The Missing Link In The Mopar Alphabet Soup - The Legendary D Body Chrysler Imperial
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- Our local Pull-A-Part has claimed yet another classic era Chrysler, and this time it's a 1967 Imperial.
Luckily a lot of the desirable mechanical parts have been liberated and on their way to good homes, but there's enough left of this iconic example of premium mid 20th century luxury car to give a good feel for what this thing represented in it's heyday.
Here's a brief history of the Imperial line, an explanation of the Chrysler body lettering system and a look at some of it's unique features, as well as the Imperial's unique distinction of being universally banned from Demo Derby competition.
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The only thing worse than missing the chance at those parts, is finding out it got crushed with all those parts in place.
WELL said!
ya tell me about it, i have a 98 Grand Cherokee 5.9 limited, only a 1 year production.. 14k made.. and i hit a deer at 65mph.. thankfully only broke plastic but the plastic grill... is one of a kind.. hard as hell to find.. or 400+$.. the other day i saw a channle freshly crush one of these and the grill was just hanging there in perfect.. shape.. and i was like nooo
❤ d body’s. They are basically a motorized living room. Except the couches are more comfortable than what’s in your house. And a better a/c too...😅
Yes, you could adapt some Lazy Boys as your bucket seats in them for real style and comfort!! ;D LOL
Great video, love your stuff. 66 was the first year for the 440. I had a 66 LeBaron and it was a 440 car. It is my favorite engine. My latest is a 69 New Yorker 4 door sedan with a HiPo 440 factory. What a beast.
Yup. I’m searching for a month/year 440 block. I was born July 1965. The first 440’s were cast as early as March 1965 as cast into the side of the block. 1966 was the first model year that the 440 was available. Only in C and D bodies.
Yes, a beast, and we also used to call those cars "land yachts", some had those cool tugboat horns on them, like a boat foghorn, and very very loud. That plus the big car would make any little imports, Triumphs and such, of the day "get the Hell out of the way"!! Could work as well today with Prius'. LOL ;D
I owned a '67 Crown Imperial 4 door. I moved to Tucson, AZ from Indianapolis, IN in it back in '97 with everything I owned packed in to it. It averaged an amazing 18.1 mpg over the 1800 mile trip in the dead of winter. Anyway, a few of the other cool features mine had, in addition to what you mentioned, were the vacuum assisted parking/emergency brake, power vent windows, power antenna, power door locks, cigarette lighters and ash trays in every door and in the dash (5 total of each!), cornering lights, remote outside driver mirror/manual passenger side, flip down gas cap access, and vacuum operated trunk release. It defined the term "loaded" when it came to cars!
Mr. Magnante just did a video today on a 1970 Imperial on his channel. The Imperial was its own line within Chrysler from 1955 to 1975 and then again from 1981-1983, although by then, it was watered down and not really considered by most to be a separate line. However, most dealers would advertise as "Smith Chrysler-Plymouth-Imperial" and their ads would be the same. Dealers had a separate "Imperial" sign in many places on the lot.
No VIN, can't win, but might go something like: Y for Imperial, M for Medium price class, 43 for four door hardtop, K for 440 V8, 7 for 1967 model year, 3 for Jefferson Ave, Detroit, MI assembly and the rest is the production sequence. The Jefferson plant that produced this car operated under Chrysler from 1925 to 1990 and then the "new" Jefferson plant opened in 1991 and still operates under Stellantis today.
No tag, can't brag, but it might go something like: YM43 for Imperial (Y) Medium price class (M) four door hardtop, 81 for 440 V8, 5 for three speed automatic transmission, M3X or M9X for Black interior trim, Z for Spice Gold exterior paint, among other codes.
I got tears thinking about the Imperial.
What are the chances of you and Magnante doing a junkyard Imperial episode on the same day?
I was thinking the same thing
Crossed my mind as well.
Planets are aligned.
Got them both in my feed too
Coincidence or synergy
Those were the passenger car variant of the Sherman tank. If you look at a lot of rule books for figure 8 and demolition derbys they specifically state "NO IMPERIALS".
Ha as soon as I finished that comment Tony said it 😆
Psst:...
*"Heat-Treated Bumpers!♡¡"*
Pretty sure it says no Cadillac commercial chassis either😂
1966 was the first year for a 440. My New Yorker had one in it.
