Compared to all other automotive styling features, the tailfin had an impact out of all proportion to its time as a design element. While they were used on cars for little more than a decade, tailfins came to symboilise an era. Cadillac’s 1959 offerings were the biggest, while the Chevy and Buick fins from the same year were arguably the most daring. General Motors weren’t alone in expanding and exploiting this styling feature, though. Just about every automaker got on board to some degree, and the Chrysler Corporation were in the ‘fin game’ just as deep (or should that be high!), as evidenced by cars like the 1960 Chrysler New Yorker.
It’d be wrong to look at the New Yorker, particularly the 1960 model, as just a styling exercise. The 1960 New Yorker was the embodiment of an abundance of engineering and mechanical advancements that Chrysler had managed to pack into the preceding decade, from the renowned Hemi V8 and the corporation’s first automatic transmission, to torsion bar front suspension, the switch to monocoque construction and even a rudimentary form of cruise control.
There was just as much going on outside the engineering works, too, with 1960 proving to be a pivotal year in terms of management at the Chrysler Corporation. The New Yorker was a constant through this period and beyond, remaining on the market until the 1990s. While it was an undoubted success
