Car and Driver Tested: The 10 Quickest Cars of the 1950s

One of the pillars of Car and Driver-and Sports Cars Illustrated, which was our name until 1961-has always been recording objective performance data for a wide variety of automobiles. This tradition began in 1955, and our approach progressively became more and more scientific. One of the very first cars we tested was the high-tech Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing (April 1956), but it missed out on making this list by one-tenth of a second. Plenty of legendary cars-ever hear of Chevrolet’s sports car, James Dean, or Ferris Bueller?-are among the 10 quickest to accelerate from zero to 60 mph that we performance-tested in the 1950s.

For perspective, the top car is equally as quick as today’s Volkswagen GTI. Heck, a 2015 Kia Sedona minivan would crack this list, but that doesn't make this group any less significant.

Be sure to also take a spin through the quickest cars we tested in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and in the 21st century so far.

December 1957

To mark the fourth birthday of the Corvette, its proud parents, the Chevrolet Motor Division, have announced the 1958 model which has undergone some extensive but not too important changes on the surface and a few rather interesting ones underneath. Starting right at the plastic body, the use of aluminum reinforcements in the cowl structure, inaugurated in mid-'57, has been extended to include the so-called "rocker panels" under the door openings. Bumpers are now bracketed to the frame in conventional American style, relieving the front and rear body panels of loads that are not rightfully theirs. These two items raise the weight "less than 100 pounds", but for racing, most of it can be unbolted and left in the pits without the SCCA batting an eye. READ MORE >>

May 1956

Chances are that by the time you read this the '56 Corvette will have made a profound impression on the whole sports car world, and after having had one under me for a couple of days I will be the last to be surprised. This very early production model showed a willingness and ability to be driven fast and hard under almost all conditions and demonstrated an even greater potential for competitive use. In my opinion, the Corvette as it stands is fully as much a dual-purpose machine as the stock Jaguar, Triumph, or Austin-Healey. Without qualification, General Motors is now building a sports car. READ MORE >>

September 1959

What We Said: “The feel of the shift lever in action is without peer. . . . Response to the exhilerator pedal is always smooth even at such low revs as 1000 rpm in top gear. . . . Our criticism of the Ferrari 250GT is that it seems to be still too much a special; as it were, a pseudo –road car designed to cash in on the Grand Prix reputation. It’s a lovely reputation, but in some respects we can’t say the same for the car. . . . Lest anyone think the millennium has arrived, we must report that [this Ferrari] is far better suited to the race course than anywhere else.”

January 1959

What We Said: “For sheer straightaway performance the car is exhilarating, thrilling, and amazing to drive. . . . The sound of this machine, as we took off, was astonishing. The [315-horsepower 348-cubic-inch] Chev 315 . . . comes on right now with that booming, hard-slamming thunder that we’ve learned to associate with wild, full-race V-8s at the drags and at Bonneville. It sounds precisely like what it is: a legitimate racing engine. . . . In cornering it is incomparably better than the ’57 Chev while still retaining a very buoyant ride. The rear lets go very slowly and only does so under hard provocation. . . . This car is an absolute ball to drive.”

February 1957

The Porsche Spyder is a fantastic machine. It is fast and fiercely powerful, one of the most successful competition sports cars in history, and it has a personality no less complex than Dr. Jekyll's. At brisk highway speeds it is very easy to drive, docile, perfectly manageable, superbly responsive. It is even an easy car to drive "fairly" fast, the way Ken Miles and Richie Ginther have driven it in a long series of spectacular 1500-cc-modified wins. But to drive it really fast, as fast as it's able to go-this is work for a driving genius-for a man, as Miles puts it, "with extraordinarily quick reactions and an exceedingly delicate bottom." Says Miles: "I'm just not that much of a driver." READ MORE >>

June 1957

Starting the dual-quad car was easy, by twisting the ignition switch, though some care was needed to avoid flooding on hot starts. Once warmed up, the idle was low enough at 500 rpm, but it was full of lumps and shook the car bodily. This can be handed to the competition cam, which was installed in both cars and checks out as seen in the sidebar. READ MORE >>

March 1959

With each annual change, Zora Arkus-Duntov, the Corvette's godfather, has emphasized performance improvements. His theory is that to sell, the Corvette must first go. Styling has had its innings, too, but they have acted with more restraint than one expects from Detroit. READ MORE >>

June 1957

Chevrolet's injection is a premature baby, but it's still alive and kicking. It was prematured by a sudden jolt from the collective Plymouth and Ford styling departments, and without a major body change Chev needed a potent sales weapon. The decision to bring out fuel injection was made very, very late in 1956-virtually on the introduction deadline. READ MORE >>

January 1958

What We Said: “The 250 [Gran Turismo line] is a masterpiece. Hardly any other cars in the world compare with it-except other Ferraris. . . . If you’ve driven Ferraris before, you expect to hear the raucous, jangling whir of a pair of overhead camshafts clattering against 24 valves. But when the 250 [Europa] comes to life, there’s an instant when you wonder what’s wrong. It’s too quiet. Then you realize that the builder has succeeded in civilizing one of the world’s most savage powerplants. . . . The combination of this kind of low-speed pulling power with screaming, slam-in-the-back acceleration that hustles you from zero to 120 mph in 24 seconds is just one of the unusual virtues of this rather unique machine.”