Chevrolet's master piece of 1960, can they make another one?

 Since the glory days of 1957, the full-size salon lineup has been going well, but as much as they did with the 55, 56 and 57 Bel Air models. When the 58 came out, a new brand came up, Impala; unfortunately the design of the 1958 Chevy went a little too far said the buyers of the time. In my honest opinion, the 58 Bel Air/Impala was basically the deformed little brother of the 57 Bel Air. With 4 head light in the front, 6 taillights, the chrome/stainless steel was poor placed and it looked and probably was way too big. 

 As the end of 1958 arrives a nice surprise came through the Chevrolet dealerships, the new 1959 Chevrolet Impala. This car was a marvelous thing, the body was lower, the chassis was lower and the mechanical components were. It was a car to define the rest of the automobile history. Why? Let's compare a 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier with a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, the Cavalier is much lower that the Bel Air.  The cars of our days are defined by the 1959 Chevrolets because of its low chassis and body. Today most if not all of our cars (excluding Crossovers, SUVs, Minivans, Vans  and etc.) have a low body; this is created for less wind resistance.

 Unfortunately the style of the car was once again on the edge, it was either you love it, of hate it. I personally like it, but I would never drive it simply because I don't see myself in one. The design itself was heavily influence by the space-age fiasco of the late 50's. In other words, the design was basically compared to the rockets flying into space. With the grill on top of the headlights, cat eyes for taillights and interesting fins, the car looked weird, but for some in a beautiful way. Also mind you again that these, with some other GM models, were the first vehicles that were mass-produced with a lower position.

 Then 1960 came, once again they gave the model a face-lift, this time in a more civilized manner. The headlight were from the 1959's model, but without the grill on top of them, chrome/stainless steel ran across the side, a nice ornament from the mid to back sections of the body. The fins were more calm looking, but still very present. The taillights went back to the 6 alignment format, except that year they were wrapped by a nicely sculpted chrome piece. The top part of the body, meaning the roof, cabin and etc. were not changed from the 59 model. With all of that, the 1960 Impala was a great success, sales went up and Chevrolet was happy. This was not to my surprise because just look at it; it’s an amazing sculpture, with the right curves, details and ornaments. Finally, after trial and error for two straight years buyers got what they wanted. Unfortunately when the 1961 model came, it stirred the buyers once more to buy a Chevy, and the decade goes well. As the 1970’s hit, the Bel Air name was dropped but the Impala continued to walk, and when the name died it was only to be revived for the 21^st century. Today the Impala is rather an afterthought for Chevrolet, let’s hope that the next generation will be as good as the 1960 model, or better yet, the 55, 56, 57 models!