(originally posted in 2010)
Enough with these pathetic little Briggs and Stratton powered sidewalk toys like the Rabbit and Starlet! We need us a real car to counterbalance that axis of Cozy Coupes. This Imperial weighs a half a ton more than both of them together. Its 7.2 liter engine is almost three times as big as their egg beaters combined. And its got enough torque to twist those little tin cans into shreds. This baby rocks, even if it is to a song that abruptly played out the year of its birth.
Yes, this Imperial was born under a bad sign: the crescent moon. And it marks the end of the road for Chrysler’s pride and joy, save some pathetic efforts to revive it. But Chrysler’s loss is our gain today, because it isn’t every day we stumble onto one of these bitchin’ waterfall-grilled monstrosities with big twin exhausts to rumble our memories and fantasies far away to another time and place…
I’m going to call this the coolest big sled find since the hot-rod ’50 Caddy coupe. They have a lot in common too; they’re the beginning and end of the whole crazy and uniquely-American idea: the biggest, meanest luxury coupe with the biggest, baddest motor in the house. I know; Caddy and Lincoln were still at the game with big rigs in ’74, but which of the three would you pick to put mag wheels on and hang a couple of big exhaust pipes out the ass end? I thought so. For whatever reason, and wherever your loyalties to the Big Three lay, the big Chryslers were the only ones that still could pull this sort of stunt off in 1974.
Was it the styling, or what was under the skin? The return of the waterfall grille was a bold and distinctive step, even if it was a reprise of that divine sales flop, the Airflow. The rest of Chrysler’s new look wasn’t exactly original either; it looks like a slightly warmed over ’69 Buick Electra except for that outrageous front end. The stunning and original fuselage styling of ’69-’73 was worn out, as were Chrysler’s creative juices. The crap that came out of Highland Park from here on out was nothing but the result of death rattles moving the hands of the designers. That is, until Lido showed up and taught them to fold, spindle and mutilate a simple box in more ways than had ever been…; well “imagined” is too flattering a word. That resulted in zombie Imperials that still haunt our nightmares.
Yes, the Arabs put a kibosh on this barge that Cleopatra would have been proud to float down the Nile on. And her tush would have been sitting pretty on all those acres of gen-u-ine Corinthian leather. The 440’s blubbering dual exhausts didn’t even need to be submerged under water to sound like an old Chris Craft speed boat. They don’t call these barges for nothing.
No, it wasn’t the styling alone. Chrysler’s big unibodies were always the eating-disordered unpopular sister of the big luxury three. A ’74 Lincoln had a good 600 pounds on this Le Baron (how that name was dragged through the mud by Lido’s K-Kars). Does anyone still know what Le Baron once was? The builders of the finest coach-built custom bodies in the land, like this Duesenberg. All things must pass. Well, this Le Baron isn’t exactly a Duesey, but it’s a lot closer to it in spirit than what followed all to soon. Just for good measure, here’s the tracks this ’74 was following.
But the tracks ended here; well, technically the following year in ’75. If you can tell the difference between the two, you should be writing this. Less than 4k of these coupes were made in ’74; even fewer the year after. Then it was over, for Chrysler’s perpetual wild goose chase for Cadillac gold. Since breaking away from the Chrysler brand in ’55, it managed to beat Lincoln just twice, in ’59 and ’60. But the brilliant ’61 Lincoln showed its trim little taillights to the Imperial, and never looked back. Twenty-one years of true Imperials, and every single one a memorable one. That’s more than I can say for its competition. Nothing like going out in style at the top, big time.
The pretenders to the name:
CC 1981 Imperial – It’s Time For You, Or Not (Jim Cavanaugh)
CC 1990-1993 Imperial – The Last Imperial; The Last Iaccoca-Mobile (Paul Niedermeyer)
Gorgeous, after a day of Mcturds, mediocre 70s Japanese sedans and little electric puddle jumpers this is just great a proper luxury car of the tank variety.
