After yesterday’s 1957 Chrysler 300 clay buck post, I cracked open my book on Virgil Exner (“Visioneer”), and was reminded that that buck was not some far-out design that never went anywhere. It was the primary design concept for the 300, and Ghia in Italy was commissioned to build a a running prototype. The front end is virtually unchanged from the production 300, but a late change of heart (chickened out?) caused the fins and “continental spare” to be jettisoned. Good thing, I’d say, although from the front, it has quite a menacing look.
This car looks stubbier than the production 300- it also looks like it has the greenhouse of the Plymouth/Dodge hardtop coupe(and the matching wheelbase?). The production 300 had a more graceful C-pillar, shared with the standard Chryslers & DeSotos. Thank goodness this one didnt get made, the right ingredients in the wrong portions.
Stunning as the 57 Mopars are I think I must be the only fan of the overlooked 55/56 models..Thankfully this beast never made it into the showrooms
The 55-56 Mopars were nice & would have made better cars to live with than the 57-60 but the 57-60 models were at least 5 years ahead of the competition in every aspect other than reliability & build quality.
I’m with you, Gem. I’d prefer a ’55 or ’56 if I could swap in a Torqueflite.
This body has the 1957-59 Plymouth 2-door hardtop top rather than the one that ended up on the 300 hardtops. That may be why it looks shorter.
Dramatic but makes the car look way shorter than what they went with (which no doubt must have been a major consideration). As far as fins go I think they got them perfect on the 1960 Chrysler.
I clearly see the 1960 Imperial rear quarter panels in those fins, although perhaps not quite so dramatic. A friend inherited his mother’s ’60 Imperial several years back, it was pretty dramatic in its own right. Maybe “swoopy” would be a better description.
I,too, am a fan of the ’55-’56 Chrysler line, of course, as I have written before, my grandmother’s ’56 DeSoto Firedome led the way for me. Big, bold, delightful, delovely.
The quarters definitely influenced the ’59 Plymouth . . . .
Yesterdays photo did look familiar, now I know why Ive seen this photo before where I cant recall, but Ive got it in something.
Everyone does know that this is just a painted & “more advanced” version of the clay, right?
I like it. I find it a natural expression of their designs at the time. It makes me think of the 300 today.
I’ve seen these photos and look upon them with utter dread. There is no excuse for such a complete lack of taste.
Exner’s designs after 1955 are laughable. After 1957, his designs were total crap.
These mock ups and concepts show that Exner changed auto styling just to change auto styling. There is no function to them. There is a complete lack of purpose. When critics began to accuse American industries of planned obsolescence, Exner was one of the top examples used.
There is no reason the 1960 Valiant needed to look like that. It had a great engine and a good solid chassis. It must have absolutely killed Engineering to see their work buried under a design of absolute nonsense. Exner messed with everything just to mess with it.
Exner ran out of decent ideas after 1956. By 1960, he was taking ugly cars and making them even uglier. Walking around a 1961 Plymouth or a 1962 Dodge is painful. Exner’s designs are by this time, embarrassing to say the least.
Today, we look at this silly cars and read into their designs a purpose for their odd appearances. We are being too kind. Honestly, Exner’s stuff is crap and it’s time to stop lauding him after 1957. His designs failed to do anything more than turn heads and cause guys across the nation to slap their foreheads in disbelief at what they were seeing.
I’m glad I’m not the only one that finds these cars after 58 just hideous.
I agree. You can see the where the distinct right and left side roof treatments meet over the windshield, and there is some sort of vertical support in the rear seat area.
I wonder if someone had the idea to put the 300 on a shorter wheelbase to make it more of a “sports tourer” than what it was, a big powerful brute. I’m glad we got the brute.
There is an article in the just out issue of Hemmings Classic Car on Chrysler Concept cars, apparently even Exner disliked the Imperial d’elgance showcar, and may have not been happy with this one. While he obvious set the tone, I don’t think he is single handedly responsible for the extremely far out stuff, afterall I believe he was also recovering from stroke and or heart attacks during this period and so the details were not as supervised as they should have been-. His most hands on period coincides with the far more cohesive 1955-1957 cars, which are far more elegant and tasteful than the later stuff. Although he did a good job foreshadowing the long hood short rear deck trend of the mid to late 60’s and he was exploring retro themes with the early 60’s stuff that would take off with the Continental Mark III and the Pontiac Grand Prix of the late 60’s.(credit must be given to the 56 Continental Mark II for being early to that party) I think his ability to edit and refine had been compromised by his health problems and not his lack of talent.
As young man this car was seen and ridden in in ft lauderdale fl. It was driven by a chryler vp from havana cuba and eventional on to mexico city area. It may not of been the exact on pictured but was real close.
Yes, Exner’s studios after 1958 turned out some very ugly cars. They also turned out some real sales successes, like the 1961 -1962 Chryslers. Some of these were also quite handsome, like the 1963 Dart. Arguably, the 1963 Plymouth saved that division from following DeSoto to an early grave.
Exner was an employee. He followed orders. William C. “Chevrolet is downsizing the Impala so make Furies and Polaras the size of Valiants right now!!” Newburg was in charge in 1960, before he became the first president of Chrysler to be fired. And when the ’55s sold well and the ’57s sold better, Newburg literally ordered Exner to throw sense and sensibility to the wind and go nuts.
Lynn Townsend told Exner to settle down, and the results were seen in 1963. The ’63s were being tooled up when Elwood Engel took over for Exner, and he said he had precious little effect on them. Townsend regretted firing Exner when those ugly cars were Newburg’s fault. But the dealers wanted somebody lynched.
It seems Exner became Newburg’s whipping boy even though Newburg was already fired. It seems the “Lynch the Stylist” attitude is also still haunting the man. Look hard at a ’63 Dart some time, and give the poor guy a break already.