1927 Chevrolet Capitol Series AA

5/17/2019
Tad Burness
The 1927 Chevrolet Capitol Series AA might not look like "the most beautiful Chevrolet in Chevrolet history," but that was how the 1927 Chevy was advertised when new. It had received a minor face-lift from 1926 and earlier models, and sported a few new colors. In the mid-1920s, Chevrolet was at last catching up to Ford in sales.
 
As late as 1923, Ford was selling 50-percent of all cars sold in the United States! But Henry Ford stubbornly insisted on continuing the antiquated Model T, once a great cash cow, but now beginning to stumble. Ford had introduced the Model T late in 1908, and it remained, for nearly two decades, still quite similar, mechanically, to the original_in spite of periodic styling alterations. The Model T had a cantankerous friction-band planetary transmission and three-pedal foot control, along with an underpowered 20-horsepower engine.
 
 
Chevrolet, on the other hand, offered a conventional sliding-gear transmission, better styling and was advertised as being easy for a woman to drive. As Chevrolet rapidly caught up with Ford, old Henry stopped firing assistants who wanted to dump the "T," and in 1927, shut down production for a few months in order to retool for the all-new and greatly improved Model A.
 
Chevrolet, of course, got the business Ford lost while retooling. 
 
A 1927 Chevrolet touring car figures prominently in the early portion of an excellent 1933 film, "Wild Boys of the Road." Frankie Darro stars as a teenager who sells his jalopy when his dad loses his job in the Depression. The boy sells it to a scrap dealer for $22, giving the money to his parents. Then, so they won't be a burden to their parents, Darro and his best buddy leave home, hop a freight train and hope to find work in some distant city. The story is somewhat like Steinbeck's famous "Grapes of Wrath" with all the hardships the characters face along the way. It's a film well worth your time, and you'll see quite a bit of that 1927 Chevy.
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