Inside the Chrysler Museum by Mike Sealey

Inside the Chrysler Museum

Just thought I'd get back to everyone with my report on my recent visit to the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, MI. I wouldn't've minded it being bigger at all; there is room on the grounds to expand further, and I hope that happens some day...

Imperials were, sadly, underrepresented there, althogh the prime example, a '57 Imperial Crown 4dr Southhampton, is very nice indeed, as is the somewhat Imperial-like '51 New Yorker convertible. There were two Airflows on display, and one of these may have been an Imperial. Other Forward Look cars (my favorite era) on display included a '56 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer 2drHT, a '57 300C, a '57 Fury, a '57 Dodge Sweptside pickup, a '60 Valiant, and a '61 300G. One of the Ghia-bodied Thomas Specials was also in attendance. The stepsiblings are represented as well, with a former Metropolitan show car and a Nash-Healey and Hudson Hornet from earlier in the '50s adding to the period feel. I also enjoyed the '69 2-seater AMX, which was apparently bought and restored by AMC for their own collection pre-merger; this restoration was apparently done in the Kenosha plant and at one point allegedly involved sending the AMX through the paint line in the middle of a group of Renault Alliances...

Other cool FL-era displays included one of the plastic stress-test scale models from the Unibody program (this one being a '60 Dodge 4drHT), an alternator-vs.-generator comparison using a '60 Valiant grille and headlights as part of the prop, an aluminum-block 225 on an engine stand (probably a display from one of the auto shows of that era) and a video showing various '50s and '60s accessories (the swivel seat clip, interestingly enough, showed a '59 Chrysler drawing in the background but the voiceover discussed swivels as a Dodge option). This part was particularly cool in that the videos were viewed over the top of a '57-'58 Chrysler dashboard, and to make it play, you push the "D" button... A few feet away, I found a styling exhibit, and was delighted to see a film clip in which Virgil Exner discusses design...

It was interesting to see the museum's handling of the orphan makes question. There was as much discussion of DeSotos as anything else, which suggests to me that DC is at least comfortable with make cancellations that happened 40 years ago. Imperials are generally treated as a top-line Chrysler rather than as a separate make, although the basement snack area, which is in a replica of a '30s MoPar multimake dealership, has Imperial listed as a separate make in the showroom window, which of course would not have been correct at the time. This gets a little dicier in more recent times. The LH car on display is an Eagle Vision TSi, and other than a print ad for the Vision showing the Jeep-Eagle logo the display doesn't really explain the Eagle brand (admittedly, this might be more necessary 10 years from now than it is now). I was considerably more annoyed by the video on the Hemi program, which referred to "Chrysler products" finishing 1-2-3 at the '64 Daytona 500... ...I think when one includes Dodges, the "Chrysler products" finished even better than that, but was perturbed that, in this case, the phrase "Chrysler products" appeared to have been used to avoid saying "Plymouth"... makes me wonder if they plan to convert the Horizon, Reliant, and 1st-generation Voyager minivan on display into Dodges as well...

There was even an inside joke for Forward Look fans as part of the Exner exhibit, in the form of what appeared to be a cartoon from the New Yorker or a similar publication, presumably from the FL era. The cartoon shows a side profile of a man standing at a receptionist's desk, and closer observation shows this man to have a Forward Look emblem for a face (the wide shallow part acting as his face, the front of the narrow deep part acting as his nose and the trailing edges acting as eyebrows and a mouth - I wish I had this cartoon to send, as it was very cool). The receptionist is speaking into an intercom, and the caption reads "The gentleman from Chrysler is here..."

Well worth doing. I recommend it highly.

Main Page Inside Chrysler History End of Plymouth Worldwide

Allpar Chrysler Valiants Books D-500 Museum