Hooniverse Asks – What car had the best tail fins?
This week, we’ve been focusing on outdated and obsolete design features: vinyl tops, T-tops & wide whitewalls. Today we’re going back to the ’50s and early ’60s to ask about the most conically “dated” feature of all: tail fins.
Which car’s attractiveness owed the most to its faux-aeronautical sheetmetal appendages? Was it the unmatched scale and excess of the ’59 Caddie? The bass-ackwards ’61 Dodge Polara? Or perhaps something totally different, like the Dodge Sweptside pickup?
And while we’re on the subject, is there any modern car that you’d stick them on?
IMAGE SOURCES:
Packard: stationwagonfinder.com
Cadillac: gracerivers.com
Mercedes-Benz: flicker.com
Volvo: bringatrailer.com
Ford: histomobile.com
Dodge: moparts.org
Related posts:
Hands down…best. fins. EVAR!
<img src="http://cache2.allpostersimages.com/p/LRG/16/1676/MLG1D00Z/posters/chevrolet-bel-air-1957.jpg">
I beg to differ…
<img src="http://web.me.com/antonannex/projects_files/fluxus-car.jpg" width="500">
1959 DeSoto
<img src="http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-1950-1959/1959-Desoto-Firedome-2dr-ma-2.jpg"width=500>
Hard to go wrong with the late '50's Mopars. Here's a few crappy iPhone pics from last night.
<img src="http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab40/ptschett/Jul11%20Cruising%20Broadway/IMG_0296.jpg" width="500"/>
<img src="http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab40/ptschett/Jul11%20Cruising%20Broadway/IMG_0320.jpg" width="500"/>
1956 Imperial. Nothing else comes close.
<img src="http://www.1956imperial.de/wp-content/gallery/c56-10224/10224-rearside.jpg" width=600>
So proud of it, they park it across the lawn. Eat it, neighbors!
The gunsight taillights originated with the 1953 Chrysler Ghia D'Elegance. Massively awesome.
<img src="http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h223/vwlarry/delegance53d.jpg" width="500">
>poof<
That trunk was perfectly designed for one of those visqueen-lined redneck hot tubs.
I am a fan of Caddy's, but all answers today are the correct answers.
<img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/25/automobiles/25wheels533.jpg">
Via New York Times "Wheels" <a href="http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/got-a-fin/” target=”_blank”>http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/got-a-fin/
My grandfather tells a story of playing street football as a teenager and backing straight into the tailfin of a brand-new '59 Cadillac. I can only imagine the bayonetlike pain.
While most people think that Ralph Nader's book, "Unsafe At Any Speed" was all about the Corvair, the truth is, that was only one chapter. One of the chapters was about the dangers posed to pedestrians by tailfins. Another was about the VW Beetle, and how supposedly if you were rear-ended while driving in one, the front seats would break loose and fall back, ejecting you out the rear window. Yikes.
That book is also why US car manufacturers stopped putting hood ornaments on cars for a while beginning in the late '60s. Too many visions of impaled pedestrians.
I think you're thinking of the sequel, which is all about the VW:
<img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TzketAWQL._SL500_AA300_.jpg">
I haven't read "Unsafe…" in years, but I don't remember the stuff about the Beetle being in that one.
I've never heard of the Beetle-only book. I'm pretty sure it was in Unsafe At Any Speed (okay, it's been close to 40 years since I read it). It wasn't a whole chapter, but I think it may have been covered in Chapter 3, "The Second Collision":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_At_Any_Speed
Definitely, this Miata. Best fins ever!
<img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2006/10/5d_12.jpg.jpg"width="500"/>
GAAAAH!
I'd love to show up at an autocross with that.
I would think that the aerodynamic impact of those vertical stabilizers would make cornering much more difficult and less precise.
On the other hand, the laughter and/or looks of shock and horror would more than make up for the reduced lap times.
So trick!
<img src=" http://www.lovefords.org/60ford/custom300/1960_fo… />
I think the 1960 Ford's had the best.
E-30 Prickstine
<img src="http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/12/Prickstine_Vegas-550×310.jpg">
It's the answer to all this weeks questions. white walls, tail fins Is there anything this car can't do?
Needs a landau vinyl roof and t-tops.
It appears to be lacking T-tops at the moment.
Easy enough solution.
Perhaps if it had large, foam quills….
