MyStarCollectorCar

MYSTARCOLLECTORCAR PICKS A FEW RETRO CARS THAT LOOKED FAST WHEN PARKED

Jerry Admin

Appearance used to be everything when it came to car style.

The domestic car industry changed designs on a regular basis during the post-war era after Detroit shook off the shackles of World War Two military equipment production and created new-look cars for their customers.

The result was a cavalcade of cars that were sleeker and looked fast-even when they were parked, particularly when compared to older cars that looked functional and slow- even when moving.

Jim Sutherland

We decided to list some of our favorite “looked-fast-when-parked” cars that were sold after the end of WW II. Our list will appear in chronological order and showcases our examples of fast-looking cars when they were at a standstill.

The 1948 Cadillac is a solid example of a fast-looking car because it has modest tailfins on a more aerodynamic body that left its boxy 1947 design in the rear-view mirror.

The ’48 Caddy was cleared for liftoff as a bold new look celebrating a new era of rockets and jets-and the style change worked in our opinion here at MyStarCollectorCar.  

The 1949 Mercury was also a bold step into the future when it debuted that year. The ’49 Merc already looked chopped and channeled straight out of the factory compared to the 1948 Merc, so its lower, more aerodynamic stance made it look faster at a standstill.

Custom builders like the Barris brothers saw the same thing and ran with the lead sled custom concept for the next couple of years because the Mercury was a solid platform for creative car guys.      

The 1953 Chevy Corvette was the first in a long line of sports cars under that storied name from the General. More importantly, the ’53 Vette was a low-slung (and low-powered) two-seater car that may have looked faster when parked than on the highway. 

The ’53 Corvette only offered a modest six-cylinder engine, but its unique style gave it a very fast vibe.

The late 1950s were the golden age of the tailfin on domestic cars, a style choice that made all of them looked fast at a standstill.

However, we lean toward the 1958 DeSoto as the most dynamic fin car design from that era, mainly because its radical taillight configuration lit an afterburner rocket in our opinion. And yeah, it had a Hemi engine option to make it real fast when not parked.

An easy addition to our list is the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray because it was an instant and timeless classic that will always look fast, even in a parking lot.

Better yet, the ’63 Vette was also blazing fast on the road and offered solid performance to validate its speedy style.

The late 1960s was a watershed moment for automotive style because the Sixties’ automotive fastback design meant domestic cars with the giant C-pillar feature also looked fast when parked at a Safeway.

A solid example of this idea is the 1967 Ford Mustang fastback because they looked very fast-and were very fast with a factory big block under the hood.

The dawn of the 1970s marked the debut of the 1970 Plymouth Superbird, a purpose-built track car that had a street-legal counterpart.

The Superbird had a giant wing on its back end and a sleek nose cone with hidden headlights-two very unusual features in a parking lot. The net result was a muscled-out car built to cheat the wind and draw plenty of attention in a non-racetrack world. For the record, it worked like a charm. 

The final addition to our list is the 1975 Pontiac Grand Am.

The ’75 Grand Am was the last year in a 3-year production run for that style at the Pontiac division and was an excellent example of how Detroit dealt with neutered performance and big bumpers: build cool cars that looked fast but were crippled old greyhound dogs in the performance department. Mission accomplished with this generation of Grand Am models.

Velocity has always been in the eye of the beholder. 

Jim Sutherland

BY: Jim Sutherland

Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section. 

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