The sixties was the decade of the four-door hardtop. What had been the exotic hot new thing in American automotive styling in the fifties—along with fins, of course—was now increasingly mainstream. There’s so many of these extravagant and glamorous hardtops to that we’re going to break up the sixties into two halves.
1960:
The Big Three were in different new car development cycles in 1960. GM had refreshed ’59s, Chrysler had heavily remodeled ’57s, and Ford alone sported an all-new car. So let’s say goodbye to the 1950s with a few select 1960 GM 4-door hardtops, like this Cadillac 60 Special, which not only had substantially lowered fins but also lost all of that garish chrome side trim that the 1959 version sported. It had finally dawned on Harley Earl that less gingerbread actually denoted greater classiness.
The lower priced Series 62 was also cleaned up, although it still had a thin trim strip on its flanks. This is the 4-window “flying wing” style hardtop sedan.
The Eldorado Brougham, built by Pininfarina in Italy, came back for a final outing, once again previewing Cadillac styling themes for 1961.
Lincoln was also fielding the last year of its remarkable 1958-1960 generation, this being a Continental Mark V with the reverse-canted and retractable rear window, a feature that would soon reappear on the 1963 Mercury.
It’s too bad there was no 4-door convertible version of these, as the 2-door convertibles kept that canted rear window in their fabric tops. Amazing.
Unlike the rest of the Chrysler Corp. cars, the 1960 Imperial was just a refreshed version of the 1957-1959 cars. I’m a bit puzzled by the staging of this one: the chauffeur drove the exquisitely clothed madam here to gawk at this hulk of an old abandoned factory? Perhaps it’s the old Packard plant, in a dig on their demise?
This is more like it, both in colors and setting. A bit gaudy, but that was Imperial’s role in life during these years.
Another recurring art theme with the 1960 Imperial appears to be mobile telephones. Here’s the executive taking a call at a rather intimate garden party.
And here’s his secretary/paramour with the phone. “Mr. Sterling, Mr. Draper is on the line…”
The rest of the 1960 GM line was also cleaned up from the excesses of 1959, with more emphasis on the horizontal than the vertical or diagonal or whatever crazy angles were employed that year. This is an Oldsmobile 98 Holiday sedan.
Did I speak too soon? The 1960 Buick, although toned down somewhat, still had a lot going on, including extrusions and fins at diagonal angles.
As to Pontiac, their fabulous ads featuring renderings by Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman speak for themselves, and very loudly at that. Wide-Tracking at its best.
This shot of a 1960 Chevy Impala 4-door hardtop is from my tribute to it and its flying roof.
The 1960 Chrysler Corp. cars other than the Imperial were…two-thirds new. That’s the best way of explaining how Chrysler heavily remodeled its 1957-1959 cars for 1960 by giving them a new unibody behind the cowl while keeping the front end of the frame and such essentially intact (For a more detailed explanation go here). But there was new exterior styling, even if some elements like windshields and basic proportions and certain styling themes carried over. Here’s a 1960 Chrysler New Yorker.
And a more recent shot of a lower-trim Saratoga. The main benefit of this new unibody structure in the passenger cell area was to improve space efficiency, by getting rid of the bulky frame under the floor.
The faltering DeSoto was forced to share ever-more with the Chrysler, as this shot shows. But the ribbed taillights are a nice touch.
The 1960 Polara was the higher-priced model in the Dodge lineup, which had its own unique rear end treatment, with the fins ending well short of the taillights.
Here’s another (or the same?) Polara from a different angle. Its high-set headlights were a bit old-school by 1960.
The significantly cheaper Dart was a new addition to the Dodge line in 1960, and it turned out to be quite a hit that year. It marked Dodge’s entry into the low-cost field.
Here’s a closer look at its different and simpler rear end styling, with the fins extending fully to the taillights.
The 1960 Plymouth’s styling is a bit controversial, and its details are conveniently blurred here.
It’s a bit clearer here, but its tall fins, which were really outré by 1960 are still blurry.
Aha! Here’s they are in their full glory, before they got shorn so radically the following year. The end of the Exner “rooster tail” era at Chrysler.
