Our Two Cents: Peak Fin

As styling elements go, it’s hard to argue against the tailfin. The first fin on a production automobile appeared on the 1934 Tatra 77, a striking central element emerging like a dorsal fin from the roof’s trailing edge as a prominent feature of the sloping rear engine cover.

It wasn’t until the 1948 Cadillac, however, that we’d see a pair of small, subtle fins deployed aft of the fenders, the product of Harley Earl and designer Franklin Hershey, both of whom had been floored by the appearance of the Lockheed P-38 fighter plane they had seen just before the war. The design was a hit, and the prominence of Cadillac’s tailfins soared, with ever-larger, ever-sharper fins the perfect accompaniment to the rise of the jet age. Other manufacturers quickly followed suit, each with its own take on this distinctive, entirely superfluous feature. 

For this week’s installment of Our Two Cents, we asked Hagerty Media staffers to give us their idealized version of the fin. After some confusion, we made it clear that Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas were off the table—cars only please—and here’s where we landed.

NASCAR Champagne

I was always a fan of the 1956 Chrysler 300B, especially the ones raced by Carl Kiekhaefer to a couple of NASCAR championships. These fins say, “Hey, I have fins, but I’m surprisingly cultured.”—Steven Cole Smith

The Double Nickel

I’m gonna go with the 1955 Chevy. I think I might be in the minority when it comes to my favorite Tri-Five fin, but I like the subtle fin over the larger ’56 fin and the bombastic ’57 flipper.—Cameron Neveu

BATman

Gotta be the Alfa Romeo BAT cars for me. Three cars—BAT 5, BAT 7, BAT 9—all designed by Franco Scaglione at Bertone. They’re all wild and they all have fins for days, but I think the middle child, BAT 7, is the prettiest, and certainly the finniest, with massive blue appendages that from the back look like a stingray or large fish ready to power through the water.—Andrew Newton

Form AND Function!

I’m going with the 1989 Cadillac DeVille, for two reasons: 1) The floor-to-ceiling taillights made their way onto any customized GMT-400 truck worth a damn; and 2) They were sleek and streamlined as if tuned by a wind tunnel, but they were also long and flowing, as they should be for a Caddy. Bonus: They were tailfins that withstood a 5-mph impact! What more could you possibly ask for?—Sajeev Mehta

Form. Just Form.

For me, it’s the ’59 Cadillac. When it comes to fins, it’s all about the ’50s, and these are the biggest, most bodacious fins of them all. They’re tall, they’re lined in chrome, and smack in the middle of EACH fin is a pair of enormous torpedo taillights. (Or lipstick tubes.) Are they functional, you might ask? To which I’d reply, have you SEEN them? Who the hell cares?!—Eric Weiner

Stjärtfenan

America may have invented, inflated, and even perfected the tailfin, but I’ve always liked the far more subtle approach taken by the Europeans (Alfa BAT cars notwithstanding). Sunbeam Tigers and W111 Mercedes sedans did them well, but the real standout for me is the Volvo P1800, whose rounded, chrome-capped fins began just after the door and led into the small, separate taillights. I also appreciate that Volvo slyly incorporated the fins’ outline, if not the entire appendage, into the back end of 1800ES wagon.—Stefan Lombard

Thundercougarfalconbird

The first-gen Thunderbird is a beautiful car, with elegant lines that aren’t cluttered with overwrought design elements that would come with the four-seater model that followed innediately after. The 1957 model got a nice, subtle fin that was angled and sharper than its predecessors, and it’s one of my favorites. However, I think the best evolution of that theme came with the third-generation “Bullet Birds”. The fins look great on the production cars next to the afterburner taillights and sculpted bumper, but they shine on the Thunderbird Italien concept paired with the swoopy hardtop.—Brandan Gillogly