As with Richard Langworth’s other automotive books (e.g., on Hudson, Kaiser-Frazer and Studebaker) Chrysler & Imperial offers a more substantive history compared to newer, more visually-oriented books. When doing research on the Chrysler Corporation I reach for this book more than any other.
Chrysler & Imperial was first published in 1976, so its perspective was not informed by the paradigm-challenging socio-economic convulsions of the late-70s and early-80s.
For example, Langworth vainly expressed hope for the return of the Imperial as a full-sized car (p. 196). Meanwhile, he correctly pointed out that Chrysler lacked a sense of identity because it placed too much emphasis on copying the competition. However, Langworth lauded Tex Colbert’s reckless expansion initiatives in the 1950s (p. 153, 194), which torpedoed the corporation’s quality reputation (e.g., Niedermeyer, 2011; Jones, 2013).
Chrysler & Imperial 1946-1985: The Classic Postwar Years
- Richard M. Langworth; 1993
- Motorbooks, Minneapolis, MN
“Exner was one of the earliest members of the styling fraternity generally considered to have been founded by Harley Earl in the late twenties. Exner headed Pontiac styling under Earl from 1934 through 1938, when he switched to the Loewy organization assigned to Studebaker in South Bend Indiana.” (p. 62)
“Despite the inherent advantages of torsion bar suspension, most engineers then and now feel that Chrysler’s Torsion-Aire Ride was aimed more at gaining engine compartment space and impressing sales prospects than it was at producing a better ride or handling.” (p. 122)
“For the postwar Chrysler, Camelot was the middle fifties. In those years the marque reigned supreme. No one could challenge its high style, its blazing performance on road and track, its construction quality, its hold on its market, its enduring worth as pure automobile. In the industry today, despite the depredations of ‘government by hysteria,’ there are indications that environmental looniness has bottomed out, that maybe — just maybe — cars are getting interesting again. Call it nostalgia for the glory days, or naive idealism, but it seems to this writer that Chrysler could do worse than produce a car in the image of the old rip-snorting, good-looking cars of yesteryear.” (p. 197)
OTHER REVIEWS:
RE:SOURCES
- Jones, Laurence; 2013. “Curbside Classic: 1957 Chrysler New Yorker — Clara And The New Yorker That Never Was.” Curbside Classic. Posted Feb. 1; accessed Nov. 16, 2014.
- Langworth, Richard M.; 1975. Kaiser-Frazer: The Last Onslaught on Detroit. Princeton Publishing, Princeton, NJ.
- ——–; 1979, 1993. Studebaker 1946-1966: The Classic Postwar Years. Motorbooks International, Osceola, WI.
- ——–; 1993. Hudson 1946-1957: The Classic Postwar Years. Motorbooks International, Osceola, WI.
- Niedermeyer, Paul; “Chrysler’s Bi-Polar History: Crashes 1-5.” Curbside Classic. Posted April 3; accessed Nov. 15, 2014.
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