Tag Archives: fins

Cars With Fins

When it comes to classic American cars, I know next to nothing.  I didn’t grow up with them and I haven’t studied them since so put me in amongst a bunch of these cars as was the case for the Exotics@RTC Classics event and I will just focus on what I think looks cool.  These cars could be the rarest of items or the thing you could see at any local car meet and I wouldn’t be any the wiser.  The only clue to me that they could be a significant vehicle would be that a huge crowd of people was hanging around them.

The Classics Day certainly did bring out any number of cool looking old vehicles.  To be honest, some of them don’t even look that great to my eye but they are of an era and show where car design was at that time.  They might be chunky and huge but that was what cars were like back then.  Others have some more interesting styling features like the fins I mention in the title to this post.  That is something that I would previously have found rather crass but, as the time has passed, it is now more of a cool styling cue.

I know quite a few people that are petrol heads that will recognize these vehicles and possibly their years.  The only way I would identify them was if the name was written on the side – which it usually is – or if the owner has a sheet in the window with details of the vehicle and its history.  That will be plenty for me anyway.  Hope some of these chunky or swoopy shapes appeal to you.

AMG Mercedes Fins and Strakes

I was taking a look at one of the AMG Mercedes cars that was at Exotics@RTC.  This is a road car but it has clearly gone through a lot of aerodynamic development.  The front end of the car is covered in aero treatments with fin and strakes of all sorts.  I have no idea how important this is for driving the car around Seattle but it was really quite something.  I spent a few minutes just looking at them and thinking back to my aero days.