[Ragtop Man]

Yep, they look good, but in the early years, the crashworthiness was terrible.

There is a film in the GM archives that shows a staged crash test of a '61 Impala going into a late '50's GM C-Body (fergit which) and the force of the impact is so great, the Chevy body shears away from the X frame and goes sailing into the obstacle making a hideous wreck that would have been a certain fatality if it were not at Milford.

The great Pontiac perimiter frame was a partial answer to this, instead of perching on the frame like the X-frame cars did, it is nestled down in the frame, and you have pretty heavy steel beams on either side of you.

In racing, when these cars wrecked, it was spectacular. Fireball wadded up the '61 Catalina that came within three gallons of winning Daytona a few races later, and it was such a mess that Smokey had it crushed into a cube and delivered to Knudsen.