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Rock'nRoll

Posted 2018-12-28 1:04 AM (#575908)
Subject: Favorite '50's/Forward Look-era Chrysler concept car?

Member

Posts: 8

Location: New York, NY

With all of the discussion about the production cars that Virgil Exner designed for Chrysler Corp., I thought it would be fun to have a discussion about the Chrysler concept cars he also designed during this period.

As many of you probably know, Exner partnered with Ghia to build almost all of Chrysler Corp.'s 1950's concept cars, with Exner sending scale models of his designs to Italy for Ghia's people to analyze and build the full-size cars, including the Chrysler D'Elegance, the Dodge Firearrow series, the DeSoto Adventurer I and II, the Plymouth Plainsman, the Flight Sweep I and II, the Chrysler Dart/Diablo, the Chrysler Falcon, and many more. The early '50's concept cars were the first Chrysler's designed by Exner, with some of their styling features being carried over to the early Forward Look cars, such as the "gun-sight" tail lamps on the '52 C-200 and '53 D'Elegance being used on the '55 and '56 Imperials, hence the inclusion of the earlier concepts in this thread. Meanwhile, the mid- to late- 1950's concepts appeared at Auto Shows alongside the production Forward Look models (but does that make them Forward Look cars???).

So my main question is: Which 1950's Chrysler concept car is your favorite?
Follow-up "What-if" question: If Chrysler had decided on choosing one of it's many two-seater/sports car concepts to put into production to compete with the Corvette and Thunderbird, which one do you think they should have gone with?

List of 1950's Chrysler concepts:
This thread shows many of the concepts that are still around at Amelia's Concours d'Elegance a few years back:
http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=53527&...

Chrysler concepts not shown in the above link (it is mentioned in that thread that the first three on this list were sent to the crusher

):
1951 Chrysler K-310 (First Exner design)
1952 Chrysler C-200 (Convertible)
1953 DeSoto Adventurer I (Exner's personal car for many years)
1954 Dodge Firearrow III (Blue Coupe)
1956 Flight Sweep I and II (Coupe and Convertible)
1956 Chrysler Norseman (ill-fated)
1956 Plymouth Plainsman (Station Wagon)
1958 Plymouth Cabana (Large Station Wagon)
1958 Chrysler Imperial D'Elegance (Sedan)

My answer to both questions would be the '55 Falcon, with the Adventurer I in a very close second.

Viper Guy

Posted 2018-12-28 8:21 AM (#575919 - in reply to #575908)
Subject: Re: Favorite '50's/Forward Look-era Chrysler concept car?

Expert

Posts: 2007
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Location: Branson, MO

I now like the DeSoto Adventurer I the best. I actually saw that car at a dealer preview show in Detroit with my dad who was a DeSoto-Plymouth dealer. The Plymouth Belmont was also there and at that time I liked it better. Not now as I look back the Adventurer has much more appeal.

GaryS

Posted 2018-12-28 6:25 PM (#575948 - in reply to #575908)
Subject: Re: Favorite '50's/Forward Look-era Chrysler concept car?

Expert

Posts: 1207
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Location: Ponder, TX

The '56 Dart/Diablo is my favorite. Any of the Ghia designs would work as T-Bird/Corvette competition.

wizard

Posted 2018-12-29 10:32 AM (#575963 - in reply to #575908)
Subject: Re: Favorite '50's/Forward Look-era Chrysler concept car?

Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+

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Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island

My favourite is of course the '56 Norseman, 50,000 man-hours and $200,000 spent just for to be a legend with an eternal Life.

The fate of the Norseman is final. It's loss at the time was a great concern to Exner Jr, his father was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack at the time the Andrea Doria and it's unique cargo sank, so there was some apprehension in telling him of the event. When finally told the news, the elder Exner said "That's really neat". According to Exner Jr, his father was a romanticist. He was disappointed by the loss of the car, but thought it was great that it would become a part of Automotive folklore.

My #2 is 1958 Chrysler Imperial D'Elegance

1960fury

Posted 2018-12-29 3:05 PM (#575977 - in reply to #575908)
Subject: Re: Favorite '50's/Forward Look-era Chrysler concept car?

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Location: northern germany

In my opinion most Chrysler concept cars are downright ugly. Ford did a better job! I'm very happy the regular cars turned out the way they did and have no resemblance with the "concepts".
There is one Chrysler concept car that I like, forgot the name, but it is the wagon they used unborn baby calf skin for the seatcovers (puke)