I promise no cheating, are they on the same horizontal surface by the trunk lid in the corner? This is my guess, I built both a 55 and 57 model when I was a kid but I can't remember

 

OK I cheated. Very clever. But I'm not saying where. Sorry couldn't wait.

 

I knew this, but my wife didn't. It was pretty funny, she had just gotten a new car and couldn't figure it out and then I told her to look at her dash. She felt dumb, but obviously no reason to be.

For GM, the 1956 model year is when the driver's side taillight was hinged to allow access to the fuel filler. Many 56 GM owners loved to play games with the young gas station attendants while enticing them to "find the hidden gas cap".

 

In the tail light, and rule of thumb, North American cars built here gas flap on drivers side, european on the passenger side, anybody know why?

 

I'm guessing it was probably safety related (or at least perceived safety related) - it was probably just deemed too make too much sense. I personally never saw anything wrong with it, I always thought it was a great idea for the very reasons being discussed.

That's partially true... there are still plenty of US cars that have the filler neck on the right side - the Pontiac G6 and the Grand Am predecessors and all of its clones all had it on the right, as did the Cavalier/Sunfire, for example. The older K-cars (Aries/Reliant) had it on the right side - and let's not forget the original Challenger and E-body Barracuda had it on the right (passenger) side as well.

As far as any reason why these cars are designed that way... your guess is as good as mine.

 

Check which side the tailpipe is on. The oppsite side of the filler cap for safety at gas pumps?

 

So how does that reasoning fit with dual exhaust?

 

The original E Bodies had the fuel filler on the passenger side because one of the designers figured if you ran out of gas it was safer to fill on the side of the road than having it on the drivers side. No joke.

 

Why didn't he put the other two (driver side) tires on that side too, in case you had a flat?

 

Wait a minute. Challenger had it on the passenger side. Someone check me on this, but didn't the E-Body 'Cuda have it behind the license plate?