Even after it became a unibody, it was still different in some ways than the C-bodies. Look at the way the torsion bars mount to the chassis under the passenger compartment on that '67. The hexes of the torsion bars fit into a single steel bar that links the two together, and they both "float" in grommets in the chassis (rather than the hexes actually anchoring to the chassis). I *thought* you were going to show it when you stuck the camera down the trans tunnel, but it didn't quite go far enough. The torque of the left torsion bar acts on the right torsion bar instead of directly on the chassis. Its flippin' genius.
Did they still use a sway bar or is that how the reaction between them works. I've never seen one that I can remember.
@@bw3506 They used a sway bar. The cross-beam linking the aft ends of the torsion bars didn't counter roll, it was just a way to isolate the unibody from shocks and vibrations, plus it eliminated passing the stress through the unibody. The first time I saw it, it took me a while to figure out why they did it, and then I realized its genius. A little detail, but probably good for knocking interior noise down a few dB without sacrificing handling or rigidity.
@@stevelacker358 Alright, thanks for the info.
Thank You 🙏
I have always loved the Big Chrysler land yachts...I had a 74 Imperial, which had factory 4 wheel disc brakes, and a differential that was insanely huge, the pumpkin was stop sign shaped, and looked as if it belonged in a dump truck...No lie, I think it was the size of a stop sign, just massive. Unfortunately I had to sell it to make bills whilst being in between jobs...loved that car though. My favorite of the big bodied Chrysler products I have ever owned was a 1972 Plymouth Fury III sedan with the hide away headlights.
I just love old land yachts. I love my Oldsmobile Toronado. I don't know what next yacht id want.
I would still like an Uncle Tony's letter body spotters guide
I am always amazed at seeing imperials make it to junkyards, that car was worth around 2k to a derby guy. I saved a '65 Imperial Crown Coupe from a derby death because I caught the lady posting it around midnight on facebook and messaged her and went to see it the next day at 9AM. Interior and body is worn and weathered but the frame is perfect and I'm deep in the rust belt so thats what mattered.
Derbys ban them
The 440 was first offered in the 1966 model year (not 1967) replacing the previous 413. It was standard in the Imperial and New Yorker and optional on several other Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth cars. Chrysler opened up the bore to 4.32" from the previous 4.1875".
Sitting at the steering wheel, looking out over the hood, you feel as if you're driving a pool table. Love em. Zero parking spots fit nowadays.
That's one of the things that's really nice about older American cars. No other company anywhere else made cars as spacious, tough and affordable as Americans did in the 60's and early 70's before the gas crisis.
I was born in the early 90's but the cars pre-80 were something else. Every single one of them had a unique design and the "fastback" look pretty much all of them had, the squared off front ends and rears were a work of art.
I really hate how modern car styling really doesn't derive much from American design anymore. Apart from the late model Challenger, all of the newer cars made today are very European/Asian in design influence.
@@husky3g Yes, it's pretty hard to use the words "art", "design", and "styling" when talking about the cars of today, which at just "people movers", being small, dangerous, and overpriced "tin foil cubes"!
Great Trivia Uncle Tony. I actually knew this because i tried to hunt for one back in the late 70's - early 80's to enter the Demo-Derby and found out the guy who won every D-Derby had bought every Imperial within a 100 mile radius of San Jose, Ca. Then soon after the organizers out-lawed the Imperial.
A true honor to have your car "out-lawed" at the demolition derby! BTW, glad to hear that they still do it in San Jose, where my wife was born, and her dad use to take her to demo derbies back in the 60's. Last one we went to was a few years ago in Placerville, east of Sacto, on hwy 50!! Very nice big stadium at the Fairgrounds, check it out if interested! :D
@@sean7134 Yes, probably they really should have named it the "Chrysler Sherman"!! LOL ;D
I need that stub frame!!! Also check that 8.75. Alot of birds had sure grips
my friend and customer Bill (RIP} bought a new 67 convertible .......he told me he flew to MI and watched final assy and drove it back to Miami , he said it was his favorite car ............he had Ferrari ,Jensen ,Shelby , etc
land yacht; that is what people called my 75 GrandVille Brougham Convertible in my teens in the 90s. I miss that car, it's 400 had a nice deep rumble and more torque than the old tires could handle.
Wish I could have a 75 Grand Ville convertible again.