As I noted at the top, only Ford fielded a truly new line in 1960, and that was limited to the actual Ford models, not Mercury or Lincoln. I’ve already given my opinion on the styling of these very large and wide cars, but they were a fresh and bold new face that year.
They didn’t sell well, and the Galaxie Victoria hardtop sedan was rare even back in the day; good luck finding one now, even via a Google image search. Starliners survived, but not 4-doors, even hardtops.
Mercurys of this vintage were (and are) even rarer yet. Surprisingly, there was a Park Lane just like this parked in a carport at a house I used to walk by on my way to elementary school, and I spent quite some time gazing into its huge windshield and rear window. What a beast!
The Monterey Cruiser was shorter and significantly cheaper than the Park Lane. In fact its price in 1960 was dropped so as to help fill the role that the departing Edsel was intended to fill.
Given that the 1960 Edsel was a rather lightly-disguised Ford, it too was all-new in 1960. And the very first 1960 Edsel to roll off the lines was a four-door hardtop.
Rambler, which had rather ambitiously offered a four door hardtop back in 1956, would field its last of the genre in 1960. Here’s an Ambassador looking as distinguished and upscale as possible.
Good luck finding any of these in the flesh; what few were ever built and sold seem to have vanished.
And that goes for the Rambler Custom (Classic) 4-door hardtop. Rambler was having such a great year in 1960 presumably it was more efficient to just crank out sedans as fast as they could and not bother with the fussy hardtops. They were not listed anymore in 1961.
1961:
1961 was GM’s year to field new full-size cars. They were all a bit trimmer, lighter and taller, having come to the realization that interior space was surprisingly limited in the low ’59-’60 cars. Cadillac got no less than three versions of the 4-door sedans; this 4-window, with the final appearance of the flying wing roof.
And this six-window sedan, in both series 61 and 62 (DeVille).
And the Series 60 Special was crowned with its own unique formal roof. As had been the case for some years now, all Cadillac 4-door sedans were hardtops.
Buick fielded two series of the Electra in 1961; this was the base Electra which came only in the flying roof version as a 4-door hardtop.
The Electra 225 only came in the 6-window hardtop version. Take your pick; I’ll go for the flying wing.
The LeSabre shared the same new B-Body 4-door hardtop body for 1961. This was really the most contemporary of the three Buicks.
The Olds 98 followed the Buick and Cadillac with their two main C-Body styles, this being the 6-window Holiday sedan.
With this being the 4-window flying-roof version.
And again, the B-Body, in the form of the Dynamic 88.
Pontiac only used the B-Body, in standard and extended rear version like this Bonneville.
And of course there’s Chevy’s fine interpretation of that new B-Body roof.
Which was also available in Bel Air trim, but good like finding one of those.
Technically, 11 hardtop 1961 Lincoln Continentals were built, but it was cancelled at the last minute due to window sealing issues. Seven were converted to pillared sedans and the other four are not accounted for, so maybe if you’re really lucky…
Ford toned down the extroverted 1960 into the rather mild-mannered 1961.
The 1961 Mercury used the same basic body as the Ford, so there was now a lot more similarity. One could even get a six cylinder version.
Virgil Exner went all the way with the restyled 1961 Imperial, adding free-standing headlights and wild new fins and taillights.
The 1961 Chrysler got a new front end but the rest was mostly just window dressing.
The Dodge Polara also got a new front end as well as a revised tail. The center section was essentially a carry-over.
A closer look at the Dodge.
The Dart again had a simpler rear end and shared the shorter body with the Plymouth.
The 1961 Plymouth can be a bit challenging visually, but then that applies to most of this era of big Chrysler Corp. cars. I’m liking it more as the years go by.
The frowning front end doesn’t make it any easier.
1962:
The big 4-door hardtop news at GM was the new 4-window version, with its wide C-pillars. Cadillac offered it in regular deck (top) and short deck (bottom) versions. The short-deck versions were available from 1961-1963, but were not popular.
There was also the 6-window version.
As well as the top-of-the-line 60 Special with its formal roof.
1962 was not a stellar year for styling at Buick. This is the Electra 225 6-window hardtop. There was also a 4-window version as well as the B-Body models.
The same could be said about Oldsmobile in 1962, but the new 4-window style on the C-Body 98 was an improvement.
