The 1964 - 1966 Imperial was part of a move by Chrysler in the first one-half of the 1960s where it dish out with excogitation and engineering heroic meter in favor of careful securities industry planning , unified " committee control " at the top , more conservative styling , and huge – sometimes rash – expansion .
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To his credit , president Lynn Townsend had smoothed the churning water supply of the Tex Colbert/ Bill Newberg administrations , and commence condense on the business enterprise of making money . If a trend aside from Chrysler ’s innovation and independence during the fifties could be seen in all this , no one was kick . After all , Chrysler was give the public what it wanted .
The 1964 Imperials were the first models design by someone other than Virgil Exner since Imperial had become a freestanding make in 1955 . The " someone " was Elwood Engel , who had come over from Ford to replace Exner in 1961 , and who had begun to work surface styling of Chrysler Cartesian product as early as 1963 .
Engel drastically revise the 1964 Imperial pedigree . The quondam silhouette was now get rid of below the beltline , as well as above ( the transmutation had begun with a dissimilar roofline in 1963 ) . The cable car was squared off , very much like the Lincoln Continental with which Engel had been closely colligate . Like the Continental , its fenderline was traced in brightwork and there were lots of square corner . A divided wicket was adopted , and Exner ’s freestanding headlamps summarily dropped . The rearward deck was retool , not quite do away with Exner ’s spare tyre outline .
The Custom majestic short letter was canceled , bequeath the Crown as the al-Qaeda model and the LeBaron the most expensive . Also dropped as unneeded was the " Southampton " designation for pillarless models – all Imperials were hardtop , except the convertible . The Crown Imperial limo built by Ghia in Italy was available with either six or four side windows , and carry on on the special 149½ Winch wheelbase .
Imperial had an excellent year with over 23,000 1964 Imperials built , 65 percent good than 1963 and the second best class on record . Under Engel , a Lincolnesque innovation philosophy had emerge : the opulence car , Engel articulate , should not lose the indignity of a comprehensive annual restyle . Like Mercedes ( and Elwood ’s own Continentals ) purple design now merely germinate ; it did not change importantly from one year to the next .
Continue to the next page to see the gradual evolution of the Imperial in 1965 and 1966 .
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Continued
The 1964 , 1965 , and 1966 Imperial evolve gradually . The only major modification for the 1965 Imperial was a new radiator grille with crank - shut in quadrangle headlamps . At the New York Automobile Show , Imperial expose the alien LeBaron D’Or show railcar , which used gold pillage and embellishments , and was paint a special Royal Essence Laurel Gold . price rose a mates hundred dollar and the mannikin batting order was unchanged .
Ghia of Turin stopped work up Crown Imperial limousines in 1965 , though 10 were constructed in Spain for 1966 , using grilles and rear deck from that model . Starting in 1967 , Imperial arranged to have the limo built domestically . Production during 1964 - 1966 was only 10 units per year .
Again in 1966 , an evolutionary glide slope produced a business of Crowns and LeBarons that closely resembled the design of 1964 and 1965 . The change did make 1966 one of the most beautiful Imperials , and probably the clean and most understated of them all .
The disconnected wicket of past models was replace by an oblong unit of measurement that frame up multiple rectangles . The rear deck of cards was smoothed off , finally eliminating the ungainly look snort emblem and tire masking synopsis . Wheelbase and overall length were unchanged . The previous 413 - cid V-8 was replaced by Chrysler ’s new 440 , which was rated at 350 bhp , 10 more than 1964 - 1965 .
The 1966 Imperial was the last with a separate body and frame , and thus marked the end of the Imperial ’s different construction method acting compared to other Chrysler products . After 1966 , imperial would share the Chrysler unit trunk , and bit by bit they became more and more like a luxury version of the Chrysler .
To management ’s disappointment , Imperial had never really build itself as a separate make , and most masses still referred to it as a " Chrysler Imperial . " This image problem made it difficult to match Lincoln , countenance alone Cadillac . Production tail downwardly , with only about 18,000 1965 Imperials build and fewer than 14,000 of the adorable 1966 Imperials . Convertibles were extremely blue volume cars , the figures being 922 , 633 , and 514 for 1964 through 1966 , respectively .
See the specification for the 1964 , 1965 , and 1966 Imperial on the next pageboy .
1964, 1965, 1966 Imperial Specifications
Despite a drastic restyling , the 1964 , 1965 , and 1966 Imperial never quite establish itself as a alone entity like Ford ’s Lincoln .
Specifications
railway locomotive : all ohv V-8 ; 1964 - 65 : 413 cid ( 4.18 x 3.75 ) , 340 bhp ; 1966 : 440 cid ( 4.32 x 3.75 ) , 350 bhp
Transmission:3 - speed reflexive
Suspension front : upper and lower control arms , longitudinal torsion legal profession
dangling rear : live axle , folio springtime
brake : front / rear tympan
Wheelbase ( in.):129.0 ; limo : 149.5
Weight ( lbs.):4,950 - 6,100
Top speed ( mph):NA
0 - 60 miles per hour ( sec):NA
