‘I saw it come across the field at a Thorney Island car show and just thought it was so low, so sleek. I wanted it’
T year 1957 was a seminal one for car design. The Jet Age was in full swing and car designers took every opportunity to reflect that in their offerings. While the origins of the term can be traced back to the 1940s, it really came to prominence in the 1950s when commercial jet aeroplanes like the British de Havilland Comet and American Boeing 707 took to the skies.
Alongside this, the Space Race was in full flight and by 1955 had become an all-consuming fixation, particularly in America and the former Soviet Union.
Car manufacturers and marketeers – never ones to miss the opportunity to promote and sell their products – took their lead from the aeronautical and aerospace industries and all manner of weird and wonderful ideas came of it. Tail lights reflected afterburners and fins mimicked those on rockets, while logos and model names suggested other-worldly travel.
Every US manufacturer had its own take on the theme, but GM’s upper middle class Oldsmobile