Small world. Steve Magnante just released a video today on a 70 Imperial. Gold color.
Steve just covered a 1970 imperial
Man I wish I could go back in time. 1967 will do. I 4v Clevland is only a few years to wait for and an Imperial would have done nicely, in the interim!
I have a 65 Coupe in the corner of the barn. One of these days I'll get to it.
In 1982 I went to the demo derby at the Santa Clara County Fair in San Jose, CA. At this time, Imperials were still allowed. The derby consisted of some regular rounds, a last chance round where if you could get a car running again from a regular round and the main event. There was lots of carnage and when it came time for the main event, all that was left were Imperials and they actually looked relatively unscathed when the rolled in there. The main event was loud even though there were less cars, the sound of the Imperials crashing into one another was like Thunder. The next time I went to this same derby in 1987, Imperials had been banned.
I made a quench 440 out of those closed chamber heads. That thing was wicked.
Black Beauty from The Green Hornet! That was one bad ass Imperial!
You are right about the demolition thing... I had a Car Craft magazine that wrote an article about those full size Mopars being built like tanks
My uncle used to run demo derbys back in the day. He always told me, imperials where tough, but if you knew to attack their front wheels. The weak control arms would break relatively easily and cripple the car. Though it didnt stop the guy from coming back next month. And popping the radiator wouldnt help much, the mopars would still run hard or even harder when over heating while most the GM engines would start lagging behind when they got hot.
True story, back when i was 15 me and my dad were on our third iteration of our race car (1964 Dodge Polara 330 with a 440) and we went to a mopar meet. They had a raffle going on. You put in 3 bucks (this was the early 80's) and guessed how long a 225 slant six would run with no oil and no water at full throttle. winner was who guessed the time or got closest. When the time came we all gathered ran and they started the car and put rod on the accelerator. Total time: 20:17. It ran over twenty minutes with no oil and no water and the thing didn't throw a rod. it just seized. After taking it apart, turns out it spun number 5 rod bearing.
When we owned a Texaco in Oklahoma (on I-40 not far from the I-35/I-40 junction) i had a fellow come in who had a rod knock. It had been doing it for a couple of days before he left NY and when he came in to fuel up he asked me if it was going to blow up (once again a 225 slant in a dart swinger). He was going to California to see his parents and wanted to know what i thought. I told him what happened at the meet and told him to "keep it in oil and don't hot rod it and it will get you to Cali and possibly back to NY". I got a call two weeks later, he called to tell me that he was back in NY getting the 225 rebuilt and that he followed my advise and it got him back home in NY. The major damage was just to the bearing.
So yeah, those old Mopars are tough.
Must be hitting the wrong year imperial.. if you hit the right year imp in the front corner.. you lose.. best thing to do was try to hit rear axle, or pin them in a corner.. STAY AWAY from the front.. got a better chance of breaking the front of a d4 cat..
@Z 732 the lower control arms are pretty chinsey on the imperial. Plus chysler is notorious for weak ball joints. One good wack right onto the wheel will snap on of those 2 components and cripple the car.
@@TheSamplebridge cute story... Come over and hang out in Utah with one... Js.. id love to see you knock a front off .. lol
@@TheSamplebridge yep... You can run them over here... Just as well bring a dozer to try though. Outlaw class.
I owned a 72 Imperial Lebaron that had leather seats, Air system for the rear axle (when you towed or put a lot of weight on the tail end the compressor would kick on and raise the rear up), 440 727 auto and had air that made you feel like you were at the artic. I loved that car. Shame my stepdad sold it out from under me.
Junkyard Crawl Tony! Good stuff!
@SteveMagnante I'm just standing in the shadow of greatness! Hit up Kathy and let's do a LIVE sometime soon.
@@UncleTonysGarage X2!!
My Moms best friend - her husband owned Imperials exclusively while they built them . He bought a new one every year and used it for his die casting business . Sales and deliveries as it could haul like a pick up . He passed the old one to his wife every year . The 5 digit Odo would be showing 20 K or so when it got traded for a new one after the second year , the dealer didn't care since he was buying their top dollar car and they were as clean as new trades and it wasn't like they were worn mechanically . He was really POed when Chrysler downgraded the car into the New Yorker and then down sized that forcing him over to Cadillac in 79 . He said that he wanted to buy American since most of his customers were here but then realized Bosch was buying up the tool companies He made metal parts for .He switched to Benz saying it was close but nothing served his needs like the Imperials he started with in the early 60s
Guy was crazy. He didn't need to keep buying them. They would have served him well into 100K miles with a little bit of luck.
