1957 Chevy Bel Air - a daily driven American classic car in ENGLAND!

1957 Chevy Bel Air - a 1950s American classic car The 57 Chevy Bel Air certainly isn’t the first of these cars - nor the last - with production running from 1949/1950 until 1980 and is easily recognised by Americans in the same way us Brits recognise the cars which were once ruling the roads in our towns and cities. The first generation of the cars was replaced in 1955 and in the same way you see groups like Rootes do with their range, Chevy updated the car each year to keep demand high and to ensure they were staying abreast of developments within the industry and in line with competitor advancements. The 1957 brochure talks about a raft of changes, but also confidences you can rely on: powerglide is now fitted to over 2 million cars and the upgrades for 57 are with motorist in mind. A new look, a zippy new power and new interiors alongside the new Turboglide which sat alongside the tried and tested Powerglide. There were twenty models and three series - you get the Bel air, the two ten and the one fifty - this is the two ten. The car has new exterior styling, new front grille, new high-fashion colours - of which this was a turqouisey colour, which looking at the brochure may well have been surf green and highland green, but has been repainted - and an engine choice of V8 or six. Whilst the engines were a V8 or six, they were split into 5 engine types. You have the Super turbo-fire 283, Corvette V8 with fuel injection, the turbo fire 283, the turbo fire 265 and the famous blue-flame six. The new Turboglide was exciting too with its triple turbine takeoff - Chevy declared it the greatest new contrubtion to automatic driving in years which included something called the Hill Retarder feature. this was to help save your car’s brakes and gave extra braking on steep downgrades. If Turboglide wasn’t for for you, there was the well-established Powerglide, Touch-Down overdrive or the 3 speed synchromesh box which was the manual option. And of course, the new fuel injection which for many was a revelation after an entire lifetime driving with a traditional carb set up. The drive was complimented by new low-pressure tyres to soak up more road shock and the safety of tubeless tyres, glide ride front suspension which was aimed at smoothing even the roughest of terrains and husky outrigger rear springs which were extra long and outside the frame to steady the ride and cushion the shocks. Steering on this is ball race steering - not something i’m particularly familiar with allegedly when new, the lightest of touches gives you the most precise of controls. The driving experience wasn’t the only thing considered on these and if you look at a brochure it talks of factoring in safety with things such as the triple locking door catches which prevents doors popping open under impact and there are child locks - a relatively new thing. The body by Fisher has a safety-engineered structure with double walls of steel and four fender visibility, massive roof rails and unitized side frames and safety glass to ensure if the worst happens… you’re safer than you would be in an older model. the strapline actually was ‘engineered-in safety all around you’. you also get precision aimed headlights with the Low beam patterned for along the road safe night-time travel and the lamps have aiming lugs for precise adjustment. there were a range of extras on these but the four main are power steering, power brakes, power seats and windows and of course, air con. The third generation came to market in 1958 by which time they were once again improved and introduced the impala.