A load of new ’56 Chevys fresh from the Janesville, WI plant, and with a new-for-’56 four door hardtop on top. Somewhat curiously, it’s a 210, and not a Bel Air. But there’s a Bel Air two-door sedan below it. Quite likely custom ordered cars, as was much more common back then.
The twotone 150 is also rare. Fleet buyers and conspicuous cheapskates didn’t like colorful cars.
Holy Smokes! I saw the four-door hardtop too and looked twice. I cannot even remember seeing a 210 four-door hardtop on the road. Great memories.
Only two of these with whitewall tires. Maybe they were just coming in to vogue at the time. Ten years later, you couldn’t get a car without whitewalls.
I suspect the frequency of whitewalls was related to the location where the cars were going. They were likely not as popular in small farming communities as they were in nicer urban or suburban areas.
Also, one set of whitewalls is on the Bel Air, the other on the 210 4-door hardtop. I’ve grown up always feeling that there was a real strong push on the part of Chevrolet to introduce the 4-door hardtop (new that year) because even my father drove one that year. And he never owned anything other than a 2-door hardtop otherwise, because it was the easiest sell in the used lot once his new car came in.
Paul, there is a nifty newsreel video of the 1961 compact car race at Daytona on NASCAR.com.
https://www.nascar.com/video/franchise/all-videos/nascar-raced-on-daytona-road-course-in-1961/
The idea of offering the brand new 4 door hardtop on the mid-range 210 series is baffling to me. Were they that concerned about getting enough volume to pay for the new body?
I mean the hardtop had been the entire reason for the existence of the Bel Air name at the start.
They sure got a lot more use out of that tooling than Ford did as they built a 4 door hardtop for only about 8 months or so on the outgoing 1956 body.
Oh, there was a market for them (see my note below). Back then, the 150 was the “cheap-ass special”. The 210 was, as best as I can figure, a car for the not-necessarily-cheap-guy who felt the Bel Air (later Impala) was just too show-offy.
Just as baffling was that in 1961 Chevy not only offered mid range Bel Air 2 and 4 door hardtops, but an Impala 2 door sedan! Think I’ve seen one in my life.
This brings back memories, our family bought a new 210 four door sedan back then with the base V8, powerglide, and full wheel covers. No whitewalls, but Mom and Dad eventually had “portowalls” installed. Had it five years before it was traded on a new 61 Impala.
Is it representative of the 1956 Chevrolet line that five out of five cars are two tones? They are all handsome; I think the ’56 is the best looking of the “tri-fives”.
A 1959 school bus trip took our class to the Janesville assembly factory. Somewhere I have a GM/Fisher Body publication from the tour.
’55 and ’56 were prime two-tone years for Chevrolet, and the trim on the cars were designed to make the two-tone look good. And they promoted the two-tone finishes like crazy.
Looking at the dealer promotional models in my office, my 55’s are: red bottom/white top Bel Air 2-door hardtop, coral bottom/gray top Bel Air 2-door hardtop, and a white 210 4-door sedan all white. 56’s are: two tone green Bel Air four door sedan, and a brown with white station wagon.
While my oldest memory is dad bringing home that first ’53 Corvette, his ’56 Bel Air four door hardtop, white top, red bottom is my second oldest memory. And not for a good reason.
This was an odd one for dad, the only four door he ever brought as a family car, other than mom’s station wagons (starting in 1959). I assume there was some pressure from the Pittsburgh Zone office to get some of the new four door hardtops out on the street as rapidly as possible.
October ’55 and dad proudly brings the new car home (a very big deal in our family usually mandating a family ride that evening). Only to discover that mom and Aunt Ann are dealing with his very sickly son sporting a 104+ temperature, coughing, unable to breath, and they’re desperately keeping me conscious. My first ride in that car way laying in the back seat on a beeline to Mercy Hospital.
The diagnosis was Lobar Pneumonia, and family legend is that I was basically dragged back from death at least once that night. By 1958 I’d had my tonsils removed, and suddenly that boy who’d get dad breaking out in a cold sweat anytime I so much as coughed or sneezed (annual admissions to the hospital were the norm for me my first eight years), suddenly became an incredibly healthy individual who hasn’t seen the inside of a hospital since, except for the results of a motorcycle accident.
As to the 210 4-door hardtop: There must have been a market for them because Chevrolet was doing a second line (210, later Bel Air) 2- and 4-door hardtops well into the Sixties. I know this kind of car was very popular with my Uncle Mike (mom’s brother) who lived in Lakewood, OH but came back to Johnstown to buy his every-three-years new car from dad. And invariably it would be a 210 or Bel Air with automatic transmission (Mike was a disabled WWII vet) and radio, but not a lot else. This lasted until 1963 when, having ordered the regular Bel Air 2-door, Mike discovered the Pontiac Catalina at a local Cleveland area dealer, and cancelled the Bel Air.
Slights in my family are never quickly forgotten. Ever. My Uncle Mike’s family and mine were never that close after that.
It appears that there is a rope tied through the door handles of the rearward facing vehicle – is that so that if a door is not fully latched, the airflow won’t yank it open?
I think I’ll get tired of smiling before I grow tired of Tri-Fives.
The ’56 was said to be the best-handling of the bunch, the result of a little bit stiffer springs compared to ’55, in response to dealer feedback. But the stiffer springs were said to have made the ride too harsh, and so they were changed again for ’57, along with adapting 14″ wheels for a lower look.
Fun to see so many two-tone cars, including those parked in the lot behind.
I’ve long lived quite close to the Janesville plant, which had a good run (1919-2009). Its closing has hurt the city’s economy, though not as badly as, say, Flint, Michigan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janesville_Assembly_Plant
From the Facebook group “Janesville GM End of an Era,” another picture of this carrier, having a little trouble: