http://www.streetsideclassics.com/showcar.php/atl/52/1956-Desoto-Fireflite

Really nice because it's not a uber-dollar car- it's a nice showable cruiser. I note one c-pillar courtesy lamp is out.

Don't care for the simple leather covering over where the TorqueFlite buttons were- would be MUCH better to maybe have re-purposed them and let that distinctive feature live on.

I've been looking for a door-open shot of a '56 since remembering drooling over a '56 in a junkyard a few decades ago - I had distinctly recalled that 'DESOTO' sill nameplate as standing upright- assumedly so a passerby could read the marque name from the side (like a '56 DeS would be mistaken for something else), but here it's laying flat. Not completely sure that wasn't modified. Sweet car- and thankfully they kept the Hemi.

I absolutely love how coordinated and in-sync the interior and exterior designs of cars were during that period.

This is something like I'd build. Not too custom, but still unique. Of course, being that this particular example is a DeSoto, I probably would've taken it back to original.

http://www.streetsideclassics.com/showcar.php/atl/52/1956-Desoto-Fireflite

I absolutely love how coordinated and in-sync the interior and exterior designs of cars were during that period.

We have fallen so far IMHO in car design since the 1950's, if you really want to know the truth....

...and also, if I had 45 grand, I would love to buy that Desoto...

In 56, Desoto was the pace car for the Indy 500...

I think design in general is leaving our society. EVERYTHING is so bland and passé. It's always function over form. And that's good to an extent, but it eventually distills every ounce of character out of the design.

I've really come to think that the last 10 years in our industry we're the last golden age. The cars coming out now are so homogenous that it makes me sick.

^ You're not taking it back far enough.

In other words; like there's any difference from a design impact standpoint between a --say-- 2005 and 1995.

I think design in general is leaving our society. EVERYTHING is so bland and passé. It's always function over form. And that's good to an extent, but it eventually distills every ounce of character out of the design.

I've really come to think that the last 10 years in our industry we're the last golden age. The cars coming out now are so homogenous that it makes me sick.

Design in general is not leaving our society, have you seen my yellow thong with a Smiley Face? Class, if I do say so myself! You must be a Southern boy to think such a thing, and not a very smart one at that! Jeez, and you thought I left C&G!

Edited October 7, 201015 yr by Oracle of Delphi

^ You're not taking it back far enough.

In other words; like there's any difference from a design impact standpoint between a --say-- 2005 and 1995.

Maybe if you're blind. I expect better from someone as detail oriented as you.