As a 6-year-old, I would stand up in the bench seat between my mother and dad in their Ford, and point out every single ’57 Chevy Bel Air that we encountered. I was in love with them –maybe because my older brothers were. Al, 12 and Bill, 18 were car fanatics, and to them there was nothing ever manufactured that could hold a piston to the new Chevy Bel Air.
If the whole family was in the car, we would ooh and ahh over the color combinations and which ones we liked the best. My mother loved the yellow and white one, for me it was turquoise, my brothers and dad were very divided, but the black and red combination wowed all of us – make no mistake.
I decided this week that I had to talk to some owners of my dream car and learn their stories. A little research led me to the home of Ted Deily, proud owner of a spotless red and white hardtop. Ted who is a bit older than boomer status, says that something came over him in 2001 when he spotted the car in a trader magazine. After one look at it he was a man obsessed. After the owner accepted his offer of $25,000, he had to figure out where the money would come from. He did, and has never regretted it. He drives it every week and enjoys the rallies and cruises and solid friendships he’s forged with others who love the cars of our youth.
One fast friendship is just 2 doors away on Ted’s Cape Coral street. Milt Jones always wanted a 4-door hardtop ’57. Then one day in 2006 while driving down Country Club, he spotted the car of his dreams…..with a ‘for sale” sign. So now a beautiful tropical turquoise high performance hardtop sits 2 driveways away from Ted’s. Milt spent more than a year teaching himself how to rewire everything, and says his baby now runs like a top. Although it came along 50 years later than he planned, he says he doesn’t think he could possibly enjoy it any more than he does.
The men lived and worked for the same power company in the North and were in the Navy the same years, but never met until they spotted each other’s cars. Now the two who actually look like brothers have a strong bond of friendship. They and their wives enjoy the camaraderie with other owners and relish the thumbs up they receive constantly when they’re just out for a ride.
Wanting more insight about the iconic status of the ’57, I called Rick Treworgy, owner of the Muscle Car City Museum in Punta Gorda. Rick who has assembled 260 of the hottest cars of our youth in his museum, calls the ’57 Bel Air the “classic of all classics.” There are 6 in his collection including 2 very rare convertibles. It was the V8 motor, positive traction, fuel injection, and the “look at me” fins and chrome that captivated the teens and young adults as he sees it. He remembers the law being more tolerant with street racing and roaring performance engines.
Rick also pointed out that when baby boomers got their first car, it was usually a few years old, and there was no cooler older car than a ’57 Chevy.
I remember a road trip I took through the South with my parents in 1968, and I was awed by how many beautiful ’57 Chevys there were that weren’t victims of Michigan winters and rust. I begged my dad to buy me one, and I remember him actually looking at a few. Look was all he did.
According to autoshopper blogger Sherry Christiansen, “There were only 47,566 1957 Bel Airs manufactured. It was described in advertisements as “sweet, smooth and sassy.” This Chevy was part of The American Dream; it was viewed in homes around the world as it appeared in quite a few different TV programs. Today the ’57 Bel Air is called ‘the most popular car in history’; it even outsold the Ford Thunderbird during the first year it was launched. The 57 Chevy Bel Air was not the number one selling automobile in its time, but if you ask any car enthusiast who remembers, it was the automobile that won the hearts of the masses, and continues to do so even today.”
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