1950s car ads didn't have actual pics of the cars, mostly just artwork. (example below) so it'd be hard to do.
Aren't there those picture effects? You could just select "drawing" or what it is called and by that just maybe get a similar effect?
Or you can ditch period correctness and do this instead; Its more 70's than 50's in theme, but who cares?(Purists do but they are a more unique breed)
Here's one I threw together for a special edition of the Moonhawk now that we have another generation of Bruckell
When in doubt: Helvetica. No, really. All these ads here are really, really nice. I'll do one tomorrow (with a chance of 99%) and it will suck with a certainty of 99.9%
Is it Arial or Helvetica then? Or neither? I think Windows offers way too many serifless fonts that look nearly the same.
I know that it wasn't TNR. I think I made myself sound like a total fool there. I'd say he used Arial in the end. (Helvetica still looks nicer, it's because some proportions seem to be more even.)