People like driving this car. We liked driving it. Odds are good that if you find yourself a ’53-’54 Chevy in the same shape, you too will enjoy driving it. There’s a reason, after all, that Chevrolet’s supposedly staid six-cylinder cars routinely sold in larger numbers than Ford’s excitingly V-8-powered ones and Plymouth’s outstandingly engineered offerings. They’ve got just the right mix of looks, power, convenience, and comfort that still works today.
As evidence that folks enjoyed driving it, we offer that it was built new in 1953 or early ’54 in Tarrytown, New York, an assembly plant supplying the Northeast United States. We know it’s an early-production car because it has a lot of 1953-style elements on it, despite the overall appearance and serial number confirming that it’s a ’54. Given that it was born in Tarrytown, that its first known history starts on a used-car lot in San Bernardino, California, in 1961 suggests someone drove it there—nearly 2,800 miles—during the glory days of Route 66.
Then, once Ralph Vogel, Jr., the fellow who bought this Bel Air from
