CHEVY CELEBRATES 100 YEARS AND THE DOZEN COOLEST CHEVROLET CARS OF ALL TIME

From NWI.com: CHEVY CELEBRATES 100 YEARS AND THE DOZEN COOLEST CHEVROLET CARS OF ALL TIME

Chevrolet is more than a cornerstone of popular culture, it's a brand that has captured the nostalgia of the South Shore for 100 years, a symbol for the American Midwest. From Lansing to Valparaiso and Hammond to Lowell, Chevrolet has become synonymous with ingenuity, grace, speed and power. The vehicles produced under the Chevrolet name go far beyond their craftsmanship and connection to the world famous ‘bowtie.'

Like the industry and culture that stands the test of time and economic strain across our landscape, the Chevrolet brand has endured for a century. Many models of Chevrolet have become brands unto themselves, their names evoking nostalgic trips through yesteryear and a look ahead to tomorrow.

The classic sexy lines of the Corvette glimmering under the streetlights of a Lake County "Cruise Night," the brightly colored muscle of the Camaro rumbling across U.S. 30, the flashing lights of a racing Crown Point P.D. Impala, the comforting hum of the economy-slaying Volt pulling into a student parking lot at I.U.N., are all exquisite examples of automotive artistry across our Region.

Only love has been immortalized in popular song more the Chevrolet. It's said that Chevy pops up in the lyrics of more than 500 tunes recorded by performers as diverse as Dinah Shore ("See the USA in your Chevrolet"), The Beach Boys ("She's real fine, my 4-0-9"), Don McLean ("Drove my Chevy to the levy . . .") and - now that he once again goes by the name Prince - the artist formerly known as "the artist formerly known as Prince" ("Little red Corvette, baby, you're much too fast").

Inspired by such a cultural catalog, we decided to sing Chevy's praises ourselves, focusing on what the brand really is all about - great cars. Here are our nominees for the dozen greatest Chevy cars of all time.

1912 CHEVY SERIES C CLASSIC SIX: This is the car that started it all. And it arrived with a flourish. At the time, Henry Ford's Model T was chugging along with a 177 cubic-inch four-cylinder that made 20 hp, taking Henry's T to a top speed of 45 mph or so. Chevrolet arrived on the scene with its Classic Six boasting a 299 cubic-inch six-cylinder. Making 40 hp and reaching speeds as high as 65 mph - pretty heady stuff at the dawn of the last century - the Series C Classic Six was a force to be reckoned with. Known by the public simply as "the Chevrolet," the Classic Six got the bowtie brand off to a great start - even if the bowtie logo itself would not debut for another two years.

1932 CHEVY DELUXE SPORT ROADSTER: This is the car that identified Chevrolet as a styling leader. With its chrome accents, rakish twin spare tires (one conspicuously mounted on each front fender) and a sassy rumble seat out back, the Deluxe Sport Roadster must have cheered Depression-era car buffs who caught its handsome form motoring by. The Deluxe also was affordable, a fact that help Chevrolet retain its No. 1 sales position in the depths of the Great Depression. Ford's Model A coupe may be 1932's best-remembered car today, thanks mainly to the Beach Boys' tune "Little Deuce Coupe" ("deuce" standing for the "2" in " ‘32"), but - quoting Brian Wilson - we'd have say to those who've forgotten the '32 Chevy Deluxe Sport Roadster, "You don't know what I got."

1953 CHEVY CORVETTE: The GM Motorama opened on Saturday, Jan. 17, 1953, at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria, and the world has never been the same. That event saw the first Corvette unveiled as a "dream car," but it quickly went into production after the wildly enthusiastic response from the public. Its inaugural model year of 1953 saw only 300 of these fiberglass beauties built, each painted Polo White and boasted a red interior, a black canvas top and removable plastic side curtains in lieu of roll-up windows. From a performance standpoint, the '53 may have been an under-achiever, with its docile straight-six and two-speed automatic transmission, but it was soooo good-looking. Performance would improve in the future. GM's official history of Corvette states: "Since only 300 were produced in 1953, the Chevrolet Central Office in Detroit had to control their distribution. Among the first lucky owners? John Wayne." We would argue that, with the birth of Corvette, all car enthusiasts got lucky.

