If I say “Chevrolet Bel Air hardtop,” the first image in your mind is probably a Tri-Five Chevy with a V-8 engine and a flashy paint job. However, the Bel Air actually arrived for 1950, a plush pseudo-convertible that brought hardtop styling to the masses — and helped to introduce the now almost forgotten first version of Chevrolet’s Powerglide automatic.
The Bel Air everyone expects: a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe / Mecum Auctions
Before the small block V-8 arrived in 1955, there was not a lot of excitement in the Chevrolet line. Chevrolet kept finding additional power from the 1937-vintage Stovebolt Six, but in cars with curb weights ranging from 3,200 to 3,600 lb, it provided only average performance. That didn’t deter customers — Chevrolet was the world’s best-selling car — but people bought Chevrolets for build quality, comfort, and resale value, rather than speed or sizzle.
1950 Chevrolet Styleline De Luxe Bel Air / Connors Motorcar Company
Starting in 1950, however, Chevrolet did get an infusion of glamour in the form of the Bel Air, a new pillarless hardtop model in the notchback Styleline series. Taking its name from a posh Los Angeles neighborhood, the Bel Air followed in the footsteps of the much pricier Cadillac Coupe de Ville, Buick Roadmaster Riviera, and Oldsmobile 98 Holiday Coupe, which had arrived in 1949.
Chevrolet called this body color “Moonlite Cream”; the roof is Falcon Gray, not black / Connors Motorcar Company
This sudden proliferation of hardtop coupes reflected some interesting trends in the American marketplace. Since the 1920s, the market share of open cars had shrunk precipitously, falling from 83 percent in 1920 to 3.2 percent in 1940. As buyers became accustomed to year-round weather protection, cheap roadsters and touring cars had largely disappeared. There was still some market for well-trimmed convertibles, which were an easy way for automakers to add a little sex appeal to a line, but it wasn’t much: U.S. automakers sold only 105,335 convertibles in 1940.
Bel Air upholstery was primarily cloth with leather bolsters in contrasting colors / Connors Motorcar Company
However, as civilian production resumed after WW2, an interesting thing happened: While convertible market share remained low — well under 5 percent — the number of convertibles sold in the U.S. more than doubled between 1940 and 1949, even though those open-top models were now usually the most or almost the most expensive in the line. This implied that there was a growing number of American buyers with the money for a stylish top-of-the-line model, although the various practical sacrifices involved in driving an open car meant that convertibles were likely to remain a small niche. (The ’50s boom in small imported sports cars, most of them roadsters, didn’t really change this equation — even at its height, the sports car market remained very small potatoes by Detroit standards.)
Wraparound rear window was exclusive to the Bel Air for 1950 / Connors Motorcar Company
Simulated convertible top bows were an essential early hardtop feature / Connors Motorcar Company
You can see how the hardtop fit into this picture. Nearly all of the early postwar hardtops were pitched as pseudo-convertibles: They typically rode a stiffer convertible chassis (if the line had one), and they were trimmed like a convertible, often adding chrome ribs to the headliner to simulate the bows of a convertible top. Cadillac, Buick, and Oldsmobile went so far as to give their early hardtops the same electro-hydraulic motor their convertibles used for the power top mechanism, also providing hydraulically operated power windows and seat controls. Unlike the convertible, however, the hardtop coupe gave up little in security or weather protection compared to a regular club coupe.
Back seat was much less claustrophobic for rear passengers than two-door Fleetline fastbacks / Connors Motorcar Company
The other great selling point for early hardtops was airiness. The shape of the sail panels on the early GM hardtops was not necessarily conducive to over-the-shoulder visibility, but compared to the huddled-in-a-bunker vibe of prewar cars, with their small glass area and obstructive window frames, hardtops were like riding in a dome car on the train. Being able to roll down the side and rear quarter glass completely, leaving an unobstructed open space from front vent window to rear sail panel, was also a welcome novelty.
