Car Design Evolution from 50's to 60's
Why did the drastic change in American cars between the 50's and the 60's come about?
INTRO Brit Spears offered the following reflection on the significance of the 1964 Ford Mustang in Wired magazine“The two Ford execs saw a vast market literally rolling before their eyes, and, according to legend, the notion of a sports car with a back seat was one of those ‘ah-hah’ moments.”[i]The 1964 Ford Mustang was a ground breaking design in automotive history. A simple idea was the inspiration this game-changing idea. It’s unique style was unlike any other car ever seen and inspired generation after generation of automobile after it. In fact, it even created a whole new category of car, because there was no car released that could compare to it. The 60’s were a time of great change in America, and the automotive industry is no exception to that great change. America in the fifties was fundamentally different than America in the sixties. These differences in the societies of the fifties and the sixties undoubtedly influenced the great change in the design of the cars between the two decades. The 50’s cars were a product of the post-war optimism of the successes of the second world war, the fear of a nuclear bomb based war due to the Americans knowledge of other countries engineering the bombs, and the orthodoxy of the people in America. Cars in the 60’s were a product of the rising sense of individualism in the people, the anti-government attitude, and the effects of the 60’s being an age of protest for America. Since the automobiles of the fifties were a product of the fifties, the general life and the pride accompanied by the fear of the people of the 50’s must be laid out first, and then its influence on the curvy, and swooping, large styling of the cars of that time, and then how that time influenced the automobile itself. Next, the same has to be done with the sixties, and how the
INTRO Brit Spears offered the following reflection on the significance of the 1964 Ford Mustang in Wired magazine“The two Ford execs saw a vast market literally rolling before their eyes, and, according to legend, the notion of a sports car with a back seat was one of those ‘ah-hah’ moments.”[i]The 1964 Ford Mustang was a ground breaking design in automotive history. A simple idea was the inspiration this game-changing idea. It’s unique style was unlike any other car ever seen and inspired generation after generation of automobile after it. In fact, it even created a whole new category of car, because there was no car released that could compare to it. The 60’s were a time of great change in America, and the automotive industry is no exception to that great change. America in the fifties was fundamentally different than America in the sixties. These differences in the societies of the fifties and the sixties undoubtedly influenced the great change in the design of the cars between the two decades. The 50’s cars were a product of the post-war optimism of the successes of the second world war, the fear of a nuclear bomb based war due to the Americans knowledge of other countries engineering the bombs, and the orthodoxy of the people in America. Cars in the 60’s were a product of the rising sense of individualism in the people, the anti-government attitude, and the effects of the 60’s being an age of protest for America. Since the automobiles of the fifties were a product of the fifties, the general life and the pride accompanied by the fear of the people of the 50’s must be laid out first, and then its influence on the curvy, and swooping, large styling of the cars of that time, and then how that time influenced the automobile itself. Next, the same has to be done with the sixties, and how the