1955 CHEVY NOMAD: Even in pre-rock ‘n’ roll America, making a station wagon cool was a Herculean task. Chevy rose to the challenge with the 1955 Nomad, a two-door wagon that had its styling roots – particularly its roof and rear-end treatment – in the Corvette-based Nomad “Dream Car” concept, which wowed ‘em during the 1954 General Motors Motorama. In production form, Nomad shared the underpinnings of the all-new ’55 Chevy sedan, but aft of the A pillar went its own styling way. The forward-leaning roof pillars, wrap-around D-pillar glass and utterly unique tailgate treatment, complete with chrome ribs, made this the most head-turning wagon in suburbia. Marketed as a high-trim “halo” vehicle for Chevrolet, its 1955-57 versions remain passionately sought after by collectors.

1957 CHEVY BEL-AIR: With its grinning grille, sassy fins and overall styling audacity, the 1957 Chevy Bel-Air took what the ’55 had started and then elevated it to the next level. Sure, it was the ’55 – longer, lower and wider than its predecessor – that brought Chevrolet styling into the modern era. And it was the ’55 that introduced the “Turbo-Fire V-8” (gotta love that name), the first of the now-legendary Chevy small-block V-8s. But the ’57 took all those ingredients and added panache, not to mention a bigger small block. With its marvelous power-to-weight ratio in V-8 trim and its hey-look-at-me styling, the 1957 Chevy Bel-Air seemed to encapsulate in chrome, steel and rubber all the giddy optimism of Eisenhower-era America. More than half a century later, the ‘50s are still identified primarily by three American icons: Ike, Elvis and the ’57 Chevy.

1963 CHEVY CORVETTE STING RAY SPLIT-WINDOW COUPE: This knockout heralded the second generation of America’s Sports Car. Forty-eight years after its debut, the ‘63 Sting Ray split-window coupe remains one of the most visceral and beautiful automobiles ever to ride four tires. With styling inspired by the 1959 Stingray race car and 1961 Mako Shark show car, the all-new 1963 Corvette coupe marked the beginning of the glory years for Corvette. That, however, is not to say it didn’t cause controversy. The split-window rear styling was a subject of debate even within the GM styling studios. Though primary designer Larry Shinoda wanted the rear-window bar, luminaries as lofty as Zora Arkus-Duntov, “the father of the Corvette,” opposed it. In the end, it made the production cut, but lasted only one year. Automotive critics and Corvette buyers objected to the feature’s restriction of rear visibility. By 1964, a more conventional rear window was installed. Today, however, the split-window coupe of 1963 is among the most coveted Corvettes.

1964 CHEVROLET IMPALA SS CONVERTIBLE: This one’s a sentimental favorite of your humble correspondent. Back in the late ‘60s, when I attended McBride High School on North Kingshighway in St. Louis, there were two guys I knew who had awesome cars. (I can tell you, my ’59 VW was never in the running for the title “Awesome.”) One was a fellow McBride Mick, who owned a ’67 Pontiac GTO. The other was a neighborhood guy who attended Southwest High School. He had a canary-yellow ’64 Chevy Impala SS convertible. Most of my gang gave the nod to the GTO, but I always loved that Impala SS. The boxy body was marvelously clean, exhibiting no gratuitous doo-dads to imply power (its big block 409 cubic-inch V-8 was evidence enough of its power), and its retina-searing yellow paint job was just too cool for school. The blue car pictured here just doesn’t do it justice.

