Ep. 18 The Weird Chrysler Cars of the Early 1960's

[Music] the chrysler corporation was on a roll in the later 50s suddenly they were at the forefront of futuristic design so much even that it turned into an all-out designer's war but as soon as 1960 rolls around crysis starts to make rather peculiar design choices and proceed to create cars that look weirder and weirder as the 60s were on what happened how did this came to be i wanted to stop welcome everyone to the 18th episode of the automotive history series where we're going to take a closer look at the history but also the design philosophy of the weird chrysler cars of the early 1960s this episode is somewhat of an extension of my very first episode of the series the tilfin wars of the late 1950s and i recommend you to watch it as we are now going to take off where that episode ended still though i am going to give you a very short rundown here we go with the introduction of the 1948 cadillac you too could get a touch of airplane or space rocket on your car in the shape and form of till fins throughout the early 50s it was only cadillac that had him where they were noticeable the 50s were known as the space age and the general public became more and more infatuated with the space race space exploration and space technology and so did the american car makers i always like to say that it became somewhat of an unofficial contest who could get the most aircraft and space rocket references on the cars without making it look like an actual spaceship and this is where chrysler stepped into the picture in the mid 50s chrysler made cars that look a lot like me good build quality but boring to look at [Music] [Laughter] when it comes to styling chrysler always lagged behind that was until they hired virgil exner and remember the name axner set up the forward look movement so to make chrysler cars more exciting soaring things jetpod taillights space stone greenhouses rocket motives and a touch of googie style with a way to go you could now buy the future on wheels suddenly it is 1960. suddenly chrysler was at the forefront of modern american design but now what [Music] really chrysler didn't see this coming like i mentioned they always lag behind styling wise and that's part of some conservatism long story whenever something new came around chrysler was one of the last car manufacturers to adopt it but now they introduced something new in 1960 chrysler became his styling leader but they weren't prepared for it because in 1960 a transition was already happening people became fed up with the way over style wannabe rocket ships with oversized tail fins i guess you get what i mean when i show you a picture of a 1959 cadillac 59 lincoln and 59 imperial which is part of chrysler excess is an understatement a clean uncluttered and unfuzzy design was the way to go in the early 60s perfectly portrayed by the 1961 lincoln seriously this was the way to go but chrysler still thinking they were the styling leaders were having none of this i say chrysler or was it virgil exner exner couldn't get over the fact that what made him name and fame in the 50s was hopelessly old-fashioned in the 60s massive fins were so 1959 and exnuck called the new cars he were supposed to design plucked chickens because they had no tail fins while still head of the design department he tried to take revenge on chrysler management by coming up with the weirdest design concept i guess this whole story is best explained by me showing you some pictures of concept cars that were made for the upcoming early 60s production models by virgil exner and i love these pictures you have to understand that this is like pornography to me so let's get to it i'm just going to show you pictures with some commentary start rolling this is the design studio all right this is where they uh draw and make the concept cars or design studies for the upcoming production models some of the models on the floor are either functional or non-functional some are just clay models so they lack an engine transmission etc but they are made to just give an idea at uh well really does it look good or not next slide please what you're now looking at is the design proposal for the 1962 plymouth and it still has those aircraft and and spacecraft type of references especially at the outer headlights you can see they are placed in what is inspired by the afterburners of uh the new jet planes but don't you worry this is one of the least radical of the designs uh we're going to step it up a notch so next slide please thank you this is the new design proposal for the 1962 imperial and uh if i look at the rear end it has a weird connection with the 1955 imperial with those bullet-shaped taillights on top of the rear fenders and then there are the headlights that are kind of mimicking the jet engines that are placed under the wings of an airplane so yeah next slide this is where the good stuff comes in look at this dual headlights were the way to go but you know what we're just going to to slice them in half two of them are just going to be placed within the grill and then we're going to surround the grill with a very weird body line and then way out into the distance way up in the corners of the car we're going to put the other set of headlights