Nicked from MSN review of 1950s vision of what cars of 2010 would look like:
Fins were very much a thing of the 1950s. Bertone’s series of Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica (or BAT) prototypes built on Alfa Romeos set the ball rolling in Europe, but the idea was championed by American stylists. After reaching their peak height (literally) in 1959, fins were brutally chopped off American cars and have never made a comeback.
There were three different BAT cars, the last one being the least extreme. The first in 1953 was called BAT 5, 1954 saw BAT 7 and 1955 saw BAT 9. The one in the photo above is BAT 5.
Here is BAT 7
and here is BAT 9
In more recent times Bertone have come up with BAT 11