Now that’s a fuselage worthy of the airport.
Vintage Ad: 1974 Chrysler 12-Passenger Wagon By Armbruster-Stageway – The Ultimate Fuselage Wagon
– Posted on May 6, 2022
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Curbside Classics Archives
Now that’s a fuselage worthy of the airport.
Well, well! 7:00 AM EDT and I took a look at CC. Delighted to see this unusual and rather good looking stretched wagon. I have never seen one on the road. Thanks for the photo.
Has anyone ever seen one of these in-person? It seems that the GM-based conversions must have been more common as I’ve seen several of the Olds and Chevy wagon conversions, but never a Chrysler fuselage-body wagon. This one looks great.
It also looks from the artwork that the pilot has been met at the airport by his wife and her/their new car…and hubby is trying to figure out what wackiness has inspired the purchase of such an enormous car.
“Honey, I have some news….”
My wife and I know a couple who just had Baby #13. This would certainly be more stylish than their Ford Transit.
However, the wheelbase of this Chrysler is likely a touch longer. 🙂
On an Alaskan vacation some years back we stopped at a small country store just before the entrance to the Dalton Highway. It was a family affair, run by a nice middle aged couple and their nine children. Out front was the family vehicle, an old, eight door Checker Aerobus. Everyone easily fit for family trips into Fairbanks.
and hubby is trying to figure out what wackiness has inspired the purchase of such an enormous car.
This would have been the perfect car for the Brady Bunch family. Everyone would have enough room and poor Alice wouldn’t have to get squished in the middle seat.
There’s even room for Alice to bring along Sam!
Here’s one for sale: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2930695387233553
I never knew such a thing existed.
Ah, yes! Traveling on New York(er) Air. It’s amusing to see the advertising trope of the “Proud Owners Posing With Car” used in such a novel setting. Looks like she’s dropping off her pilot hubby at work. Or, is it her bus driver hubby?
You’re right; this is an odd use of that particular theme. Given her wistful stare into the distance, she may be thinking: “Five minutes after he takes off I’m trading this behemoth in on a 911.”
Probably was a Newport. The company is still in business and mostly builds funeral coaches. As far back as the 1930s they did stretch and formals. They even stretched the GMC carry-all. They did a lot of Chevrolets and Pontiacs six doors for colleges and maybe transporting troops to and from airports and bus stations in these cars. They also did Lincoln, Cadillac and Chrysler day cars and formals as well. Their website states rbeg are still in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
I saw a few as Airporters the NYC-Connecticut-NJTP area as a more luxurious ride than the Checker Aerobus. Note the GM PD-4104 coach as well in the background. My Dad owned a 1986 Armbruster-Stageway “single cut” Cadillac Fleetwood limo on the smaller FWD chassis for his car service.
Connecticut Limousine used stretched Chrysler Newports – not wagons – for decades
Here’s one of Armbruster/Stageway’s Newport limos – the standard 6-door variety:
Supposedly, the Newport limos were also available in an 8-door, 12-passenger configuration like the featured wagon ad. But this seems to be a mythical beast… like George mentions below regarding the wagon, I can’t find photos of an actual car, only renderings:
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1968-chrysler-eight-door-limousine/
Aha! One exists! And now I see the Motor Trend YouTube video below too. Thanks.
Connecticut Limousine used to use stretched Chryslers when I was a kid growing up in the 70’s. I honestly can’t remember if they were sedans or wagons, but they were blue and excess luggage was strapped to the roof. They were primarily used for the shuttle runs from New Haven, CT to JFK airport. I rembember riding in them at least twice before they were replaced with boring passenger vans with trailers and then regular motorcoaches as business continued to grow.
They were sedans I recall. My uncle drove one when he wasn’t on shift with the New Haven Fire Department. I thought they were dark green though…
I can’t find where Armbruster sold any of these big New Yorker six door jobs.
I suspect their clientele were happy with Pontiac and Chevrolet style six door wagons.
Came with a dance floor on the roof.
Oh!!! You’re absolutely right; it must have come with a dance floor on the roof! That makes sense; obviously it’s the car we hear starting up in the background at the start of this song:
Thank you Daniel for my Friday afternoon Jheri Curl fix. 🙂
Daniel putting the funk in the trunk.
A good looking car .
-Nate
It is hard to tell if that is a 727 or a DC-9 without a view of the top of the vertical stabilizer (tail). If it had the small winglets, it would be the Boeing.
The angle of the engine could lean in favour of the DC-9. Still, even with the angle, those engines were prone is failure if the wings iced up and chunks slid off into the intake.
Wonder what the wheelbase of that car was supposed to be.
It is an artistic-licensed Boeing 727-100 in Mexicana livery. It has the 727-100’s short fuselage and mid-fuselage galley door; and Boeing cockpit windows. The artistic license is in the omission of the Boeing 727’s third engine with its intake at the front of the vertical fin, and those tilted JT8 engines.
https://www.airhistory.net/photos/0018191.jpg
I came here to say that it looked like a DC-9 and a 727 had a love child. The nose of that plane is clearly Boeing, but then there’s that missing No. 2 engine.
Great observation guys. Nice to see I’m not the only one to have spotted it.
Perhaps this is the aviation equivalent of the non-descript car you always see in insurance advertisements.
I know, it’s a BAC-111!
That’s nice commercial illustration, and I’d love to see an actual vehicle sometime.
I went looking online for a photo of a real one, but all I could find were A-S images of Pontiacs, similar vintage, with either a sedan trunk or station wagon back end. I suppose they look less sleek with stuff strapped on the roof:
Per Mopar historians, the 1974-78 C bodies are not the ‘fuselage’ era, which are the 1969-73. Called ‘formal look’ and were to mimic GM’s big cars. We all know the story of the restyled models’ timing with the OPEC embargo, etc.
A rough 71 was featured in an episode of Roadkill
Who would buy these types of stretch jobs when the big 3 started making larger vans in the early 70’s? This would cost A LOT more than a 1974 12 passenger Dodge van.
I get it in the 50’s/60’s back when nobody made vans or they were much smaller like the Dodge A100 or Corvair Greenbriar. Or VW bus
You have doors for each row of seats in this, extended Dodge Vans used for airport shuttles may have the seating accommodations but you’re crawling on top of each other reaching the back rows.
It would have looked significantly more elegant, with an Imperial waterfall grille, concealed headlights, and light faux wood panelling. Oh, and Chrysler road wheels.
And actor Robert Donner as the chauffeur.
Absurd, but cool none the less. I have a real dislike for the monster grill in the initial artist rendering picture, but the real thing in the BAT looks ok. Speaking of, $1950 for that thing even if it was in 2015? That’s a steal. Again, I’d have no use for it, and parking alone would be a nightmare for me, but it’s neat to see. From a distance perhaps, but still.
I did have an ex boss who could have used this thing, he had 13 kids, although I don’t think any more than 11 in the house at one time. Ex military, apparently his Costco trips were done in military drill fashion, sending one kid to pick this up, another in other directions probably all the while complaining about where are family sized portions.
I would have loved to have the replacement U-joint business on that beast.