Chevrolet was proud of its 1956 lineup, and rightly so. See the confidence on display in this 1956 color film.

This beautifully produced clip is actually an excerpt  from a much longer 1956 General Motors film entitled American Engineer, and as such, it provides a 10,000-ft. look at the engineering and design work that created the ’56 Chevrolet line. There’s very little n the way of granular technical detail here. This is more of a cinematic think piece on the corporation’s philosophy of engineering—as seen, perhaps, through the eyes of the automaker’s public relations department.

The production is busting its buttons with mid-century American pride and confidence, and rightly so, we think. At the time, General Motors was far and away the world’s largest automaker, as well as one of the greatest industrial enterprises in history.  And the Chevrolet division was its flagship, with sales that often exceeded the rest of the GM brands combined. While ’56 was not a record year for the bow-tie brand, it still managed to pump out more than 1.5 million vehicles into a slowing market.

This item caught our eye early in the film, at around 20 seconds: a Bel AIr Sport Coupe in a distinctive color combination, and it’s equipped with a continental spare tire kit. Now there’s something you don’t see every day, especially in a Chevy factory film. Video below.

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