(first posted 5/15/2018) Every once in a while a car springs forth in which it has no real obvious contemporary. One such car, and definitely one of the more noteworthy ones, sprang forth in 1970. Mixing the seemingly divergent elements of a 124 inch wheelbase, two doors, and an integrated spoiler, there was no mistaking it with any other car on the road.
That car was the 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst.
Diving into any sort of discussion by simply talking about how this 300 was born from Chrysler’s interlude with Hurst Corporation and how it is based upon the Newport Custom is starting way too far into the story. It would be similar to reading a long novel, such as War and Peace or Gone With The Wind and starting in the middle; doing so creates an incomplete picture.
The progenitor of the Hurst brand was George Hurst. Born in 1927, little is known about Hurst’s early years other than he appears to be a Pennsylvania native and was never educated past the eighth grade. Hurst served in the United States Navy, enlisting at 16, and was married three times by age 29. Visible on the drag-racing circuit in eastern Pennsylvania during the early 1950s, Hurst possessed many natural talents, such as mentally performing complex mathematics.
By 1958 Hurst and partner Bill Campbell had a shop outside of Philadelphia with the fabrication of engine mounts being their lead product. With their engine mount being mimicked by a California company, Hurst and Campbell formed a relationship with Anco Industries. While their first focus was on exhaust headers, Hurst, also credited as being an expert relationship builder, convinced everyone to focus on floor shifter mechanisms.
The first Hurst shifter appeared in 1959 and some sources state the prototype was used daily in Hurst’s 1956 Chevrolet. Jack “Doc” Watson, a newer employee at Hurst Performance, was able to work some family connections to get an audience with Pontiac. Liking what they saw, Pontiac used the Hurst shifter as standard equipment on the 1961 Catalina powered by the 421 cubic inch “Super Duty” engine.
Hurst was a complex man and his contributions ran the gamut. In addition to the creation of the shifter mechanism bearing his name, Hurst, as part of Hurst Performance, invented the Jaws of Life. While its original intention was for extrication of drivers subsequent to race car collisions, it was quickly applied to emergency services and crashes on public roadways. It’s the standard extrication tool to this day.
Image from hemmings.com
The shifter mechanism developed by Hurst quickly gained wide aftermarket acceptance by the early 1960s and also captured the attention of all American automakers. Oldsmobile in particular was another early adopter of Hurst shift mechanisms as standard equipment, with the first Hurst/Olds coming in 1968.
Oldsmobile would maintain their Hurst connection through the mid-1980s. The Cutlass Supreme was the most frequent Olds recipient of the Hurst name.
Even AMC got in on the action with the 1971 Hurst Jeepster.
Hurst Performance went public in 1968. A falling out between Hurst and Campbell prompted Campbell to sell his shares, allowing Sunbeam Corporation, the household appliance manufacturer, to acquire Hurst Performance in 1970. While products using the Hurst name continued to be manufactured, by the mid-1970s Hurst had been pushed out of the company he had founded.
Hurst was reported as being despondent after this, dying in 1986 at age 59. The circumstances are a little unclear as the Los Angeles Times reported there was an investigation of carbon monoxide poisoning but no suspicion of suicide.
Among his many talents, Hurst also had a knack for effectively and memorably promoting his creations. Perhaps his ultimate move in marketing was creating Miss Hurst Golden Shifter, with the related act of riding on the rear of a car while holding a nine foot tall shifter.
The first Miss Hurst Golden Shifter was Pat Flannery, a woman who was previously the first female public relations manager within the Ford Motor Company dealer network. By her own admission, the act performed and costume worn while riding in the rear of a moving car was often ad-libbed early on. The pictures found of Flannery as Miss Hurst Golden Shifter have her wearing all manner of attire, from the outfit seen here to a female version of a tuxedo.
For various reasons Flannery’s tenure was short.
To replace Flannery, Hurst held a competition to find the next Miss Hurst Golden Shifter. From over 200 candidates, Hurst wisely chose the incomparable Linda Vaughn.
