I’ve always been a fan of the first generation LH sedans, with their graceful curves and grandiose proportions. The LHS/New Yorker body was an especially striking design, combining futuristic looks with art deco influence. Chrysler hadn’t produced a full-size “personal luxury” coupe since the 1983 Cordoba/Imperial/Mirada, and given this body style’s ever weakening ROI, it’s easy to see why Chrysler never produced one. Still, the LH would have made a beautiful coupe, and this is my interpretation of what could have been.
Compared to the original, I’ve elongated the front doors and removed the B-pillars, making this a true hardtop coupe. I’ve also shortened the car’s wheelbase for less limousine-like proportions, something that was common practice in Detroit for coupes, particularly Chrysler. Overall I’m very happy with how it came out. Now just for a name. LHC?… LHS-coupe?… Imperial?… Cordoba?… What do you think?
I think it looks pretty cool. I’ve always loved roomy coupes.
Not bad, not bad at all – I will take one
I think a lower roof and a wheelbase cut might give a more coupe feel. I wish more automakers though were having thought like this at the time as one coupe after another was allowed to die.
The market for large coupes was fading out. The automakers had very little to do with it. The current market for higher end cars seems to be taken over by luxury crossovers (Cadillacs best seller is the FWD SRX crossover).
As a “what if” this is an interesting idea. As a hardtop it might have sold for a while, but the big three stopped making hardtops due to rollover standards, which probably could have been met with a coupe design, but not cheaply. So a production model would not have been a hardtop, and, like the Riviera, would not have sold well enough to make it profitable.
One problem. My Char Gold Satin Glow 1995 Eagle Vision TSi was a beautiful LH design, but the build quality was horrendous. A/C failed twice, transmission failed twice, CD player got stuck on ZZTop CD Tube Snake Boogie track at high volume and could not be turned off (pulled fuse), and the dashboard was 3 inches higher on the right than on the left. Lots of other issues, but you get the idea.
“It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.”
― Leo Tolstoy,
I like it–quite a lot, actually. But I’ve also long been a fan of these sedans. I think the key to making it work was reducing that long wheelbase (though an alternate tack could have been to move the windshield back while retaining the WB–wouldn’t have provided any more interior room but it would have lessened the “cab forward” element of the design.) LHC sounds like a good title to me. If they could have massaged more power out of the 3.5 (wonder if it would have held up under boost), the coupe could have been a credible competitor to the Riviera, and perhaps poached some Thunderbird/Eldorado/Mark VIII sales as well.
And now you have me thinking of the coupe alternate universe that could have existed…what if there had been an Aurora coupe? Bonneville? Intrepid R/T?
Aurora coupe? You will hate me for suggesting it, but with a different engine: the last Riviera?
Platform-wise, yes. But the Aurora had a design language all its own, and a different engine. Sure, as it stood there was no room in the market for both, but purely as a “what if” I think it would have been interesting to see.
On paper the Aurora’s V8 with 250 HP and the performance package (including a 3.71:1 axle ratio) should have left the Riviera’s 225 HP in the dust (with a 2.93:1 axle ratio). The reality was basically no difference in performance through the quarter mile.
I am not quite sure how a coupe version of the Aurora would look. The Aurora’s C-pillar would not look right on a coupe I think.
Both the Riviera’s and the Aurora’s interior plastics had a dreadful finish.
That would have made a beautiful coupe. I’ve always been a big fan of the first-gen LH’s. My grandparents had an LHS before trading it in for the 300M I’m driving now. I actually preferred the LHS to the 300M, although some of the reliability issues of the first generation were bred out of the later iterations, making the 300M a better car overall.
Looking at the rendering above, it’s even more clear how the cab forward architecture of 90’s Chrysler was carried so successfully from top to bottom in their lineup, as this “LHC” looks almost like a first-gen Neon coupe Xeroxed at the 125% setting. I’ve always thought the Neon coupe was a beautiful design. As a matter of fact this ‘roided out version might even look better with a Neon-esque quarter window treatment, with a forward canted B pillar, frameless door glass, etc. In any event, while a coupe version of the LHS would have been a pretty damn big coupe for the time, it certainly would have been a nice looking car. If only.
(Incidentally, going back to the poll a few weeks ago re best factory road wheel designs….the ones pictured above are surely in the top 10 in my book.)
You rock, Brendan. Another winner.
LHC would have been the better title.
Keep the length of the door as is, just shorten the length of the rear window and corresponding wheel base. Would have had a contender to the Riveria or Lexus.
Marketing would had focused on the professional type (doctor, architect, business owner). Something he/she could show off to their contemporaries as “my personal car” as opposed to the family hauler. Just don’t use the word “Imperial”. Think more of upper middle class.??
To keep the true hardtop they would’ve had to thicken the C pillar and shorten the quarter window anyway so the window could retract fully.
I think a two-door 300M would have been more true to the revival of the letter series than the sedan.
Nice rendering, Brendan. My dad had a ’94 Concorde, and it was his first 4-door car since his ’56 Chevy 210, having always preferring a coupe. Had this car been available at the time, I am quite sure he would’ve come home with it instead of a sedan. And as far as the wheels go? Yeah, those wheels are really nice looking, but as I recall they were a real pain to clean. He got a special brush to poke out all of those holes, but nothing beat cleaning them one hole at a time using your index finger. I had the same problem with my ’97 Grand Prix’ wheels… beautiful, but hard to detail. This was probably one of the main reasons he traded the Concorde in on a ’98 Buick Regal GS (in almost the same color scheme – maroon over silver two-tone).
As attractive, fluid and seamless as a BMW 6 series coupe, IMO…..and with a working Air conditioner!
