When I heard that it was going to be “Station Wagon Week” here at CC, I remembered these shots of a really nice ’57 Nomad that I took last summer. No. 1 Son came back from a run one Thursday evening and told me there was a car show at Old Poway Park, so I had to go check it out. For many years there was a monthly ’50s car show in front of the Chicken Pie Diner, a local restaurant that purported to be a fifties-style diner. (How it can be a real diner in an early-’80s strip mall, next to Famous Footwear and Target, escapes me…) When the restaurant closed, apparently the show continued a few miles away at the park.
I have always liked Nomads–the perfect Route 66 car if there are more than two of you. (With two, you need a Corvette.) I think this is a great color: period correct, but not the burnt orange cliché. The owner wasn’t around to show us what’s under the hood, but it certainly looks pretty original (except for possibly the gold badging? Yuck.)
Original black-on-yellow California plates.
I really like how the fins relate to the tailgate. It would look like a much smaller car without them.
The Nomad wasn’t the only cool Chevy wagon here. This less-finny Chevy II is also begging for a place in my garage.
I can see cruising down a (then) new Interstate rather than Route 66, perhaps on my way to a waterfront campsite under tall pines. Again, I like the color, though I must admit it is certainly a cliché for this generation. For some reason I didn’t take more pictures of it.
The Chevy is about 10 years after the Nomad, while the ’47 Ford next to it is 10 years before. It’s not quite as interesting to me, but would certainly be a cool way to drive the pre-Interstate blue highways.
This one seems to be quite definitely original – no resto-mod here. It even has regular license plates – not “historical vehicle” ones. According to the sign, 100 hp V8, and an, um, entertainingly useful big back seat.
There were other seemingly original cars here too:
A nice blue ’55 Chevy.
An Edsel, hiding an even uglier flamed PT Cruiser (I never decided if the PT was there strictly as transportation or as part of the show)
And a ’30 Ford, which at first seemed out of place…
…but there were a few similar cars there after all. This being Southern California, they were hot rods, of course. I really like the aesthetic of this old Ford. Nicely subtle. Beautiful workmanship, and attractive for what it is, not for the ‘flash’.
This old Ford was decidedly flashier, but still fun to see. Variations on a theme…
Here’s another shot. I like the powder-coat headers. In the background you can see the Poway-Midland railroad station I wrote about a couple months ago.
Speaking of cliché paint jobs…I like it anyway. But a bra for a hot rod? Really?
Note the 442 behind it. This was a month or two before the unfortunate butt-lift incident.
This is nicely done, but it’s a little too close to a Coddington-style rod for my taste. Maybe it’s the color?
Maybe it’s not the color–I’m not terribly fond of this either.
I like this better, and it’s more than just the color. Its gold cousin in the background is nice too.
I’d change the wheels, but otherwise I think this ’50 or so Chevy pickup would be a fun ride to the beach (20 minutes across the 56 freeway). It seems to be a daily driver, as it has a DoD base access decal on the driver’s side windshield.
Choices: Chopped Mercury or El Camino? I like El Caminos, but this is admittedly from one of their more boring years (’63?). But I’ll take either one over the Avalanche in the background.
A nice Goat, but I am going to grump about the wheels again.
Cougars were my favorite cars when I was a pre-teen. (Well, favorite American car–what I really wanted was a Lotus Europa. I always did march to a different drummer than my peers.) These wheels are ok – there’s actually some tire!
The Cougar was joined by some cousins, one very close and the other a couple years more distant. Is the porthole is the ’50s equivalent of the Cougar’s vinyl roof?
Here’s another cousin. When I first saw it, I assumed “Shelby”. But I didn’t see any Shelby logos, and the “CS” on the “intake” seems to mean “California Special”. Was this a dealer special package?
And now we’re back to the beginning–a bit of Mustang history, with the obligatory ’65, and at the end of our walk around the show as we return to the Nomad.
Thanks for sharing a summer evening!
Nice assortment of cars. The Nomad is really beautiful! Believe it or not, that gold-color trim was available as an option, I believe. I saw too many ’57s back when they were still young with that gold trim for it to have been an aftermarket thing.
