1961 Imperial Crown convertible

[electra225]

This is another BIG car. Really attractive color combination. I'm a sucker for white interior. Otherwise, it's not my cup of tea. You have to admit, Imperial styling was unique. Floating headlamps look like they would be horribly damage-prone. Whenever I see an Imperial, I'm reminded of Mrs. Drysdale on the Beverly Hillbillies......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvyD2kWWKwI

[Firedome]

Imperials were far better handling than any similar sized GM or Ford barges of the era not to mention rarer. Love the turquoise color.

[electra225]

The unfortunate thing with Imperials is that 90% of the ones ever built have been used in demolition derbies and or in English banger racing. They are almost indestructible in such use, but it's too bad more aren't restored and enjoyed that way. I have no idea why. Same thing with the big Lincolns. I have never driven an Imperial that I can remember. One of the nicest driving cars I remember driving back in the day was a '57 DeSoto that Mr. Faker owned.

[walyfd]

61 is my favorite year of the Forward look series...

Turquoise and white in a convertible is beautiful.

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

That Chrysler stylistic set up reminds me of the Bride's day tradition for good luck:

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, a sixpence in your shoe”

[electra225]

Our song leader at church was a retired, multi-decorated WW2 Army veteran. He was an officer and a POW. He got a pretty good pension from the military. He bought a new '67 Chrysler New Yorker for himself, dark metallic blue 4-door hardtop with a white vinyl top and white interior. He bought his wife a '67 Imperial 4-door hardtop, that looked like a New Yorker with different trim. Her Imperial was all black. Very elegant car. He always drove old junk until he got his military pension. The car he drove before he bought the New Yorker was a '52 Chevy with standard shift. The Chryslers were quite a step up.

[Firedome]

When Elwood Engle replaced Virgil Exner in '63 the '64 Imp was his first full design effort there, and you can see the influence of the '61 Lincoln that he'd had a big hand in. Then with the completely new full-sized C bodies of '65 Chrysler really hit it's stride, their '65 to 68s with their conservative designs really were a design reflection of '63/64 GM and Ford, as Lynn Townsend had stated that after the '61/62 debacle that Chrysler would follow, not lead, in design. The full-size '65 Chryslers emulated the '64 Mercury with concave sides, while Imperial, Polara/Monaco, and Fury were more conventional, in the '63/4 GM C-body mold, though ironically GM itself for '65 abandoned the straight line mold and introduced the more flowing curvy rear hips look.

For Mopar the new conservatism led to some of their best sales years ever. Following this, however, the new "Fuselage" look in '69 abandoned Townsend's rule and was a rather daring design change, and one that I liked a great deal, imo the best full-size Mopars ever, and we subsequently owned 5 of them, but they were not as popular with the public. Also Lynn Townsend's cost cutting and pipeline-stuffing with his "sales bank" hurt quality, a perennial problem at Chrysler, a company that always seemed on the edge. The E-body project (Challenger/Cuda) also drained needed resources and that investment didn't pay off, the timing was too late, even if they were fabulous cars. The formerly popular B-bodies also slumped with the new '71 designs and became a drag on sales.

The new and expensive C-Body for '74 that reverted to cribbing heavily from GM styling unfortunately hit the market just as the oil embargo decimated big car sales and big Mopars never recovered. We had several of those as well and they were excellent family cars, as well as great police cars, but poor sales almost did Mopar in, and even with continued good sales of the A-bodies and Cordoba by '80 they were bankrupt. Enter "Lido the Savior" who promptly killed the R-bodies, the last of the big Mopars, and gave us the minivan, K-car and a zillion derivatives of them; the rest is a litany of takeovers and mergers. Still, Mopar gave us some brilliant cars in the mid and late '60s, a fact that is certainly reflected in the market today.