I have to go with mid 1960s T Birds.
http://www.crazycar.com/?p=6566
http://www.crazycar.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/0…
First, there are no wrong answers here, all tailfins are win.
That said, as far as T'bird fins, I think the '58-'60 fins were the best (not that I'm biased, this one is mine
)
<img src="http://www.salguod.net/gallery/1960_thunderbird_convertible/P1110650-photo.jpg">
1958 Chrysler 300 D
<img src="http://underthehood.oldcarsweekly.com/content/binary/1958%20Chrysler%20300D%20fuel%20injection.jpg">
I always liked the Batista Farina designed Lancia Florida II concept. So did Batista, who used it as his personal car for the last decade of his life.
<img src="http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/studio/large/1957_Pininfarina_Lancia_Florida-II_05.jpg">
And then, there's Jean Daninos' take on tailfins
<img src="http://pictures.topspeed.com/IMG/crop/200906/1960-facel-vega-hk50-3_460x0w.jpg">
The car behind the real General Lee, aka Traveler. http://www.travelermovie.com/pages/traveler.html
I knew about the 300 D's reputatation with the liquor transportation industry, but I didn't know the details. Thanks for filling in a blank.
1960 Lincoln Continental
<img src="http://www.picturearchive.co.za/Images/large_1960-Continental-Mark-V-rvr.jpg">
Front, back…top and bottom. One huge fin!
This is the runner-up in in my opinion. I just love the lines so much.
The car that had the best and most functionally beautiful tail FIN (singular) was Virgil Exner's XNR. Best pair of fins, maybe the 1955 Ghia Streamline.
<img src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l9olh1fwgt1qcdxvpo1_500.jpg">
<img src="http://www.transmissionshop.net/uploads/4/2/6/9/4269172/719890.jpg">
The XNR actually has three fins, not one. Ghia's sequel to the XNR, the Asimmetrica convertible and St. Regis coupe, dropped the big vertical fin but had even tastier side fins.
<img src="http://www.shorey.net/Auto/American/Chrysler/Ghia/1961%20Plymouth-Ghia%20Asimmetrica%20Concept.jpg" width="500">
Good point, I'm so obsessed with the big fin that I didn't pay any attention to those little ones. It's funny about Exner, it often seems like his production cars were a little over the top, but his concept cars show that maybe the production ones weren't quite over the top enough.
Jaguar has a thing to say to you for best single fin.
<img src="http://www.mithrilracing.co.uk/events/gallery/jaguardtype.jpg" width=500>
I'm partial to batwings…
<img src="http://i.pbase.com/o4/26/12626/1/58366768.hbbc0602loDSCN5374.jpg"width=500>
59 Chevys?
<img src="http://www.strangecosmos.com/images/content/163396.jpg"width=500>
And in a fit of insanity (or was it greatness?), the El Camino had them too.
<img src="http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab40/ptschett/Cruising%20Broadway%20June%202011/DSC04787.jpg" width="500"/>
I would call that finsanity.
Am a HUGE fan…
For several years when I was growing up, my backyard playfort was Mom's old 1959 Impala 4-door hardtop. Not sure why we kept the car for so long. Dad finally sold it in the 1980s to some guy that wanted the 283 in it.
When I was a wee lad, the neighbors across the street had a rotating fleet of '59s. It was the early '70's and these were considered little more than junk. Four cars in the driveway typically equated to one operational vehicle.
"Four cars in the driveway typically equated to one operational vehicle."
Wait, are you saying that's not normal? To me, that falls under the heading of "at least I can probably still get to work today."
…I should have added, "Not that there's anything wrong with that". I guess I'm feeling smug, since all four in my driveway are currently operational, so long as A/C or parking brakes are not necessary.
<pow>
Literally?
<img src="http://files.conceptcarz.com/img/Alfa%20Romeo/54-Alfa_BAT-7_Bertone_DV-07-MB_05.jpg" width="500">
Yes, but only a masochist would buy a car made by those guys.
Trucks even got the treatment, sort of.
<img src="http://image.classictrucks.com/f/22044383/0909clt_02_z 1956_chevy_cameo_pickup_truck rear_bumper.jpg">
As Mr. Buffet says "Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right"… and then some fins down for good measure:
<DIV style="OVERFLOW: auto"><img src="http://assets.speedtv.com/images/easy_gallery/965301/1959_pontiac_bonneville_convertible_m.jpg" width="304" height="228">
You are clearly on top of your game with the 59 Pontiac fins. I was going to post that, but you beat me by 4 solid minutes. You're a smart man.
