GTP Cool Wall: 1957-1959 Ford Fairlane Skyliner

[GranTurismo916]

1957-1959 Ford Fairlane Skyliner nominated by @Cano

Engines: 272 ci (4.5L) V8, 292 ci (4.8L) V8, 312 ci (5.1L) V8, 332 ci (5.4L) V8, 352 ci (5.8L) V8
Power: 272: 190 hp; 292: 200-212 hp; 312: 245 hp; 332: 225-265 hp; 352: 300 hp
Torque: 260-320 lb-ft.
Weight: ~2080 kg
Transmission: 3-speed manual, 3-speed automatic
Drivetrain: Front engine, rear wheel drive
Body Styles: 2-door hardtop convertible
Additional Info: "From 1957 to 1959 Ford offered a convertible hardtop that stored the entire roof of the car in the enormous trunk. It had a complex mechanism which folded the front of the roof and retracted it under the rear decklid. It had three roof drive motors driving four lift jacks, four door-lock motors, ten solenoids, four locking mechanisms for the roof and a total of 610 ft (185.9 m) of wiring just for this."
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Spoiler: Additional Pics

1957:

1958:

1959:

 

[Tornado]

The 50's "Can do above all logical reasoning" spirit at its best. You could also get the Mercury equivalent of the Fairlane with a humongous piece of glass instead of a roof.



But also a car show queen pretty much from the day it rolled off the assembly line (especially for being an expensive, complex and very rare version of a car that mostly rusted off the road by the 1970s), so uncool.

 

[GTP_Ingram]

Going for a cool because of the roof, but there are cars of this type from this era that I think are better looking.

 

[Sage Ages]

An American land yacht from the 50s with all the excessive chrome and styling you'd expect.

Cool.

 

[Wiegert]

You could set up a table and a few deck chairs on that rear and host a get-together. Hell, the rear bumper has enough room for all of that if you ditched the continental tyre.

The '57 had too much junk in the trunk. Later models up to 1959 were just less attractive all-round. Uncool.

 

[Roger the Horse]

The '57 is nice. The '58 and '59, not so much.

 

[Niku Driver HC]

This car represents the era of old Americana so well, you'll have a time trip all the back to the '60's if you see one. Fins, huge size and weight, the whole works. Now, despite the fact that most examples are mostly used as museum pieces instead of being driver's cars, it's just one of those cars that will catch your attention. And that folding roof is incredibly complex, the sight of seeing that folding away by itself is quite awe-inducing.

Cool, mainly because it just screams Americana so well. And because early cars are good-looking.

 

[JMoney]

Cool because it's a 50's American land barge.

Sub-Zero because it has an automatic folding hardtop in the 50's.

 

[Adamgp]

Sub Zero for the folding roof alone.

 

[Tornado]

I also got to say that I never saw the stylistic appeal to the 57 Ford. It has a bunch of nifty ideas (the extreme cant of the front end, the T-Bird rear end, pronounced rear hips) that just don't translate to the otherwise plain body that well, giving it an appearance of a Tri Five Chevy that Virgil Exner hacked apart while working on the 57 Fury. Especially never liked how much larger the housing was over the size of the headlight.

 

[Dennisch]

Why isn't this Skyliner in GT?

 

[Cano]

I'm going to take this:

The 50's "Can do above all logical reasoning" spirit at its best.

From this post because it says everything this car represents in a great way. Gonna ditch the rest of the post because it sucks. Sub zero.

 

[Epic B]

Why isn't this Skyliner in GT?

Because it has the R in the wrong place.

I voted cool simply because retractable hardtop.

 

[ClydeYellow]

How to make a car have a retractable hard-top when you lack the technology to also make it foldable? Well, make the trunk long enough to store it unfolded!

Gotta love this way of thinking. Subzero.

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

Solid cool for the roof alone.

 

[TheCracker]

Not a huge fan of US cars of this era, but the earliest '57 model does have a degree of simple panache that the later ones lacked. But that holding roof is a wonderful piece of forward thinking engineering. Cool.

 

[SomePlayaDude]

Better rep of the name "Skyline" than anything else i know. (despite having an 'r' at the end)

*cough* EAT IT NISSAN *cough*

 

[Stotty]

Cool for the roof, but there are much nicer cars from this era.

 

[Heldenzeit]

Everytime you see one of these the top is always stuck in half up (or down) position. Doesn't do it for me when the sedan looks much better (IMO). Uncool.

 

[numbnuts70]

An innovative (in the '50s) retractable hardtop and a V8 is not enough to save this hideous 'stodge-mobile' from a seriously uncool.