To say Linda Vaughn is attention getting is as big an understatement as ever there was. Vaughn was born in Dalton, Georgia, in August 1943, the third and youngest child of a mother who worked at the nearby carpet mills and a father (soon to abandon her) who was a bootlegger.
Vaughn was originally a dental technician who quickly tired of looking at teeth all day. Deciding a career move was needed, and encouraged by her then boyfriend’s sister, Vaughn entered and won a beauty contest sponsored by the Atlanta Raceway.
Her job as Miss Atlanta Raceway was to visit racetracks throughout the South. Upon conclusion of that role, she soon went to work in a similar role for Pure Oil Company as Miss Pure Firebird. Pure Oil’s merger with Union Oil left Vaughn without a job. Always an automotive fan, Vaughn was browsing through an issue of Hot Rod magazine and found an ad by Hurst Performance seeking a new Miss Hurst Golden Shifter.
Vaughn’s talents and contributions, which have earned her the moniker of “First Lady of Racing”, expand far beyond her ability to gleefully hold onto a giant shifter while standing on the back of a moving car. Traveling around the country to appear at various racing functions, Vaughn soon became synonymous with Hurst Performance.
Highly intelligent with a memory that amazes many, Vaughn has described herself as a marketer with her actions fully reinforcing her position. She has taken many marketing courses while on the road (she says there’s nothing like travel to help with doing such courses) and during the peak of her time with Hurst products in the 1960s, Hurst recruited more women to help publicize themselves. From various interviews with Vaughn, she managed all of these women dubbed the Hurstettes.
Of course, Vaughn advertised Hurst Performance while standing on the back of the only 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst convertible produced.
Vaughn in 2017 from Drag Racing Magazine.
As an aside, Vaughn still looks great today despite the onset of a few health issues. In an interview from 2012, her daily driver was a Cadillac STS-V and she still frequently drove her 1975 Hurst/Olds with its 455 cubic inch engine for short runs, such as the post office.
Chrysler was again eyeing the market served by the 300 letter series cars five years after abandoning it. As in the past, the 300 was meant for enthusiasts with good incomes who still sought performance but wanted a luxury car. Figuring they could exploit this opportunity once again, the 300 Hurst was created.
The mission of the 300 Hurst was simple – provide a well performing car with a demeanor not found in regular muscle cars, even more upscale than the rest of Olds 442. Use of the Chrysler nameplate certainly helped set this specialty car apart from the crowd. Chrysler was thinking in ways Cadillac and Lincoln were not.
In theory it wasn’t a bad idea.
Being more upscale on the inside was a goal that was well met. The leather seats came straight from the Imperial LeBaron coupe and all were saddle tan in color. Nearly all came with power windows and power seats for both driver and passenger. The new owner had the choice of the gear selector being on the floor or on the column although the floor mount, as seen here, was optional.
From bringatrailer.com
It seems there are some minor variations beyond just the location of the gear selector and inclusion of power windows. One such difference is the steering wheel – the one seen here differs from our featured car, although both types can be found in multiple 300 Hursts found online. Further research shows this same variation regardless of gear selector location.
Perhaps the tilt steering column has something to do with that?
Being a performance oriented Chrysler, nothing but the four-barrel 375 horsepower 440 cubic inch V8 (dubbed TNT when used in Chrysler branded vehicles) would be appropriate. The 426 Hemi found elsewhere in Mopar performance cars was not used in the C-bodies and the 440 having three two-barrel carburetors was viewed as having linkages that were too maintenance intensive.
No slouch in the performance department, this Chrysler could hit 60 mph from a standing start in a splash over seven seconds. There is no denying this is a very large car, but it’s also lighter than one might think as the Newport two-door upon which it was based weighed 4,005 pounds.
Granted, that weight is likely without fuel or other fluids.
For comparison, a 2018 Chrysler 300 starts off at 4,013 pounds.