Tanshanomi already took my answer with the '59 Ford (my first car; I still have one, too), so I'll have to give honorable mention to the SAAB 95, which kept its fins intact throughout its entire production run, 1959-1978. Not too shabby. They're nice fins, too.
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2052/5750837379_a2cb8963ef.jpg" width="450">
For not coming in pairs:
<img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/04/rl-bugatti.jpg" width=500>
For subtlety:
<img src="http://www.markeeautosales.com/ebay/56tbird/images/56tbird05.jpg" width=500>
For height:
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3457/3760453583_479798217e.jpg">
For being the Michael Caine of Cars:
<img src="http://cartrendcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/FINN-McMISSILE-Cars-2-Movie-Characters.jpg">
For variations on a concept:
<img src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/08/3_generations_of_firebird.jpg">
My personal favorite…
<img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_G3DjZetEqK8/SiQzZDKuFqI/AAAAAAAAFbE/0VwALOO7V6M/s320/03911-1957-ford-fairlane-3.jpg">
'57 Ford fins look good even when taken out of context:
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2597/4059250870_9df62915fa.jpg" width="400">
Ok, I'm not exactly sure what I am looking at.
I recognize all the individual bits… but… WTF?
I've never seen any info on Edsel retractables, and am pretty damn sure they never got one unless it is a prototype or someone's custom creation. I've seen pics of 3 Pacer Skyliners now, but only 2 have the 57-58 Ford fins.
I know it was originally intended for the Lincolns, but this is kinda cool too. In a bizarro kinda way.
It's a painstakingly "authentic" 1958 Edsel retractable built out of a '57 Skyliner. I knew the guy who built it when I lived in Oregon. He made it into an Edsel to the greatest extent possible, inside and out. He had to keep the fins, however, in order to avoid messing with the contours around the deck lid. At least they match the lines of the Edsel inset remarkably well. In a nod to M.E.L. naming conventions, he called it a Suncruiser.
I've seen photos of a couple of other conversions but they don't strike me as being nearly so thorough. This guy even put a chrome advertising emblem from an El Paso Edsel dealership on the back.
I've also seen some B&W photos of what was supposedly a FoMoCo prototype of an Edsel retractable, but it was just a Ford with Edsel front-end sheetmetal. Probably genuine, but it looks like they didn't go very far with the idea. Also, just to be really, really picky, Ford's retractable roof was originally intended for the Continental Mk II, which wasn't a Lincoln:
<img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6026/5916897526_ba8bc5ddf8.jpg">
Only because I got to drive it
<img src="http://maxcdn.fooyoh.com/files/attach/images/1097/571/500/89-batmobile-ebay.JPG">
That's the wrong year Batmobile.
<img src="http://www.buybatparts.com/joomla/images/stories/3%20bats%20mod.jpg" width=500>
<img src="http://cdn.bitrebels.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Batman-Forever-Batmobile-Promotion.jpg" width=500/>
For a bit of the weird factor…I have always thought these were Fintastic!
<img src="http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_movies_blog/files/2011/05/peerless.jpg">
<img src=" http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/upload/images/2010%2… width="600">
1954 Kaiser. My favorite taillights.
<img src="http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/upload/images/2010%20Car%20of%20the%20Week/Kaiser%20back%20end.jpg " width="600">
<img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/166/424907439_6b01fc7039.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="1960 Cadillac convertible fins">
I've always been fond of the 1960 Cadillac. Mostly the same shape overall as the '59, but toned down just a bit, with simpler fins, similar to those of the '59 Eldorado Brougham.
Yeah, less baroque, classier. I think that the fins on the '64 Caddy, the last year of the real badass true tailfins, were the most tasteful. Angular, understated, and just right.
<img src="http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2497/64cadillac61.jpg">
Some '59 Caddy owners had their cars "desaberized." Body shops cut the fins down and the result looked exactly like a '60 if I remember the photo in the newspaper correctly. This, of course, was before the 1960 model came out.
That '61 Dodge Polara is a very rare model made for delivery in Mexico. It has the front end sheetmetal of a Plymouth.
<img src="http://www.moparts.org/moparts/picture/oldweb/4four/Garlick2.jpg">