Pontiacs had a new front end and some other refreshes, but it was not a standout design. That would come in 1963.
The ’62 Chevy is undoubtedly familiar to all.
Attesting to the scarcity of these early ’60s big Ford 4-door hardtops, this is the only one I could readily find in a Google image search.
Once again, the ’62 Mercury is a pretty thinly-disguised Ford.
The big-little news at Chrysler in 1962 were the smaller Dodge and Plymouth. They were undoubtedly the best and most advanced new cars at the time, and were quite roomy given their trimmer dimensions. And they would certainly have sold better if their styling was more mainstream.
But they were certainly a breath of fresh air at the time, especially with the windows down, as in this Dodge Polara.
Here’s the Plymouth version. Good luck finding a 4-door hardtop version of either of these.
This ’62 Chrysler New Yorker is in its element. This is what Exner was referring to when he used the term “plucked chickens”. His beloved rooster tail feathers were gone.
Even the Imperial had its feathers plucked, but there was still plenty to crow about.
1963:
The stars of GM styling in 1963 were of course the Riviera, Grand Prix and Corvette, but none were four-door hardtops. But the rest of the GM line also benefited from Bill Mitchell’s first major new designs and restyles. As to the most improved 4-door hardtops, that would be the Buick Electra, which went from being a wall flower to clearly challenging Cadillac once again for design leadership in the luxury class,
Both of the 4-door hardtop styles on the Electra greatly benefited from the crisp new styling that emphasized large flat sides with sharp edges and highlights that made those features stand out.
That included this finely-done end cap with the backup light. Nice work!
The Olds 98 was improved too, but not nearly to the extent of the Electra. We’ll look at the B-Body versions in 1964.
That’s not to say that Cadillac wasn’t up to par in 1963. It was more evolutionary.
But the new front end did hark back to 1959-1960, as Mitchell felt the ’61-’62 was too undistinguished.
For the last time, there were both short deck and long deck versions of the Series 62 DeVille 4-window hardtops.
Pontiac was the other stand-out in ’63; even the Catalina 4-door hardtop exuded something new and forward looking, with its stacked headlights and bulging hips. Suddenly it’s 1965!
The Impala also got new exterior sheet metal, and many consider it their favorite of the ’61 – ’64 years.
The ’63 Ford is also considered by many to be the best styled of this generation too. 1963 was just a terrific year for car design.
It certainly was for Mercury, which finally got more distinctive styling and even a return of the Lincoln’s reverse-canted rear window, now dubbed “Breezeway”.
The ’63 Imperial limped along for one last time with too much of its 1957 body on display.
The Chryslers got some fresh skin for ’63, even if they weren’t really completely new cars. A somewhat curious variant was the Salon, which had a higher price tag than a basic Imperial. Well, it did look a lot better, was fully-equipped, and it would have been my choice.
The big Dodge 880 reappeared in late 1962, and offered a four-door hardtop in ’63, along with a more contemporary front end. But the rear end is obviously from the ’62 Chrysler.
Plymouth and Dodge got a quick and effective clean-up job, the last work done under Virgil Exner’s supervision. This is the Plymouth Fury.
Here’s the Dodge, which also got a 2″ wheelbase stretch at the rear.
1964:
There were almost no truly new cars in 1964, with the Imperial being the closest to that. It was a heavy facelift of the original 1957 body, as can be seen by the windshield. But New design head Elwood Engel was eager to bring his Continental influence to the Imperial, and it is on full display.
In black or white.
The Chryslers got just a minor facelift.
The Dodge got a new front end and a more conventional cowl and windshield.
The same applies to the Plymouth Fury.
Ford got a handsome new sporty 4-door hardtop roof to go along with their semi-fastback 2-door Sports Roof that arrived in mid-’63 on the 2-door hardtops. It came in Galaxie 500 and XL trim, the latter with front bucket seats.
Mercury got its version too, called the Marauder.
1964 would also be the end of an era for GM’s large cars, as well as the end of the 6-window body style, which harked back to the ’50s. This is a Cadillac version.
The 4-window version had been growing in popularity. Folks were less interested in being seen in their cars.
The 60 Special was more suggestive of what the new 1965 Cadillac would look like, with its clean sides and formal roof.
