Text by Patrick Bell.
Today we are going to view some hardtops, a favorite for many during the fifties, sixties and part of the seventies. They have the sporty look of a convertible with the top up without the problems of one.
Our first one is a ’57 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket 88 Holiday Coupe with a California plate and is in San Francisco. This was Oldsmobile’s least expensive and most popular 2 door hardtop for ’57 out of the three offered. On the hill to the left is a white ’50 Chevrolet Styline and a white over red ’55 Chevrolet.
Here we have a ’54 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe with a Maryland plate used in ’61 and ’62. This was the only hardtop produced by Chevy for the year and had a base price of $2061. This one has a grille guard, extra bumper guards as well as rear fender guards.
A sharp looking ’57 Dodge Coronet Lancer 2 door from Massachusetts. This was Dodge’s least expensive and most popular hardtop of the three offered for the year. This one is sporting a nice pair of fender mounted mirrors.
This ’57 Cadillac Series 62 Sedan from California looks close to new. It was Cadillac’s least expensive and most popular 4 door for the year out of 3 offered with a base price of $4781.
This may be America’s all time favorite hardtop, a ’57 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe with a V8 and front bumper guards. It was one of two 2 door hardtops sold by Chevy for ’57 but the Bel Air outsold the Two-Ten by over a seven to one margin.
1958 was GM’s 50th anniversary so Buick marked it by offering a one year only model called the Limited. It was the top of the line, had most of the power options as standard equipment and was offered in three body styles, 2 door Riviera (hardtop), convertible, and this 4 door Riviera. But was the Limited really all that limited? Production figures for all three body styles came to 7,436, with the 4 door accounting for 5,571 of those. In total they amounted to 3.09% of Buick sales for the year. I would say it lived up to its name. I wonder if the cross on the rearview mirror indicates that the owner is a doctor.
Another new looking car, a ’59 Ford Fairlane 500 Club Victoria registered in Wayne County, Michigan, home of Detroit. This one was the least expensive and least popular of the two 2 door hardtops offered in ’59. The new Galaxie outsold this one by an over five to one margin. It looks like late winter or early spring with quite a bit of snow left to melt.
It is a warm summer day in this well established neighborhood where a ’60 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday SportSedan is passing through. The Super 88 was in the middle of both price and production numbers of the three offered in ’60. I do not recognize the license plate on this one.
Between the scenery and no front plate this photo has a Florida vibe. A lady posing next to a ’60 Ford Galaxie Town Victoria that someone did a good job parking close to the wall. This was the only 4 door hardtop Ford offered for ’60. The parking lot is stained with both oil and rusty coolant. The delivery car across the street looks like a ’53-’59 Ford Prefect.
A lady taking a break on a windy day with a ’65 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan with a 283 or 327 V8 from Teton County, Wyoming, where the seat is Jackson. This was one of two 4 door hardtops offered in ’65, but Chevrolet did not break down their production figures to individual models.
Pontiac’s least expensive full size hardtop out of three offered for ’64 was this Catalina Sports Coupe. But it was the second best seller of all in ’64, including the Tempest line. Only the Catalina 4 door sedan outsold it.
Ford restyled their full size line for ’65 and this Galaxie 500 2 door hardtop was one of three offered and the least expensive and most popular. Overall in all lines it was third in sales, bested by the Mustang hardtop and the Galaxie 4 door sedan.
On a camping trip in a ’68 Chrysler New Yorker 4 door hardtop with non-original wheel covers and a license plate I do not recognize. Of the four 4 door hardtops offered the New Yorker was the most expensive and the most popular, which surprises me a little. I’m sure it was a nice road car.
A hardtop neighborhood. A flag is flying so it probably is a holiday. Ford had another restyle in ’67 and this Galaxie 500 2 door hardtop was a hit and I can understand why with this white with red interior and the optional Styled Steel Wheel Covers. In total sales it was second only to the Mustang hardtop. Next driveway over is a first year ’65 Chevrolet Caprice Custom Sedan, and further over may be a ’62 Buick 4 door hardtop.
Color sometimes can be used as an identifier and that certainly is the case with this Ash Gold that was used only in ’68. This was the first year for the Chevrolet Impala Custom Coupe, one of three 2 door hardtops offered in the full size line that year. Once again, Chevrolet did not publish production figures by individual models.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
All production figures and prices came from the ‘Encyclopedia of American Cars from 1930’.
Nice collection, Rich! I can add that the ’68 Chrysler New Yorker rode like a dream. I never knew that The New Yorker was the top seller. The friend’s was loaded. He was at the time in his mid-forties and single, so affording this barge was not a problem.
Great fun to see these—and I appreciate how the chronological ordering gives us a sense of a couple decades unfolding.
For photo #8 (the 1960 Ford), that seems to be the Mariner Motel in Miami Beach, with its four-poster sign:
The 60 Olds plate looks like Oklahoma to me. I halfway remember those plates, and the neighborhood could be the nicer parts of OKC or Tulsa. The first one or two digits were the county code. Wikipedia shows this color scheme as ’61. The county switched to letter codes in ’63. Alphabetically 48th is McClain County, south of Norman, including Purcell, but maybe they gave two or three codes to the larger counties.
Many the least expensive of the line. Is that telling me something maybe?
The 67 Ford hardtop with its semi-fastback styling was a real looker.
As for the 68 Chrysler, it doesn’t surprise me that the New Yorker was the top-selling 4 door hardtop. Most Chrysler buyers were conservative people, and they gravitated to the sedans. I think Chrysler always had lower sales of 4 door hardtops than about anyone else, but its not surprising that the ones they did sell went to the folks who valued some flash and luxury.
Had any been sent for local assembly they probably would have sold, but no special order only, which with tariffs made those cars unaffordable.
That ash-gold with black vinyl top was massively popular on Chevys.
Nice ;
I’ll take the 1950 Chevrolet two door .
-Nate
That’s the first 60s Caprice I’ve seen without a vinyl roof. I’d begun to suspect it was standard. Were vinyl roofs a resurrection of 50s’ two-tones after the less flamboyant (some would say drab) early 60s cars?
All non-limo Cadillacs were hardtops from ’57 through ’64, beginning a mere two years after the 4 dr was introduced in ’55. Was that also true of the Buick and Olds C bodies?