Jalopnik
Venturing to Alameda's gritty West End, I found this '60 Chevy sedan parked around the corner from the '73 Stringray we saw a couple weeks back. It's a bit banged-up, but it's rust-free and clearly drives regularly.
My grandfather had a '60 Bel Air when I was a little kid, though his had suffered from a decade of Minnesota winters and therefore was more rust than steel. This car has been rolling for close to 50 years and it still looks good.
Those big horizontal fins didn't help matters much in rust-prone regions; when combined with GM cars' tendency to leak around the rear window, the result was a car that rusted even faster than most Detroit machines of the era.
Chevrolet's designers dug the jet-plane hood ornaments of their previous cars so much that they put big chrome jets on the sides of the '60. These things look great!
They almost had the grille design that made the '63 and '64 big Chevy cars look so good, though this car certainly looks good from the front view.
The base engine for 1960 was a 135-horsepower six, though most buyers opted for the 185-horse 283. Those with better sense (and fatter wallets) opted for the triple-carbed 348, which grunted out 335 horses; naturally, you'd want the 4-speed with the 348. Better still, you'd wait a year and order a crate 409 to be swapped in place of its smaller sibling.
Some folks dislike the funky winglike fins of the '60, but they've really grown on me over the years. Urban legend has it that these cars will become airborne at high speed.
A nice rumbly small-block (which is very likely what's already under the hood), some fatter tires, and a little bodywork and this car would be pretty much done.
Would GM do a retro-ized version of this car? Or would they go with the more iconic shoebox of a few years earlier?
Comments
In this Chevrolet's heyday, little kids would be so terrified at the sight of this car's back view that they would burst into tears.
I think the now-defunct Motor Trend Classic debunked the flying myth by actually taking a '59 to a wind tunnel and performing some tests.
Did anyone else notice the license plate disparity? 1963 series black plate on the rear (with seemingly non-current reg stickers, lacking an expiration month); recent plate on the front. I'm surprised the cops haven't talked to the owner about this.
In FLORIDA, you are allowed to display an old tag, say from the cars model year, so long as you have a current sticker.
The rules may or may not be the same in Cali-fornia.
Murilee, this is starting to weird me out. I've never been a fan of Detroit, but your loving write ups are starting to soften me on 'em... Keep up the great work!
It's still a mystery to me how our parents managed to parallel park beasts like this, in many cases while they were simultaneously managing to smoke a cigarette and *shoosh* a back seat full of romping, unbelted children.
@TinaChow:
I'm guessing that lots of reference points at the body's extremities (the car, I mean), plus ludicrously overpowered power steering probably helped here.
The 59-60 Chevys are a thing of beauty, though less so in the Bel Air than in the Impala and El Camino. I would do a lot of questionable things for a '59 ElCo.
Wait, your three options were 135, 185, or 335hp? That's quite a leap. Even if there were more options in the middle, the top level has more then double the power of the base. I can't think of any modern vehicles* with that much of a disparity.
*Besides the Lancer, which is nearly triple, but they add two more drive wheels, too.
@TinaChow: @Stoatmaster: That, and the presence of real drivers' ed.
Is that a home made trailer hitch receiver I see poking out?
Early 60s: peak of automotive design...but not so much on the engineering (particularly suspensions).
In my post-lottery winning fantasy world, I'm building a collection of early 60s cars with newer powerplants/suspensions swapped in.
How can you tell a 59 from a 60?
There's one of these a few blocks from my workplace that gets driven. It's a bit rusty, but it's in better shape than you'd expect from a 50 year old car that ONLY parks on the street.
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@dulcamara: Lots of little things, but dead giveaways are: 59's had teardrop taillights, vs the round ones on the 60. Different grille. 59 had 'eyebrows' with the blinkers over the headlights - 60 didn't.
I too am on the lookout for a 59 ElCo.. 60 won't do..gotta be 59.
@west-coaster: The Alameda cops are pretty ruthless about license plates and registration tags (and CA requires a front plate), so this is puzzling. Perhaps the owner has an understanding with the cops, or perhaps he is a cop. There is a very nice '62 Impala that parks in the APD parking lot every day, so maybe it's owned by the same guy.
Those flanking jets are just so absurd. I'll take the '61-'64 models any day. Much cleaner, IMHO.
Another nice machine. I understand that these can be suitably tweaked to handle the twisty stuff too.
No need to guess which engine this nice old car has... it's the 283 V8. With the six, there's the Chevy medallion only in the center of the grill & on the trunk lid; with the 283, you get the medallion plus the "v' and w/ the 348, it's the 'v' with crossed flags. I must be really old to know this
@tm8405: Well, with small-block Chevy cars you figure there's a lot of mixing and matching going on. This car could be on its fifth engine by now. Maybe it's got a 400 or (God forbid) a 262 or 307.
I love how the hood extends past the windshield and becomes the dash. That's great, but not as great as the shape of that windshield, wow! It wraps around the sides and top. I also love the flat fins and rearend design.
As for getting this thing airborn, I think it would need at least a 30-foot wingspan. 5-inch fins ain't gonna lift two tons of iron.
And I do remember being scared of these when I was a kid. They look like they are mad at you. They see you staring at them and they stop, and then their eyes light up red! Aaaaah!!!!!
Spent the middle 70's stationed in Madrid. Had a Spanish neighbor with a chauffeur-driven black 4-door with gray curtains for privacy. Thought it was crazy at the time, but if it was a legal deal it represented a big chunk of import duty!
My first lust was a neighbor's solid black '59 ElCam with 3 deuces and a roller cam. One contributing fact to the scarcity today has a lot to do with the fin design. People who actually bought them as trucks usually destroyed a fin the first time they backed into the Co-Op loading dock. The design was definately not farm friendly!
ah ha, I own one of these in grey(what was called silver metalic in 1960) it has a 283, and a powerglide, 4 doors and fun to drive, its all origional (yes it is) its been in my wifes family and mine sience it was new, miles? 300K plus (odometer is stuck at 32K the first 3 digits still roll away but stays at 32 K Generator was rebuilt in 2005 and regulator was replaced then. its a single exhaust with a 4 BBl carb. speed? well up to 50 MPH it feels like you are driving a pig (6000 pound pig) but at 50 MPH put it on the floor it will drop into low and start winding, top end? 120 is where the speedo ends and it is about 4 grand on the tack there ive run it up to 5500 on the tack around 140-150 MPH (guessing) anyways if anyone has parts for one of these let me know, I need the chrome from the jet back on the passenger side. was dammaged when my wifes grandmother drove it home from the dealer in 1960 (she bought it incase she ever had to drive, it sat garaged for 20 years being started 1 time a week in montana of all places) now is drive at least weekly just for fun !!! love those gull wing cars.
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