Today’s selection from the heirloom shelf is a delightful 1966 Chrysler Newport Town Sedan, from bang in the middle of my own favorite era of Chrysler design. Looking strong but to my eye designed with a light touch by Elwood Engel, I love how at first glance it appears very square and straightlined and then the more you look at it, the more you note all of the different curved areas. This one was built in Jefferson, Michigan and shipped with the standard 2-barrel 383 V8 but equipped with the TorqueFlite automatic as well as the AC/heater option. The hood was unfortunately jammed shut and someone else had already damaged things trying to get it open so I didn’t try further.
The difference between the regular Sedan and the Town Sedan is the small window in the rear pillar, only 9,432 were so equipped as opposed to 74,964 regular Sedans. That makes this the rarest configuration outside of the convertible or the station wagons and far rarer than the hardtops. Of course rare doesn’t always mean desirable, just that it was chosen less often, but makes it all the more noteworthy when seen. Anyway, I’ll be quiet now, so please enjoy the walkaround!
that’s a cool looking dashboard. Interesting there’s a voltmeter and no temp gauge.i can picture that gauge ticking back and forth when the turn signal is on.
A neighbor who was part of the carpool group would drive us to elementary school in her 1966 Newport. I do not recall if it had a window in the C-pillar but it probably did not. As a first grader I did take notice of the crescent shaped speedometer.
At the time my father drove a 1967 Cadillac and, again in my young mind, the Chrysler compared favorably to the Cadillac which had a totally horizontal speedometer. 😊 Speaking of, another neighbor had a Toronado with the really cool drum speedometer. Ah, the things that capture a (future motorhead) child’s attention.
That is toweringly wrong – you can see how good that car was
That is kind of odd for a ’60s Chrysler as every one I’d ever have any experience with had both a temperature gauge and the dreaded ammeter which this car also has. If I were restoring this car, I’d do the ammeter bypass like I did with my ’68 Fury VIP so I wouldn’t have to worry that one day the gauge has a meltdown with the entire current of the car going through the gauge. More Chrysler products from the 60’s to early 80’s (?) would probably have survived if they had voltmeters instead of ammeters.
I love the six-window. When compared to similar examples on coldwarmotors, yeah, this looks savable.
I was about to say exactly the same thing. The ’60 Fury Scott saved was in way worse condition than this Chrysler.
Yeah, but that was just nuts sectioning two cars and pasting them together.
Too bad about the broken glass and resulting interior damage on this one, if not for that it could have been returned to the road relatively easily.
And for once I appreciate the sunburned paint on this car.
Must have sat out in the sun for decades before some on Bricked the windshield. Property sale properly lead to its fine resting place. To my eyes the Duke box dash looks a full decade behind the exterior styling . Folks paying into the 1000 000 for Road Runner’s and the like. This an!.
I go with you, Elwood Engel put a light touch into these big cars. It’s also my favourite design era of Chrysler. Only I prefer the ’65, because of its nicer styled back .
When I was driving my ’67 Sport Fury as a college student in the mid 1980’s, there were quite a few of these ’65-’66 Chrysler starships still in active service and in above average condition considering how much salt central Kentucky throws on winter roads. Sometimes I’d park my Sport Fury next to their Newport or New Yorker and if I was lucky, get to talk to the owner either as I was about to go into the store or when I’d come out. They were all my parents’ age and many of them were the original owners who kept their Chrysler even though according to some of them, had newer cars in their driveway that they didn’t like as much as the one parked next to me at the grocery store.
As the owner of a ’68 Fury VIP, and a nearly lifelong fan of ’65-’68 C-bodies, this looks not only savable but worth saving.
I loved the ’65-’66, such a contrast to the GM Coke-bottle cars.
My uncle in Kansas City had one, the four window sedan. It just exuded solidity and competence. He was a very fast driver (a salesman of Austrian optics), and it served him well, until he replaced it with a 280SE. I have fond memories of riding in it with him. He was my kind of driver: fast and competent.
Speaking of GM, I wonder if they got the inspiration from the 1965-66 Newport six-window sedan when they designed the Chevrolet Celebrity and its A-body siblings 4-door sedan?
As usual air cleaner either in the trunk or on the seat. Here it is both and that usually means someone has the carb. I’d assume it most likely had the 383-2V. Still in there and someone who wanted it couldn’t get the hood open? I will say one thing and that is that trunk floor looks very clean and seemingly rust free even though I can’t see the rear quarter dropoffs. Even original paint present on the floor. That is indeed rare.
How does a steering wheel rim deteriorate like that ? The bare steel is very neat; were these made with translucent plastic ?
It’s hard to go wrong with a ’65 or ’66 anything – it must have been difficult to choose a big car during those years if you weren’t particularly brand loyal. This can be said about any number of cars, but I had cash in hand to buy a ’65 Newport two-door hardtop back in 2005, but I didn’t go for it. It needed a lot of work just to make it home; the owner had said on the phone that it ran fine, which was ripping the seams of the truth’s pants. Yep, a six-hour round trip for nothing, but my dad and I have made plenty of those. It worked out for the best anyway, because I bought my ’53 Buick three months later, and that’s one of my favorite cars.
I like these pre-fuselage era Chryslers. The definitely had presence.
This car has some cool neighbors there in the boneyard. The ’70 LTD or Galaxie convertible next door is kinda rare as well. The ’62 Chevy in front of it is not so rare though.