That is beautiful and that leather. What a majestic and bad ass carb Chrysler needs to bring back the imperial.
You’ve converted me! I like it a lot and would choose this over a Cadillac or Lincoln of the same year.If it’s still going 41 years later I’m guessing this must have been one of the good ones from the good car/bad car days at Mopar.
They will never make anything like this again.
They will make 4 door pickups and CUVs. And diesel Sprinters, and 4 door coupes. They are what we need. They can be made anywhere and off just a few modular platforms. They can be leased in a few select colors and then certified used and even later buy here pay here having served as a financial instrument and yes transportation until the self driving cars come.
The 440 V8. The smooth ride. The interesting juxtaposition of an struggling maker at the low end of the market offering a vision of luxury. I prefer the 65 but it is still easy to see what an imposing figure this car cuts. Once the car was renamed and the price was cut it got surprisingly successful because the fans knew they could not last.
Even all these years later, the Imperial was good enough to bring out all the old generational biases and anger and sarcasm. To still be able to do this even in the state it was in says something. You got your wish from 1974, they don’t build them like this anymore. I hope now wisdom as come to show that everything does not have to be your style. Killing it did not get you anything.
>>They will never make anything like this again.
They will make 4 door pickups and CUVs. And diesel Sprinters, and 4 door coupes. They are what we need. They can be made anywhere and off just a few modular platforms. They can be leased in a few select colors and then certified used and even later buy here pay here having served as a financial instrument and yes transportation until the self driving cars come.<<
This depresses the hell out of me. We've entered the Appliance Age of motoring, and that sucks.
True, but there are an awful lot of nice choices in performance and specialty vehicles these days. For example, challenger hellcat is the sort of car we will be saying in a decade or two they don’t build them like that anymore!
It is a good comparison, since the Hellcat buyer is older and better off and pissing off some younger folks who think they know better and over time no doubt will get their way and kill it for perceived excesses. This Imperial all over again.
In a decade or two, it won’t be legal to build them like that anymore. By that point it will be illegal/impossible to get on the highway in a car that isn’t self-driving, as our machine-based overlords are better drivers than we are. If you want to drive yourself around you’ll be relegated to city streets and back roads. Which might not be the worst thing ever. But also I envision the current CAFE system leading to they day when if an invidiual car does not meet an arbitrarily high number–perhaps 75 MPG–they just won’t certify it. Period. And *that* will be the final death blow for gasoline performance cars.
Only if we allow it, there is a law of diminishing returns when it comes to engine designs, and hyper tuning small engines causes them to wear out prematurely, which is more of a waste or resources then everyone driving a 15 mpg barge. However I could see big displacement engines being used to move natural gas powered cars around. By the a 75 mpg CAFE might come around the U.S will be bankrupt, and the bureaus that mandate such things will be a memory. It’s what happens when you have non stop mega deficits, and money printing for two decades straight, when your piece was written the U.S national debt was probably around $18 trillion, now it’s $34 trillion, you can only go so long before you end up like either New Zealand or Argentina.
Nice eulogy for a perfectly fine American icon. Thanks, Debbie Downer! In all seriousness, though . . . I couldn’t agree more.
I Wish my brother, Robert, would have kept his. It stomped the hell out of our Pop’s 1972 460 Lincoln and our neighbor’s 454 in every way possible. Such a Fun, Outstanding luxury barge.
The Imperial looks like a Dodge Monaco coupe, who wanted to play “luxury car dress up”, and didn’t have it’s own identity…
So it took a Lincoln Continental hidden headlight front and Cadillac Coupe de Ville long vertical taillight rear.
Although, THIS car executes both themes extremely well, and in coupe form, looks much better than the four door, like the New Yorker.
Yes, agreed, this car is A LOT more worthy of the Imperial name, than the 1981 quirky bustle back and 1991 FWD versions, that followed.