All of these cars were painted Spinnaker White and were shipped to the Hurst facility in Warminster, Pennsylvania. Upon arrival at Warminster, the steel hood skin was replaced with a fiberglass skin having a bulge and the factory trunk lid was removed to allow installation of the fiberglass spoiler and trunk lid.
The tan paint, a Cadillac color, was also applied as was the stripe kit and hood locks. Curiously, there is no Hurst shifter mechanism.
The 300 Hurst had a retail price of $5,842. While that doesn’t sound unreasonable forty-eight years on, this was the most expensive Chrysler made for 1970, outpacing the nine-passenger Town & Country wagon by $407 and priced squarely between a Cadillac Calais and Deville. The appearance of the 300 Hurst meant it wasn’t intended for the typical Chrysler customer and the price was a factor in maintaining its exclusivity.
Such exclusivity was a 300 trademark.
For comparison, one could purchase a plain-jane C-body Plymouth Fury two-door with the robust slant-six and precious little else for $2,790, less than half that of the 300 Hurst. One often gets what they pay for.
Chrysler had expected to sell roughly 2,000 of these every year; in its single year, the 300 Hurst sold 503 copies according to the Chrysler 300 Registry. Other sources give a lower number or state the number is unknown.
The reason for falling short of expectations is two-fold. First, Chrysler and Hurst took an extended amount of time to decide how to dress the car. Second, and more bizarre, is each thought the other was going to advertise the car, leading to dealer deliveries of something they’d never heard about.
If scrutinizing the estimate of 2,000 Hursts being sold, it makes sense if basing it upon sales from 1964 and 1965. If looking at it from the overall history of the 300 letter cars from 1955 to 1965, it was a bit optimistic as in some years there were significantly fewer than 1,000 sold such as the 1963 Chrysler 300J, of which only 400 were produced.
Not surprisingly, this is the most rare 1970 Chrysler and arguably the most desirable four decades later. The 300 Hurst, while sometimes not held in the same esteem as the earlier 300 letter cars, does carry on the tradition of the 300 series by being a true performer and something that is distinctly different from the rest of the Chrysler lineup.
In that regard, Chrysler was greatly successful.
Photos of subject car by Paul Niedermeyer.
If you look at the increasingly huge success of the AMG Mercedes, they’re only about 35-40 years ahead of their time.
Wow, that has to be the last complete and unrestored Hurst fusey left. Still prefer the four door for this shape though.
Linda Vaughn. Another wow.
There are many, many pictures of Linda Vaughn to be found online. My goal was to make sure only the best ones (or at least the ones I liked) made their way here. It was hard work, but I did spend an inordinate amount of time searching for good ones.
I don’t mind taking one for the team.
It’s always nice to remember that Ms. Vaughn was a lot more than tits, ass, and big blonde hair. And her being a for-real motorhead is icing on the cake.
The one ability of hers that really sticks with me is her memory. She’s able to have a conversation with a stranger and remember them and what they spoke about a decade later.
+1 Props to her for her business and marketing savvy, and her risk-taking. Her beauty just elevates it. A lot.
It was indeed a Chrysler thing to include a unique steering design with the tilt column,
actually it’s a Saginaw Tilt & Telescopic unit.
That makes sense, because that steering wheel looks a LOT like the rim-blow wheel in my Dad’s 1970 Olds Ninety-Eight.
One of my favorite cars, thanks Jason.
I always found 2 things odd about them though. I understand why they didn’t offer the Hemi as it had never been offered in any other C-Body so I imaging tooling costs for such a limited run wouldn’t have been worth it, plus I don’t imagine its intended market would have been interested in the maintenance and temperament of a Hemi in a Chrysler, but why not offer the 440 Six Pack? It was already available in the Sport Fury GT. And why no special Hurst shifter? The Hurst/Olds was also a limited-run, automatic-only musclecar and it got a Hurst Dual Gate shifter. Still they are gorgeous cars and one just sold through Mecum for around $75K.
The Hurst company is still around; Mr Gasket owns them now and in the fire service, we still refer to the Jaws of Life as the Hurst tool.