Height (64.06 inches unladen) makes the Bel Air look shorter than it is, but it’s 197.5 inches overall on a 115-inch wheelbase / Connors Motorcar Company
Chevrolet and Pontiac both got into the act for 1950, with the new Chevrolet Styleline De Luxe Bel Air and Pontiac Chieftain Super De Luxe Catalina. (Oldsmobile also offered a one-year-only 76 Holiday Coupe.) These applied the same pillarless roof and three-piece wraparound windshield of the Coupe de Ville, Riviera, and Holiday to the smaller GM A-body. (Interestingly, the Bel Air did not share the X-frame of the Styleline convertible, although the hardtop did get a reinforced frame with much stiffer boxed side members.)
The 1950–1952 Bel Air had a special frame with stiffer boxed side rails
The GM A-body hardtops weren’t quite as lavishly trimmed as the bigger Cadillac, Buick, and Olds models, although they were still quite fancy. Unlike the senior models, the Bel Air and Catalina also didn’t include electro-hydraulic power window and seat controls, which helped to keep prices down. A 1950 Chieftain Catalina still cost at least $2,000 even with a six-cylinder engine, but the Bel Air started at a comparatively affordable $1,751. This was a lot of money in 1950 — $259 more than a two-door De Luxe sedan, at a time when $259 was close to two months’ wages for many Americans — but it was $106 less than a 1950 Styleline convertible, and half the price of a new Coupe de Ville.
Attractive two-tone door trim, but no power windows / Connors Motorcar Company
For an extra $158.50, buyers of Chevrolet De Luxe models could also order the new Powerglide transmission, the first new automatic in the low-price field. (The Studebaker Automatic Drive followed a few months later.)
1950 dashboard continued the two-tone theme, with many stainless steel highlights / Connors Motorcar Company
Like late ’50s cast iron Powerglide transmissions, the early units had front and rear oil pumps, a transmission oil cooler, and a vacuum modulator that adjusted line pressure based on engine load. However, the early Powerglide had no throttle valve, governor, or automatic shift valves. The driver could manually shift the Ravigneaux gearset between low, direct drive, reverse, and neutral, but the transmission had no provision for automatic gear changes. In other words, the early Powerglide was not a two-speed automatic, but a continuously variable transmission. With the shifter in Drive, all torque multiplication came from the five-element torque converter, which provided a maximum torque ratio of 2.2:1 at a stall speed of 1,700 rpm.
Powerglide was only available on De Luxe models in 1950 / Connors Motorcar Company
Some readers may be familiar with the later two-speed Powerglide, found on most Chevrolets from the mid-’50s through the late ’60s, but the original 1950 edition was quite a different animal, bearing more resemblance to the early Buick Dynaflow transmission. (Both were based on the same concepts, which were developed by a GM Engineering Staff product study group, but Buick and Chevrolet each designed their own distinct production versions. Each division also manufactured its own automatic transmissions.)
1950 to 1952 Powerglide with five-element converter, front and rear pumps, no governor
The torque converter had a two-stage pump (impeller), with the two stages linked by an overrunning clutch. At low speeds, the secondary pump would freewheel, creating a distinctive whining sound, but it would lock to the primary pump at higher engine speeds. There were two stators, each with its own overrunning clutch, with different blade profiles to maximize torque multiplication through a broader range of engine speeds.
Components of the early Powerglide’s five-element torque converter
This was just like Dynaflow, but Chevrolet also added a second set of blades to the turbine and the primary pump, which formed what Chevrolet called a “overrun coupling.” When coasting, the additional blades on the turbine would act as a pump, with the additional plates on the primary pump acting as a turbine, resisting engine rotation and providing better engine braking. In practice, this didn’t work very well, and Chevrolet abandoned it after 1952.
Chevrolets of this time didn’t have outstanding acceleration to begin with, and Powerglide didn’t help. With standard transmission, a 1950 Chevrolet had a 2.94 low gear and a 4.11 axle ratio, giving a starting ratio of 12.08:1. Powerglide came with a taller 3.55 axle, and if you started in Drive, starting ratio was only 7.81 to 1. Starting in Low (which had a 1.82:1 ratio) provided better pickup off the line, but you had to manually shift to Drive by about 40 mph.
