Happiness is a ’55 Chevy

‘55 Bel Air convertible. (Photo by Dan Lyons.)

—BEHOLD, the car I lusted after all through high-school and college, then well into the ‘70s.
The June 2018 entry in my Tide-mark “Cars of the Fab ‘50s” calendar is a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible.
People often think I’m a Mustanger. In 1964, when Ford’s Mustang was introduced, I was in my sophomore year of college.
No, I worship Chevrolet’s SmallBlock, the V8 that put Old Henry’s FlatHead, the foundation of hot-rodding, out to pasture.
I remember thinking it was too bad the introductory Mustangs weren’t the SmallBlock. Ford’s new small-block was pretty good, but they weren’t Chevrolet’s SmallBlock.
The SmallBlock turned Chevrolet around. Prior Chevys were bloated turkeys with only the hoary old six-cylinder Cast-Iron Wonder of 1937. I know; I learned to drive in one, a navy-blue 1953 Two-Ten two-door with PowerGlide six.
I nicknamed it “The Blue Bomb.”


The Blue Bomb. (1962 photo by BobbaLew at my high-school.)

All through seventh-grade a friend and I warred. “Ford,” “Chevrolet,” “Ford,” “Chevrolet” at our schoolbus stop. My friend’s parents had a ’53 Ford with FlatHead V8. My parents had that turkey Two-Ten. Seventh grade is 1957.
Thank Ed Cole and the postwar drive for V8 motors. A postwar hotrod generation was coming, and Chevrolet had to meet it. Chevy had to do a V8, and its first proposal was a downsized copy of Oldsmobile’s V8 of 1949. Independent, but pretty much the Olds V8.
Cole proposed differently. Minimize casting expense, and make it light, with high-revving lightweight valvegear.
Instead of putting the rocker-arms on a heavy shaft, Cole went with Pontiac’s new ball-stud rockers. And to get oil up to the heads, valve pushrods were made tubular. That avoided drilling separate oil galleries.
Chevy’s SmallBlock revolutionized Detroit motors. Soon all manufacturers were copying Cole’s V8.
I was smitten myself. A SmallBlock could rev to-the-moon, almost Ferrari like. SmallBlocks responded well to hot-rodding, so became the norm.
Even racecars used the SmallBlock; they could be made incredibly powerful. Give it the means to stay together, and hold on tight! Even Detroit was doing that: forged cranks in four-bolt bearings.
Two cheerleader sisters a class above mine in high-school had a ’55 convertible the same colors as the car pictured. They often drove it top-down.


(Photo by BobbaLew.)

But most attractive was that SmallBlock motor, which meant a ’55 Chevy didn’t hafta be a convertible.
Pictured is the fabulous Two-Ten hardtop owned by young Mitchell of Mitchell’s Department Store near my home in northern DE.
It was probably a six at first, but Mitchell swapped in a 283 four-on-the-floor.


Mitchell’s Two-Ten. (Long-ago photo by BobbaLew.)

I’ve flown that picture hundreds of times — the car I desired all through high-school.
By now Mitchell’s car is probably rebar in concrete. He traded for a ’58 ‘Vette — a mistake I say. Right motor; wrong car.
I gravitated toward stationwagons in college, mainly because you could sleep in ‘em. My parents also bought a used ’57 wagon.
But any such car had to be SmallBlock four-on-the-floor.
My parents’ wagon was 283 PowerPak with PowerGlide. It would do 80 in the quarter. I drove it with the air-cleaner off revved to the Moon. It was strong enough to be scary.
SmallBlock displacement increased to 327 cubic inches while I was in college. What ’55 Chevys I drew, and I was drawing ‘em continuously, were 327 four-on-the-floor.
Corvette became more a sportscar for the 1963 model-year, my freshman year in college. But they were still SmallBlock.
Later SmallBlocks went up to 350 cubic inches, even 400 for the late-‘70s Monte Carlo. 400 cubes was a mistake. The cylinders had to siamesed, which compromises cooling.
The SmallBlock was introduced in 1955, 63 long years ago. It’s still being made, although so different from the original it’s barely recognizable. About all that remains are the bore-center measurements, still 4.4 inches apart.
My taste in cars changed over those 63 years. My lust for fast cars waned. I became my paternal grandmother: reliability is what counts. Easy starting and minimal repairs are more important than speed.
The fact I chase trains — I’m a railfan — became paramount. I need All-Wheel-Drive and lotsa ground-clearance. I might hafta chase trains on icy farm-tracks.
Years ago a ’55 Bel Air hardtop appeared in the Swap-Sheet — this is before Craig’s List. I told my wife I had to at least go look at it. 400 SmallBlock, four-on-the-floor. Its owner died; it was the car I always dreamed of.
Daughter and mother took me for a ride. Incredible racket and flopsy handling. It was a piece-of-junk, needing total frame-off restoration. So I throw $40,000 at it. I still end up with an antique on a frame as flexible as an aluminum ladder.
Soon afterward I saw a ’55 convertible swapped to a 454 Big-Block. The guy couldn’t floor it because that bent the frame.
I drove there in my wife’s Honda, slow but a better car.
And convertibles are no longer as attractive as they were. My wife’s Honda was air-conditioned. Roll up the windows, and AC wins.
And sadly, Cole’s SmallBlock was GM’s shining moment. They rested on their laurels while Ford improved their small-block V8. Double overhead camshafts even. Chevy shoulda done that.
Also sadly, I never owned a SmallBlock. Ferrin cars, especially sportscars, replaced the ’55 Chevy. Chevy’s SmallBlock remains desirable. But Ford’s 32-valve DOHC small-block is even more desirable. (My grandmother would be appalled. “Is it a Chevrolet?” she wailed regarding my Vega.)
For chasing trains rocket-speed and mega horsepower are a waste. No way can I chase trains in a ‘Vette or Porsche.

• The “SmallBlock” and “Big-Block” nicknames came later, after Chevrolet introduced a “Big-Block” truck motor in 1958. “Big-Block” motors were also used in cars, often hot-rodded. In 1964 Chevrolet revised its “Big-Block” to generate more horsepower. The ball-stud rockers permitted valve-offset that reshaped the combustion-chamber for better breathing — an almost Hemi. Yet the smaller V8 continued to be manufactured.
• RE: “Siamesed cylinders.....” —The cylinders were so large space could not be designed between the cylinder castings at 4.4-inch bore-centers. This allowed hot-spots where the cylinders were siamesed.
• RE: “Happiness is a ’55 Chevy.....” —Somewhere in this house I have a pencil-drawing of Snoopy (Peanuts) sleeping on the hood of a ’55 Chevy, as he used to do on his doghouse. “Happiness is a ’55 Chevy” is in the word-blurb.