The Greatest Cars of All Time: The Fifties (2024)

For July's issue, we assembled the most important cars ever built, working forward from 1955, when we were founded as Sports Car Illustrated, and the modern auto industry came of age. These are Car and Driver's GOATS – the Greatest of All Time. Today: The Fifties.

1955 Chevrolet

On March 26, 1955, Fonty Flock drove a new V-8-powered Chevrolet onto the half-mile dirt oval at South Caro­lina's Columbia Speedway. Two hundred laps later, he earned Chevy's first victory in NASCAR's top division, Grand National (now called Cup). Since then, Chevy has become the winningest manufacturer in the history of the series. And it all started with the '55.

With antiseptically clean flanks, a grille seemingly swiped from Ferrari, and a roof dropped as much as six inches from the '54 model, the '55 was Chevrolet's great leap forward in terms of style. A new ladder frame, control-arm front suspension, and leaf springs set wider apart in the back underpinned the car. It drove brilliantly, looked gorgeous, and didn't cost much.

But the great breakthrough was the small-block V-8. Inspired by the 1949 Cadillac pushrod V-8, the Chevy engine was simplified, lightweight, compact, and inexpensive to build. The cylinder heads could be swapped bank-to-bank, featured integral valve guides, and lacked rocker arm shafts. With a short three-inch piston stroke, the original 162-hp V-8 measured 4.3 liters (265 cubic inches) and could be modified to rev to 6000 rpm.

And then there was Zora Arkus-Duntov. A staff engineer anticipating the small-block's use in the Corvette, he wrote a memo in 1953 to chassis expert Maurice Olley proposing that Chevy make high-performance parts for the engine: "I do know that in 1954, sports-car enthusiasts will get hold of Corvettes and, whether we like it or not, will race it. Since we cannot prevent the people from racing Corvettes, maybe it is better to help them to do a good job at it." The first fruit of that program was the $55 "power pack" that included a four-barrel carburetor and dual exhausts to bump output to a then lunatic 180 horsepower.

Ever since, Chevy's V-8 has been the mainstay in grassroots motorsports and hot-rodding. The 1955 Chevrolet is the great postwar American car and it's powered by the greatest production engine ever built, the small-block V-8. —John Pearley Huffman

Values, market analysis, auction results, and more on 1955 Chevrolets at Bring a Trailer*.

1957 Lotus Seven

Colin Chapman's "simplify, then add lightness" decree has never been better realized in a road car than in the Seven. Look at it. There's just enough aluminum wrapped around the spaceframe to elevate it from kart to car. Lotus made the Seven so simple that buyers could assemble one in their garage and so light that it could be weighed with four bathroom scales. The three-digit weight was crucial because, in base form, the Seven had but 36 horsepower. Top-spec models made 75 horses, and no Seven came with doors. It was designed for the joy of driving the way a race car is designed for victory. If longevity is any indication of greatness, consider that the Seven lives on as a kit from Caterham, which bought the rights in 1973 and hasn't stopped developing the car since. —K.C. Colwell

Values, market analysis, auction results, and more on the Lotus Seven at Bring a Trailer.

Previously: Introduction | Next: The Sixties

*Bring a Trailer is owned by Car and Driver's parent company, Hearst Autos.