1957 CHEV BEL AIR
A HEAD-TURN ING
THE STUFF DREAMS ARE MADE OF
TRI- FIVE SHAVE A SPECIAL PLACE IN THE MINDS OF CHEVY ENTHUSIASTS, AND THIS 1957 BE L AIR TWO-DOOR COUP E IS AN IMMACULATE EXAMPLE
Turning heads is not always the prime reason for driving and enjoying a classic car; for many owners, it is simply a bonus. Something like a six-decade-old US car arouses widespread comment and is an instant conversation starter. Aucklander Rodger Anderson, owner of this immaculate 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air two-door hardtop Sport Coupe 283 V8 Turbo-fire Powerglide, can attest to that.
Rodger has lost count of the number of cars that he has owned in 60 years of motoring, but says he can think of at least 200. He has held a long-time passion for Porsche, and his motor sport career included winning the 1968 New Zealand Saloon Car Championship with a Mini Cooper S and solid race performances in a Lotus Cortina and BMW 2002 Alpina. Obviously, the Chevy is a huge contrast to motoring in European-inspired sports sedans.
However, “of all those cars, this Chevy is close to one of the best,” he says.
Named after the affluent Los Angeles suburb near West Hollywood, the Bel Air is a ‘ Tri-five’, a label accorded the popular Chev sedans, coupés, Nomad wagons, and convertibles made in the years 1955, 1956, and 1957. General Motors (GM) debuted the Bel Air name in 1950, and it was carried on Chevrolets until 1981.
Loud colours and much-loved engine
Prior to acquiring the 1957 Bel Air, Rodger’s ownership tally included a red 1955 Chev two-door, but he was keen to have the later model. It was wife Lola who spotted the bright Tropical Turquoise and Indian Ivory white example on Trade Me, perhaps encouraged by this extrovert colour scheme, with matching interior, that was by far the most popular choice for the vehicle. Loud body colours were deemed cool in the ’50s but fell out of favour in the ’60s.
The Anderson car has the evergreen and best-loved 283-cubic-inch (4638cc) small block V8 engine that was launched in the 1955 Chevs. GM made 1.5 million of these bent-eights in the first year and went on to make 16 million of the 283s in a race to challenge rival Ford. Even more impressive, by 2011 — 56 years after the engine’s introduction — GM built the 100 millionth
small block engine in the same month as the brand marked its 100th anniversary.
Chevrolet chief designer Ed Cole oversaw development of the original small block. His son, David, recalled, “The small block is the engine that brought high performance to the people. There is an elegant simplicity in its design that made it instantly great when new and enabled it to thrive almost six decades later.”
In the early ’50s, GM’S problem was that Ford had copyrighted the V8 in 1932 — a ruling that lasted 20 years and prevented GM from offering a similarly configured power plant. So the General had some catching up to do, and it all began in 1955. Both the 1956 and 1957 Chevs were clearly adaptions of the earlier car, but Rodger points out that the 1957 is significantly different. There was little special happening in the world that year, although President Dwight D Eisenhower did sign the Civil Rights Act into law; Britain called it the happiest year of the past century; and, in New Zealand, Labour’s Walter Nash became the prime minister, winning the election by a narrow margin. The lucky North Americans paid only US$0.31 a gallon for petrol — the average annual US salary was $3800 — and it was the Chinese year of the rooster. For GM fans, however, the arrival of the new Bel Air was by far the most important event.
When the model launched, some critics reckoned that the styling was somewhat dated compared with the Ford and Chrysler offerings, but there was no doubt that the car made a statement. Ironically, many designers who worked on the car were not taken by the initial result, and a crash programme was implemented, necessitating 84-hour weeks to meet deadlines.
Jet-fighter inspiration
GM wanted the ’57 to look as long as possible; the guards were extended and the headlights pushed out. The idea was to create a look inspired by jet fighters, with quarter panels shaped like the tail of an F-86 fighter and headlight bezels that mimicked jet-engine intakes. A reinforced rear roof structure added rigidity and resulted in a unique silhouette. The dashboard is, of course, bare painted metal — padding was an option picked up by only a few buyers in those days — while the circular pods for the instruments offered an extra level of class unexpected in what was a relatively inexpensive car. Prices ranged between US$2500 and US$2750, and Chevrolet offered no fewer than 17 bodies …
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