@@husky3g Odo had already rolled over from 2 years of business and family vacation use . He kept the cars clean so it was easy to pass them off as 10 to 30 K cars instead of the 110 to 130 K they really had on the clock . No mileage statements to sign back in those days
Yup, the old joke of the day, for guys who would buy the newer model year, each year, of a car they loved like a Caddy or Buick would be: "Yes, I need a new car this year, cuz all the ash trays are filled up" LOL ;D
Back then 60k on a car was a lot and about time to trade them in.
@@richardturk7162 Yes, but major body styling would change each and every year, plus new features like disc brakes in about 65, bigger engines, power upgrades, safety and smog features, etc. Now all cars/trucks, foreign and domestic, seem to be locked into some same boring style that each and every other model sedan and SUV has, year after monotonous year.
Quick quiz, w/o googling the answers, can you folks all tell me which car manufacturer has the following model names: Rav 4, Tiguan, Elantra, Rogue, Armada, Soul, Leaf, Tucson? Now once again: Belaire, Fairlane, Coronet, Regal, GTO, 442, Road Runner, Monterey? Bonus question, and funniest of all: which one is the Plaid!! LOL ;D
Thanks Tony for bringing back good memories :) We must have derby'd about 25 of those (64-65-66)! The quietest engine I have ever heard running was a 413 in a 65 2-dr Imperial, it had about 65K-miles and was spooky quiet you could hear the spinning alternator bearings. We locally had a legend of a '64 Imperial that had been involved in a fatal crash, occupants died in the car, but the damage to the Imperial was not enough to total it and it had been fixed and resold without disclosure... you could run that car into a tree and the car would survive and the people not! Your comment about demolition derbies: in 1990, we purchased a used '65 Imperial that had been in 11 derbies for $225, and that was a ton of money because we usually scavenged our cars from the countryside for free... we ran it in it's 12th derby (Amador CA) and sold it on to another team for $225. Because of the design of the rear frame rails, the 64-65-66 trunk floor would 'curl' upwards and if managed and 'massaged' correctly the frame rails will fold back onto themselves compacting into strong 'horns' and not bend anymore, hitting the back of that battering ram was like running into a crash barrier; the only other vehicle trunk behaving this way is a 60's T-Bird which are just as respected. The Imperial front clip sheet metal would merge with the front bumper structure and upper grille surround, and there is a yard of room from the front bumper to the motor. The frame under the firewall is fully boxed and massive and double thickness, the entire frame is fully boxed which contributes to the car's weight. The OE rear end was sourced from a 3/4-ton truck, they never failed. And another big factor outlawing the Imperial was that the running height of the frame was so high off the ground that in a collision it would impact higher than another car's frame rails, simultaneously riding the Imperial over the top of and submarining the frame of the victim car. Insurance underwriters would no longer cover liability for producers of demolition derbies that allowed Imperials, the last use of Imperials I heard of was in Placerville CA, an all Imperial derby.
I weighed this in, that's my markings on the glass.
@UTG the 440 was a mid year option in 1966. I had a 1966 Fury 3 2door hardtop (I owned 1990-1995) with a FACTORY 440 Super Commando 4 Speed. it was factory rated at 465 HP. We had the build sheet, it was custom ordered, apparently to be a moonshine car. When I bought it in 1990 it still had a dash switch that shut off all lights except the headlights, The drivers side front brake was oversized to the point that full break lock would lock the front left break and instantly throw the car into a bootleggers turn. Also it had custom 7 leaf springs on the left and 8 on the right, I have yet to see a "super stock" with springs that HD. There was no amount of weight we could put into the trunk that would make her go low in the rear. Sorry for the rant but when you said the 440 was a 1967 introduction I just started screaming at the screen. "End rant"
The Sure Grip is still in it! All the bumper bolts are concealed, so many parts are Die Cast adding to the mass. The wheel covers are incredibly heavy made out of 4 or 5 different pieces.
One of my all time favorite styles was the 1962 Imperial. Land Yacht.
