So when I came off of BART this afternoon and headed to my car, you can imagine that Dinah Shore was singing in my head when I saw this 1954 Chevrolet 210 Two Door Sedan sitting next to my car.
“On A Highway, Road or A Levee… Performance is Sweeter, Nothin’ Can Beat her, Life is so much Sweeter in a Chevy!”
I had seen this car about a week ago on San Pablo, parked, and assumed that it probably barely ran. Seeing it parked next to my car at a public transportation hub, it became quite obvious to me that someone uses this car as their daily driver, at least for local errands.
The 1954 Chevrolets were the last ones build from the 1949 Vintage bodies, although they were squared up to look more massive for 1953. But the same mechanicals remained: The dull if stone reliable Blue Flame Inline 6, The first in the Low Price field Powerglide Automatic. For 1954 The Powerglide Blue Flames had a screaming 125 Horsepower, the stick shift ones like our subject 210 had 115.
Going by the various statistics online it seems that the all new V8s that would debut for 1955 brought performance up to Semi-Modern levels. The only people I can fathom that deal with 15-20 second 0-60 times and top speeds around 85 in their daily drivers nowadays are people tooling around in 240Ds and non-Turbo 300Ds.
It also makes me think about who still owns this car, and drives it daily. It’s a charming old beast, with chair height seating, a decent amount of glass area, and an amount of room I could never fathom for a two door car. It’s probably extremely easy to fix, considering there’s still a healthy parts community even for Chevrolet Inline sixes. It almost makes me feel chicken for not plunging back more than 30 years for my daily driver. Although if I had done so I would be committing myself to the days of barely functional when new brakes, inadequate long distance freeway driving ability and quite possibly a 6 volt electrical system.
Compared to the direct rivals from Ford and Plymouth, even this mid-level 210 seems quite glamorous for its intended market. There’s an abundance of chrome, even in comparison to the 1955 Chevrolets, which seem a bit more restrained in comparison. At certain angles the family resemblance to the stretched A body Pontiacs of the same vintage is far too obvious, especially when I shot from the ground, looking up towards the power dome hood.
Harley Earls attempt at making even the most cheap car look “important” was successful here. There is an amazing sense of visual mass that says “big car” and really echoes the 1950-53 Buicks to me. The concurrent Plymouths and Dodges looked (and in some cases were) visually stubby, like Coffee stunted their growth. Fords and especially Mercury cars of this vintage verged on Athletic to me, almost leaning into the wind. But I can see, despite the dull mechanicals, Chevrolet was already capturing the majority of hearts. The self-aware self-confidence was rampant by the early-mid 1950s. Plymouth’s projected a miserly, wimpy, cheap attitude that probably reminded too many consumers of Depression era values, despite the best efforts of the Top line Belvedere. Fords projected a muscular, war like stance in relative peaceful times and might have seemed too defensive (note the 1955 Re-skin of the 1952-54 Fords went the “important” route too).
These particular Chevrolets portray an easy, languid confidence that would become an American obsession for the majority of the Post War era. It was only the beginning of America’s obsession with Chevrolet.
The Pontiac resemblance was particularly interesting because in Canada, Pontiac offered the Laurentian, which was basically this car with Pontiac trim and a Pontiac six, rather than the Stovebolt. It even had Powerglide, rather than Hydra-Matic, presumably because it was cheaper.
I think in these years the commonality was the most glaring between Chevrolet and Pontiac. It’s hard to deny that all the 1953-54 Pontiac models were just some kind of glamorous Chevy with better appointments and build quality.
I would think a flathead Pontiac 6 coupled to a powerglide would have been a real dog, since I gather flathead engines aren’t a good “breathing” design. Without the range of gears, all I can think of is a engine note that sounds like an emphysema hacking cough when asked to do nothing but cruise at 50mph.
I would LOVE to get my hands on one of these. I know exactly how I’d do it too- retro appearance with updated mechanicals hidden beneath the stock looking skin.
Picture this- a more modern 250-cube Chevy / GMC six with a Clifford Performance single 4-barrel intake fed by a 350 CFM Holley, a Clifford “midrange” cam, and their split exhaust header setup making that signature “rapping” sound through straight or barely muffled dual tailpipes.