Bigger 235.5 cu. in. (3,859 cc) would have been desirable even with manual transmission, but Chevrolet didn’t offer that combination in 1950 / Connors Motorcar Company
To compensate for the loss of performance, Powerglide cars got the bigger 235.5 cu. in. (3,859 cc) Stovebolt Six from the Chevrolet truck line, which provided a net output of 98 hp and 189 lb-ft of torque (advertised as 105 gross horsepower), compared to 85 hp and 170 lb-ft (advertised as 92 gross horsepower) for the standard 216.5 cu. in. (3,547 cc) engine. The bigger six also had hydraulic lifters, which kept the valves from chattering annoyingly when the torque converter allowed the engine to rev up.
Taillights moved to the rear fender tips for 1951, increasing the Cadillac resemblance / Connors Motorcar Company
Both Mechanix Illustrated and Motor Trend tested Powerglide-equipped Chevrolets in their respective September 1950 issues. They found that the taller axle ratio and more powerful engine gave Powerglide cars an edge in top speed (both got up to about 88 mph), but acceleration still suffered. Motor Trend found that with a start in Drive, their Powerglide car need a yawn-inducing 27.5 seconds to reach 60 mph. Starting in Low trimmed that to 21.8 seconds, but that was still about 2 seconds slower than a manual-shift car. (In Mechanix Illustrated, Tom McCahill claimed a 0 to 60 time of 17.4 seconds in Drive and a preposterous 15.2 seconds starting in Low, which I think very unlikely.) The Powerglide car did return about 2 mpg better gas mileage in steady-state highway cruising, but was about 2 mpg thirstier than a stick-shift Chevrolet in traffic.
Not a cavernous trunk, but more usable than the big Chevrolet Fleetline fastback series / Connors Motorcar Company
Tom McCahill had nothing very kind to say about Powerglide, but for buyers used to the cumbersome vacuum shift linkage and fragile transmission gears of 1939 to 1948 Chevrolets, it was a step forward. It was also another feature that had previously been available only to buyers of more expensive cars, and it quickly became very popular despite its limitations.
So, of course, did the Bel Air. In 1949, all three of GM’s senior hardtops together had sold fewer than 10,000 units, limited by their high prices and very late introduction. In 1950, Chevrolet sold 76,662 Bel Airs, followed by 103,356 of the little-changed 1951 models and 74,634 for 1952. Although the hardtop didn’t kill the convertible, at least not right away, it probably hastened the downfall of the Fleetline fastback series, whose popularity nosedived after 1950. The fastbacks were less practical than the notchbacks, and with the arrival of the Bel Air, the Chevrolet Fleetline suddenly looked very dated. Four-door fastbacks disappeared after 1951, and the two-door wouldn’t return after 1952.
Chevrolet called this color Mist Green; unlike the cream-colored car, the roof is black, not dark gray / ClassicCars.com
Although hardtops would become increasingly popular through the rest of the 1950s, Chevrolet couldn’t resist debasing the Bel Air name, extending it to a full trim series for 1953 and adding pillared sedan models as well as a convertible. The arrival of the Impala in 1958 soon demoted the Bel Air to second-banana status, and after 1962, it no longer even offered any hardtops (except in Canada). It expired in the ’70s after several ignominious years as a budget special, which I’ve always thought was foolish. Even non-car people still often perk up at the name “Chevy Bel Air” — it has a nice ring to it, and it sets the right tone. Bel Air isn’t quite Beverly Hills, but it’s still one of the poshest neighborhoods in Southern California, an upscale locale and an aspirational nameplate for a car that used to be something special.
Related Reading
Cohort Classic: 1951 Chevrolet Bel Air – The Hardtop Era Begins (by Paul N)
Curbside Classic: 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air – A Message From 1953, Part 1 (by Jon Stephenson)
Curbside Classic: 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air–“Nice To See You”– (by Stephen Pellegrino)
Curbside Classic: 1961 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Sedan – The Last Bel Air Four Door Hardtop (by Paul N)
Cohort Outtake: 1962 Chevrolet Bel Air Coupe – The Last Bubble-Top (by Paul N)
Curbside Classic: 1977 Chevrolet Bel Air Coupe – A Once-Storied Name’s Last Stand In Canada (by David Saunders)
Powerglide: A GM’s Greatest Hit Or Deadly Sin? (by Paul N)
Correction from an old guy who was there – the two door fastback were built thru 1952. The 4 doors thru 1951.
Oops, quite right — fixed now. Thanks!