Good morning and another great education on the history of the American automotive history. Great job and great day to you Tony!
I've got Imperials bookending my day-both with amazing history-Steve Magnate this morning before work and Tony this afternoon after work.
Beautiful car. My grandfather had a '70 Newport wagon with a 440 in it. Its a shame Imperial aint around. Can you imagine a modern Imperial with a Hellcat motor. Sweet. 😊❤
Steve featured one of these on junkyard crawl this morning.
It was 70s model tho
Imperial videos from both Steve Mags and Tony today, how bout that!
Magnante did the Imperial today also 😊
My mother-in-law's daily driver was an Imperial - this was in the mid/late seventies. I remember charging the air conditioner. It had a dual zone air conditioner and took an insane amount of freon. I want to say 7 pounds but could that be right? You could put 4 people in the front seat no problem!
closer to 6. I owned a 72 imperial Lebaron and yeah they took a LOT of Freon.
when I was around 8 or 9 years old, my dad bought a 67 chrysler newport custom 4 door post. A story about the car from a previous owner was it got caught in a multi car pileup and it drove away with only one slightly dented front fender
Dad's '59 Imperial weighed 5250 with a 1/4 full tgas tank. Always got 19 mpg.
One of my best memories of cruising in the Los Angels area in the 60's was in a friend's brother's Chrysler Imperial we would "borrow" occasionally. Was much older than this one, maybe 59 or something, had the weird taillights with the ring around them. My friend Bob and Richard were in the front seat and I and another guy Bill were in the back seat; that thing had more room than most living rooms of the era, in those L.A. $10K Bungalows we all lived in. And it was a rag top and a very fast car; and had the famous "typewriter" automatic shifter!!The mob must have loved those cars, the trunks being so big, you know!! LOL ;D. Very cool car, and the only Morpar I would consider owning being a Ford guy from day one, my first car was a 55 Ranch Wagon, a hand me down from my dad who bought a new, then 64, Dodge 3/4 ton truck, for his house building business!! Yes, a yuck Mopar, but he loved it!! A 318 and 4 speed! LOL LOL ;D
I drove a 67 Imperial for a couple years back when I was 18-20 years old. I thought one of the coolest features was a second switch by the headlight dimmer switch. When you hit it with your foot the radio would scan to the next channel. The other thing it had which I didn't see on this one was a heater in the trunk for the back seat. It had heater hoses running all the way to the trunk with a heater core and fan. Paid $100 for that car lol. Also got a ticket once for drag racing a guy in a Mustang with that boat. The good old days.
Imperial was also the last holdout regarding giving up the FirePower engine series , the 392 was offered through 1959 .
.. Yes, Imperial was the last to use the 392 Hemi... but that was in '58 . . .
@@34Packardphaeton Imperial held out one year longer . And actually Dodge Trucks did offer the 354 in 59 also.
Some places still allow them to run or have heat’s just for them
That vintage of Imperial always reminds me of Mr. Drysdale from Beverly Hillbillies! 💰 💴
I miss my 72 new Yorker it was a 2 door bought it with no engine and Trans I pit a 440 with a 727 Trans and that thing floated down the road at 120 all day long was a joy to drive
Gray content and nice to see a local finding the gems minutes from me. I spent many hours at that particular salvage yard getting classic Chevy parts. It is sad to see some of the classics go to the crusher.
I had a 69 Imperial and it was a tank. The 440 barely got 10 miles to the gallon in the city 18 MPG out on the highway.
I bought it used in the early 80s and retired it around 1990.
The thing that made those earlier Imperials indestructible in demolition derbies was that there was almost two feet between the front of the car and the radiator; you could smash the front of the car in, the radiator would still be intact, and the car would just keep running while others were on the way to overheating.
That's really cool Steve magonate had a one on similar to that this morning and you verified everything you said good video take care have fun out in the junkyard
I agree, sad to see it there
440 was introduced in ‘66
This is 40 years ago. I had a '71 Roadrunner that someone had put a 2 barrel 383 in. I wanted a 4 barrel manifold. A friend said his dad had this old Chrysler in the pasture I could get the manifold off. I got the manifold and carb. and it didn't fit my 383...I got another manifold that fit. A year oh so later I learned about the '67 440 and I remembered that car in the pasture was a '67 Imperial. I went back and asked about the old junk car and they hauled it away to be crushed. I was crushed.