From what I was able to find, there wasn’t a lot of elaboration about the 440 Six Pack other than the intended clientele might tire of having a more complex carburetion system than what was provided by the single four barrel.
That said, weren’t there multiple carbs on the first 300 letter cars?
Yep! The ’55-58s had dual quad Hemis, the ’59 had a dual quad 413 and the 60-64s (I may be off a year or 2) had the 413 Cross Rams
I remember reading somewhere, perhaps Allpar, that there was an aborted plan to have a 1966 300M with a Hemi.
Ah, Linda Vaughn.. Although Mrs DougD is herself a fabulous blonde I doubt I could convince her to ride on the back of our car holding a giant shifter. 😛
I’d always assumed they made these because of the enormous flat trunk, didn’t think they’d actually intended to sell a lot of them.
And no Hurst shifter, that is weird…
Hurst did make shifters for the Beetle, Doug. Maybe Mrs. DougD would reconsider? (c:
I had one of these Bug shifters on my ’73 Sport Bug. Later a friend gave me an aluminum T handle to complete the package. Good shifter, though could still
find reverse without pulling the trigger. I probably didn’t have it adjusted quite right.
Kinda hard to ride on the rear deck lid of the Beetle, tho…
I love these. There are not many 1970 big cars that could pull off either 2 tone paint jobs or this kind of attitude, but this one does.
I agree with Roger on the steering wheel. Chrysler offered the tilt/telescope wheel and it was always that wheel style with the thick metal collar at the base of the wheel. I am trying to remember if they ever offered tilt without telescope in the pre-K era. It seemed like every time I saw one I saw the other.
Bang-up job on this piece, Jason. When I checked the site this morning, I was happy see a featured car that had long intrigued me from an earlier CC post or comment.
“Hey, I though you were promoting it!”
503 seems like such a paltry figure for a mainstream make like Chrysler.
I wonder how many of these unexpected deliveries ended up as the dealership owner’s demo?
Another potential answer for the variation in steering wheels is 1970 was a transitional period where automakers were abandoning the chrome horn ring for (evidently) safety reasons. I don’t think it was ever actually a regulation, but I have no doubt that it was strongly ‘suggested’ that they do away with the chrome rings, and the manufacturers seem to have dutifully complied. A great example is Ford Mavericks in the first half-year of production actually had a horn ring and dash-mounted ignition switch, while the latter half did away with the horn ring and had the new (mandated) column-mounted ignition switch/lock mechanism.
As to the floor shifter, that’s the first one I’ve seen in a big Chrysler and it’s definitely a variation on the standard chrome shifter and console that normally came in most Chrysler products through 1970. Chrysler came out with their own short-handled ‘Slap-Stick’ ratcheting affair somewhat similar to the Hurst Dual-Gate used in some GM products. The Slap-Stick was first offered on the new 1970 E-body and was then phased into the new B-body in 1971. The 1970 Slap-Stick had a chrome lever while the 1971 and later ones employed a rather cheap plastic T-handle which was notorious for cracking and breaking. It’s also worth noting that the Slap-Stick shifter was never offered in the A-body coupes, even the high-performance 340 cars which definitely would have benefited from its ratchet stops.
What was odd was the Slap-Stick mechanism was never used with the longer handle floor shifter (like the one used in the 300H). Maybe Chrysler’s engineers didn’t think the longer metal handle could withstand the stress and would have bent.
Frankly, though, it really wouldn’t have fit in with the demeanor or intended purpose of the car; it was a high-speed, highway cruiser ill-suited for dragstrip use. I doubt any 300H has ever seen a dragstrip except for a low-speed promotion tour. If nothing else, a modified convertible version was the perfect venue for Linda Vaughn given that huge rear deck as a place for her to perch.
The steering wheels were options; they are in the 70 options catalog.
The console is a standard Chrysler 300 part. Nothing unusual.
Only one car featured an actual Hurst shifter, the convertible. The “proto-type” 300-H, likely had it’s Hurst shifter installed later.
Great article but you missed what may arguably have been the most outrageous Hurst Special of all.