If you kept the rear window DLO, those big rear quarter windows make it look a lot like a modern update of the ’60-’62 Valiant.
Nice photoshop, Brendan, but the door looks too sedanish… The back curve of the door should go the opposite way, to be more akin to a true coupe.
A true personal luxury coupe should be RWD, in my opinion… exceptions for FWD being the 1967-85 Eldorado, 1966-85 Toronado and 1979-85 Rivieras.
The FWD versions of the Grand Prix, Cutlass Supreme, Regal and Monte Carlo weren’t TRUE personal luxury coupes to me without the RWD… More like ugly, wimpy appliances with wrong wheel drive.
How about trying a 2005-present 300/300C coupe?
Now, THAT would be an excellent revival of Chrysler’s RWD personal luxury coupe.
How about if they put a Chrysler 300 front & rear clip on the (next gen) Challenger?
I’ll just leave this here. 🙂
That’s really a 2 door Sedan, with a true coupe it shouldn’t be so easy to envision where the other two doors would be
Agree…the windows on a true 2 door hardtop flow from front to rear with minimal disruption.
This seems to fit the bill.
Well, it IS a Photoshop, Matt… Not mine, but I guess what the artist deems a coupe. 😉
Here’s one of an LX Charger, looks a lil more “coupish” than those 300 renderings.
^^YESSSSSS!!!!^^^^
I always quite liked the LH-series cars. This is no exception.
Nice. Very much like an 85 Olds Calais with better proportons
I think Chrysler should resurect Imperial as it’s own marque again, and call this beautiful computer creation the Imperial Crown coupe. What do you fellow car-nuts think about that?
While on the topic, perhaps save the Cordoba name for a 2 door coupe version of the Chrysler 200 (if it is still produced for a while yet!).
I like it, It’s got a sort of MN12 Cougar vibe to it
Can anyone give me some insight,or even a good theory as to why U.S. auto makers do not build any hardtop coupes with rear quarter glass that will actually roll down like in the good old days?
Why two door hardtops are extinct:
a) difficulty getting baby seats in and out of back seat due to front seat air bags
b) side crash safety scores
c) generation X & Y not interested
a) can account for the decline of the 2 door in general, not just hardtops (although not every car owner has kids)
b) uhh, see pic below
c) *waves hand* two door owning/hardtop desiring Gen Yer here! I just cant afford the one below!
is that real? doesnt look room for the rear window to fully go down?
Hogwash!
A) My parents owned nothing but 2 doors when we were growing up(3 boys, not of small stature, either), style to them mattered most when buying a car… 71 Dodge Dart Swinger, 78 Malibu Sport coupe, 79 Dodge Omni 024, 83 Mercury Cougar LS, and 87 Nissan 300ZX 2+2.
2) Owned a 76 Cadillac Coupe de Ville hardtop in 1987, on a rainy day on my way from picking up my Caddy from a transmission shop, on my way to a job interview, got broadsided on the driver side by a rented out of town 18 wheeler tractor trailer semi…. Guy had a fake license. I’m still alive and well… Too bad, my Caddy was shaped like a V and totalled, but it saved my life. Lol
3) I’m a Gen Xer, who owns EIGHT 2 doors and one 4 door sedan:
87 Nissan Datsun 200SX notchback
86 Chevy Monte Carlo SS
81 Chevy Malibu Classic coupe
83 Toyota Corolla 2dr sedan
81 Toyota Corolla 2dr sedan
88 Ford Mustang 5.0 notchback
85 Buick Regal Custom coupe
81 Datsun 280ZX 2+2
My 4 door sedan is, my 91 Alfa Romeo 164S 🙂
D) Fixed rear windows
I don’t think anyone knows why the larger 2 door sedan/coupe has gone out of fashion, but they do not sell well enough to make them worthwhile to keep in production. Sure there are a few who would buy them, but not enough to make them profitable.
I’d have to say nay to an LHS/New Yorker coupe…this is best left as a sedan.
However, I’ve always wondered about a second-generation Intrepid being offered in the form of a coupe alongside the Intrepid sedan. The second-generation Intrepid just seemed to be compatible enough to be offered in coupe form.
I love any two door hardtop, but am I the only one that saw this almost instantly?
Right!?! I immediately thought “Popemobile”.
That render has the football helmet look of the 1st gen Neon coupe
Nice, even for a photoshop. If Chrysler did produce this coupe, it probably would have sold like hotcakes. Sadly, the two door seems to be a dying breed in the US.
As a hardtop maybe it would have sold. However, to make it a hardtop would have required significant changes to the basic design (expensive). Coupes for whatever reason were out of style, at least for certain types of cars. The Buick Riviera did not sell well in this time frame. The end of the hardtop may have done the coupe in, but I don’t know.
Great photoshop pic, and a pretty solid way of bringing the grand luxury coupes of mythical lore into the discussion.
Speaking of which…
Has anyone noticed that the Accord Coupe has become the sole survivor of the family coupes?
I was thinking about the ‘dead’ list the other day – Camry, Altima,and pretty much everyone else from GM and Ford, to Subaru and Chrysler have abandoned this niche.
The only remaining competitor to the Accord right now is the Genesis Coupe, and that has sold about as well as a Brooklyn accent in the Deep South.
“Two utes! Two daws!”
I certainly would have liked one. Bought a teal over gray ’95 New Yorker back in 2001 and loved the car…even the cushy, pillowed velour upholstery! It drove and handled beautifully. Would probably still have it, but my son needed a car desperately, so I sold it to him in 2004 and purchased a black over black leather ’02 Chrysler Concorde Limited, which I still have and is probably one of the best vehicles I have ever owned!