“What If” regular Steven Fowler is (rightfully) a bit tied up with college right now, so I found this imagined Chrysler 300 coupe at gtplanet. Its retro fuselage-era front end is a particularly interesting choice. What thinks you?
What If: Chrysler 300 Hardtop Coupe
– Posted on November 29, 2011
I like it
For some reason it looks like it has a less tank like, more open greenhouse than the actual production 300s. It’s the kind of car they should be producing instead of the 200 Convertible. They could easily change the Challenger into one of these….
I like it…but Dodge cross-hairs on a Chrysler? My initial impression was that this looked a lot like an older (early ’60s) Lincoln Continental.
Agreed about the cross-hairs, though the fuselage reference is a great idea. Actually, I would prefer even MORE fuselage, especially at the back, which seems a little formal (upright) for a big Chrysler. I think most of the fuselage Mopars had a distinctive droop in the tail.
Nice use of chrome.
The grillework was cribbed from a 1969 Chrysler 300. Only more recently has the “crosshairs” become a Dodge-only motif.
These are late 1960s style Chryslet cross-hairs; Dodge didn’t start this until the late 1980s.
It’s great!
Take it another step…take the Magnum wagon body and hang it on there. One more shooting-brake-like, with hidden headlights, yet.
The best of the 1968 LTD wagons, without the wood-grain and the four doors!
The crosshair grille is historically correct, this one reminds me of the 1970 300 J? K?, and other than it being off center, looks reasonably good on this car. Actually, there are a few other things wrong with this ‘chop. Look at where the door handle falls, it’s almost below the C-pillar.
I guess I’m one of the few fans of the fuselage look, but it looks pretty good on this car. IMO, it would actually look better as a four door, and as a real limo. Not one of those rolling disasters kids go to prom in, but a real one like a Sixty Special or the last of the Ghia limos that Chrysler produced in the 50’s.
Of course, due to FMVSS, there’s no way the front end of this car would be produced. A pity, really. We have so many good designs that lie just below their production-ized layers of compliance with laws and production realities.
I stand corrected! You’re right about the cross-hair, though the example I found is from 1969.
http://www.fuselage.de/chr69/69chr01s.jpg
The 63 and 64 Chryslers had cross hairs and I think all the 300 had it back to 59
You’re thinking of the 1970 300 Hurst edition, which is commonly referred to as the 300H, although the last true letter-model 300 was the 300L in 1965.
@BOC: You’re right, I was thinking of the 1970 Hurst version.
Fun fact: One of my father’s friends had a 300H in the early 70’s. He was over 60 years old at the time. It screwed with my pre-pubescent mind to see this ‘old’ man hop into this beautiful, hulking golden car and do a burnout worthy of some pimply-faced adolescent motorhead.
My father had some fun friends…
The Imperial in 1965 (I think, or was it ’66?) also had a crosshair grille (not a Chrysler, I know.) I’d buy this 300LS, no question.
Sign me up. Put that classic 60s Chrysler starter sound back in, and it makes the package complete.
I like it! Naturally I like the hidden headlights, which Chrysler/Imperial did best back then.
Only now LED headlights would be placed at the ends where the ambers are now.
Now that crosshairs == Dodge, I’d like to see thin lines like the Capn’s classic ’73 Imperial.
Grazie, Mike! My thinking exactly. If they can make a giant Challenger on the 300 platform, why not a baby Imp? My only suggestion is to exaggerate the fender line more – like the Caddy Ciel.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/on-a-manhattan-rooftop-talking-tail-fins-with-the-designer-of-the-cadillac-ciel/
“We wanted the body to have the feel of a fuselage.” – the Ciel’s designer.
Steven has a pic on his flickr account where he added more front and rear overhang to a 300 to give it proportions like a 1960’s fullsize car, and proposed that as a new Chrysler New Yorker. Here is a link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/obi1kenobi1/5640146138/in/photostream
How about taking his idea of adding more overhang, some classic Imperial styling cues, and it wouldn’t need to be a “baby” Imp but a real fullsize one (with a proper “six body” trunk)!
I love the grill. I like how the front looks less massive, more bad-ass.
I like it. Wouldn’t work as-is though. New cars need turn signal lights that can be seen from the side. Those ones recessed in the grille obviously would not pass.
Stylistically, I would change a few things. It needs more “solid” wheels. The factory wheels on this Chrysler 300 would look better to me:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Chrysler_300_.jpg
I think a wide chrome band near the top of the bumper cover might look good on it too, evoking more of the look of the “loop bumpers” used in 1969-72.
If the crosshair look is verboten on a new Chrysler because it’s strictly a Dodge thing now, the “dumbells” from a 1971 Chrysler would look good too.
Wierd.. It looks like I set my sunglasses on top of a concrete block that got black overspray on it. This does not convey sexy at all like the real ones do.
Ooh! That is hot!
I’ll take mine in White and Gold like the 70 300 Hurst please. And maybe a modern version of the Kelsey Hayes “Recall” wheels.
Im no fan of the 300 but this I like it cleans the front up and hides the fat arse
Paul, you play Gran Turismo?
No. As if I had the time, even if I wanted too 🙂
Update: I just realized why you asked, doh! No, I found it through google images.
Man, that’s really cool! It would be nice if the OEM’s could find a way to economically build a pillarless hardtop – a coupe, not necessarily a four-door and maintain side impact standards so it would garner the coveted 5-star rating. Oh yes, make sure the rear windows roll down as god intended, too!
I’ve given up any hope that they will, though – not enough potential buyers seem to care anymore, especially with modern, efficient auto A/C and great-sounding car stereo systems.
Take the doors one step further and make them similar to a 61-69 Continental. Have the front on the outside and the latch for the rear hidden on the inside.
Hire Lawrence Fishburne to be the spokesman and the ads practically write themselves.
I followed the link and looked at the original. OMG! This is a transformation. Compared with the original I love it. And I like the original front end. This car is so much sleeker, way more personality. It’s that hardtop look that got lost.
Yum, very tasty! When can I place my order?
Would make a good Lincoln.
Chrysler is just copying the Continental that Lincoln actually started selling in 2002, leading to a revival in brand sales and prestige…
The pic that started this thread is not an official Chrysler pic, it was a Photoshop done by Steven Fowler. If you google image search a 1969-71 Chrysler 300, the family resemblance is pretty clear. I wish they did make the current 300 look more like that.
Selling? Um, no. The 2002 Continental, which you provided a pic for, was a concept car only. The big-3 (mostly Lincoln and Cadillac) have been showing concepts with styling cues taken from the 1961 Continental for a long time. See the 1996 Lincoln Sentinel, 1999 Cadillac Evoq, 2002 Lincoln Continental that you mentioned, 2011 Cadillac Ciel.
Chrysler has a historical right IMO to use styling derived from the 1961 Continental. The designer (Elwood Engel) jumped ship to Chrysler after he did the Continental and gave us some of the most beautiful Chryslers ever made.
[That was an ironic comment. 😉 Why the hell Lincoln is still flailing around with baleen whale grilles when they had this timeless, beautiful concept TEN YEARS ago is beyond me. Defeat from the jaws of victory again from Ford.]
And that Mark IX concept from 2001! Wow.
Looks sweet but I’d like to see it with the grill slanted slightly forward.
Hehehehehehehe…