GTP Cool Wall: 1957 Chevrolet 150/210/Bel-Air. Voting Closed

Sub-Zero. There is something I have always loved about the 57 Chevy, it's the pinnacle of classic American design and takes you back to a time when GM made legitimately good cars. My dad also had one back in the day and his stories about hopping it up to go cruising on Woodward Ave., getting burgers at a drive in, and racing between the lights sort of started my love of cars.

It's probably not as cool as I think it is but it holds a special place in my automotive heart.

I will take a Buick Roadmaster, Pontiac, Lincoln or pretty much any comparable car in the era over it. They have become too much of a over staturated icon car to be cool IMO. The car itself is fine but the image that goes with it isn't (in Australia at least).

Infact I would love a 57 Buick Roadmaster.

I want to say cool because it's so iconic. But, as a Brit the car means nothing to me and it looks like it's wearing a really ugly set of braces. Therefore: uncool.

I guess the rest of the world just doesn't comprehend the awesome. 'Tis a shame. SUB-ZERO

Really, it's only an American icon.

Philly

I guess the rest of the world just doesn't comprehend the awesome. 'Tis a shame. SUB-ZERO

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My father used to import many American cars to Australia about 13 years ago, I would go with him and besides early Mustangs (64~70) 55-57 Chevs were highest requested models. When we go and source these cars (a partner my father had got many good deals at auctions) I saw countless Pontiacs, Lincolns (with almost power everything in the 50's) and many many others that were peanuts in price compared to the icon 55-57 Chev but nobody wanted them. I thought many of them were much better cars (like the Lincolns) but just totally unwanted.

Little fun fact the 57 Chev was actually sold in Australia locally too, but it was in some extra basic Canadian form.

Sub-zero. It's an icon, and because we didn't get it in the UK it drips with all the '50s American cool that we never had in staid '50s Britain. It makes me think of Route 66, traditional diners serving hot dogs and floats, neon signs, and sea foam green, all of which are very cool. It could possibly only be cooler if there was a matching Fender Strat in the back seat. America got the Bel-Air, we got the Austin A40

I think this might be the first car I've voted sub-zero, actually.

Its got fins... it's cool

Not my kind of cool unfortunately, too much chrome, a design I never really liked and it doesn't have an iconic status for me.
Not seriously uncool because it does have somewhat an iconic status in the sense of the whole 50s American scene we see so much in films. But not an iconic thing for me, I think of other cars for the 50s.

Seriously Uncool...

I know it's an Icon of the 1950s...but it's one I cannot comprehend, really. It was the '50s equivalent of, well, a Chevy Aveo. Not Size-wise, obviously, but price/lineup position wise. It was the cheapest available G.M. car at it's time, digging around in the bargain Basement with makes such as Plymouth. You could have done so much better in 1957...


Plymouth Fury, with available 392 Hemi, for example, one of the Chevy's direct competitors.

Thing is, GM made a BUNCH of '57s that year, mostly the more boring 150/210 models, which became top-line Bel-Airs (at least outside...usually with a late-model Chevy 350 and Torq-Thrust wheels) inexplicably sometime during the '70s or '80s.

It's really one of those cars which you can go to any old car meet in the United States, and find at least two, one which may have been built from nothing but a frame, because you can do that nowadays. It would be cooler if it wasn't so freaking overcovered...it resides next to "'50s car" in the dictionary...and that sort of thing makes it seriously uncool.

Its sub zero but far too common at nasc events and the four door is uncool the chevy nomad is awesome.

I'd say Sub-Zero as well...

While I personally take a disliking to modified versions of the car, the large numbers of original (or restored) Bel-Airs and 210s are absolutely beautiful to behold. Much like most people in the US, we had several in the family, the closest being the '56 210 that my Grandmother had, and subsequently loved.

I can't think of too many other cars that mean that much to that many people. Maybe the Mustang, maybe the Corvette, but that would be about it. This was the car for a long time, and it put Chevrolet permanently on people's shopping lists.

I'd vote stupidly cool if it were an option, but Sub-Zero is close. This car is cooler than Elvis. This car is what I think of when I think 1950's, except in red with white and a convertible. I do like to see modified versions with big blocks and Cragar S/S style chrome rims. Great car.

cool

Sub Zero. But I'd Prefer a '55 👍

Uncool. Its boring, slow and way way way overdone. The '56 hardtop Chevy was so much better.



I seriously hate the '57. I'm tired of going to car shows and seeing 50 bloody people in various 1957's with hideous color schemes and the lot. Every 100 1957's I see there are only a small handful--as in 1 hand--that look non-ugly. I see 1 1956 for every 50 1957's and even less 1955's. The 1957 Chevy is way too popular, and there really isn't a reason why.

BESIDES, a 1957 Ford Fairlane is lightyears better anyway. Ford Fairlane FTMFW!

Sub-Zero of course! One of my absolute favorites, although I'm more into muscle cars. 👍

JCE

Uncool. Its boring, slow and way way way overdone. The '56 hardtop Chevy was so much better.

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Just to point out. The '56 in that picture is not a hardtop, but a 2 door sedan.

I picked a random '56 picture. I couldn't find a good hardtop pic to show.

Cool. It's waaaaaaaaaaaaay overdone by the car nuts, and most of them have been turned into hideous-looking monsters. But there is the small handful that keep them unmolested and looking good. Plus, it was cheap and the speed junkies liked them. It was, as Famine said, an icon of Americana. So cool, but not overly so.

Sub-Zero. But I prefer the '55. Specifically the black/white 2 tone convertible

Sub Zero

Great nomination JP.👍

This is without a doubt on of the most iconic American cars to ever roll off of the assembly line.If you were so lucky to have gotten one with the Rochester mechanical fuel injected 283 ( quite advanced for 1957 ) and a 4 speed,you really had a piece of Americana car history.Great looks and performance for a car from '57.

Subzero

Because it's an American icon, a symbol of Americana, etc.

Sub zero without doubt, so tough looking, and a great cruiser. Plus my Uncle owns a wagon '57 which is one of only a few in Australia.

Nicksfix

Sub Zero

Great nomination JP.👍

This is without a doubt on of the most iconic American cars to ever roll off of the assembly line.If you were so lucky to have gotten one with the Rochester mechanical fuel injected 283 ( quite advanced for 1957 ) and a 4 speed,you really had a piece of Americana car history.Great looks and performance for a car from '57.

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...and to think, I Nominated it so I could get another chance to bash it....

Joey D

Sub-Zero. There is something I have always loved about the 57 Chevy, it's the pinnacle of classic American design and takes you back to a time when GM made legitimately good cars.

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I gave it a grudging "cool". I almost voted "uncool". The '55 is much the better looking car.

My Uncle's looks very similar to this, but better rims and I'd dare to say a slightly deeper, better looking red:


Sorry for the size. I got delivered to my formal (Americans call it a prom) in that car, and my mother to her wedding to my now step-father in that car.

My fav out of the three ( 55' 56' and 57') is the 56' ...i dont know why i guess i just like the way the back trim curves down.

Wavering between cool and subzero... voted cool, but the car will most likely get picked subzero overall... which is fine by me. Great looking lump of tin, it is.