de autos cars

Welcome to a new feature...TireKicker Time Machine. And what better way to start than the car widely credited with beginning the "modern" era of post-war cars...the 1955 Chevy.

                          

You usually see these either customized or over-restored, and in a higher trim level, at Saturday cruise nights and classic car auctions. But this one appears to be a well, but not obsessively preserved original...parked in a downtown Phoenix parking lot on a weekday afternoon.

                          

This one's all there...right down to the original hubcaps...an accomplishment after 55 years.

                          

If you cropped this photo to eliminate the contemporary cars and the historic license plate and told me it was from the late 50s or early 60s, I'd see no reason to doubt it. This is what these cars looked like back in the day.

The side trim tells me that it's a Two-Ten 2-door sedan...the middle model between the top-of-the-line Bel Air and the base One-Fifty.

                         

                                                    (graphic from 55classicchevy.com)