The 1957 Chevrolet — the car that wasn’t supposed to be

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Here’s a rare view of the car that was never supposed to exist, at least in this form. These are full size styling clays for the ’57 Chevy.

 

 

In the original GM product plan, Chevrolet was supposed to get an all-new vehicle for 1957,  something like the car that eventually appeared as the ’58 Chevrolet. However, circumstances pushed that car back one year and the decision was made to facelift the ’55-’56 shell for one more annual build cycle.

 

 

Please note the dates on the photos: September 1955. That’s very late to be messing around in the clay model phase. The ’57 Chevy was a rush job — and it shows in the finished product. Next time you see a ’57 in person, check the alignment of the taillamps to the rear bumper, the headlamp buckets to each other, or how the rear quarter panels are hung. Yes, they’re all like that.

So the  ’57 Chevrolet was born crooked—including its iconic tailfins. The sheetmetal development was performed years before the industry possessed the digital tools that could catch such errors and correct them before production. The design work was executed entirely in wood and clay, by hand and eyeball.

At least they ditched the hideous bumper guards.

 

 

8 thoughts on “The 1957 Chevrolet — the car that wasn’t supposed to be”

  1. I really loved the ’59 and ’60 Impala fins. They looked very futuristic. (The future was different back then…)

  3. GM Styling/Design Staff made the move from the Argonaut Building downtown to Warren Tech Center officially on Sept. 16, 1955. So if I read that date right (Sept. 1?) this might also be the last car attributable to the New Center operations. Unless that’s a Warren studio already…these things can be hard to pin down. Whatever, the impending relocation no doubt added to the staff’s sense of doing everything in a last-minute rush.

    • Wow, good eye and great point. I assume the dingy background indicates the old building but I sure don’t know that.

  4. I have owned 4 57 Chevrolet’s and one 56 nomad, my favorite cars.

  6. Never noticed the fins on an angle and I’ve had about 6 of them…If they are, it can’t be much…and the tail light to bumper thing??? Only ones I ever saw crooked or not correct were on ones that had been wrecked or replaced and not aligned properly.

  7. I had no idea that the 57 was designed so fast, my first 57 was a black 210, I really loved that car, my brother borrowed it, and tee boned someone that ran a red light with no insurance, it was never the same again.

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