Aaron, I hope you don’t mind but I’d like to suggest a couple of topics for your always enjoyable posts and thorough analysis…
A comparison of the 70’s three small block 400 cu in engines from Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler..
Slant 6 and Pentastar V6 – which was the better engine?
Did AMC ever make a “bad” engine?
I’ll give you a thumbnail version:
The SBC 400 is a mediocre engine in terms of any potential for hopping up. It was designed strictly as a low-output “smog motor”, and its heads were chosen accordingly. The siamesed bore block has a rep for cracking under high stress. But in the applications it was used in it did the job. But if one was building an sbc, the 400 would not be the place to start.
The Ford 400 is a vastly more modern design, based on the Cleveland V8. Again, it was designed to be a low-output “smog motor”, but it has much more potential than the Chevy 400. Its displacement can be increased substantially, and especially with better heads it can be a beast.
Again, the Mopar 400 (not a small block, BTW) was not designed as a hi-po engine, but because it has a strengthened block, its block is a good basis for building a powerful non-raised deck B engine, although most just go with the RB for its greater displacement.
Maybe you meant in terms of how these engines compared in stock condition? Well, they were all dull, boring low-output engines designed to have good low-end torque given that they were almost only ever installed in big cars or trucks.
Slant 6 and Pentastar? That’s like comparing a 1960 Valiant and a 2015 Dodge Challenger or such. Apples and oranges, to the extreme. One can’t remotely compare them in terms of their power output and relative efficiency. But if you mean relaibility or durability, well, the /6 doesn’t have any really significant weaknesses, but the Pentastar sure does. The most common being the dreaded “Pentastar tick”, which was not fixed until…2020? Or is it truly gone? It’s the result of a weak lifter, due to bad metallurgy and design. It hits a lot of them, usually after 70-100k miles. There’s more: oil consumption (mainly early ones), Misfires (ignition coils, etc.), water pump failures, timing chain tension failure, and the extremely common oil filter housing leak. Jim Klein’s article on DIY replacement of that plastic piece of junk has became the #1 ranked result of a Google search:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/repair-and-maintenance/curbside-tech-replacing-the-oil-cooler-on-the-pentastar-3-6l-v6-taming-the-trail-of-tears/
And god forbid you overheat it: warped cylinder heads.
Does that mean it’s a piece of junk? No; many of these engines have now racked up 300-400-500+k miles, although usually with a fix for at least the tick and the oil filter housing. There’s absolutely no way a /6 can rack up those kind of miles. Back the engines like the /6 were mostly worn out after 100-150k, maybe 200k for a really well maintained one. And there were bound to be repairs along the way, water pumps, carbs, lots of spark plugs and ignition parts, etc..
There’s just no way to say which of these is better, as they are worlds apart in their design, technology and use patterns.
Did AMC ever make a bad engine? Yes! Their whole family of gen2 V8 engines (290-401) has a well-known weakness in its oiling system. This article calls that out, although it probably makes these engines look a bit worse than they are. Let’s face it, AMC V8s weren’t the only ones with intrinsic issues.
https://www.theautopian.com/why-the-amc-v8-engine-found-in-some-of-the-greatest-cars-of-all-time-is-such-a-humongous-pile-of-shit/#:~:text=AMC%20V8's%20are%20notorious%20for,8%20rod%20and%20main%20bearings.
But their inline six has a great rep!
Interesting that the Chevy Bel Air hardtops all had the inside rear view mirror on the dash up until 1955. Was there anything about the hardtop roof that precluded its traditional spot up above?
These early GM hardtops really set a fire in the rest of the industry. I had an aunt and uncle whose first new car was a 52 Ford. My aunt never missed mentioning that “it was a hardtop!”
I am also reminded of the odd term “hardtop convertible”, which I believe was an early descriptor of this body style.
These early Bel Airs were beautiful cars!
Indeed and to think Chrysler had toyed with the hardtop idea in 1946 with a Town & Country hardtop but it didn’t go further than the prototype stage.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1946-chrysler-town-and-country-sedan-a-slave-to-fashion-and-varnish/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/carphotosbyrichard/3357946573/
Imagine what might have been…?
SWEET ! .