The Chevy II was introduced for the 1962 model year, and that body style held through 1965, so there isn’t even a ten-year gap between the ’57 and the Chevy II.
In the photo of the red chopped Mercury and the white car-based pickup, that pickup isn’t an El Camino; it’s a Ranchero from 1966 or 1967, displaying its odd mix Falcon and Fairlane features (just like the Falcon/Fairlane station wagons of those years). The El Camino was on the market for 1950 and 1960, based on the full-sized Chevy of those years, and then disappeared until 1964, when it reappeared based on the new Chevelle.
The Ranchero is a 1966 – using Falcon front clip.
The 1967 Ranchero used Fairlane nose.
Despite having our own utes here, there are a few of these that have made the trip to Australia for those that need to be different. Or just like the smoother roofline I suppose.
The Mustang California Special (a sought-after rarity, not a dealer creation) has been mentioned in passing in various CC posts, but here’s a web page with full details:
http://californiaspecial.com/1968-GTCS-identification.htm
The 1968 Mustang GT/CS deserves its own CC, primarily because it may qualify as being one of the first (if not the first) ‘mylar GT’, considering that it was theoretically possible to get one with a 200 six-cylinder. It led the way for stuff like the Oldsmobile Rallye 350, Chevy Chevelle ‘Heavy Chevy’, and 318 V8 B-body Roadrunners, culminating with what many consider the ultimate mylar GT, the Mustang II Cobra II.
So was it called California special to honor California’s superficial/shallow mindset in that case? 😀
Other mylar GT of somewhat recent years was the 2007 Shelby GT. It had a V8 standard instead of the V6 at least but it was the same exact one you got in a regular GT, but it had a Shelby badge… I know a lot of people love the retrostangs and would love to pretend the whole 1971-2004, and 2015+ eras never happened but those Retrostangs to me were just funhouse mirroring the Mustang II era. Shallow first gen callbacks, compromised by the times retro styling, one size out of scale(albiet in opposite directions) and weirdly both had the Cologne V6. The Coyote gave them credibility.
I think the Mustang is a 66 as the trim on the scoop is a rake while the 65 was just a scoop/bar.
Next to that Mercury is not an early 60s El Camino – it’s a 66-69 Ford Ranchero, based on the Falcon platform. I always liked their clean lines prior to the monsterous overhangs of the ’70s!
Nice Nomad! I think the 57 Chevy has to tie with the 58 Plymouth for the combination of biggest fin with the smallest taillight.
I think that the Nomad is the best looking version of the 57 Chevrolet. Nice lines and proportions. Best looking rear end ever!
I prefer the 55 of all the tri fives but the Nomad is the wildcard that kind of sways me towards the 57, the rake of the tailgate and the rake of the fins really have a cool effect complimenting each other, more so than the 55(which I actually kind of prefer the more upright standard wagon).
An interesting write-up! I would have enjoyed being there, and I think my taste in which cars to stroll past and which to linger over is a bit like CD’s.
A big “#1” for the “entertainingly useful” description of the ’47 Ford’s back seat–made me feel decades younger (for a moment), and gave me the biggest grin of my day.
Nice selection and read thank you.I love the first Cougar,my favourite American car of them all.Make mine a black cherry 302,4 barrel auto. Another right first time American car.The Edsel,Nomad and 55 Chevy are 3 cars for my lottery winning garage
The gold trim/emblems were standard on ’57 Bel-Air’s…..And when I was young, saw lots of California Special Mustangs here around Portland OR…dime a dozen, at the time.
D’oh. I’m embarrassed now, Ranchero it is. I guess I saw the simple recessed grill. Here’s what I though I saw:
Lots of eye candy, but my favorite shot was the Chevy II wagon contrasted with the ’47 Ford. Styling did not evolve slowly in the mid 20th century. From the “bathtub” look of post WWII cars to the sharp creased Bill Mitchell style in just over a decade.
A friend had one of those wagons his father special ordered in ’64, a dark blue one in Nova trim with 283 4bbl and four on the floor. That had had to have been a rare bird.
Nice post! The black 1930’s hot rod looks like a B-O-P? I like the really round fenders on those. I can understand putting a bra on the red one to save stone chips, but take it off for the show!