When the 1955 Chevrolet passenger car line went on sale, the sales figures quickly showed that Chevrolet had a hit on their hands. For that model year, 1.7 million units sold, and for good reason: the car was sleek-looking, lower, wider, smoother, lighter and cheaper than the 1954 Chevrolet. The windshield blind spots were gone, thanks to new wraparound glass. Air conditioning was available, tubeless tires were standard, and twelve-volt electrical systems? Revolutionary! Available as basic or as posh as your wallet and imagination could handle, the car line, which included the 150, 210, Bel Air, Nomad wagon, Beauville wagon, and convertibles were a sales smash. The 1956 models, which got a minor facelift and a new four-door hardtop sedan body sold well enough. Then there was 1957...with heavy pressure from Ed Cole, the new-for-'57 Chevrolet would look longer, lower, wider, and classier. While it might have been a grind for the design studio, the result was spectacular and the 1957 Chevrolet will go down in automotive history as one of the most visually iconic and arresting designs ever delivered for a standard, mass-produced automobile. Even the most basic 150 sedan looked amazing, and when fitted with a Rochester-injected 283 cubic inch V8 with 283 horsepower and every bell and whistle on the options list, a Bel Air droptop looked like the perfect alternative to a Cadillac.

Decades later, the Tri-Five Chevrolets are still the standard bearers for American automobiles of the 1950s. There were wilder-looking Chryslers, more innovative Fords, and even humble, but brick-house solid, Ramblers, but if you think of a car from the 1950s, one of the three Chevrolets has to be in the mix. The great thing about them is that these are, in basic terms, just another Chevy. They were built to be daily drivers, family haulers, all-weather kinds of vehicles for the everyman. And it's a good thing, too, because the weather in Kentucky was a bit unpredictable for the 2021 Danchuk Tri-Five Nationals. As Bowling Green became inundated with tailfins, chrome and a palette of colors moving to the sound of the small-block Chevy V8, the heat and humidity would wind up giving way to a tropical rain that nobody was going to escape from

Much like the cars, who were not bothered with a bit of rain, neither were the show-goers. A weekend of drag racing saw street machines and all-out racers hit the strip. Drivers like Mike Bilina and Boyd Howe showed fans what the frame of a Tri-Five looked like as they dumped the clutch and hung the wheels high in the sky for the fans in the stands. In the show fields, the latest and greatest trends met up with classic modifications, street rod treatments, and restorations so clean you could eat off of them...if it weren't for the careful eyes of the owners and show-goers making sure that nobody placed an errant burger on a fender that didn't belong to them.

The culmination to the Tri-Five Nationals involved the Golden Star Classic Auto Parts Giveaway car. The 1957 Chevrolet 150 built by Woody's Hot Rodz and supported by Golden Star Classic Auto Parts was supposed to be the 2020 giveaway car, but...well, we're pretty sure you can understand why that did not happen last year. This year, Stephen Swendsen from White Pine, Tennessee was the lucky winner of the Colonial Cream and Onyx Black two-door post, and we hope that the LS376 and 4L70E automatic will provide miles upon miles of happiness.

There is no way that Ed Cole, Zora Arkus-Duntov, or any of the designers could have foreseen the popularity of the Tri-Five Chevrolets when they started rolling off of the lines. But here they are, still iconic, still desirable, still rolling strong after all of these years. Timeless never goes out of style.