I’ve always been a fan of these 74-78 Chryslers, but particularly this two door hardtop body style better than the dressed up St Regis front padded roofs. The overall look is clean, I’d buy one of these!
What a splendid example of what Oregon’s healing rains and being banned from demolition derbies will get you!
Any link to the Rabbit and Starlet stories?
I think this is the original sequence of articles being referenced, on TTAC in 2010:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/01/curbside-classic-the-most-influential-global-car-1975-vw-rabbitgolf-mk-i/
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/01/curbside-classic-the-most-reliable-car-ever-1983-toyota-starlet/
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/01/curbside-classic-the-last-cool-and-real-imperial-1974-imperial-lebaron-coupe/
See also, here on CC:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1975-vw-golf-mk1rabbit-the-most-influential-modern-global-compact-car/
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtake-the-indestructible-1983-toyota-starlet/
I feel like I’m seeing double… Is it happy hour, already? 😛
A cliche that bears repeating here: “A hood like the deck of an aircraft carrier.”
These cars were designed during an era when things like whitewall tires and full hubcaps signified a step up from the basic level. To me, these luxury cars just don’t look good with blackwall tires. Conversely, now that cars are designed with blackwalls from the start, it is jarring to see ww’s on them, (as well as vinyl tops, etc!) 🙂
Regarding sales vs. Lincoln: Didn’t the Imperial also outsell Lincoln for the ’57 model year? That was the one year I had always heard about, never realized the relative successes in ’59 and ’60. ’58 probably should have been a killer year, too, although the problems with the ’57’s hurt them like the rest of the Chrysler line – and Lincoln was all-new and more attractive than the previous year.
I too thought that Imperial has bested Lincoln in 1957. Some 35,734 1957 Imperials were built according to my Standard Catalog. Imperial’s best year ever.
But, a quick tally of the ’57 Lincoln shows about 41,000 cars.
“Welcome back to Jeopardy!”
“I’ll take ’70s American Barges, Alex.”
“The last ’60s styled American car line.”
“What was the 1974 Chrysler?”
“That is correct, Bob!”
I do love the ’74-’78 Chrysler full-size. I very nearly bought a mint condition ’77 New Yorker Brougham version, but took too long to make a decision back around 1988, and it was gone.
This coupe is a mash-up of the ’69 Oldsmoble ’98 coupe with a bit of ’67 Chrysler inspired side sculpting. Typical Chrysler styling – every other generation was either a bold new direction, or a cribbing of the last generation GM equivalent.
Not that there is anything wrong with that – sticking with a classic look and handling the contemptible Federal bumpers of the era as if the requirement never happened did allow the Big Chrysler to go out in style.
Some of the original design proposals for this car were a lot more ’70s lounge lizard than buttoned down 1965 style. My guess is that Lynn Townsend was hoping for another 1965 sales recovery and wasn’t looking for another let down as happened with the Fuselage era cars.
I’m glad this was avoided…….if you enlarge it you’ll even catch a bit of a bustle back thing going on…….
That concept looks like what would now be called a four door coupe. Too bad the production four door version didn’t look like that
I actually really like that, but then again I’m one of those disturbed individuals who likes the bustleback Seville.
But as a coupe it would not have had a fraction of the badass factor that this one does. A badass in an expensive suit.
That nose looks so familiar.
Now, if that concept was a coupe, it would look like this Zimmer Quicksilver.
Now where have we met before? Oh yes…….
Arguably the nicest Imperial of them all. I`m a big fan of these cars. I always wanted the coupe, especially in white.Drop dead beautiful. Don`t call this beauty a barge,its an ocean liner of the classic era.Damn the environment, full speed ahead.
What a gorgeous car – massive of course, but clean lines and fairly restrained for the brougham era. I can hear the burbling 440 already…
I test drove a 74 Imp back in the late 80s, after I saw it sitting for sale near my house. I have forgotten its story, but it was beautiful despite having over 100K on the odo. I passed. I shouldn’t have.
