 1959 Chevrolet Impala convertible. Click image to enlarge |
Article and photo by Bill Vance
Tailfins were the rage in American car styling of the 1950s, but in spite of this, General Motors’ most popular car, the Chevrolet, didn’t adopt them until 1959.
Fins got their start in the 1940s when they appeared on the scene as little more than raised taillights on the 1948 Cadillac. They came into being because General Motors chief stylist Harley Earl became enamoured with the twin, vertical, tail-boom stabilizers of the P‑38 Lockheed Lightning fighters. He felt the rear of a car as well as the front should make a styling statement, and the ’48 Cadillac’s taillights were the real beginning of that theme.
Although fins met with some initial resistance, the public soon embraced them and they became a Cadillac hallmark. And since GM then set the styling trend, virtually all manufacturers, even conservative Mercedes-Benz, would eventually adopt some sort of fin treatment.
Fins reached their zenith in the late 1950s after gradually rising through the decade. In 1957, Chrysler introduced huge, soaring tailfins, the final radical departure from the conservative tack it had taken with its new post‑Second World War 1949 models. These fins temporarily wrestled styling leadership away from GM. Cadillac, not to be outfinned, would respond with even higher, pointed fins in 1959.
Chevrolet, perhaps in deference to its somewhat conservative middle class clientele, was still reluctant to enter the fin wars. It added small points to the rear fender on its ’57 models, and then in 1958 introduced an all-new rounded and tastefully attractive but finless design. Sales suffered in a short, sharp economic recession year but the ’58’s “fold over” rear fenders did provide a hint at what was to come the following year.
Nineteen‑fifty‑nine was the year General Motors decided to show the world what fins were really all about. Cadillac arrived with high, lethal looking daggers, Buick its delta wings, Pontiac its twin‑blade appendages and Oldsmobile its rather nondescript lumps on top of the rear fenders.
But among the wildest of all fins that year, right behind the Cadillac’s in excess, were those on the Chevrolet. Variously described as “batwings” or “gullwings,” the horizontal fins of the ’59 Chevy truly spread like the wings of a great bird. They started just aft of the B‑pillar, and grew wider and more pronounced until they culminated in a distinctly whale‑like expanse that extended out over “cat’s eye” tail lamps. These blades were accentuated by deeply sculpted rear quarter panels.
Unfounded rumours soon started circulating that these fins would cause the Chevy’s rear end to become light at high speeds and make the car unstable. Chevrolet vigorously denied this hearsay.
These were the years in which standard, popular priced cars were growing bigger. The ’58 Chevy was larger than the ’57 and the ’59 was larger again. Overall the increase from 1957 to 1959 was 101.6 mm (4 in.) in wheelbase and 279 mm (11 in.) in overall length. Width reached its practical, and legal, maximum of 2,029 mm (79.9 in). Window area was greatly increased by using a flatter roof and slimmer pillars.
The ’59 Chevy came in three series: the low cost Biscayne, intermediate Bel Air and the now top‑of‑the‑line Impala, which had appeared as an option on the ’58 Bel Air and was broken out as a separate series for ’59. There were also the Brookwood, Parkwood and Nomad station wagons. Chevrolet had a full line of body types, including the handsome four-door, pillarless “Sport Sedan.”
There were three engine choices: the trusty 235 cu in. (3.8-litre) overhead valve, inline six, and 283 (4.6) and 348 (5.7) overhead valve V8s in various states of tune and horsepower.
With three‑ and four-speeds (available with high performance engines), plus overdrive, two automatics and other options, the scope for creating a tailor‑made Chevrolet was almost limitless. The star‑crossed “Level Air” air suspension of 1958 was still offered, although so few were ordered by wary buyers that it was soon discontinued.
There was also a sedan delivery version and the newly introduced El Camino sedan‑pickup, Chevrolet’s response to the Ford Ranchero that had arrived in 1957.
In keeping with GM’s cost-saving, body-sharing policy which dictated that different corporate nameplates share their body architecture, the ’59 Chevy’s basic inner sheetmetal was common to Pontiac, Oldsmobile and smaller Buicks.
Chevrolet moved into 1960 with a more conservative look reflecting society’s moderating tastes. The ’60 Chevy’s fins were toned down and “bent” flat, and the cat’s eye tail lamps were replaced with round ones. The ’59’s “nostrils” above the grille also disappeared. Chevrolet had probably been wise to resist fins as long as it did because they proved to be little more than a styling gimmick that would soon disappear. Chevrolet discontinued them for 1961.
