It seems a lot of people remember the (in)famous “More Cowbell” sketch from the 2000 season of SNL. Well, to paraphrase Christopher Walken: “I’ve got a fever, and the only cure is…more ’55 Chevys!” Those of the Model Motoring variety that is, and since I just scored a great deal at an online auction for a color I didn’t have, I thought I’d not only add it to The Road Crew, but also take the opportunity to swap a few things around.
The black sedan I bought as a kit and mounted on the only turquoise T-Dash chassis I’ve ever bought originally had these Vincent “cone” style wheels, which so far I’ve only used on 2 cars. I liked them well enough since I thought they gave the car a very “gramma” look, but I wondered: was that the right look for a black Bel-Air with bright turquoise interior? And especially for one that ran as fast as that one did? I eventually decided it was not, so I did a wheel and axle surgical x-plant to migrate those “cones” to this newly added burgundy ’55!
Burgundy…or maroon, or “cordovan,” or some even call it brown; whatever you call it, I tend to like this color that MM used, a color similar (but not identical) to the very rare shade of brown that Aurora used on just a handful of the original cars. I have several cars in this shade, including a ’67 Camaro and a ’67 Chevelle, that are also both in The Road Crew.
With these “poverty cap” wheels and blackwall tires, this li’l 2-door see-dan definitely looks like a “Blue Flame 6” and “3 on the tree”- equipped utility car, as many ’55 Chevy 2-door “post” sedans-even Bel Airs-were, when they were sold new. Precious few survive like this today, although there are still a few out there-I owned a couple, and I loved them! They were slow, but they were dead-solid reliable, ridiculously easy to work on, and made pleasing mechanical sounds I’ve never forgotten. So, with no decoration beyond what the factory provided, and mounted on a decent running old closed-rivet chassis with an all-red armature and stock black magnets, this “Plain Jane” Chevy serves as my little homage to the way things used to be!
But what, then, became of the black car with the turquoise chassis?
Well, for that one, I decided to delve into the parts box and use the last set of my most recent order of 5-lug Vincent wheels and a special set of tires I’ve been saving for a special car: the very difficult to obtain whitewall “Super Tires” that, so far, I have only seen twice. These are beautifully made and have superb grip, being silicone and thicker than the original tires. I haven’t ever been able to find these whitewalls for sale, though; I got this spare set in a parts lot I ordered on ePay over a year ago.
The only other car in my fleet that has them is my beautiful turquoise blue and white ’55 Bel Air hardtop, which I bought with said tires already on it, and never gave any thought to removing them. I could have used these on my recently built red ’40 Lincoln, but I chose to go with all-white Super Tires for that car, and I’m happy with that choice. And so, when it came time to put new shoes on the all black ’55, I decided this was the car that was worthy of them, and looking at it now, I think that was the right choice; the chome reverse 5-lugs with the whitewalls give it a full-blown “greaser” attitude that mixes perfectly with the performance provided by that colored T-Dash chassis, meaning this car is surely a “Power Pack” V8, and probably either a Powerglide automatic or even a 3-speed “Touchdown” overdrive for a gearbox. And just to dispel any naysaying: you absolutely could buy a ‘55 in black with blue interior; many years ago, I knew a guy who had one, a 6-cylinder Bel-Air 4-dr sedan that was just so colored, and it was 100% factory original!
Both these cars are sure-fire cures for “’55 Fever!” So now, including the white, orange, and flamed black hot rods, the stock candy red cruiser, the aforementioned turquoise and white hardtop, and the red custom-made gasser, I now have 8 MM “Double Nickles” in the Road Crew, each with its own style and character! That oughta keep that fever at bay…well, for a while, anyway!
May these cars are so beautiful to look at!