I know the feeling. I looked at a few New Yorker versions last year-coupes, of course.I passed on both of them. Maybe someday……
The front sears on this generation Mopar were/are as Cushy & Comfortable as a pre-war Packard.
What a beauty. Those seats are the Broughamiest of Broughams!
Since you brought it up, there was a story on DW News this week about a company in the U.K. that has taken the Cozy Coupe and used it as a “model” of sorts for a new car. The car (I forget it’s name) is red and yellow with styling similar to the Cozy Coupe, an engine and transmission and working lights and instruments. It’s big enough for a driver and 1 passenger, and yes, it’s made of plastic, and being made in the U.K. with it’s V.A.T. the price was reported as being over….. $31,000.
Imperials are nice, Imperials are cool, but there is a freaking Renault R17 in the background of a couple of the photographs.
Having driven this generation Imperial and it’s competiton, The Imperial is easily the best road car of the bunch. And I’m a GM guy. As far as the styling, This coupe and the same year Electra coupe are the last 1950s American Luxury coupes, and I mean that as a complement!
One of the better looking full sized coupes of the mid 70’s, it does look like a combination of an Oldsmobile 98 from the rear and a Lincoln from the front and I take that as a good thing.
If I won the lottery, I would open a “Ye Olde Chrysler Shoppe” and this would be its flagship. What a beaut!
My father had a white LeBaron 1975 Imperial coupe he bought new. Very stylish, but there were quality issues. The car was in the shop the first week because the AC was blowing the cold air out of the heater vents instead of the dash vents.
Flawless after that though. And it made a statement everywhere it went.
Have you seen this one since, Paul? Hopefully, it’s still OK, although that missing door trim panel gives me a certain foreboding…….
“…The Imperial looks like a Dodge Monaco coupe, who wanted to play “luxury car dress up”, and didn’t have it’s own identity…”
^ This is what hurt Imperial in long run, some thought it was another Chysler model, not its own make. What was the top of the Mopar line? New Yorker? 300? Imperial? Monaco?
I knew enough in the 60’s that Imperial was meant for the ‘Fine Car class’, but Chrysler brand was overlapping it.
Imperial was retired as a stand alone make in 1975, the last year, but the last time it had its own platform was 1966 or so. After that year, they were built on Chrysler C body chassis.
New Yorker by Chrysler became their flagship, the non-letter 300 series was quasi personal luxury, whatever that means.
Newport was the entry level Chrysler, with little more than the Chrysler name to set it above the Dodge. Typically outfitted with AM radio and crank windows, no cruise control, electric seats or power door locks. A customer that wanted those options was steered toward the New Yorker or 300.
Dodge was subordinate to Chrysler, and competed with Olds-Mercury, but the St Regis version could be had with the toys. Plymouth held the bottom, and was mainly a government fleet vehicle.
Imperial was a glorious car though, with a proud history. I’d say it could be revived if done properly, but the automotive market bears no resemblance to the old days now. It would be hard to make a marketing case for the car considering development costs and the current terrain of the market.
Imperial was indeed retired as a standalone make after ’75, but this car’s styling lived on, applied to the New Yorker Brougham. The ’76-’78 NYB wore Imperial sheetmetal, but the long list of equipment standard to the Imperial became largely optional. Notably, though, the hardtop coupe was no more, replaced by a pillared coupe for ’76 (strangely as the 4-door hardtop lived until ’78).
Imperial in that era was unique. Not only did it have one foot firmly in the luxury world, but it had the legendary image of Chrysler performance too. Everything was getting desmogged by 1974 but there was still nothing that SOUNDED like a 440 Magnum…even if it wasn’t called that when it was bolted into an Imperial, you knew that was what you had. It sounded even better, like it could eat up anything that got in its way, including a Rabbit and two Starlets, if you flipped over the lid of the air cleaner (though that bypassed the heated air intake that made it drivable before it was all warmed up).
