The most collectible car of-all-time is the ’57 Chevy

The January 2013 issue of my Hemmings Classic Car magazine arrived yesterday (Monday, November 19th, 2012).
It’s the 100th issue of Classic Car, so they suggested the 100 most collectible cars of all time.
Classic Car succeeded Special-interest Autos, also a Hemmings magazine, which I also have all the issues of.
—And I ain’t throwin’ ‘em out.
Special-interest Autos foundered when it began featuring foreign cars, first the Volkswagen Beetle, then the MG-B, etc.
Richard Lentinello, the head-honcho of Classic Cars, suggested the way to succeed as a classic car magazine was to avoid foreign cars. American cars were the true classics.
And there were many would-be readers out there interested in American cars — like me for example.
Like the cars of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Baby-boomers came of age during those years.
Classic Cars was founded eight years ago. Special-interest Autos is gone, and Classic Car is an astounding success.
Naming the 100 most collectible cars of all time is a hairball.
The magazine didn’t rank ‘em.
They went through the years naming collectible cars. As such we have the Model-T and Model-A Fords, the Stutz Bearcat, various Duesenbergs and Cords, and the Auburn Boat-tail Speedster.
Moving into the ‘50s we get the Studebaker Starliner Coupe, the mighty Chrysler letter-cars, the gorgeous ’56-’57 Lincoln Continental, and of course the Tri-Chevys, the ’55, ’56 and ’57.
Also the two-seater Thunderbirds.
Move into the ‘60s and we get the early Mustangs, the Corvairs, the first Pontiac G-T-O, the 1965 Buick Riviera, and perhaps the most beautiful ‘60s car of all, the 1961 bubble-top Pontiac Ventura two-door hardtop.
Also the Oldsmobile Toronado, the Z/28 Camaro, and the Dodge and Plymouth wing-cars at the end of the decade, the Daytona and the SuperBird.
They don’t rank ‘em, but they described the ’57 Chevy as “the most collectible car of all time.”
I agree with that, even though I prefer the ’55.
To me the ’57 Chevy makes various styling mistakes, but I certainly know enough people that desire a ’57 Chevy.
And the market for collectible cars reflects that; a brand-new ’57 Chevy probably cost less than $3,000 in 1957, but now commands a fortune.
A ’57 Chevy convertible in excellent condition will sell for over $100,000.
Classic Car didn’t rank the ’57 Chevy as the most collectible car of all time, but they suggested it.
Compared to some of the 100 cars they featured, I would say the ’57 Chevy is the most collectible car of all time.

Photo by BobbaLew.

My parents had a ’57 Bel Air wagon.
I thought the world of it.
We got it after my first year of college.
It was our first car with a V8 engine, the four-barrel 283 power-pak with dual exhausts.
It would do 80 in its automatic-transmission’s low gear.
It was our first non-turkey car, and it replaced our infamous “Blue Bomb,” a six-cylinder ’53 Chevy — the car I learned to drive on.