Collector Cars 55, 56, and 57 Chevy's

1957 Chevy Pickups

The most popular of all years General Motors made the pickup trucks. Updates and changes from the older 1955 consisted of the egg-carte grille gave it an open-mouth look. It had 8 bars holding what looked like an open trapezoid in the center. The V-8 pickups came with the 283 cubic inch motor that came in the power range of 160 hp and 270 foot pounds of torque.

The '57 Pickups had a dished steering wheel and had safety door locks and strikers. General Motors went for the rigid mounting for the rear axle with threaded spring shackles. This replaced the older center draw bolt type used in years past.

Some of the other options included power steering and power brakes, plus a side mounted spare tire. Two options for transmissions included a three speed synchromesh (without overdrive or with), and a four speed synchromesh transmission.

The story goes the 57 Chevrolet was produced in three official trim packages. We had a base model the one-fifty and the next step up in the mid-range model, the two-ten packages. Then the best most upscale of the three was the Bel-Air package. In the 2-door sedans a trim package called Delray was produced. For a short time the more sought after limited edition two-door wagon called the Nomad came out as a Bel-Air. One other forth edition very limited model called the El Morocco was hand-built custom to reflect the Cadillac era.

Complete Listings For 57 Chevy's

Chevrolet came out with its V-8 in the famous small block in 1955 at 265 cubic inch and for 1957 283 cubic inches of raw power. Before 1955 Chevrolet only had the straight 6 cylinder engines offered in their cars. With the new V-8 available they wanted to put it out in a brand new car design. 1955 started the motor-sports area of early muscle cars allowing Chevrolet to be the big winners at drag racing and circle racing of the day. So 1955 started the era of competitive motor-sports.

Chevrolet manufactures pushed for a new design for 1957 but ended up with more of the same in a carry-over from 1955. But they did come up with some changes that gave us the very Classic 57 Chevy designs we know today. The classic looks in the 57 were the famous tailfins, a reshaped windshield and the air ducts relocated to the headlight pods. This made a very distinctive look for the headlight that added to the Classic 1957 Chevy.

They changed out the standard 15 in wheels with a 14 in wheel to make the car look wider by giving it a lower stance. Plus a wider grille was also used to add to the wider look.

The 1957 Bel-Air style were given the gold trim grille, script and hood all in an anodized gold.

The design body styles back in the fifties were 2 and 4 door sedans. You could tell the difference by the tell-tale post between the door windows. In the sports coupe or 2 door hardtop there was no post between the back and front windows when down. In the four door hardtop they called it a sports sedan or utility coupe. There were two style packages of station wagon, Bel-Air known at the Nomad or top of the line model. It had a sloped pillar behind the hardtop door plus sliding windows at the rear seat. The four-door had two seating configurations a six passenger and a 9 passenger model. The 9 passenger was called the Townsman for the 150 series and the Bel-Air was called the Beauville.

Some believe that the 57 Chevy style came from the 1955 Cadillac El Dorado because some part of the designs were similar.

Options for the Chevrolet's were to make them more luxurious and comfortable. There was early air conditioning for very few placed in a padded dash. A nice option was the power breaks and power steering made for nicer to drive option. They came out with a signal seeking radio that had a power antenna. Power seats and power windows were added as options also. The 1957 even had some Hi-Tech the first surround sound option. It was just a rear second speaker with an extra volume control next to the radio. Another Hi-Tech option was the autotronic eye it was a gadget that sensed the light from the oncoming cars and would dim the headlights automatically.

More Hi-Tech the traffic light viewer another gadget made of ribbed plastic kind of visor added just above the speedometer. With the roof going so far over the windshield it made it hard to see the traffic lights when they were overhead in the driver's seat. This keeping the driver from having the lean over the see the traffic lights for safety.

You could get fuel injection as an option on the Chevy for the first time. The 283 V-8 with solid lifters and fuel injection got 283 hp a real fire breather for the day. A tamer model with hydraulic lifters and fuel injection was added giving 250 hp for the casual drivers. This made it a little less temperamental for the mom and pops that were not the race car types that were happy tweaking it all the time.