Poor Imperial, it started out as the top-line Chrysler, became Custom Imperial, then Crown Imperial, then tried for twenty years to separate itself from Chrysler, but the public had joined the two names inextricably. Management finally threw in the towel in early 1975, conceded it would never be accepted on par with Cadillac and Lincoln.
Recycled into the 1976-78 New Yorker Brougham after a tad of de-contenting and reductions in price and it sold like crazy compared to its last years as Imperial. Personally, love the waterfall grille, deftly handled parking lights and bumper styling and especially the pendant taillights.
Until recently, I never was aware of the 74-75 Imperial and the subsequent 76-78 New Yorker. But as a land barge lover, these cars have grown on me exponentially in terms of styling. Not sure how the dynamics are, but they can’t be too bad.
I’m not entirely sure if I would’ve taken one of these back when they were new, but being of a much younger generation, these cars can be a good way to enter the land barge game. They seem relatively obscure, meaning the desirability and high asking prices aren’t there, and time has certainly weeded out the bad ones so that only well kept survivors remain. Make mine a black 76 New Yorker Brougham with the 440 please.
Also, these are one of the few cars I think works better as a four door than a two door. Something about cars in this class works with the lines and styling of a sedan rather than a coupe. Unless the car was designed from the ground up to be a coupe, I always like the four door versions of old luxury barges better.
No fears, Joey, if you find one, it will have the 440 4bbl Magnum engine, that was standard on Imperial.
I’d love to find a garage kept one owner car myself. It’s intimidating in black, but also stunning in white.
Good luck hunting, I drove my father’s around when I had just gotten my driver’s license. Driving one made you look like a mob guy though. lol
One sweet ride. It’s a lot bigger than anythng I would normally drive, but I would love to take it for a long weekend cruise. I could live with the gas bill just to know that I had experienced the last real Imperial.
Just for fun, guys…
I don’t think the Imperial, even with the 440, could catch THIS Starlet. 😉
I don’t want to start an argument but I think the last REAL Imperial is the ’73. That was the last year they had the elongated hood. My favorite Imperial might be the 69. I say “might” because I have never been able to decide between the 69 and the 67.
I’ve doctored up a photo of a 69 to be what I feel the Imperial coupe SHOULD have been…maybe call it an Imperial 300.
The reduction in wheelbase does remove at least one of the features that made Imperial unique from New Yorkers and other Chryslers. While I really liked the ’74-’75 styling, when I realized the wheelbase had been cut back to that of the standard Chryslers, it was a disappointment. It leaves the impression that it is only the next short trim-level step above a New Yorker rather than a unique luxury car in and of itself.
Chrysler should have gone all out, lengthened the cowl to front axle 5″ over the New Yorker, added another 4″ rearward to the quarters to achieve the 133″ wb of the 1956 Imperial, there was a truly distinctive luxury car!
They could’ve done much more than they did, but they chose not to. They had something special and they blew it.
why was there no convertible after 1968?
why was there never a 4door convertible?
why was there not a factory limousine version?
That little bit may have made a difference, Given a more limited range of Chrysler brands, I would have given a 130″ WB or so as an Imperial exclusive. Imperial also should have had Mopar’s only full size convertable as that was at that point a luxury line only thing by then. As much as a factory limo would be fun thought, Remember Cadillac only cranked out about 600 or so per year of the Series 75s, Ten percent of that racket aint worth it (Lincoln did’nt even bother)
Wow, that Olds ad is scary. They could never have gotten it past the people waiting in lines at petrol stations in 1973.
Once again, I looked into my archives to find a photo I took back in ’74 of an obscure “Edition” of a Curbside Classic. I had almost forgotten about this one >
Over the Falls in a Barrel! Too cool.
