Anyone who has been to Los Angeles is well aware that traffic can get a little hectic. It’s been like that for a long time, and this video proves it. Recently posted by the NASS YouTube channel, it offers a glimpse into LA highways during the 1950s and early 1960s. Who wants to see an American vintage car?
Old footage has been remastered, colored, and clearly digitized for upload on YouTube. Artificial sounds have also been added to provide a more authentic atmosphere, but they don’t reflect what’s really going on. If so, we suspect more car horns will be blaring as traffic is pretty much stop-and-go for the first half of the clip. Additionally, we saw some rather aggressive driving as riders switched lanes, cutting other riders short as they meandered through traffic jams. Some things never change.
But cars have definitely changed! The first half of the video appears to be from the early to mid-1950s, judging by most of the vehicles we see. Chevrolets and Buicks abound here – we caught some big Buick Roadmasters, which are easy to spot by the large wide chrome grille with prominent vertical bars. At least one was a large convertible, with styling cues pointing to Series 70 cars from 1949 to 1953. Chevrolet’s box sedans from the early 1950s also stood out, and we didn’t see the big-fin cars that defined Detroit’s style later in the decade.
The second part of the video moves us a few years into the future. This time we To do saw a few fin cars, most notably a late 1950s Cadillac although we also caught a glimpse of a 1961 Cadillac with a large fin on the top, and a smaller fin on the bottom. We also saw the second generation Ford Thunderbird, produced from 1958 to 1960. Sightings of the Ford Falcon and many Chevy Apache trucks further confirm that this clip is from the early 1960s. Keep your eyes peeled and you’ll see some gems like the vintage Volkswagen Type II bus and Citroen DS.
If you find another cool classic, let us know in the comments. And for the latest on the new Chevy trucks (and more), head over to Chatting About Cars podcast, available below.