Back to the Newport for a bit… that has to be one of the coolest looking speedometers ever! But I seem to recall it being more elaborate looking than that. There was a write up here at CC about it a few years back, and I thought it had more chrome and concentric arcs and lit up in green at night…. maybe I’m not thinking of this one, but one similar on an older Chrysler product.
You’re thinking of the Astro Dome cluster from the early 60’s Chryslers. This one seems like an homage.
A little window goes a long way, eh!
This car was built in Detroit at the old Jefferson Assembly plant, just east of downtown Motown.
One of the coolest things about these 60’s Mopars, were that they had (in addition to A/C), vent windows AND kick panel fresh air vents! The hood more than likely had the initial release, and then the lever for the safety catch; which won’t release before the initial one. As the air filer housing is in the trunk, a more knowledgeable person must have visited under the hood first. 🙂
The father of a friend of mine bought a 1966 New Yorker in this body style. It was pretty fully optioned, including a 440 V8, and was painted dark green with a rich green cloth upholstery. A powerful, beautiful car, exceptionally elegant with the six-window configuration.
I love these Town Sedans. My favorite Chryslers of all time, I think. There is something about that airy greenhouse that just exudes class and sophistication. It’s also the closest I’ve ever come to buying a classic. On vacation in South Dakota we came across an estate sale, and they were selling an immaculate ‘66 in Saddle Bronze, with all the good options like Airtemp, cloth, power bench seat, power windows, 4bbl 383. Something like 70K, and nearly no rust for $8,000. I’d never driven one before and was pretty shocked it drove much more modern feeling than I expected. The 383 was fast enough to make me question the need for a 440, because for such a barge it could indeed haul ass. One big stumbling block, however. I call my Mom up to ask her what kind of mileage I could expect, as she owned a ‘69 Road Runner with the 383. “Maybe 14 mpg highway?”. This was I believe 2009 when gas was approaching $5 a gallon, and I couldn’t justify a weekend toy that would literally burn thru my wallet just driving it. I kind of regret not buying it, because these are rare. Looked exactly like this:
There was a New Yorker version of the six window sedan as well as this Newport.But the Newport was also available as a four window sedan as stated but the New Yorker was not. It would be nice if this Newport could be saved.
Presumably this was parked for years somewhere, and probably looked a lot better on its final drive. There is a lot of good stuff still on this, a shame most of it will go to waste.
Another 1966 car proudly wore a Town Sedan badge on its door card; the base trim Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight…….
The tail lights are a master class in tasteful, restrained design. And that dashboard is a work of art, simple curves and classical proportions, truly elegant.
We got the VC Valiant in Australia during this period and it’s my favourite of all the Australian Valiants. Shame it didn’t get tail lights as exquisite as these.
I like that this Newport is menthol-green. Love all the stylistic details on this generation – so much for the eye to look over.
I am late, but chalk me up as another admirer.
My car-mentor Howard bought one of these Town Sedans brand new very early in the model year. He once told me that Sun Oil Company in Detroit used to have a program where they would take one of every new car into their shop each year for confirming service procedures for the materials put out for the service stations. Employees lined up to have their cars used because the car would be fully tuned, adjusted and dialed-in when it was returned. Howard’s brother pulled strings and got Howard’s 66 Newport in, and he told me that the car was pure perfection when it came back. And then the 66 Charger came out in mid-year introduction and he traded the Newport in on one even though the Chrysler was only months old. Howard said his brother was not at all happy with him.
The 1970 Ford XL convertible next to it looks like it has a new canvas top. Perhaps the car was a project that was abandoned before completion. When I was a child my daycare lady had one of those. It was baby blue with a white top and a dark blue interior.
Although I was a diehard GM fan when these were new, I have to admit in hindsight that the 1965-66 Chryslers were great cars and represented a high point in Mopar’s history.
So sad! Seeing this makes me want to take a sledgehammer to a modern, ugly craptastic plastic car!
Mark D.
The big ‘65-‘66 Chryslers were a common sight when I was a kid, and I always liked them but I’ve only ever seen a few of the Town Sedans. I thought they had a distinctive air to them – more so than the regular big Chryslers, and it’s sad to see this one in a scrapyard. As others have said, it’s probably restorable and if not, at least there’s plenty of parts to help keep another one of these classics on the road. I’d take one of these over a newer Chrysler any time.
Looking forward to seeing when you’ve finished the restoration, Jim 😉
Indeed, a fine car and looks like it was in decent shape before scrapping .
I wonder if there’s a rusty one Down East somewhere that would yield the glass and door cards etc. ……
Building one decent vehicle out of two (or three) isn’t all that hard and this one looks really solid .
-Nate
I’ll bet that there’s no engine under the hood. Less popular models like four door sedans often are the donors for more desirable models. I bought my ’56 Sedan de Ville from a guy that was going to put the motor and strip trim parts for a rougher coupe. He decided to keep the SdV and dumped the coupe. I remember that I was selling a ’67 Riviera and the buyer told me that he just wanted the 430 motor. I took his number and sold the car to someone who wanted the entire car to fix up. I guess it’s silly, but I thought that it deserved better.
Always found these and their ’65-only Dodge Custom 880 counterparts an unusual diversion. Never realized there was an interior nameplate for this model though. Perhaps an attempt to give the sedan a bit of class in an increasingly hardtop world? Not unlike what Olds was doing at the same time with the 98 Luxury Sedan, but that one went quite a bit further in terms of special equipment.