Indeed. I’d be willing to guess the 1969 SC/Rambler was the one and only time a new car was sold through dealers with an aftermarket tachometer hose-clamped to the steering column.
I actually saw one of these Chryslers in the last few weeks, and it looked like the one pictured. It was somewhere here in northern Florida.
As much as I like the fuselage styling, I’m not 100% in love with the 2 door Chrysler version… I prefer the Plymouth. However, there was no letter Plymouth or smaller Chrysler-branded car to use, so I understand why this car got the Hurst treatment.
I am surprised that they built/sold 500+ of these, I can’t imagine there were a lot of buyers for a large, expensive, high performance 2 door hardtop.
I saw it also on a trip to Green Cove Springs from our home in the panhandle. It was sitting in a business parking lot on Hwy 301 in downtown Starke. That was in February.
Great article Jason. I have never been a big fan of the fuselage style C-bodies, but for some reason, I have always really liked the 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst. Like JP mentions above, they just pull off the two-tone and performance attitude very well.
Just to add a bit to the history of Hurst, George Hurst actually started out on his own. Around 1954, he started to design engine mount kits that allowed swapping new modern OHV V8’s into older affordable bodies. He was concerned with safety and designed kits that would allow the engine to sit lower to ensure a low center of gravity to maintain safe handling. Many early conversions had the engines sitting very high which resulted in unstable handling resulting in crashes at race events.
George was hand making his kits initially and this resulted in inconsistencies between parts. He ended up putting an ad in the paper to hire an engineer to help him with engineering jigs. This is when he met Bill Campbell and the partnership was formed.
Interestingly in the early years, one of Hurts specialities was engine swaps for V12 Lincoln Continentals. He would often swap Nailhead Buick or Cadillac V8s into the Continentals. He also included kits for transmissions and rear ends as well as brake upgrades. He and Bill also designed the first large bumper guards for VW vans after George saw the minimal protection a VW van offered in a crash. These bumper guards caused George some legal trouble with VW due to the advertising he was using at the time. VW ended up introducing its own bumper guards in mid-year 1959, and George abandoned this market.
The Hurst-Campbell corporation was struggling which resulted in the alliance in 1959 with Almquist Engineering in Milford, PA, run by Ed Almquist and Ed Anchel. Together they formed ANCO as new company that handled marketing and sales, but Hurst-Campbell remained the manufacturing arm. The new alliance resulted in Ed Almquist re-engineering the motor mount conversion to reduce costs and better fact the lower priced competition. Ed was the one who developed the adjustable feature on the motor mounts, called the Adjustatorque Motor Mounts.
It was around this time that George realized he had to hit the streets to better market the company’s products. At the time he owned a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible with a Nailhead Buick and a Lincoln 3-speed transmission. This odd combo resulted in him designing a high-performance chrome floor shifter. He spent months living out of his car, going speed shop to speed shop selling his products and many shops show interested in his high performance shifter, even though it wasn’t a product being produced.
Hurst mentioned this when he got back home, but Ed Almquist came up with a cheaper design that didn’t function well. Almquist and Anchel did not want to pay the $90,000 to develop the far superior but more expensive Hurst design. As a result, Hurst and Campbell decided to part ways, using a $20,000 loan from Larry Greenwald, a long time Hurst Customer, to buyout Almquist and Anchel. ANCO was renamed Hurst Performance Products (the marketing arm), while the Hurst-Campbell remained the corporate name.
Of course as we all know the superior Hurst design went on to be successful. It was more expensive than the competition, but it was superior. Bill Campbell also made efforts to examine warranty returns and improve and reengineer the shifter overtime to make it better. Interestingly, Almquist Engieering went on to market his own design, for a fraction of the cost of the Hurst shifter. It however, was unsuccessful due to its poor engineering.
Vince, this is a wonderful addition about Hurst.
One thing I left out, and I’m glad you mentioned, is Hurst’s making bumper guards for VWs.