My girlfriend Vicky drove a NEW one of these in highschool. Dark metallic green with the same tufted white leather and a power SUNROOF! Wow! It was awesome and much love was made in the rear lounge! Keith
Triple white, hidden lamps, pillarless hardtop, 440. Yep, it’s love. I do hope this car is still in fine condition in the 7 years since this photo (and that it’s regained its inside door panel.)
NO 2-doors for me.
The reference to the Duesenberg is apt, though those Dusies were all limited production with bespoke bodywork. Post War that wasn’t going to work anymore. These were the best that Detroit could produce since the disappearance of the true Classics. They are the classics of the modern age. Pristine examples of these pre downsized cars should be preserved, but they are hard to live with. They take up a lot of room, they need to be garaged, and they burn a lot of gas. But does it matter? No one is going to commute in one of these Seventies Wonders. If you get a chance to read old issues of Old Cars Weekly, you may be able to read the column by Bruce Fagan, “Tales of the Old West.” He describes how back in the early ’50’s, true Classics could be found in good condition for only a couple of hundred bucks, and the cars were only around twenty years old, had been well maintained, and could be shined up to their former glory with only a little work. Examples of late ’60s and ’70s cars that are still in good condition are rapidly disappearing. They should be saved.
I just noticed the missing hood ornament and driver’s side interior door panel.
The Imperial just couldn’t get a break. The last version (as well as all of Chrysler’s new full-size cars) came out almost exactly at the same time as the first Oil Crisis. So, sales were even worse than might otherwise have been expected.
That pretty much meant that the Imp’s days were numbered. Ironically, the virtually identical (but more expensive when similiarly equipped) 1976-78 New Yorker Brougham sold a whole lot better.
Maybe it was just that ‘New Yorker Brougham’ had more cachet than ‘Imperial’.
This btw is a ’74 model; the ’75 has a different grille texture (I think that continued on the NY Brougham in 76-77) with new grille extensions in the bumper that did a nice job visually lightening the 5mph bumper. Inside, the steering wheel changed to a new design shared with other Chryslers. There were a few equipment changes too – electric grid rear defroster replacing a blower, and auto level rear suspension.
Although Imperial was still technically a separate brand in 1975, even Chrysler had given up by this point trying to convince people they weren’t “Chrysler Imperials” – their advertising the last few years certainly didn’t play up any separation from Chrysler, often including them in the same ads and brochures as Newports and New Yorkers.
Even in the 1970s one would not wear Adidas with a white pinstripe suit. A fine specimen but it seems to be begging to shed the aftermarket Plymouth Duster-like rims for traditional full covers and whitewall tires…
A very handsome design. It lifted all the best design features of GM and Lincoln and did it better. Remember that Chrysler had only one vehicle to cover both full size competition and the hot and popular luxury personal coupes, dominated by the Mark IV and Eldorado. So this same car needed to compete in two differing markets.
Some problems however – this car was still a hardtop at a time when its competition wasn’t. The competition used pillars as a visual means to separate riders from drivers and as a throwback to the pre-hardtop era. Chrysler was still selling a hardtop after this competitive shift. Pillars were the new thing, hardtops were the old thing.
Then there was the fact that Chrysler was seen as struggling. This market doesn’t want to drive a car from a company that looks like it is unpopular. Also, MB was beginning to be the new luxury status for this market, not these floaters.
What save this vehicle was that it was sold as a New Yorker Brougham the next year, saving money for anyone who waited a year. This confirmed to the market that if you bought this as an Imperial, you were really just getting a New Yorker. Sales for this vehicle as a New Yorker went up because it looked like you could get an Imperial for New Yorker prices. But, still – to Chrysler, this is a loss of prestige.
Just saw one of these Saturday 10/23/21 like the White one in the beginning of the story sitting in a used car lot in Genoa City, Wis. which is a “whisker” over the Illinois state line. It is kind of a Baby Blue with a White top and has been there for several years. No idea of the status of it, but looks like it is in decent shape.
Here’s one with a strange little European car for scale…
Try again…
…and a similarly sized Marauder – these things were big!