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When ever I see the word "rare" in an ad for a production car, I
immediately think that the seller has absolutely no idea what he is talking
about, and consider all the other claims in the ad as tainted by the same
BS. Along with that, add "original restored", and "mint". The main
reason for something being "rare" is that the manufacturer couldn't give it away
when it was new, or they were such pieces of crap that owners got rid of them as
soon as they could, and the reputation made it so that only the junk man would
have them in short order. It is unfortunate that the build quality of 57
Chrysler products was so poor that it tainted their reputation, destroying sales
for several years after that. The 58s and 59s were at least as good as
anyone else was building. 57 Fords and Mercurys suffered from the
same problem--they were not very good cars to the original owners. Consequently,
there are few of them left now. 57 Chevy was the 3rd year of the design, so
it was a pretty good car, coupled with the fact that compared to the 58 and
59, it was light, and the 283 ran real good, so it remained popular as a
kids' car until we started collecting them. Like Model A Fords, part
of the popularity is that so many simply survived. Chrysler products with
V-8s ran really good, too, but the bodies deteriorated so fast, that they became
popular donor cars for 30s bodied rods--removing a lot of New Yorkers and
Imperials from the relm of the living because they sacrificed the 392 to a
rod.
Those Plymouth and Dodge engines ran really well in light
cars, even if they didn't have the cachet of "392", they had the advantage of
being fairly light, and they didn't make your car handle like a thrown
dart--follows the heavy end--in the real world, goes off the road front
end first. They had another advantage--they were "CHEAP!!!".
After I exhausted the supply of flathead Pontiac Hydramatics from my
local used car dealers for under $25, to supply my cousins (I come from a
large Catholic family; I know, redundant statement), they started giving
me, and I really do mean giving me 57 Plymouths and Dodges. My last haul
was in May of 1962, Just before i went into the Navy, when one Chevy Dealer I
had been dealing with for several years, handed me the keys and titles to 4--57
Plymouths and Dodges and told me to "Just get those damn things out of my
sight". They were 4 door sedans, but they were actually pretty nice cars
for 5 year old Detroit cars. My little sister took one, and drove it
until she graduated from college, got a job, and bought her first new car--a 69
Datsun.
I am not sure why all the speed parts were made for the SBC,
other than the fact that GM made a whole bunch of them and was smart enough to
make it so that they kind of interchanged. Ford's Y block as a slug, and
Chrysler's V-8 seem to be kind of alone among themselves design wise. By
the time the cars got cheap enough, the Chrysler products were gone, and only
the SBCs were around for low prices.
JOhn
Maybe it was that by the time people who were interested in Speed parts got
around to it,
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