The ’64 Electra received new front and rear end details but was largely left alone otherwise.
Its finlets clearly conveyed a Cadillac vibe.
The ’64 LeSabre was Buick’s representative of GM’s B-Body.
Olds’ version was the 88, in several variants.
The extended rear wheelbase and trunk of the Bonneville and Star Chief did make them look rather tail-happy.
That brings us to the Impala, America’s best selling four-door hardtop.
This one is still going strong and looking good shot at the edge of Crater Lake. “See the USA In Your (’64) Chevrolet”
That’s it for 1964. 1965 would be a year of massive changes at all of the Big Three. See you then.
Related CC reading:
All Those Glamorous Four-Door Hardtops, Part 1: The 1950s by PN
All Those Glamorous Four-Door Hardtops, Part 3: 1965-1969 – Now Available In Sizes S, M, L & XL by PN
Perhaps one of the best, if not the best coverage of US four door pillarless hardtops. I particularly like 1964 Buick Electra 225 ‘6 window’ four door hardtops and 1962 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedans (four door door hardtops).
But one wonders what the survival rate has been for these wonderful cars? For example when was the last time you witnessed a 1963 or 1964 Dodge Polara 4 door hardtop on the road?
Sadly many of these cars were sacrificed to restore endless numbers of 2 door hardtops. Today car shows display what appears to be never ending lines of 2 door models. A generation now exists that are surprised to learn that 4 door hardtops even existed.
Great, enjoyable article. Thanks for the memories.
I was thinking more she was buying some crack. I barely remember the flying wing roof on the more upscale GMs. I first thought the Caddy was some unproduced prototype. Second, looking at the 63 Caddy short deck. Back in the 50s, the El Dorado had hints of next year’s model, or some different sheet metal anyway. Put that short deck on the El Dorado coupe and convertible could give it a long hood short deck sporty look at essentially no development cost.
Chevy used the flying wing roof on lower priced models to make them look ugly compared to Impalas, but I always suspected the flying wing roof cost a lot more to make than an Impala roof…
For most people, the only 1960-1964 Fords they have ever seen have been Sheriff Andy’s…
That photo showing a 1960 Imperial in front of an abandoned factory, it would have look like a scene from a old school random “film noir” movie or look to what could replace that abandoned factory like a shopping center or apartment/condominium tower.
The agency clearly liked the models’ pose but wanted a choice of backdrop. The one with the Supreme Court Building has been air-brushed.
The lead photo of the Cadillac looks as though it’s running up a launch pad! Unfortunately, today’s cars just don’t evoke that kind of emotional response. There will never be as many long, low, sleek beauties as these were! An excellent article and I am in a Carly Simon “Anticipation” mode for the next article!! 🙂
man, look at the taillights on those ’60 imperials.
Definitive and huge collection!
I’d never seen or heard of the Eldorado by Ghia. Reminds me of the Cadillac ‘Jacqueline’ concept car.
The 1960 Edsel is NOT a “lightly disguised Ford.” Yes, it uses the same window glass as its Ford (and Canadian Meteor) cousins, and some of the same metal stampings, but the Edsel is its own car with a longer wheelbase (therefore drive shaft, and different wheel alignment specifications) as well as an entirely different rear suspension. Its shop manual was written by the Mercury division, not the Ford one, so is different in more ways than just pictures. And from 1959-1970, when FoMoCo was required to keep parts in stock for it, you could not get those parts from a Ford dealer. They had no catalog to look Edsel parts numbers up. You had to go to a Mercury dealer. Assuming the differences between a Ford and Edsel are purely cosmetic, will result in a broken Edsel at repair time. They are corporate cousins, not fraternal twins.
The 1960 Edsel really is a thinly disguised Ford. The whole body and chassis is essentially the same except for the obvious additions/changes to the front end details, the different front bumper (which made it longer overall) , the rear taillights and other exterior trim added to the Ford body. The slight change in wheelbase from 119″ to 120″ was the usual Ford sleight of hand: they simply mounted the rear axle 0.6″-1.0″ further to the rear on the leaf springs. “An entirely different rear suspension”??? Please enlighten me.
