Hemmings Classic Car – October 2019

PRESERVING & PROTECTING

CLASSIC VEHICLES SINCE 1965

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TM

its stillborn wartime work with the P47 Thunder-

bolt and adapted it to its line of postwar cars. With

a two-barrel carburetor, the 331-cu.in. Hemi put

out 180 horsepower, except in the dual-four-barrel

300, where it made (surprise!) a roaring 300 horses.

The 300-series luxury performance coupes remain

standouts of their era. Later, Chrysler found as much

power in its street wedge engines thanks to outboard

carburetors and long, shaped ram tubes before a new

generation of Hemi blew everyone’s minds with

425 horsepower on tap.

Innovations large and small continued. Chrysler

and Philco announced the world’s fi rst transistorized

car radio in mid-1955. Under the swoopy and stylish

exteriors of the 1957 “Forward Look” Chryslers, the

company introduced Torsion-Aire, its famed torsion-

bar front suspension system that would underpin

every car Chrysler built for decades; it reduced un-

sprung weight, and shifted the car’s center of gravity

lower and rearward for improved ride and handling.

And starting in 1960, all passenger cars (save for Im-

perial) rode a unit-body platform, offering safety and

handling advantages. In an era when car companies

dreamed of running cars on everything from red wine

to nuclear fi ssion, Chrysler was serious enough that

it actually made 50 working alternative-powered

prototypes. The Chrysler Turbine Car, built by Ghia in

1962, was placed in the public’s hands for testing.

Chryslers were some of the best-engineered

cars of their day. They had to be, they had Walter P.’s

name on them.

SPECIAL SECTION: CHRYSLER CLASSICS 49