Backing this hot six is a late model 5-speed junkyard trans from an 80’s or early 90’s vintage Camaro, Mustang, or 1/2 ton GM truck. Trans-Dapt, Mr Gasket, Lakewood, and others make bellhousings that mate a Ford T-5 to a Chevy / BOP engine. Inside the awkward manual column shifter is replaced with a period-correct Hurst or Mr. Gasket “Daytona” floor shifter.
Hidden behind the stock steel wheels and Lancer-style hubcaps is a modern power disc setup using spindles from Wilwood, Fatman Fabrications, Competition Engineering, or any similar company.
In my case doing this would be somewhat easy since I already have a perfectly good 250 inline six sitting under the hood of my ’72 Ventura right this moment 🙂 .
Why not do up the 250 in it’s native habitat? The Ventura is not something you see very often, and is pretty good looking although that grill doesn’t appeal to me. At least hi-po suspension parts are easily available so it wouldn’t have to fall on its face at the first curve.
As a kid, seeing these tooling around town and in our church parking lot…the cars seemed a lot like their drivers. That is, they looked dowdy and scowling; an old woman with a dowager’s hump passing out Halloween candy with a nonplussed expression.
It’s a rare find, all right. There’s still a few 1955-57 Chevys popping up on Sunday afternoons, but this generation seems to have rolled to oblivion.
Not necessarily. You go to some local car shows that cater more to the rod / kustom / lowrider crowd these cars show up en masse. Everything from bemuraled, candy-painted bumper-draggers to primered and flat black painted rat rods
+1, more often you’ll see Bel-Air Sedans than anything (I think ’54 was the first year that they took off saleswise). There’s another 1954 Wagon that I normally see but I don’t think it runs.
We had a 54 All Black Bel air 54, it stayed in the family until Feb 66, we called her “Black Beauty” It was my Mother’s daily driver into the early sixties. Later Becoming the family teen Mobile. I Remember I had the CVhicken Pox, So I couldn’t see HER Off ~~ at the Pick a part lot for 50$ no doubt. I Emotionally felt SOMEONE had Died. I Don’t quite feel That attached ever since to a car. They die, just like everyTHING else.
In hindsight What came after, The Gran Prix was much nicer, and the old car in the driveway was quickly forgotten once it was gone.
Some cars do not die , the owners die , but the car lives on , successive owners are only temporary Care Takers.
Case in point , I discovered a gorgeous black on black, Power Glide 54 BelAir in Tunisia, very rare sight indeed in that country , talked to the owner , the guy is descendant of Sultan Lamine Bey the last king of Tunisia before being over thrown by Habib Burguiba in 1956;
The King had many American cars, all of them confiscated by the new republican government except this black Chevy which was used as daily driver in 1960s by the King’s nephew.
The car went sleeping in storage for thirty years, was taken out to sunshine and restored completely in early 90s.
BTW , the car is for sale, 15000$ can buy this car , any Care Taker interested?
I agree with JustPassinthru. These cars were for old fuddy duddies. When I was a kid my neighbors across the street from me got a 54 coupe in 1972. Black with a white top that seemed just sooo ewld in a way that cars from 1993 don’t look that old today.
I never liked the 1953 or 1954 Chevy. I agree that they were dowdy-looking, but not as dowdy as Chrysler’s efforts.
My first car was a 1952 Chevy two-door sedan, bought in 1968 for $75.00! I saw lots of ’53 & ’54’s around town. The ’54 Chevys were much cleaner that the ’53 models, but that did nothing for me.
In recent years I have looked at these a bit less disparaging, but have no desire to own one. nevertheless, the example above is certainly something to admire – a true survivor!
54 Chevy’s engines were better than 52 engines , the 52 had splash lubrication to rod bearings , the 54 had full pressure lubrication to rod bearings.
