In Photos: Check Out These 1950s Tail-Fin Cars

[corbe]

In Photos: Check Out These 1950s Tail-Fin Cars

John Gilbert
 
4 hrs ago
 



Tailfins on jet airplanes, badminton shuttlecocks, and fish are here to stay but as a mid-modern styling embellishment for cars fins only stuck around for a little over a decade. First as pointy little nubs and then as big fins peaking in 1959 with Cadillac producing the most iconic pair of tailfins ever. The advent of 1960 and the start of '60s-decade tailfins began to recede on '60s models and by 1961 only a few examples remained… Excepting Cadillac a longtime advocate of the tailfin.

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/classic-cars/in-photos-check-out-these-1950s-tail-fin-cars/ar-AADQJw0?ocid=ientp#image=AADQCYa|34

[corbe]

   Certainly brings back fond memories for me.

[berdie]

Those cars are so darn distinctive. Nothing like it today.  They all look the same.

There is a commercial about a car driving up to get a kid from school and a girl being wowed by it. Not to disparage Toyota...but really?

[Gefn]

Those cars are so darn distinctive. Nothing like it today.  They all look the same.

There is a commercial about a car driving up to get a kid from school and a girl being wowed by it. Not to disparage Toyota...but really?

 

[Gefn]

   Certainly brings back fond memories for me.

Makes me wish I was older. Gorgeous cars

There’s a tail fin caddy in Green Book

[Bigun]

   Certainly brings back fond memories for me.

Me to @corbe. My dad owned a sweet 57 Plymouth Fury.

[corbe]

   My very first squeeze, Belinda, her Dad had one of these.  Unfortunately, I got caught playing Dr with her by her Mom.  Saw here 40 years later on my way through Louisiana, she was a nurse in a small community hospital and a Lesbian, her girlfriend wasn't too happy about us meeting up. 
   They always Fascinated me, Lesbians and Bel Airs.

[jmyrlefuller]

Those cars are so darn distinctive. Nothing like it today.  They all look the same.

There is a commercial about a car driving up to get a kid from school and a girl being wowed by it. Not to disparage Toyota...but really?

Indeed.

I always thought those 50s cars were gaudy, but the styles of the 60s were sleek and sharp. My personal thoughts were that cars started getting ugly when they switched to square headlights in the 70s. It took until about the 1980s (the AMC Eagle and Iacocca's K-cars) to get a design where those square headlamps actually worked.

Then came the 90s when they started to streamline things... and by the 21st century, those fuel economy standards meant that every single car ended up looking like a giant running shoe. And we wonder why sedan and coupe sales are down.

[berdie]

Indeed.

I always thought those 50s cars were gaudy, but the styles of the 60s were sleek and sharp. My personal thoughts were that cars started getting ugly when they switched to square headlights in the 70s. It took until about the 1980s (the AMC Eagle and Iacocca's K-cars) to get a design where those square headlamps actually worked.

Then came the 90s when they started to streamline things... and by the 21st century, those fuel economy standards meant that every single car ended up looking like a giant running shoe. And we wonder why sedan and coupe sales are down.

Actually the 50s cars predate me. But you could tell what they were. But I will agree...most of the cars we owned were 60s and 70s...and they were beautiful!

[mountaineer]

Those cars are so darn distinctive. Nothing like it today.  They all look the same.

They really do. Really boring.

[truth_seeker]

No fins 1953 MG TD My first car in Dec. 1964

ultimate chick machine, very suave & debonaire, when the fad was drag racing on the Blvd.

I am pretty certain my Dad thought the low power of a Brit 4 banger sports car would prevent me from killing myself.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=1953+MG+Roadster&form=IDINTS&first=1&cw=1129&ch=370

[Applewood]

When I was a youngster, I would sit on the front porch with Dad in the summer.  As a car would go by, Dad would identify it by make and model.  Eventually, I knew every car on the road.  If you weren't sure where you parked your car in a lot, I could find it for you right away. 

Today, all cars look alike.  Sometimes I can tell the make by the hood ornament, but don't ask me about the model.  This would be a problem if, say, I witnessed a hit and run.  I couldn't say what kind of car the perp was driving.

[mountaineer]

When I was a youngster, I would sit on the front porch with Dad in the summer.  As a car would go by, Dad would identify it by make and model.  Eventually, I knew every car on the road.  If you weren't sure where you parked your car in a lot, I could find it for you right away. 

Today, all cars look alike.  Sometimes I can tell the make by the hood ornament, but don't ask me about the model.  This would be a problem if, say, I witnessed a hit and run.  I couldn't say what kind of car the perp was driving.

That reminds me of a game we had for long trips. There were cards with little sliding windows on them, and it was like "car bingo." If you saw, say, a Pontiac, you slid your little window thing. There's a Chevy, slide the little plastic piece. Once you got give in a row, bingo. Since we moved from NJ to California in 1962 and back to Pa in 1965, it got a lot of use along the highways. I learned to distinguish a 1954 Chevy from a 1955, even as a little girl. 

Now, as you say, it could be a Toyoacurhyundlexchevnisskia, don't ask me for a year or model!