The Adventurer is nice and all, but my eyes gravitated to that boat. It looks to be jet propelled, although there’s no visible air intake for its engine. Minor detail…
Update: I must have been half asleep already when I threw this up late last night. It’s Sir Donald Campbell’s record-breaking Bluebird, which went 260 mph in 1959. He then put a bigger jet engine in it and in 1966 got it over 300 mph but hit a wave of his own making, which caused the Bluebird to start rocking side-to-side and break up, killing Campbell.
That DeSoto’s looking pretty sharp for its penultimate showing! This year, it’s “Never before…” next year it’ll be “Never again.”
What’s that detail line on it’s roof? Does it have a vinyl top?
“What’s that detail line on it’s roof?”
From around 1959-61 Chrysler had an odd fetish about styling the roof panels with creases, ridges, and other things. The 59 even did a 2 tone treatment on the roofs, though I think that was gone for 60-61.
Are the air intakes behind the Captain/Helmsman/Pilot’s shoulders? Might work.
I think the width of the hull is split between intake and windshield. (After seeing Lee J’s comment, the Bluebird K7 did have a pair of intakes behind the operator just like Roger suggests, with the canopy occupying a third of the hull between them.)
Yes, looking at some other pictures of it, that’s how it was.
The ad says “Smartly Conservative!” Uh, no…..
Unless, to answer PRNDL’s question, the character lines on the top are a throwback to the Classic era where cars had fabric inserts in their tops rather than steel. That’s kind of “conservative”.
That could be the inspiration – never occurred to me. Chrysler had previously wrapped the chromey line of the C pillar on Imperial hardtops over the top. In 1960 that was changed to going forward a few inches above the side window line.
Cars were at their minimum height since the 1957 Chrysler line. Most people could now easily see across the roof, and Exner liked to put visually interesting and different stuff anywhere he could.
I bet the comment refers to the pillared sedan–more “conservative” than one of those wild-and-crazy hardtops ?
Bluebird K7: A 276 mph water speed record boat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebird_K7
Of course. It looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.
The Bluebird Project website is worth a look. Those guys take a piece of alloy sheet crumpled like a tissue and make it either usable, or as template for a replacement. Real craftmanship.
Beautiful illustration and detailing. The Chrysler TC by Maserati roof on the speedboat is a nice preview of future product. lol The ‘bedazzling’ starburst highlights on the rocker panel, rear wheel arch and rear bumper, so appropriate for the era. As opposed to the more subtle highlights on the front wheel arch.
In recent years Bluebird K7 has been salvaged and restored.
I look at all the creases in that sheet metal and wonder “how much more expensive were those panels and skins compared to the competition?”.
I’ve been wondering how shapes like Chrysler fins were stamped. Some cars with those kinds of shapes like the 1961 Continental or the 1959 Cadillac (and every other 1959 GM car) have stainless trim along the peak which is probably covering a seam between two pieces of steel.
Creases shouldn’t cost more, once the dies are created. Surely all fins are made of “outboard” and “inboard” stampings, except for the stubbiest of them ?
I’ve wondered about tortured sheet metal like what happens at the rear corners of the ’59 Chevy. How many stampings; how much had work ?
https://www.motorcities.org/images/SOTW_08.22.2018/1959_Chevrolet_ad_Tate_Collection.jpg
That should have read “hand work” . . .
This song is about Campbell.
The pilot of the boat in the above “out of this world” video looks strikingly similar to actor Antony Hopkins.
It was Anthony Hopkins. The footage comes form the 1988 BBC Drama ‘Across the Lake’. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094610/
This is merely silly, Paul, but Google has informed me that (1) DeSoto, TX has a Bluebird Lane, (2) Nebraska’s DeSoto Bend Wildlife Refuge has a special thing for bluebirds, and that (3) said refuge was established in 1959 (at which time the ’60 DeSoto came to market).
There’s no reason to feel bad about “missing” on the watercraft I.D.—-it would have to have been blue for me to go “aha!”