Cars
Another element that was present in the 1950’s was automobiles. Automobiles were something that everyone once dreamed of owning. Now after the war. they could finally own one. Automobiles of the 1940’s were dull and very plain. This was because designers were too busy designing tanks, planes, etc... for the ongoing war. The major event that took place that changed the way cars looked and how they performed happened on October 14, 1947. This was when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. From this point on everyone wanted to go faster. People wanted automobiles with larger displacement engines. They also wanted sleek and aerodynamic cars. This prompted General Motors Corporation to hold Motorama in 1949. This was a giant exposition of concept cars that had an emphasis on power, style, convenience, and features. These for features would be what many cars of the 1950’s would be based on. One car that was a design evolution was the Chevrolet Corvette. The first Corvette was built on June 30th, 1953 at the Flint, Michigan plant and continues to be produced today. In 1953 it featured an all fiberglass body with a chromed grill. The car had no side windows and no outside door handles. Each 1953 Corvette was virtua
lly hand built and all 1953 models were white and had red interiors. This may have not been the most technologically advanced car but it would pave the way for the true performance and sports car. Concept cars also played a part in the 1950’s. They were designed to attract the publics eye, introduce and gauge the publics reaction to new styling and engineering ideas, help attract the public to the auto dealerships where they were displayed at, and to drive car crazy kids nuts. The 1955 Lincoln Futura featured a plexiglass bubble top and a 300 horsepower V-8. In the 1960’s this car was sold to a car customizer in California and was converted into the first ever Batmobile. The 1958 GM Firebird III was the most radical concept car of the 1950’s. It was powered not by the normal combustion engine but by a gas turbine engine. It also featured a dual cockpit design and was controlled by joystick controller instead of the normal steering wheel. Another element that was seen in the 1950’s were the tail-fins present on most Cadillacs. The first Cadillac that had the tail fin was introduced in October, 1947. These fins were supposed to give cars a look of high-speed stability. The fins were inspired the P-38 war plane. The caddy tail fins continued to grow until they reached there height in 1959 when they were almost as tail as the car itself. As the number of automobiles increased so did the number of road trips that people were going on. All of the traveling motorists needed places to stay. This brought about the development of the motel. Motel combines the words “motorist” and “hotel”. By the mid 1950’s the smaller quaint motor lodges of the 30’s and 40’s no longer could compete with rising motel corporations like Howard Johnson or Best Western. These corporations designed their
Some topics in this essay:
City Remote,
Flint Michigan,
Cadillacs Cadillac,
American Dream,
Burger King,
Johnson Western,
,
Union Sputnik,
Firebird III,
Holiday Inn,
gas stations,
space race,
american dream,
30’s 40’s,
road trips,
success previous generations,
national parks,
concept cars,
designed attract,
soviet union,
fast food,
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Approximate Word count = 1217
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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