They are twins dressed in different sets of clothes. As to what dealer sold them, that’s utterly irrelevant. The 1960 Valiant was was sold by Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler dealers.
I often find these pillar-less sedans or coupes are beautiful. My guess this style was its height at early 1960s. Today in US market Mercedes E-series coupe is the only production car without B-pillar. The previous generation of E coupe is very beautiful car indeed.
If you mean aesthetically, there’s a case to be made. If you mean in numbers, no: The peak years for four-door hardtops were 1965 to 1972, where they mostly accounted for between 12 and 13 percent of domestic production, peaking in 1971 at 14.5 percent. Four-door hardtops were never as popular as two-door hardtops, which surpassed four-door sedans in 1965 and stayed on top well into the mid-70s.
I was wrong: The peak for four-door hardtops as a percentage of new car production was 1957, at 15.3 percent, although 1971 was the peak in number of four-door sold, at 1,243,542.
I was a bit surprised at that, of 1957 having the highest percentage. But it rather makes sense as it was the hot new thing in cars at the time, along with station wagons. And I’m not surprised the percentage went down as big car percentages went down, as compacts mostly didn’t offer them. Nor many intermediates.
The staged photos contain subiliminal messages for achievement or excitment.
However, the gates to the front door of the building in the background of the black Ambassador photo are closed. It’s a subtle message of denial of entry. Something the photographer over looked.
Today, we would photoshop and eliminate the gates.
You illustrate but do not mention a mystery I have just now noticed in the 1960-62 Chrysler/DeSoto (and 63-64 Dodge 880) hardtops – there are two designs. One (like the 60 Saratoga you depict) uses a roofline that mimics that of the 4 door sedan, in which the roof metal curves down at the back and the back window is therefore lower. The other uses a slimmer C pillar with a back window that arches high into the rear of the roof.
I looked at several pictures of 60-62 Chryslers, 60-61 DeSotos and 62-64 Dodge 880s and am having a hard time discerning a pattern. It does seem that New Yorkers used the high window roof, and so did the 1964 Dodge 880. The 62-63 Dodge 880 used the low window roof, and the rest of the 60-62 Chryslers and 60-61 DeSotos used both. The brochures for those cars do not seem to make a distinction.
I’m not sure, but I think that tall rear window was standard in the New Yorker, but optional on a lot of the cheaper cars. At least, looking around, I’ve found a 1960 Saratoga, Adventurer, Polara, and even a Fury, with that tall window. I think Plymouth, at least, referred to it as the “Ski-Hi” window option or something like that. Availability of that tall window might have varied from year to year, though.
I went back and read the fine print of the 1960 Chrysler brochure – and found mentioned among options an “Extra large rear window”. It was standard on all 2 door hardtops and on New Yorker 4 door hardtops, and optional on Saratoga and Windsor 4 door hardtops. How uniquely Chrysler – design two different hardtop roofs and then distribute them almost randomly among models so that most people will never notice them.
A second element that requires mention is Ford and that big chrome triangle at the back of the door. From what I have noticed, the challenge of a 4 door hardtop was to get the window glass to roll all the way down into the door (something that didn’t always happen on sedans). The two ways everyone else did it was to 1) move the front edge of the C pillar far enough forward so that it is an inch or two ahead of the back edge of the door, which makes the window glass smaller. Or, 2) keep door short enough so that the rear edge does not require a large dog leg up and over the rear wheel opening. As an example, the 1961-64 GM B body seems to use a combination of the two methods, and resulted in a really clean look.
Ford took a lazy approach – they seem to have started with sedan doors/roof and designed a hardtop from there. That big triangle was there so disguise the corner at the lower rear of the door glass that had to be removed so that the window would retract fully. The mystery is that Ford did it the GM way with a very attractive 1956 Victoria, and then finally incorporated the triangle into the car’s styling on the 64 model, which may have made for the most attractive Ford 4 door hardtop of the bunch. The 1957-63 versions strike me as really lazy engineering or extreme tightfistedness with design budgets.
My uncle Bob had a 64 Galaxie 500 4 door hardtop when I was a kid. I remember being surprised at the odd way the window rolled down. It did not go straight down like on cars I knew, but it started with one end (front or back, I no longer remember) going much of the way down first before the rest would follow at an angle.
