You Jersey guys must know this place.

[commando1]

... that's the end of Earl's tenure when he lost touch after 30 years of being practically fail safe.

Actually it was when he locked horns with Bill Mitchel and GM politics used it's "mandatory retirement" age clause to force him out. MY 2 cents.
Also interesting:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...aftsmans-guild-harley-earls-grandson-says-so/

 

[cm23uoc]

I feel the 57 Exner cars definitely let these GM cars look old and overloaded with tinsel

 

[polara71]

Absolutely nothing wrong with that!
C's are like 25 year old Scotch. You eventually discover the taste.

Or your addicted from blood

 

[commando1]

In which case. Or do you mean both....

 

[commando1]

I feel the 57 Exner cars definitely let these GM cars look old and overloaded with tinsel

But there's a certain beauty in that in itself.

 

[polara71]

you cant discover the taste and also be addicted like a crack baby at birth.... I was fortunate to be much like the latter

 

[commando1]

You were a crack baby?

 

[bluefury361]

I clearly remember it laying down in the backyard with binoculars at 10 PM. Much tended to revolve around space and rockets both good and bad. The good: travel to space. The bad: take cover exercises in school under the desks.

I found this pamphlet at a swap meet several years ago. It is dated 1964 but represents the thoughts and fears of the era up to that time pretty well.
I keep it with the owners packet in my 65 Coronet.

 

[cm23uoc]

There's some compilation of instructional films in case of nuclear attacks, think it was called "The Atomic Cafe" which also gave some nice insight in these times. I remember some animated turtle teaching kids to duck and cover in case of an atomic bomb attack.

 

[polara71]

You were a crack baby?

Thats a loaded question ..

 

[bluefury361]

I feel the 57 Exner cars definitely let these GM cars look old and overloaded with tinsel

Concidering the ICON the 57 Chevy has become in the auto world it is amazing that it was concidered a flop and last minute "redisign" of the tired 53-56 chevy body by GM management.
The 57 Plymouth and Fords were entirely new designs and it was the first time (to date), that Ford outsold Chevrolet.
The "58" design was not ready for production...... and heads rolled at GM because of it.
In retrospect It may have been wise for Chrysler to have posponed the "Suddenly it's 1960" release of the 57 Plymouth. They may have avoided some of the poor quality control issues which fostered the bad reputation that followed in the upcoming years.

 

[1978 NYB]

I found this pamphlet at a swap meet several years ago. It is dated 1964 but represents the thoughts and fears of the era up to that time pretty well.
I keep it with the owners packet in my 65 Coronet.

That's cool. I remember doing fallout shelter drills in school.

 

[polara71]

I love the 58' design.... nicer than the 57's in my opinion

 

[commando1]

Who remembers the Air Raid sirens tested every Friday at exactly noon?

 

[polara71]

not me .........

 

[cm23uoc]

Concidering the ICON the 57 Chevy has become in the auto world it is amazing that it was concidered a flop and last minute "redisign" of the tired 53-56 chevy body by GM management.
The 57 Plymouth and Fords were entirely new designs and it was the first time (to date), that Ford outsold Chevrolet.

Heard about this as well concerning the 57 Chevrolets, for some reason they got some kind of cult status relatively quick after that, I think something like ten years after production.

IIRC the Ford sales numbers were only slightly higher than Chevrolet, wasn't there even Chevrolet ahead in calendar sales while Ford was ahead in model year sales ?

 

[1978 NYB]

Who remembers the Air Raid sirens tested every Friday at exactly noon?

I do. They even have one here in Aberdeen that they still use today for emergency weather warnings and calling up the volunteer fire department. Takes a full minute for that thing to stop winding and shut up.

 

[polara71]

fire sirens used to go off at 6 pm every night around my way. I always thought it was to signal it was six....

 

[bluefury361]

Who remembers the Air Raid sirens tested every Friday at exactly noon?

I thought they still did.....!!!

 

[bluefury361]

IIRC the Ford sales numbers were only slightly higher than Chevrolet, wasn't there even Chevrolet ahead in calendar sales while Ford was ahead in model year sales ?[/QUOTE]

True..... Chevy sold more from Jan to Jan in 57. Sales started slow perhaps because they were not prepared at the beginning of the new model sales calander.