Something else I learned, but also didn’t include, was Vaughn was having to get the attention of Mr. Gasket to acquire her pension. This was in 2012 or so. I hope she was successful.
Terrific article, Jason. Never knew the history behind the Hurst name and its branded Chrysler and Olds specials. Had no idea that Hurst invented the “jaws of life”, one of the most important life saving devices every invented. Fascinating.
Never understood the big Chrysler Hurst C-body, or its Dearborn cross-town rival the Mercury X-100. They just seemed so incongruous vs. what the “performance” market was about at the time. Which I guess explains why they never sold in any great numbers. They were (are), nonetheless, an interesting footnote from the late ’60s Detroit automotive milieu.
I think a modern-day analog is the idea of the “high performance” SUV/CUV, like FCA’s own Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. The notion of a track-oriented SUV/CUV today is just as incongruous to me as the “high-performance” luxo-barge was back in the day.
Agreed – this car and the Mercury X-100 seem to have satisfied the entire little teeny piece of the Venn diagram where the large cars circle and the performance cars circle intersected. Those circles had been moving away from one another since maybe 1963-64 and by 1971 there would be no intersection at all. There were lots of performance buyers but they were not buying the big cars. There were lots of big car buyers but they were not buying performance. I think your modern analog is right on. Chrysler’s attempt at an R/T trimmed minivan (the Man Van) was another.
You are leaving out the Plymouth Fury/Sport Fury GT of 1970-71. And Chevy had an SS option for the Impala, though I believe that disappeared in late 69-early 70.
Plymouth also fielded a sort of “Road Runner”-type Fury coupe called the S/23 in 1970. Like the real Road Runner, the S/23 didn’t carry Plymouth’s most powerful V8 as standard but instead it was up to the prospective buyer to order the “appropriate” engine.
But point taken.
As for as performance SUV/CUVs….can the Germans and British be wrong when they see sales soar? But I agree, I think it is a foolish idea.
I always thought the S/23 was 318 only, as in the “23” representing the 318’s 230 HP rating with the zero knocked off.
Actually engine options for the S/23 are: 318, 383 2bbl, 383 4bbl HP. The 440 was not available with the S/23 package.
S/23 refers to the body style “23”. S is for “Sport”.
Also, it was released on September, 23 1969; S/23eptember.
While it’s true that the pricey, full-size musclecar’s best days had long since passed (ever since the arrival of the 1964 GTO), the flip-side is it was an easy and cheap ploy to roll the dice, particularly at the height of the musclecar era. That’s the reason for the 300H and Marauder X-100. All the hard engineered mechanical pieces were already there (anyone could order up subdued versions with the exact same drivetrain and suspension). It was just up to the marketing guys to come up with a few add-ons and fashionable performance paint in an effort to score big profits.
So, yeah, although the effort didn’t pan out, it’s not like it cost the companies a lot of money to give it a try, either. While the odds were against the cars being any kind of sales success, if they had hit, just like in Vegas, the return would have been worth the relatively small investment.
Cool! I love fuselage Chryslers and a 300 Hurst would definitely be in my dream garage (large version). That car looks complete, but would obviously need a thorough restoration. It might be worth it with examples selling at auction for at least 50K, but it would be tough with so many interior and trim parts needed that aren’t available from aftermarket suppliers.
This picture is one I used in my Chryslers in Scottsdale article last month. Such a long car!
Nicely done article on all things Hurst.
Rare bird indeed! Finding one of those hoods (Fiberglass I think) is like scouring for hen’s teeth.
Jason, thanks for doing this car justice. I found and shot this a couple of years back, behind a small car restoration shop, but I never saw it actually go inside and get restored. It sat there for a wile, and then left. Probably sold to someone else.
Thank you. This is one car I could really immerse myself learning about and weaving in George and Linda made it even more fun to research.
The Hurst jaws-of-life used to come complete with an AMC Gremlin!
http://gremlinx.com/hurst-rescue-system-1-gremlin/
What a great piece! A double feature; today I learned not only about the 300 Hurst (which I’ve always considered delightfully pervy, though it would’ve been more so with a Hurst-shifted 4-speed) but also about Hurst himself and themselves. Had no idea he was behind the Jaws of Life.
