Wonderbar Radio, Retro Manufacturing, Fuel Curve

“Wonder”ful Road Tunes with the all-new Wonderbar Radio

Every car has some sort of music player. But before MP3’s, flash drives, satellite radio, cassettes and 8 tracks (and yes even phonograph players designed for cars), the driver had an AM radio. Unless you had a totally stripped down car with a “radio delete” option, you had at least one speaker hooked up to an in-dash radio system. With five push buttons you could pre-select five of your favorite stations. But what if you traveled to new surroundings? Well, General Motors offered you the Wonder Bar radio as a nifty upgrade.

Wonderbar Radio, Retro Manufacturing, Fuel CurveWith the original Wonder Bar radio, a driver could cruise the highways, press the bar and the radio tuner would seek out a strong signal and then stop, letting you hear the tunes. If that station did not suit your taste, just push the bar again and await the next radio signal. As car radios went to digital design, the feature became known as the current “seek and scan” option. But the Wonder Bar was super slick technology for the 1950s!

Wonderbar Radio, Retro Manufacturing, Fuel Curve

Jump forward to today and Retro Manufacturing now offers their version of the RetroSound Wonder Bar Radio. They are designed to mimic the look of the vintage radios and fit in the original dash openings allowing classic car owners to keep it looking old school. Of course these radios do more than just play AM/FM stations. These babies offer Bluetooth, iPhone compatibility, four auxiliary and USB ports and are set up for satellite radio too. The digital display can be color coordinated and comes with RCA outputs. The radios go as far back as the 1949 Cadillac Series 60. But the slick part is the Wonder Bar will still seek out that next strong radio station.

So now classic car owners have another “wonderful” sound system option, without hacking up the dash.

Photos courtesy Retro Manufacturing


Share With: