I saw a framed advert for the '58 version. It was in a shop behind heap of second-hand stuff, vases etc, and I had to borrow my wife's phone and lean over them to get the picture with reflections and a poor crop. I hope I've managed to correct most of the problems.

It's not my idea of a good looking car, btw.

Regards, David
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Late Fifties automotive design coming out of Detroit was, like the music, a reflection of the spirit of the country at the time. Vibrant, confident, enthusiastic, forward looking, and bursting with a sense of joy at being alive. If you think that assessment is excessive, it’s only because. you weren’t there.

It was a time of large shifts in design, year to year. Not for them the timid and unsure “incremental” “improvements” we see today. Bigger touch screen!

The excesses of design, as here in this ‘58 Caddy, were not bugs, they were features. It was lost on no one at the time that this was excessive; people not only didn’t care, they loved it, even if they couldn’t afford it. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” as Cyndi Lauper would later say.
America in the Fifties, no one needed a shoe conglomerate to prod them to “Just Do It” because just doing it was the norm. The fact that “It” didn't always work was not a deterrent; there was always next year with its fresh sheet of paper.

As cars, taken as transportation devices and not design statements, the American cars of this era were not that great, but were more or less “of their time”. They were, as they were called at the time, land yachts. They wallowed, handling like a nice Chris Craft with an Olds V-8 on board, just burbling along Route 66. They were not really transportation devices, they were built to put smiles on people’s faces. And that they did.

FWIW, I never lusted for a ‘59 Cadillac, being more of a ‘58 Buick Roadmaster man myself. Nothing succeeds like excess.
 
Exuberance in the late 50's indeed! But the import market surged too with smaller sportier cars, and the decidedly anti-exuberant VW Beetle became very popular. Not uncommon to see these on their side in the ditch after attempting a corner at exuberant speed!

I bought into the exuberant culture with a 1959 Dodge 4-door hardtop in two-tone pink. Was a good car IMO, better than my dad's 59 Chev, but when I moved into Seattle I wanted something smaller and sold it. The replacement was a hump-back Volvo 544 in dull OD green, virtually a repudiation of exuberance but not quite as much so as a VW.
 
David Hughes said:
Cadillac%201958-X2.jpg


Just after seeing the '59 model (above) I saw a framed advert for the '58 version. It was in a shop behind heap of second-hand stuff, vases etc, and I had to borrow my wife's phone and lean over them to get the picture with reflections and a poor crop. I hope I've managed to correct most of the problems.

It's not my idea of a good looking car, btw.

Regards, David
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WOW!! The fins.:angel: I actually find these cars gross and ugly. my GAS at the time was a Triumph TR 3.

url
 
Doug said:
I'm not sure what the point of it was... The transaxle moved weight rearward for better handling balance, and the independent rear suspension should reduce unsprung weight for better handling... but IIRC it had swing axles which due to the camber changes are not much benefit to handling. Could this and the oddball half-V8 motor have been engineering exercises just to be different?
Click to expand...

Porshe used it in their 944 if I am not mistaken.

GM tried several innovative designs in the 60's trying to complete with the European imports. Oldsmobile had the aluminum V8, Buick the V6, Pontiac the "iron duke" 4 cyl. Chevrolet had the Corvair. Versions of the aluminum V8 and Buick's V6 are still being used today in a variety of automobiles.
 
besk said:
Porshe used it in their 944 if I am not mistaken.

GM tried several innovative designs in the 60's trying to complete with the European imports. Oldsmobile had the aluminum V8, Buick the V6, Pontiac the "iron duke" 4 cyl. Chevrolet had the Corvair. Versions of the aluminum V8 and Buick's V6 are still being used today in a variety of automobiles.
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Buick, Olds, and Pontiac had the aluminum V8. In fact, it was also referred to as the B-O-P V8. Rover, of England, eventually bought the rights to this engine, reworked it somewhat, and used it for a long time.

- Murray
 
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