Automobile Anniversary

The November issue, like most, was superb, but I would like to clarify a point in your biography of Bill Mitchell (“Designer of the American Dream”).

The ’55 Chryslers were fantastic, but it was Virgil Exner’s ’57s—with their slender rooflines and bold tail fins integrated into a low, wedge profile—that literally sent GM’s stylists back to the drawing board. Because of those ’57 Chryslers, GM quickly developed all-new styling for 1959, not 1958 as the article stated. This is why all U.S.-built GM cars for 1959, from Chevrolet to Cadillac, share a common body shell. There wasn’t enough time to do it any other way.