Being a fuselage Groupie, it hurts to see the top photo!!
Have sooo many memories of sitting in the back seat of a ’69 Chrysler Newport as my best friend’s Mom hauled us around town.
Hope some one restores the beast!!
I need a “BITCH MACHINE” license plate frame.
I spotted one of these at Colorado Auto and Parts in fall 2016 in similar condition, it was still there when Roadkill did an episode there. I’m surprised there was no actual Hurst shifter linkages in these things, but nonetheless I quite like it. A sportified fuselage looks delightfully cartoonish! 🙂
Great info on Hurst I didn’t know, to me they were the backbone to the muscle car era, and the one thing common across the entire big three and AMC were Hurst 4-speed linkages by the late 60s.
Of the four major auto manufacturers, Ford seemed to be the most reticent to get on board with Hurst. As as example, although they used ‘HURST’ branded shift levers, the actual linkage was all Ford!
A couple other things that warrant mentioning is how the Hurst-Pontiac connection really took off with the GTO. Besides using Hurst 4-speed shifters, there was also the Hurst ‘Dual-Gate’ automatic shifter. I have no idea if they worked closely together, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that Hurst was tight with guys like Jim Wangers and John Delorean.
Finally, it’s worth noting that the famous 1968 Super-Stock Hemi-Dart and Barracuda were assembled at Hurst’s facility.
Thanks so much for this fascinating biography. I thought I knew about Hurst, but not so as it turned out. great articel
Car’s not too bad either.
Great write up. It must have been tough researching all those photos of Linda Vaughn for this article, thanks for taking one for the team! True CC dedication. She’s still a beautiful, intelligent woman today.
I too did not know Hurst invented the jaws of life, they saved a lot of lives over the years.
The Hurst floor shifter I bought around 1986 when I converted the ’70 C10 to a 4 speed Saginaw transmission was expensive, but was a quality unit that was worth the price.
Shifted really nice and smooth, never rattled or missed a gear. Was still shifting like new 20 years later when I sold the truck.
I’m pretty sure this was the inspiration for the interior:
They could do much, much worse. In an alternate universe, that would be a more common inspiration to automotive seating.
It was a delight to read this tonight, Jason. The two-for-one of the 300 car *and* MHGC, plus all the carefully selected photos, add up to a couple of great stories nicely told.
I prowled the PA newspapers re Hurst-Campbell and didn’t find much (sure learned a bunch from VinceC!), here’s a silly thing from ’64 that personalizes the firm a bit, I suppose:
One more of the one-off convertible and MHGS from her book–which can be sampled at Google Books:
The 1970 300-H / Hurst Convertible was George Hurst’s favorite car, according to Linda Vaughn. He drove the convertible 300-H whenever and wherever he could.
I could add a lot more details and correct history on the 300-H, but don’t want to be to pedantic on the topic here.
I’m fortunate enough to have this one in my garage.
Linda and the 300-H Convertible 1971
June Cocran withe Nikie Phillips and Linda on the shifter 1971
Thank you, Jason, for the VERY informative early history of Hurst!
I don’t remember when I first read something about the 1970 edition of the Hurst Chrysler, but I had NO idea so few were produced.
I hope (if she hasn’t already) that Linda Vaughn writes a memoir some day. She has a unique perspective on not only Hurst, but drag racing in general when it was in its glory days.
Season 5 of “Phantom Works” on Velocity had one of these on.
https://www.fantomworks.com/project/1970-chrysler-300/
Food for thought. With George Hurst’s minimal education, he be lucky to be hired anywhere today. How much natural talent are we denied today because self taught, motivated people aren’t “qualified”.
Higher education is overrated. I have a community college diploma is Business Marketing and believe me, I learned nothing useful in that course that could be applied to the home-based business I now run. There is no better teacher than real life experience.