Note the heads on that car are the great 915 head. The 915 castings would have come in this car with 1.60-inch exhaust valves . If they were on a HP motor (the R/T and GTX motors) had the bigger 1.74. The design is the same and the exhaust valves can be enlarged like the HP and will flow the same.
I know of 2 Imperials near me, both are black exterior, one is running, the other appears to be a parts car as the roof is caved in- that one has a beautiful red leather interior however. Awesome rides!
One of my paper route customers bought an Imperial 2 door new in the early 70s. Burgundy on burgundy on burgundy. Pillow topped, button tucked leather seats you never saw the likes of in any GM or Lincoln. The biggest man on earth could have sat on that 60/40 seat. It was beyond opulent. It was nicer than most couches people had in their living rooms. Every old man in the district, most of them WWI vets, used to drive by in their lesser cars and drool at it. They'll never make cars like that again. Weird thing was that even though the 440 was smaller than many Lincoln and Quadillac engines, the Imperials and NewYorkers could smoke em' on acceleration. Must have been and power(torque) to weight carried thing. My grade school principal had a high compression 440 NewYorker and he hooked up a 10,000lb airstream to it every year and towed it like it wasn't even there. Hardly changed his mileage. Effortless torque. There were a LOT of low compression pickups in the 70s that couldn't do that. Only mod he made was tons of mosquito netting behind the grill, before the rad. We used to score the later C-body rads, shrouds and clutch fans and make them fit in the B-body big block muscle cars that had overheating problems. Fixed them beautifully and within budget, coming from a wrecking yard. Malcolm Ottawa Valley
There is a guy in canada (he has a youtube channel i just can't remember the name) and he had a 440 on a dyno and the dyno couldn't track the torque under 3k rpm's. When it did register it was 570 ft/lbs and that was under 3500. Crazy torque.
@@davidmiller9485 Nick's Garage
I had a '65 Crown Coupe for twelve years. In comparison to a 1968 Continental I had years prior, the Imperial was louder, had a harsher ride, and overall didn't feel as solid as the Lincoln. However, it was quicker, and handled like it was on rails comparatively. I delivered the Imperial to its new owner in Kansas from my home in Oregon back in September. It was an awesome three day road trip and the Imperial never skipped a beat cruising down the interstate at what we'll call "extra-curricular" speeds. I'd budgeted for 10mpg and the new owner and I were both impressed that the car averaged 12.
My dad had 1960 Imperial! That thing could cruise at high speed with great comfort! The suspension was not mushy but smooth! That 413 could really get rolling! They were classy!
Walking encyclopedia.
Dude, you rock!
Steve Mags posted a Junkyard Crawl video today that also featured an Imperial. His featured a 1970 Imperial LeBaron 4 door hard top.
One of the only cars outlawed from demolition derbies
A little update: 440" V8 came in the 1966 model year for Imperial.
Really enjoy your Mopar history. I always learn something.
There is one other car banned from demo derbies. The Checker Marathon.
I think you are right about the Imperial in the demo derby, I think the only competitor to it would be one of those full size Chevy Clamshell wagons. The winner back in the day would drive off in one of those vehicles, The wagons were easier to obtain as there were more of them. If an Imperial was in the Derby back then it certainly was one of the last 2 cars running. As you mentioned they are great cars of prestige for all the reasons in the video. Thanks for the video, I wasn't aware what a D body was now I know !
One afternoon I was in a Pick-Your-Part taking a back window out of a '66 Barracuda, so that I'd always have a spare for my '65. That day as I was leaving I noticed an Imperial, I think it was a '75. I stuck my head down under, and discovered it had rear disc brakes. But it was near closing time for the yard, and I had to work extra hours through that week so I missed my chance. Bummer.
Love the info, Unca T., especially the demolition derby no-go for the Imp. You are the bomb.
I have had the pleasure of driving a few of these , 2 door as well , amazing on the road , so smooth and effortless
My Uncle Red loved those big Chryslers, he's had convertibles, 300 series and the 70 300 Hurst, By the time i got my drivers license in mid 80's i had a 65 coronet 500 383/auto trans and i ended up buying a car from my uncle, it was a 79 Chrysler Newport he had bought new, only had 32,000 miles on it when i bought it, sold it years l8r to purchase a 73 roadrunner.