As a scale modeler, I *LIKE* how Ford used the same roof stamping and DLO on hardtops and post sedans, 2 doors and 4. Makes body style conversions like making a 4 door post sedan from a 2 door hardtop much easier.
Nicely done and much appreciated, Paul.
I wonder how interior noise faired versus pillared 4-door versions. Seems that luxury cars in particular would have wanted to minimize this, which is why I am amazed that Cadillac went almost all-in on pillarless beginning in 1957.
A couple ideas jumped out after reading the article. The first was what the ’63-64 Electra 4-door would have looked like with Sixty Special’s greenhouse and/or Cadillac Park Avenue’s shorter ROH. Maybe it was Buick that should have gotten the shortened rear rather than Cadillac? And the name that came with it, which Buick eventually did get.
The second idea had to do with the ’63 New Yorker Salon body and interior. 1963 being the year that Chrysler abandoned the 4-inch longer axle-dash, the longer front mated to the Salon’s body could have made for a wonderful new Imperial for ’63, especially if that front was a knock-out that looked completely different from Chrysler. All the money spent on new sheet metal for the BoF ’64 Imperial could have instead created a nice ’63-64 Imperial line that led to all-new ’65 Imperials based on the new Chryslers, rather than having to wait until ’67. Lincoln switched to flat side glass for ’64-65 and sales kept rising. Why couldn’t Imperial do it for ’63-64? The still smallish company seems to have lost its mid-Fifties thriftiness in the Sixties.
The first car illustrated for 1963, a black Electra parked by the ship “Monterey”, is actually a 1964 model year Electra (vertical tail lights).
Oops; of course. I was rushing a bit… Will fix that.
Except maybe for the Caddy, the era of fins only lasted about 5-6 years. You can see the progression that by 1962 it was basically over.
The 1964 hardtops are all excellent across the board. It only took Chrysler almost half way through the decade to catch up. Seeing this year should set the stage for another good year in the 1965 model year. A little biased since I have two hardtops and at this time my father had a 64 Galaxie XL hardtop, a 67 Fury III hardtop, short time the 68 Cougar before the 70 Olds 98 hardtop.
There it is, a nice pic of a 63 Ford Galaxie 4 door hardtop, my first car! bought it in 1985. I was 25, it was 22.
Wish someone would post a video of the ’63 hardtop’s rear window moving through its entire motion. The design effort it took to tuck the glass fully into those rear doors was a piece of mechanical engineering art. A much more articulated choreography than simply up and down.
As first car i remember, my family had 61 ford wagon- a used State of California government car -absolute stripper spartan version. Recirculating heater was probably the only option. From there, a 63 ford wagon was the family ride. Dad bought it well used. That it was still in the yard, with several spares kept inside house, figured into my choosing such an old hunk for my first ride. He knew Fords of that era inside & out. I would be able to learn car maintenance & repair for cheap, with his help.
The ’64 Impala at Crater Lake is mine and has been featured here before. That picture was taken in 2009, and I still have the car, currently with 204,000 miles.
I’ve always liked the roofline on GM’s B Body four-door hardtops, especially 1961-64 and 1969-70. Honestly, I think the proportions on the four-door hardtops are in many cases more balanced than on the two-doors. It was just luck that a ’64 Impala in my favorite body style was for sale when I was in a position to buy it back in 1999.
Lots of great photos in this article. That ’61 Sedan de Ville on the cover is especially spectacular.
I was quite sure it was your car, but the photo caption didn’t confirm it.
I also think the four door hardtop is more balanced than two doors. Never more obvious to me than with the Fuselage cars from Chrysler starting in 1969. That quarter panel seems to run forever and makes the cabin look like a postage stamp from profile.
I agree. The fuselage Mopars look fantastic as four-door hardtops, but the two-doors are awkward, especially the Plymouth for some reason.
When GM redesigned it’s big cars in 1971, the two-door hardtop roofline was very similar to Chrysler’s, but the cars looked fine. I think the slight curve upward toward the back of the window and downward sloping rear deck made all the difference. Based on this picture, I think the Fury had a longer trunk lid than the Impala.