I could rock one of these as a daily driver .
I’d prolly upgrade the crappy “Huck” (rhymes with ‘SUCK’) brakes to the Bendix used after 1951 for safety .
It’s amazing how good these cars still look decades later .
-Nate
I agree with Nate. That’s a pretty car.
Two pretty cars! Never knew all those “faux, convert” touches.
I like it, we got mordor sedans only out of Canada and manual shift only automatic Chevys didnt arrive until 1960.
These cars were still very numerous as I was growing up in the late 1950’s and early ’60’s. By then, they were considered to be very old and out of date, and primarily driven by elderly owners, or by younger people as a “first car.” My Dad had a new ’59 Impala coupe, and it looked like a jet plane compared to those old Chevys, though it was less than ten years newer!
In my neighborhood in the early ’70’s, there was an old man with a terribly beat up sedan of this type, that was his only car. He only drove it around the neighborhood on errands.
As a child I always thought that the trunk handle looked like an elephant’s trunk, maybe that was intentional? These hardtops are quite pretty and in my mental dictionary an image of these would illustrate the word “automobile.”
Chevys of this vintage are really coveted by the Lowrider crowd, especially the hard top coupes. The cars are lavishly rebuilt and painted, usually in pale pastel colors that are similar to those used when the cars were new. I disliked those old Chevys when I was younger, but have grown to appreciate them over the years.
My first car in 1961. Not as nice as the one in the article.
Excellent profile! I’m usually a pretty harsh critic of crass late 1950’s domestic styling. Whereas, this is a genuinely beautiful design.
I think Bel Air is now actually a wealthier neighborhood than Beverly Hills, based on income and home prices. Back to Chevy, I really like the first Bel Air more than the 1957, maybe because it’s less common.
My dad had a used1950 Chevrolet 150. No way he could have afforded a Bel Air.
He didn’t have it for long. His brother borrowed it while drunk an wrecked it. The replacement was a 1952 Chevrolet 210.
A friend on mine had a very nice ’51 Bel Air, ‘Glide and all. I liked driving the car, it was quite smooth and quiet, and the sensation of the early Powerglide was much like a modern CVT. The 235 used in these cars was indeed based on the Chevy heavy duty truck engine used since 1941, but I believe the cylinder head also had larger intake ports in addition to the hydraulic lifters. In ’53 the 235 was equipped with full-pressure lubrication and replaceable bearings, so I wonder if the ’50-’52 235 Powerglide engines were the only engines to ever feature both hydraulic lifters and babbit bearings!
Call me crazy, but if the world of auto styling had stopped dead with the 1950 Chevrolet, I’d be perfectly happy. Oh, sure, wide(r) track suspensions and shaped side glass were honest advancements, soon to come—but just look at that unaffected, simple profile and surface treatment. Almost . . . European, isn’t it ? Nice color scheme on that car too. And the colorful and shiny interior: now *that* could only be American !
I share similar thoughts, although I’d stop with the 1955-56 models, before American cars started to get crazy with excessive lowness and ornamentation, including tailfins and ladling on the chrome. We might not have SUVs today, but rather higher riding station wagons!
I don’t visit CC as often as I used to, but I’d like to say that I am absolutely thrilled to see Mr. Severson’s byline on this story. One of my favorite automotive authors of the last 20 years, and this article is but a small taste of his knowledge.
Great article, to boot.
My main memory of these cars was from dad’s used car lot, as I’m not that old to be able to remember them new. You still saw them around in 55-56, but by the serious tail fin Chevys they’d already long disappeared from daily traffic. I know I rode in these as a child, but have no memory of them.
Of dad’s cars, the earliest I can remember even vaguely was his 54 BelAir hardtop, which was the coral and white combination matching the dealer promotional model I have sitting in the office cabinet. It took until 56 to really have vivid memories of dad’s cars (a red/white BelAir 4 door hardtop), and that was because the day he brought the car home for the first time, he ended up using me to the hospital with a temperature of 104 and diagnosed with lobar pneumonia.
I’m a couple of years younger than you and grew up in Pittsburgh, so not too far your hometown. These early 50s Chevys were still around in some numbers during my early childhood, and my paternal grandfather had a black ’51 4-door until the fall of 1963.