1958 Edsel Citation

Among things you don't see rolling down the street every day are pristine Turquoise 1958 Edsel Citation hardtop coupes on dubs.

In my personal opinion, the '58 Edsels were the peak year for the 1950s Motown Rolling Wurlitzer look. They had every possible styling tic and chromed gewgaw they could slather onto the car, from the tip of the bizarre horse-collar snout to the end of the finned tail.

Edsel was slotted into the FoMoCo marketing ladder above Mercury and beneath Lincoln, and the Citation was the top of the Edsel line. Available as a convertible, hardtop coupe, or hardtop sedan, there were 9,299 Citations produced in '58, of which 2,532 were coupes like the one in the photo.

Interestingly, that ovoid snout is considered part of the front bumper system. That inner chrome hoop is officially known as the "impact ring".

The hardtop coupe was the cheapest Citation variant, priced at $3500, which is about $38,000 in 2024 dollars. Exclusive to the Edsel Corsair and Citation models was a 410 cubic inch V-8, rated at 345 SAE gross horsepower with a Holley 4-barrel carburetor. The only transmission choice in the Citation was the 3-speed TeleTouch automatic. Motor Trend magazine reported a 0-60 time of 9.7 seconds from their test car.

Reaction to the '58 Edsels was decidedly underwhelming, leading to a panicked redesign and re-shuffling of the range for '59, which included axing the entire Citation line. The very name "Edsel" has become synonymous with "marketing failure" and remained so until replaced by Coke's decision to change its formula in the Eighties.

This one was photographed in July of 2022 with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and an old EF 28-70mm f/2.8L USM. Though long superseded by newer 24-70/2.8 lenses with image stabilization, the old 28-70 puts up respectable DXOmark numbers and is capable of turning out crisp images even on the 50MP sensor of my 5DS, plus it's quite reasonably priced for "L" glass if you find one on the used market.