I’ve always been a fan of the big luxo-sport coupes–these and the X-100 being perhaps best of breed. The spoiler integrated into the decklid is a particularly nice touch; hope the photographed one eventually got restored.
Nice to read this one again, Jason—we all benefit from your diligent factual and pictorial research.
I join those thinking of Mercury’s X-100 Marauder as the only thing approaching this Hurst car—though there’s something you lose with its many available color schemes vis-a-vis the Chryslers all being uniquely uniform.
My father’s 1970 Mercury had the 429 (non-CJ version), and this then-teenager can attest to its torque and top end and commodious interior. Interesting that the full-size Mercury is where you **couldn’t** get the CJ-429’s, if I read the brochures correctly.
BTW, some years ago a talented writer at TTAC did a nice essay about the X-100; I wonder how things turned out for him? https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/12/curbside-classic-the-bootylicious-1970-mercury-marauder-x-100/
“Curiously, there is no Hurst shifter mechanism.”
Herein lies the lunacy. Why promote a company singularly associated with manual transmission shifters in a car unavailable with manual transmission? This is analogous promoting hamburgers at Taco Bell.
Americans are, by and large, exemplary marketers. This Hurst Chrysler however, is absolutely and outrageously horrible.
Why promote a company singularly associated with manual transmission shifters in a car unavailable with manual transmission?
Do I really have to point out that Hurst by then was a performance parts brand that included a wide range of products? They had already bought Shiefer (clutches, etc.) and Airheart (brakes, etc.) and they had expanded their product line well before then, including “Dual Gate” shifters for automatics. Hurst was a big brand, and not just associated with manual shifters. And Hurst went on to make a number of automatic “specials” including the 1971 Hurst Jeepster and a line of Hurst/Olds models.
Lunacy?
Hmm. Not feeling very welcome here anymore. Be well.
I recently saw a documentary about people with photographic or nearly photographic memory, and it sounds as though Ms. Vaughn may have (be inflicted?) with that. I remember all of them being women, though there might’ve been one man. Marilu Henner was one of them, and most besides her complained about it. The way people talk about her remembering conversations with strangers (and you know she meets thousands), it sounds like she might have it.
George Hurst was working on some new kind of automatic transmission near the end. Does anyone know more about this ?
1983 Hurst/Olds had the Hurst Lightning Rods shifter with three sticks for its four-speed automatic, one for first, one for second and the usual one for third and OD.
I saw an 83 Hurst Olds at a car show a couple years ago. My friend that was with me, I showed him this shifter and started to explain to him how it worked. The owner overheard our conversation. He came up to me and said that in the 5 years he has owned and showed the car, I was the first person he had ever heard that knew how the shifter worked.
That was a proud car-geek moment for me. 🙂
I like it. I’m a sucker for the large fuselage/muscle/luxury/petroleum-aerosolizing-machines. Just a big ridiculous wonderful sexy beast!
The problem with the 300-H was that the cosmetic changes don’t seem nearly enough to justify that added price. I mean, besides the stripes, fiberglass hood and trunk, and Imperial seats, it was just a regular 300 2-door, and would imagine that, more than anything else, is why neither Chrysler nor Hurst were interested in spending the money to promote the car.
I would be torn between one of these and the Mercury Marauder X-100.
To a slightly lesser extent, the Buick Wildcat was also a competitor in the same field.
Ironically, when the 300 and Marauder exited, Buick tried, again, for the remains of the same market with the new-for-1971 Centurion.
Unfortunately, it went nowhere, and for the remaining two years, it got watered down to the point that the base 1973 Centurion got a plebian Buick V8 as opposed to the earlier, standard 455. All full-size ‘muscle’ coupes were gone by 1974.
Howdy
https://i.7146/57877146/pics/3351876948_2_3_ApRzf0i6.jpgskyrock.net/
https://i.skyrock.net/7146/57877146/pics/3351876922_2_3_ucPaHTP0.jpg
Chrysler 300 hurst 1970 in cityscape.
The ugliest, and sadly, only worshiped by collectors of C Body Mopars.