The late 1950s moved at Mach 1 thanks to the dawn of the Jet Age.
Detroit focused on jets because the buying public was fascinated by aircraft that could crack the sound barrier—plus we were also at the dawn of the Space Age.
Fins began to show up on cars in the late 40s, and they became even more prominent in the 1950s when anything jet-like was automatically fitted on a production car.
Jerry Sutherland
The next thing carmakers wanted was a jet-like look to the exhaust outlets because the vapor trails behind a passenger or military jet looked ultra cool in the 50s. They hadn’t linked the contrails to conspiracy theories in the 1950s—they were simply a wondrous byproduct of the jet age.
The carmakers scrambled to design a jet-like exhaust system with tips that exited through the rear bumper. The cars looked like they had jet-like exhausts—especially because 50s cars often ran rich at startup and pumped out black smoke.
This was a great concept, but exhaust smoke and heat were disastrous for chrome bumpers. There was a constant battle to keep your bumper clean, plus the chrome took a big hit with constant heat and cooling factored into the equation.
Manufacturers learned this the hard way, but bumper exhaust outlets are cool to this day– here are five great examples.
The 1956 Ford Fairlane was an early entry in the bumper exhaust wars.
Ford put an oval-shaped exhaust outlet on the corner of the rear bumper. It was a clean, understated look that definitely added cool factor to the ’56 Fairlane.
Virgil Exner (mastermind behind Chrysler’s Forward Look cars) added bumper exhaust tips to the 1957 and ’58 DeSoto lineup.
These DeSotos were wild-looking cars—but the oval exhaust outlets placed under the classic 50s fins were perfect. This wasn’t a subtle car by today’s standards, but the ’57-8 was one of Exner’s triumphs back in ’57. He knew the understated exhaust tips were perfect.
The 1957 Oldsmobile was another solid example of 50s bumper exhausts.
They were placed in the curved bumper extension just under the round taillights of the ’57 Olds. This was a unique layout because Olds featured a vertical setup for four stacked rectangles. It was GM’s signature move for 50s bumper exhausts.
That’s why you saw a similar setup on the 1957 Cadillacs.
The Caddy had an even more pronounced exhaust outlet than the ’57 Olds. The tip was placed in the curved end of the massive bumper, so you couldn’t miss it. It was similar to the Olds, but the top of the main outlet was curved over the four mini-outlets –it was breathtakingly jet-like.
The fifth classic 50s bumper exhaust was found on the 1957 Thunderbird.
This was the last year of the ‘Baby Bird’ era, so Ford cashed in on the jet age by placing two large oval exhaust tips just under the taillights of the ’57 T-bird. They were the perfect statement for the Jet Age.
Car-builders toy with ideas every year, but we’ll never see an era like the 50s when Detroit sacrificed perfectly good chrome for jet age cool factor.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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