Imagine my surprise when, while driving along a local street in my town, I spotted this sleek white beauty! It’s a 1960 Chrysler Saratoga 4-door hardtop, one of only 4,099 produced. Actually, about 77,000 Chryslers (of all models) were made in 1960, and you kind of wonder what happened to them all. A similar Saratoga sedan was previously written up by CC’s own Laurence Jones, but considering the fact that–at this point–you may only see one or two ’60 Chryslers in your lifetime, I think this pristine example is worth a closer look.
The first thing that strikes you about this car is, “This is big!” And the fins give the body a dynamic sense of forward thrust–and they do it beautifully! This is a Saratoga, mind you, 4″ longer than the lower priced Windsor (as if you needed more length!)
So there it is–as the great Charles Phoenix would say, “Behold the glory!” But the glory was all-too short lived. It always amazes me that cars like this (and other contenders for peak Space Age, like the ’59 Dodge, Cadillac, Mercury, Chevy, and others from 1957-61) were not exotic one-offs, but mass produced, “ordinary” cars driven by ordinary people. What were once common sights on American streets and highways rapidly disappeared from view as the ’60s became the ’70s. And I, for one, miss seeing them.
Nor do I see too many cars like this at car shows. It seems to me a car of this kind would be highly desirable by collectors. The sleek style…the 383 cubic inches of V-8 power…the push button TorqueFlite transmission…the unibody construction…the super-light power steering with torsion bar suspension which makes for such easy handling. Why haven’t more of these been preserved? The old car hobby has a lot of “meatballism” in it and is, in my view, too monolithic–at shows one typically sees the same specific high-profile models again and again–often hot-rodded or customized in some way. While everyone has his own tastes and desires, I think the real gold is right here.
I agree, this is a beaut ! .
The blue roof really sets it off in a good way .
-Nate
THANK YOU!!! My favorite all time tail lights! My family thinks I am nuts for taking pictures of tail lights at car shows, I have many of this taillight because it is art, not just a functional part of the car. And never having seen a 1960 four door hardtop before my first reaction is that the two door looks better proportioned, but this one is a good second place. Thanks again for brightening up the day.
I do the very same my friend. I also Photo a ‘further away’ shot for perspective, But I absolutely take many JUST Taillights.
I think the 1959 Imperial is peak space age, at least the back of it is.
If you could combine a 60 Saratoga front with a 59 Imperial back you’d have interstellar travel for sure.
Man, do I love me some 1960 Saratoga survivor, even the four-door hardtop! It’s peak Forward Look, for sure. My improvement wouldn’t be the front end from the 1959 Imperial, though, but, rather, the grille from the 1960 New Yorker.
As the mid-level Chrysler, the Saratoga was thankfully missing the hokey trunk lid ‘toilet seat’, but had nicer trim than the Windsor.
Dad had a 60 Windsor sedan in sky blue when I was a kid. Big mopar guy through the years..
Quite a few old rides scattered about the lot there. Repair shop, body shop?
Nice car indeed.
Were these avail in wagon form? I think that’d look even better IMO.
I DO prefer the ‘straight across” type front grilles and bumper look to this “Studebaker style” ‘centered & Tallish grille. (if that makes sense, it does to me).
Two more shots of the same car, really showing off the fins:
A beautiful car. Just enough space age styling without going overboard as some other forwardlooks. And the ‘Astra Dial’
instrument cluster, practically worth buying the car just for that !
I wonder, is the forwardlook.net website gone? Haven’t been able to access it lately.
I love the 60! I remember seeing these as a kid, and did not like the dipped front bumper and lower grille, but love those features now. I think I had a small die-cast toy version – Dinky Toy?
WOOF! Class act in its day and still today. Thanks for finding this gem.
Just the other day we were talking about the 1963 Studebaker Lark, which had the same headlight assemblies. I never cared for the headlights on these cars, they look too much like a Corvair’s. To be honest, it looked like all the work for the 1958-1961 Chryslers went into the tailfins. Only the ’57 had a face I could love.
That taillight concept was clearly lifted by Ford for the 1963 Meteor, arguably its best design feature.
By far the best looking of the 1960 Chrysler Corp cars. Like others have said the taillights are fantastic. I much prefer the ’60 front end to the ‘smiley face” ’61 and ’62. The grille on the New Yorker is inset which I think looks better, although the ‘toilet seat’ which some of them came with should have never been used!
Why don’t we see many like this beauty today? My guess is by the mid-sixties older Mopar cars in particular were seen as odd looking and kids laughed at the fins. Many ended up in demolition derbies and anything in the junkyard had the drivetrain yanked and were sent to the crusher.
As the great Charles would say, check out the sweeping sidespear!! Really one of the better looking 1960 full size medium priced cars.
Looks to be in great condition from what I can see from the photos. Now let me see have I ever seen one in real life? Born in 53 and would have been seven. So the answer is no as I rarely paid attention to cars that were not in our driveway. In fact the only car to ever make an impression on me back then was a 1960 Corvette in white and red. I was selling lemonade in Bogota NJ one day and that car drove up with a young 20’s couple in it and bought some lemonade. Made my day.
It really is a spaceship, the grille lets it down on these models however, it’s a shame because the recessed and blacked out 300 grille, is so much better, makes for a really handsome design. the rest of the car though, one of the greatest of the Forward Looks