I remember in 1960’s Iran, the 54 had a better resale value than 52 and 55,
I asked car mechanics about that, I was told about 52’s lubrication problem,
regarding 55 the engine was OK , but the rubber suspension bushings did not function well and ruptured prematurely,
Had a ’54 as my daily driver back in 1975 – ’76. Good memories, although you had to be keenly aware when doing maintenance…this was the last Chevrolet with:
-6 volt electrical system
-Kingpin front suspension
-Torque-tube driveline
There are probably some other things that went away I’m not thinking of, like full instrumentation…the voltmeter and oil pressure gauges were replaced by idiot lights for ’55.
I don’t remember if it had a foot-operated starter…did I mention I owned if so it was the last year for that too.
Pretty car…if I wasn’t so Tri-Five-centric (I haven’t been w/o a ’57 in some state of disrepair since 1979!) I might have one of these, although I’m really partial to the ’51-’52 last-of-the-line Fleetline fastbacks…either way…it would get a modern front suspension and brakes and Gen III motorvation…
As for my ’54, it was a green over cream BelAir. Well-kept and looked sharp when cleaned up. I went against everyone’s advice and put radials on the car. Immediate improvement in handling and found 2 extra MPG.
Being 18 and wet behind the ears, I assumed the corner Exxon knew all the lube points. They didn’t. The kingpins froze and I sold it to a guy with a ’69 ‘Vette and some $$ to sink into another project.
You mention “inadequate long distance freeway driving ability.” I’m not so sure about that. If the ’55 is anything to go by, its quite good in a straight line for hundreds and/or thousands of freeway miles – that’s been my experience. In my experience its the city driving that gets to you, namely navigating tight turns with that big thin steering wheel, no power steering, understeer, massive body roll, and the double-clutching into 1st gear. And if it rains, the windshield wipers don’t work to well when you accelerate. And try reverse parking this baby, up a hill. At least life behind the wheel would be interesting.
I know that I am a contrarian, but I have always preferred this generation of Chevrolet to the later ones of the 50s and 60s. These were good cars.
These things were all over in my mother’s generation – she had a 53 and had several friends with 52-54 Chevys.
About 10 years ago, I was driving along and pulled next to a little old lady with a death grip on the steering wheel of one of these. It was a well worn old car, and I just hung back as the light turned and watched the car drive off.
A great find and an enjoyable piece. It cannot be common to see daily drivers this old even in California.
My first car was a ’53 210 2 door sedan.
Same color combo as your example.
I had a 50% share, my twin brother had the other 50%. It was six years old when we bought it. Six year old cars then were considered “old” and thus very cheap.
It was a tank to drive. We had to rebuild the carburetor more than once in the back room of the family apartment. Otherwise it was reliable.
Even at the age of 19, power and speed were not high priorities. More important was its ability to crawl up snowy hills. You cannot imagine the triumph of slowly edging that car up a long snow covered hill while leaving lesser vehicles stranded on the verges. Zero to sixty was for kids and older people who hadn’t yet figured out the important things in life.
Can’t say that I really miss that car, If offered another I don’t think I would bite. After all, kingpins and all, it was a real tank.
Nice ride. Potential theves at BART parking lots probably didn’t know what to make of this fine looking 210 series. Anyway, a ’54 Chevy would make a nice ride today, as long as you’re not in a hurry. Personally, if I was shopping for one of the “low priced three” back in that day, I probably would’ve went Plymouth or Ford (Ford – who had the more modern full-pressure lubed, short-stroke OHV six – that gave even the ’54 Ford Y-block a run for the money in performance). Conjecture . . .
I paid 125.00 for my 54 chevy 210 deluxe wagon . put in new paint . rebuilt 235 6cyl. eng. and a rebuilt powerglide I do not know how fast it would go but 95mph was fast enought for me.. a great hiway car I would cruse at 70-75mph on the interstates. bouhgt in 1968 and wish I never sold it in Oct. 1971 to a man named John P, by the way my old car liked lake county. Florida come to find out a Dr. bought this car new in Eustis in 54..But he bought a new car in 55 and my dad bought the wagon in 55..this was a car you get in then sit down very roomy. in a way I had a S.U.V. and didn’t know it.
hi i need for chevy 1954 stater do you have please let my know what price
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