ROD-A-DAY: 1962 Chrysler 300H

For some reason today, even after a night filled with home-made sushi and one too many saki bombs, I am up at 8:30am, rifling through the photos on my computer in a highly unplanned attempt at their organization. I come to realize that I have a couple photos of cars I've taken around Brooklyn that I never bothered to share with anyone. What kind of an insensitive clod am I!? You must be furious with me.

So I uploaded them all and decided that, in at attempt to squeeze water from a stone, I will share them with you bit by bit, starting with this most magnificent '62 Chrysler 300H (to be particularly specific). A magnificent piece of two-tone machinery, presumably firing a 383 in. V8 with a 4-speed manual tranny...at least that's what this particular two door coupe model would have been manufactured with.


Satin black and glossy cherry red two-tone. Luscious, to say the least.



Assorted other angles. I still just can't get over how nice that satin finish looks.

I took these photos on N. 11th street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn probably around...jeez, like three or so years ago now and haven't seen that car since. It haunts me like a one night stand you keep wishing you could booty-call again but you were too smart (or perhaps too stupid) to ask for their number.


Reminiscing on this beaut' of a buggy made me hungry for the visual titillation of more pulchritudinous pics of the 300, manufactured from 1955 to 1965 as limited edition luxury cars focused on style, exclusivity and most importantly power. These vehicles were apparently the precursors to the America "muscle car", as they were the first models with big engines produced post-war that brought about renewed interest in the performance of your car. Heard of a Hemi? (What a stupid question.) Yeah, well these were some of the very first Chrysler models to feature the first generation of their innovative new hemispherical engine design (originally called the FirePower V8).


1960 Chrysler 300F.

Personally, and not surprisingly, my favorite years for the 300 were between 1957 and 1962. Those were the years when automobile designers were really into the whole futuristic Jetsons-airplane-aerodynamics wacko body design ideas, and locker-room "who has the biggest fin?" contests. Across the board, fins and body moulding were all the rage. Do note: '57 Dodge Coronet, '59 Ford Galaxie (also note futuristic naming!), '59 Chevy Bel Air, '60 Buick Electra, and of course, the 1959 Cadillac.


'55 Lincoln Futura (concept car) anyone?

I also firmly believe that designers like Virgil Exner, one of my favorite automobile designers of the time who, you guessed it, worked for Chrysler, were also inspired by their less "classically trained" artistic peers like George Barris and Ed Roth.


Barris went on to buy that '55 Futura concept car up above and later turned it into the original Batmobile (left). At right, Ed Roth's "Outlaw".

The Chrysler 300 also made for a pretty wicked wagon for schlepping your shit:

'62 Chrysler 300 WAGON...oh my, oh my.
...and I even found one that was converted into an ambulance. My Chrysler 300 micro fetish has now been (almost) thoroughly exhausted.

One last thing to share of extreme importance (to me): while searching around for images, I came across Plan 59 - an awesome company in Virginia that specializes in mid-century advertising and illustration, selling hi-res TIFF scans to people (ala yours truly) who graphically design junk. I am SMITTEN with them. I want to work for them photoshopping and scanning all day long. *swoon* You really do need to browse their collection, just to see how beautiful these things are. Not only that, but I can tell that the folks at Plan 59 and I both share a similar sick sense of humor. Only they swear a whole lot less than I do.


A sample of the wide range of images Plan 59 has to offer. Girls in glasses...hooray!