What a tour de force, Paul! Amazing to see all these four door hardtops. This is because cars like the Buick, Cadillac and Oldsmobile were beyond the reach of most Canadians pre auto pact. I especially like the early 1960s Oldsmobiles. I am just a bit too young to have any experience of them and besides, their high post tariff prices made them rare on the roads.
The Breezeway Lincoln in Chinese Red is stunning .
All the terrific pictures give me happy memories of the 1960’s a time I’d rather forget .
-Nate
that 64 electra is wonderfull. learned to drive on it and a 59 colony park amazing in its own way. riding in the back seat of the 225 gave me motion sickness. those coil springs swayed a bit.
The ’60 Mercury Park Lane looks pretty interesting–maybe because I don’t remember one in the flesh. It’s really a shame that convertibles were most likely to survive, and then coupes.
According to Hendry’s history of Cadillac (Auto. Quarterly), the last year of the Series 61 was 1951, and 62 became the cheapest model. The two de Villes were designated Series 63, and the regular Eldorado was Series 64 in ’59-60, the Brougham 69 (after being 70 in ’57-8). Bizarrely, the Fleetwood 75 limo was Series 67 from ’59-64.
I am partial to the 63 Impala 4 door hardtop as I owned one in the late 60’s and drove it coast to coast when charging duty stations.
The Eldorado Brougham, built by Pininfarina would be really great without the back fins.
Makes me appreciate my 1965 Olds 98 four-door hardtop even more. Four-door hardtops have always been underappreciated for years. Most comments were two too many doors.
THAT FIRST 60 MERC IS NOT A PARK LANE, BUT A MONTCLAIR. PARK LANES WERE MUCH MORE ELEGANT, WITH LOTS OF TASTEFULLY PLACED CHROME AND FENDER SKIRTS. VERY BEAUTIFUL VEHICLE . THEY USED TO ALWAYS DRIVE 60MERCS ON THE CHOW “CHECKMATE”, VINTAGE 1960!
On my newspaper route in the mid to late 1960s the layers, business owner residences, medical doctors and dentists preferred Chryslers, Imperial, over Cadillacs by 2 to one. I would ask to sit in their luxury cars that they kept in their carriage houses (converted earlier in the century from horse stable to huge garages) . Some carriage houses had an apartment above the stable/garage for their former staff. Opulence! Those Imperial hardtops were beautiful except the 1962s. My dad bought a used 1960 4 door hardtop from one of my paper delivery customers and it was the envy of our neighbors until “fins” fell out of fashion.
My parents had a ’60 Buick just like the one in the picture. I had forgotten just what a beautiful car it was.
Could we pretty please have another installment of these vehicles after 1964? This is my favorite body style and am trying to pick out the perfect model to purchase but gravitate towards late 60s.
There were indeed 1962 Dodge Custom 880 four door hardtops: only 1,855 built, why they’re virtually extinct now.
Checking the overall relative sales numbers for Mopars, it becomes clear that their customer base were sedan buyers given the low take-rate for four-door hardtops. The 300, New Yorker and Imperial customers were the exceptions.
in the early 1960’s, Mercury dealers were living on Comet sales, let the L-M sales management know they were unhappy with being stuck with restyled Fords for 1961-’62, trying to compete with Pontiac. The lackluster sales finally motivated development of the1963 full-sized Mercury models which not only broke out from the dolled-up Ford look but also gained the ‘breezeway’ window, although a bit of a gimmick, buyers loved.
To me all the Imperials of the 60’s had the most elegant lines. The roof designs and the free standing head lights were terrific.
Four door hardtops are great! One fact I find interesting is the triangular design at the rear of the passenger doors on Ford’s from 1957 to 1964. Mercury and Edsel used this feature occasionally as well. While the Galaxie was introduced in January ’59, The Fairlane 500 was the top line series for the first few months of the ’59 model year and had a roof called ‘Thinline’ for the Town Victoria. It was the same as the’ 59 Edsel used on its 4 door hardtop. These Fairlane 500s are hard to find on-line, except in early ’59 brochures. I wonder if the Fairlane 500 adopted the Galaxie roof after introduction of the Galaxie? I’ve seen factory staged Fairlane 500s with a Galaxie roof, but no pictures outside factory photos.