what were they thinking and it just doesn't end there it will get better and better next slide please these are some of the experimental clay models you're looking at and they they were seriously considering to make an asymmetrical car i'm not making this up just look at it you know your standard headlights on both sides of the car and then you just have like a pot with two of them which are not in the middle but completely off center or here for the rear end you know no license plate in the bumper not in the middle of the car no just all the way to the left once again what were they thinking all right i uh i guess we've seen uh enough for now because how do these concept cars translate to standard production models i mean you cannot you cannot sell this okay you cannot sell an asymmetrical car what made it to the production phase and what didn't well i'll show you the actual production models although there are plenty of examples i picked five which i consider the worst offenders within the chrysler lineup one from every division and we'll start off with valiant valiant was this new car company that was supposed to be somewhat of a grocery getter or an economy car if you will it was like a junior car not as big as the standard full-size american sedan and the more you start to look at the side profile the more you start to notice the body lines just don't match especially the station wagon is horrible and a mismatch of curvy and straight lines this car had to compete against cars like the fort falcon but the falcon was a car that people wanted simple uncomplicated straight line and maybe a bit boring but they wanted this and not this next up is the 1961 plymouth because it's a beautiful example of a plucked chicken the year before it had huge fins and now they are just completely gone but look at the front end much like a dog this car lets owners say oh you can touch it it doesn't bite but you know damn well it'll eat you alive look at the menacing grin by the way have you ever noticed that this car has a lexus shaped grille way before lexus even existed yeah you can't unsee this now can you and what about the rear end the taillights are like jetpods moved all the way to the side and leaves the whole rear end as a blank wide open space i mean [Music] next up is the 1962 dodge and and should it even be mentioned look dual headlights were the way to go in the early 1960s but not this way it's like dodge couldn't decide whether they wanted to place them inside or outside the grill so they compromised and not in a good way the lamps aren't even on the same height level and somehow the car looks pissed off now the side profile is whatever same old same old body lines that just don't match you you get it the 1961 chrysler is a little more interesting the car still had huge fins in a time when they were already abandoned by almost everyone else it looked more like it belonged in 1957 than in 1961 and i'm not a huge fan of the headlight arrangement but that's my personal taste overall it's not too bad and i consider it one of the least offensive designs but just you know it's outdated the 1961 imperial is probably the worst offender my eyes hurt it was supposed to be a perfect blend of futurism and a kind of old world elegance but i see a train wreck combination of 50s 60s and 30s 50s as in still huge fins on the back with jetbot taillights 60s as in a formal and angular c pillar roof that just doesn't match with the bubble top like greenhouse and 30s that's right look at the front end are these futuristic jet like headlights or are they just a subtle reference to the 1930s headlights and this is one of the first attempts of retro design you tell me but it should not go unmentioned that virgil exner made revival type designs in the later 60s that incorporated 1930s design influence if you want to know more about it take a look at the neoclassic video and i'm not the only one who wasn't all too happy about these cars chrysler also wasn't happy as customers stayed away from dealerships because of these weird looking designs chrysler fired virgil lexner in 1961 and replaced him with elwood engel and that is the guy that designed the 1961 lincoln i talked about earlier in the video the car that was the template for 60s car design and as soon as he went to work you could see that in the cars that came out in the mid 60s by 1965 chrysler went back to normal so to speak and all the cars had a more clean generic straight line and less radical and weird design thanks to elwood elwood gave chrysler cars the lincoln treatment i mean take a look the 1965 chrysler looks quite similar to the 1965 lincoln in terms of shape and overall design maybe i was a bit too harsh on some of these cars honestly i secretly like some of these models that were shown much in the way i like pimp mobiles they look so bad that they start to look right and let's not forget that they were made in a different time period they were at least unique and didn't try to chase other car maker designs for a short while at least i think some of these cars perfectly capture the spirit of the early 1960s you

Channel: Ed's Auto Reviews

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Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Sun May 02 2021