1965 CHEVY CORVAIR MONZA: To heck with Ralph Nader. We like the audacity behind the Corvair. With the first few imports trickling in as the 1950s wore on, Detroit realized there might be a market for small cars. While other domestic compacts were, essentially, slightly smaller versions of big cars, GM thought outside the box. The result in 1959 was revolutionary Detroit iron with a rear-mounted, air-cooled six-cylinder, a fully independent suspension, unibody construction and styling that just kept getting better every year. Alas, Nader’s 1965 book “Unsafe At Any Speed” doomed Corvair – and, it seemed, only Corvair, even though the Chevy was the subject of just the book’s first chapter! (We’re guessing nobody read beyond that.) The last Corvair model year was ‘69. Our favorite of the nameplate’s decade-long run is the ‘65 Corvair Monza pictured here. The grille-less face spoke of its unique drivetrain while its forward-leaning front-end styling and uncluttered flanks gave it a look of motion even at rest.

1969 CHEVY CAMARO: As part of Chevrolet’s 100th birthday celebration, General Motors conducted an online poll to determine “The Best Chevy of all Time.” The winner, announced in September, was the 1969 Camaro. It’s hard to argue with that result. Sixty-nine was the final model year of the first-generation Camaro, which debuted in 1967 to battle Ford’s Mustang. It was a memorable year for Camaro, for Chevrolet and for car buffs everywhere. Not only was the beautiful styling of the original Camaro still largely in evidence, but the car’s performance was second to none. A dizzying array of engines were offered, from a 155-hp I-6 to a 375-hp 396 V-8 to a race-prepped 430-hp 427 V-8. The ‘69 Camaro was so impressive it was invited to be the Indy 500 pace car, as evidenced by the Camaro shown here. And now, to its other laurels, the ’69 Camaro can add “Best Chevy of all Time.” A great car.

1970 CHEVY CHEVELLE SS: Back in the day when GM divisions were pretty much autonomous and actually saw each other as competitors, the keepers of the Chevrolet flame were not about to be outdone by Pontiac. So, as Chevy’s response to the original Pontiac GTO, 1964 saw the debut of the Chevelle SS. With a 300-hp 327 V-8, it was outclassed by the 348 hp produced by the ’64 Goat’s 389 cu.-in. V-8, but that wouldn’t last. By 1970, the Chevelle SS boasted the most powerful V-8 in classic muscle car history – a 450-hp, 454 cubic-inch thriller. The SS454’s 0-60 mph sprint was a blink over 6 seconds with a top speed of 108 miles per hour. The 1970 Chevelle SS remains one of the truly great muscle cars ever to come out of Detroit – and that’s saying something. It was a marvelous performance statement by Chevrolet.

2008 CHEVY MALIBU: This mass-production midsize family sedan may seem an odd choice to include on a list of the coolest Chevrolet cars ever, but it marked a turning point for the Bowtie brand, which at the end of the last century seemed to be focused heavily on trucks and SUVs – to the detriment of its passenger cars. (It’s notable that no Chevy from the ‘80s or ‘90s makes our Coolest Chevys list.) The all-new 2008 Malibu proved that Chevy, after slogging through the ‘90s with the Lumina and greeting the new century with the “good enough” 1997-07 Malibu, was back in the CAR business. The new Malibu – good looking, affordable and very well built – loudly proclaimed that, when it came to Chevy passenger cars, “good enough” no longer was good enough. Yep, Chevy is serious about passenger cars again, and that announcement came through loud and clear thanks to the 2008 Malibu.

2011 CHEVY VOLT: Tired of seeing Toyota wear the “technology crown” with its Prius hybrid, GM set out to claim that title for itself with the revolutionary Chevrolet Volt. Here’s a car that can run 25-50 miles on pure electric power, meaning that commuters who live within, say, 20 miles of where they work, can drive it daily to the job and charge it nightly at home and never use a drop of gasoline. At the same time, Volt boasts a backup gasoline engine that allows this “extended range electric car,” as GM calls it (we call it a hybrid), to travel cross-country, if the owner desires, just like any other automobile. When it debuted, there had never been anything like it. Still isn’t. The Chevy Volt is a marvel of engineering and a forward-thinking way to use less fossil fuels. And, unlike a pure electric car, it never induces the dreaded “range anxiety.”