Danville Street Sighting - 1957 Austin-Healey 100-6 Roadster

December is almost over and we're still doing red British roadsters. Might as well finish the set with the one I most enjoyed photographing. This is a 1957 Austin-Healey 100-6.
As sports cars go, it's not too difficult to find an Austin-Healey in my area. The trouble is, they're all being driven around on nice days. Not many actually stop long enough for me to do a photo shoot. This one has made a couple of appearances over the past year in downtown Danville.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1957 Berkeley Sports

I've mentioned the Arcane Auto Society car club before when writing for this site. They're all about preservation and driving of weird old cars that nobody else appreciates. I went to one of their club meetings and this was parked down the block. Folks, this one is pretty arcane. It's a Berkeley Sports roadster ...and that's about all I know.

San Mateo Street Sighting - 1957 Ford Thunderbird

When I was a kid I adored the 1955-1957 Ford Thunderbird. They were just infinitely cool. I had a Hot Wheels '57 T-Bird from their "Gleam Team" series, a strange release with a plastic body molded in gold-chrome with geometric patterns. I also had a larger, probably 1:43 scale red '55 T-Bird coupe with opening doors, which was one of my favorite childhood toys until I accidentally broke it into several pieces. Oops! My childhood love of early T-Birds stuck with me and I still really like them today.

San Ramon Street Sighting - 1957 GMC 100 Pickup

GMC is often forgotten when people think of classic pickup trucks. Always overshadowed by its Chevrolet twin, especially the slick Cameo with its fiberglass fleetside bed, GMC was a curious formula. GMC trucks were at times a simple rebadge job with a different grille and tailgate, though sometimes they had engines from other GM divisions such as Pontiac. Chevy trucks were sold through Chevrolet dealerships only, but GMC could be marketed at Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac or Oldsmobile dealers that otherwise sold no pickups.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1957 Chrysler New Yorker

One of my favorite cars on the Island that Rust Forgot, also known as the city of Alameda, California, is this excellent 1957 Chrysler New Yorker four-door hardtop. Chrysler Corporation was really at the top of its game when Virgil Exner unveiled his Forward Look lineup of dramatic yet graceful new cars for '57. The fanciest four-door Chrysler that year (apart from the Imperial, which was its own luxury brand) was the New Yorker. We've already looked at a base-model '57 Chrysler Windsor pillared sedan, now see how the other half lived.

Berkeley Street Sighting - 1957 Fiat 600 Multipla

Can we all agree that specialized repair shops are awesome? One hidden gem in the odd, anti-car People's Republic of Berkeley is an unassuming little corrugated aluminum building with no sign, located next to a creepy-looking old house with the word "eternal" painted on it. This is Conrad Stevenson Restorations, a treasure trove for lovers of vintage Alfa Romeos, Fiats and the occasional classic Ferrari or Lancia. This is a man who builds race cars and races them, too, whether it's for the 24 Hours of LeMons or the Monterey Historics. But he has an eye for the unusual as well. Naturally, he has a Fiat 600 Multipla. Scratch that, he has at least two.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Sedan

At this stage I'd have to say that one of the most cliched vehicles known today is the 1957 Chevy Bel Air. If I were to have you name a generic 1950s car, you'd probably either come up with the '57 Chevy or the '59 Cadillac, because both are so distinctive due to their chrome fronts and pointed tailfins and are heavily associated with drive-ins, rock and roll and anything retro from the era. Of course, I then disprove my own point by doing a Google Image Search for "1950s car" and the first thing that came up was an Edsel. The '57 Bel Air didn't appear until the fifth row of results on page 1. But still, it's a popular enough car that the Santa Cruz Boardwalk has a ride attraction called Rock & Roll, where the riders sit in little cars on a track that are all clearly patterned after the '57 Bel Air - the attraction's sign even has a full-scale fiberglass Bel Air front end bursting out of it. Arlen Ness, a Northern California motorcycle builder, built a bike called Ness-Stalgia that's directly inspired by the '57 Bel Air. And when you go to car shows, try counting how many '57 Bel Airs show up. They all seem to come out of the woodwork, as well as their '55 and '56 brethren. It has to be something really special to get me to photograph one at a show. And the ones that do show up are typically red, blue, or black and sitting on American Racing TorqThrust wheels. Not that that's bad, necessarily. People do it because it looks good. These things still go for big money on the collector car market and are very collectible. Heck, I loved the '57 Bel Air as a kid. I built a model of one. I painted it blue and put on the TorqThrust wheels that were optional in the box. So yeah, the '57 Bel Air is a bit stale. But do you see the '57s on the street? Rarely.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1957 Cadillac Sedan DeVille

Cadillacs of the 1950s have always been rather hit-or-miss in my opinion. They're all classics, but not all of them are something I'd want to cruise around in. The early '50s cars in particular have a certain sameness about them that makes me feel ignorant when I have to Google the various model years to tell the difference. Cadillac design really got interesting in 1957, when the fins got bigger to compete with Detroit's other more extroverted offerings. The front end styling was still familiar Cadillac, but aft of the B-pillar everything looked new. The C-pillar was thicker and now reversed, as was the reverse-slanted A-pillar (formerly vertical), giving the greenhouse a crisp, symmetrical look with wraparound windshield and rear window. Out back, the fins have more of a designed-in look that abandons the little P-38 fighter-inspired tail fins that dated back to 1948, and are capped with chrome trim that continues downward to the little blister taillights and exhaust outlets built into the bumper.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1957 Chrysler Windsor

There is something wonderful about a classic car that gets driven. I can appreciate a low-mileage car as much as the next guy, but there comes a point where one wonders, why did I never drive this thing? It almost seems like a waste to have a nice car and not use it for its intended purpose.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk

Seeing an off-brand classic car on the street always brightens up my day, especially when it's something special like this. It's a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk, top of the Hawk line and pretty much the closest thing to a sports car to come out of South Bend, Indiana that year. This Golden Hawk packs a supercharged 289 cubic inch V8 producing 275 horsepower, no slouch by '50s standards, and darned quick in such a lightweight body.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1957 Mercedes-Benz 220S

This Mercedes 220S (W180 II) Ponton is one of 55,279 [sedans] built between 1956 and 1959. The "Ponton" name comes from its pontoon-shaped fenders. Looking like a far cry from today's uberluxury cars, you're looking at one of the earliest incarnations of the Mercedes S-Class. This one shows up every so often outside the Chipotle restaurant down the street from my university. It's a beauty, too. The black paint just looks right on an old Benz like this one. The exterior isn't perfect, but the interior is. Shame I couldn't get a picture of the inside of this car.

What's cool about a car like this is it gets driven regularly. And because it gets driven, it isn't concours, but it still looks really nice from about 20 feet away. And it's a Mercedes, too, so its 50-year-old straight-six is probably bulletproof mechanically.
Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the front license plate changed between photo shoots, which were several months apart. The custom-painted California front plate was replaced with what appears to be an actual 2004 Aruba license plate. One happy island indeed.