Road Tour Ragtop

60 Years Later Our ’57 Chevy Still Turns Heads

- Ron Ceridono

Chevrolet introduced their line of ’57 automobiles in October 1956 and in some ways they were facing an uphill battle in terms of sales. The ’55 and ’56 Chevrolets were tough acts to follow; Ford and Plymouth had introduced entirely new designs and the American economy was struggling. Nonetheless, the sales battle was tight; Chevrolet did outsell Second Place Ford during the calendar year by just over 100 cars, although Ford produced more ’57 models by virtue of a longer production run. But while initial sales figures are most often used to judge the success of a particular automobile’s design, the longevity of its popularity may be an even better indicator of its success. Based on that, the ’57 Chevrolet was a success then and a bona fide automotive icon now.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the ’57 Chevrolet we turned to Chris Sondles at Woody’s Hot Rodz to build a convertible for the 2017 ARP/ STREET RODDER Road Tour car Presented by Chevrolet Performance. Licensed by GM, Woody’s can provide replacement body panels, complete body shells, or turnkey ’55, ’56, or ’57 Chevrolets built with new body stampings from Golden Star Classic Auto Parts, a leading supplier of reproduction body and trim parts.

Our Road Tour ragtop was based on the artwork of the very talented Eric Brockmeyer, it was then up to Woody’s to turn the image into reality. Construction began with the assembly of the Golden Star stampings utilizing Miller Electric welding equipment. We were able to watch as boxes of individual parts were combined to make a new ’57 Chevrolet—no small task, we can assure you.