I had a 67 New Yorker with a 440 and now I finally understand it. It was an Imperial lite. Sounds like it even shared the C body. My 67 was clearly more a luxury liner that the 63 Chrysler convertible with a 383 which was one peppy beast that my spectacularly blonde wife used to blow off enthusiastic young guys at stop lights. The New Yorker always seemed to to properly belong to a well to do retiree gent from Queens. Your description of the 440 and it’s intended purpose now makes sense of my experience that it delivered power in entirely more staid but smooth way. The 383 still chirped the Tyers at 85 shifting into top, the 440 just kept pulling. Great historical video!
67-73 Imperials were similar to a C-body but not the same. In 74 & 75 they were a C-body
Love the knowledge drops uncle Tone, almost like getting a bedtime story as a kid. Always learning!
I had one very similar in the late 80’s. I bought it for my Mom. A 1968 Imperial Crown 4 door. Light green ( seems like 9 out of 10 were some shade of green) with black leather interior and a black vinyl top. I got it for $425. We used it for a couple years then I pulled the 440, TF, and the 8 3/4 sure grip center section. And sent it off to the junkyard. 😀
I was lucky enough to find a 79 St Regis with a 360HP with a thermoquad
Many demo derbys also banned Olds Tornados.😬
💔 Sad to see these classics this way.... At least the driveline was salvaged.
They were highly sought after in my area know for superior derby cars, I saw a lot of them in the ring growing up
AMC Pacer also banned from demolition derby's
A big factor in the DD ban was the 4”x4” cross member in front of the lower radiator tank.
Love all the knowledge you teach.
TheImperial muffler was something we used back in the day.
That was such a BEAUTIFUL CAR! My Uncle Bill , had one, it was Gold, with Black, and the black interior. Wow, had EVERYTHING you could want on a car, back in the Day! Also, my really favorite was the Green Hornet's Chrysler Imperial... a '64 , I believe! So Hot looking!
My Dad had a baby blue 63 Imperial when I was kid.
Great Story on Imperial! I had a 72 😍 and 73 now I still have 71 New Yorker it just not an Imperial! The 5 on 5 thing I learned luckily a Chevy pick up truck rim fit to make it from Calgary to Vancouver! Good times my parents had a 73 Newport!
When they came out in the early 80s with the new imperial, that was one fine looking automobile
So true on the Ban!!! Imagine one of those in a wagon version!!!
i like the trap door for access to the power antenna
Hey Uncle Tony! Kenny (wrenching with Kenny) said some very nice things about you on his channel the other day! It was great!
That was a fun fact! THANKS TONY!👍
Suicide door Lincoln's were banned, too.
Designed by the same guy.
One of the main reasons they are so tough is the sub frame. It is like a frame inside of a frame with a big ass crossmember right behind the bumper.
Used to call them "hammer head" imps.
I have a '67 Crown Coupe driver.
I could use that trunk lid.
Agreed they were right up there with the Cadillac, Mercedes and whatever luxury car you want to compare to it , Top Notch!
They are still allowed in demo derbies up here in ND, at least as far as I know. And yeah, I have seen them in action and they are brutal. You don't want to be anything other than another Imperial if you are in a crash fest with one of these. But even a lot of the full sized C bodies are pretty damn good, except of course if you come up against the almighty Imperial.
Here in MN they have special classes just for imps. Talk about a battle between gladiators.
@@dubiousf00d Yeah, the audience would be getting their money's worth.
known as the "Darling" of demolition derbies! they're in a class of their own!
Friends of mine have a 65 300 convertible, sadly they let it rot in a field.
These things are works of art, my great uncle had a 68 in the early 70's for about a year, he loved that car but said it was a big tank, that guzzled too much gas.
The 1/4 panel on a 1968 2 door was long enough to land a 747 on.
Thanks for taking the time to show this fine piece of American history Tony.
I know that they are heavy and not desirable but I love the extra engineering that went into them.
We didn’t get these out in Australia but we got C bodies and I would have liked you to show that front frame section difference to the standard C body.
I have a mopar magazine at home 1990’s that they drag raced and cut body panels of it till they got down to a unsafe speed and got kicked out.
It was the 1966 with the full frame and 413.
The transmission was slipping so they put a bottle of brake fluid in it to soften the seals 😂