Nospinzone

There's a cable channel that has all these old TV shows and this afternoon I was watching a Perry Mason from 1959. In the program there were several cars with the outlandish tail fins. I think one was a Buick and the other an Oldsmobile. In one scene Perry asked someone to open his trunk to see if there was a body in there. Well there was no body, but the trunk was large enough to put 10 bodies in there! Many of today's cars just don't seem to have the same soul (apologies to Bob Seger)

Well I may be telegraphing my age, but I sort of feel nostalgic for those days.

mmarshall

The greatest tail fins of all were arguably those of the 1959 Cadillac. Classic, yes, but they could also be dangerous. A number of cyclists, in accidents, were impaled on their sharp metal tips.

Nospinzone

Absolutely, those Cadillac tail fins were the tail fins to beat all tail fins!

I never heard that the tail fins were a danger, but I know many hood ornaments have gone the way of the tail fin due to pedestrians being impaled on them. In fact I think my wife's Jaguar S-Type is the last model where they mounted the "leaper" (the leaping jaguar) on the hood. Now they just have an emblem of a growling jaguar.

corradoMR2

Although impressive in design and wow that strawberry red just pops, it's not something I grew up with and miss.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

It would be nice to see more designs than just the current "jellybean" look, but I would also agree with Mike that the fins could get damaged or do damage to people and things. Theres both good and bad.

Whitigir

We have the Shark fin nowadays instead

mmarshall

Yes, those sharp metal points could (and sometimes did) do a job on careless runners, cyclists, kids on skates, etc........

You may not be old enough to remember when Ralph Nader wrote his famous book "Unsafe at any Speed" about unsafe company policies and vehicle-design in the 1950s and 60s, but one of a number of designs he pans are those '59 Caddy-fins. He also, of course, covers a lot of other designs he considers unsafe, and of auto-company efforts to fight safety-legislation. I don't totally agree with his assessment of how the companies were run by their executives, but he does bring up a number of good points on the vehicle-issues themselves.....some of which I remember, because I learned to drive on 60s-era cars. Anyhow, it's interesting reading, and, IMO, a copy of it should be in the library of any auto-enthisiast (as it is in mine). You can probably still find it at some libraries or, if not, order a copy off the Internet.

Nader, BTW, ran for President several times as an Independent or Green Party candidate, but never polled more than a couple percentage-points of the vote at most. He is a long-time friend of Joan Claybrook, a well-known auto-industry safety-critic who ran the NHTSA back during the Carter years.

SW17LS

Thats what they get for riding a bike. The road's for drivin!

corradoMR2

haha, that's so true! Toned down, plastic, and out of harm's way.

mmarshall

It wasn't always that simple. Some of those incidents happened in parking lots where the cars were parked. While, of course, kids should be taught from an early age to be careful on bikes, skates, skateboards, etc.......safety, in general, just didn't sell much in those days. The public, back, then worshipped space-age styling (including jet-fins), and the automakers were only too happy to sell them what they wanted and make money.

SW17LS

I was kidding Mike lol

mmarshall

Today's roof-mounted shark-fins, though, at least serve a legitimate purpose, though...to house the antenna/receptors for satellite radio, GM's On-Star, and other communications functions. But those big jet-fins of the late 50s/early60s did little else but clutter up the rear end of those BIG cars, trying to make them look like jet aircraft. Occasionally, a tail fin back then DID serve a mechanical function, like on the 1957 Chevy and a few other cars where it had a hinge and was flipped aside to reach the gas filler-pipe. But most of them just sat there and, especially in the case of the sharp-tipped ones, did little else but be a potential hazard to kids and cyclists.

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

such a classic era back then with those tail fins.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

This reminds me of a recent Top Gear in which Clarkson and May have to create a public announcement for bicyclists and they keep messing up. Here's 3/5 of them

SW17LS

Ha! Love it!

I love these people that are out on road bikes dressed like they're Lance Armstrong scowling at all the drivers...driving...on the ROAD...sorry if we don't want to drive along at 18 MPH lol