Imperial: the history of Chrysler's luxury marque that challenged Cadillac

Imperial's history shows how difficult it is to manufacture prestige, even when the cars themselves are impressive. Enormous V8 engines, Virgil Exner's daring designs, coachbuilt limousines completed in Italy and an early electronic anti-lock braking system could not fully dispel the perception that an Imperial was simply a more expensive Chrysler. The independent marque existed from 1955 through 1975 and returned briefly for the 1981-1983 model years. The later Chrysler Imperial, offered from 1990 through 1993, was a Chrysler model rather than a revival of the separate Imperial marque.

Before the marque: the Chrysler Imperial from 1926

Walter P. Chrysler established his own automotive brand in 1924. Two years later, the Imperial joined the range as its flagship. At that stage Imperial was neither a separate manufacturer nor an independent marque. The name identified the most prestigious Chrysler, intended to attract buyers who might otherwise have considered older and more established luxury makes.

In pre-war America, luxury meant far more than additional equipment. Overall dimensions, engine smoothness, quality of trim and the possibility of ordering a formal body all mattered. Chrysler consequently developed the Imperial alongside its other cars, while keeping it at the top of the hierarchy. Over time the name was attached to numerous technically distinct vehicles. The Chrysler Imperials built between 1926 and 1954 should not be treated as a single generation.

The 1930s brought some particularly ambitious work. In 1934, Chrysler introduced the aerodynamic Airflow, including a version bearing the Imperial name. Rounded bodywork, a new approach to passenger placement and an unusually adventurous overall layout were ahead of many buyers' expectations. The project fell short of its commercial ambitions, but it demonstrated that Chrysler intended to compete through engineering as well as price and decoration.

After the Second World War, Chrysler stayed with comparatively tall, conservative body shapes. Its cars were roomy, solid and comfortable, but by the early 1950s they looked old-fashioned beside newer Cadillacs and Lincolns. The corporation did, however, possess an important mechanical asset. From 1951 it had been developing V8 engines with hemispherical combustion chambers, known as Hemi engines. Combining that technology with a fresh design language would provide the foundation for the future Imperial marque.

1955: prestige receives its own badge

Separating Imperial from Chrysler was above all a marketing decision. Cadillac was not perceived as the most expensive Chevrolet, although both belonged to General Motors. Lincoln enjoyed a similar distinction from Ford. Chrysler wanted an equivalent identity and concluded that continuing to use the name Chrysler Imperial would make it harder to establish one.

Beginning with the 1955 model year, Imperial was listed as a separate marque within Chrysler Corporation. The distinction went beyond advertising: Chrysler notified American vehicle-registration authorities of the change. Strictly speaking, therefore, the correct historical name for the cars sold under the new marque was simply Imperial. The colloquial expression “Chrysler Imperial” remained common and is still widely used.

The first standalone Imperial nonetheless shared much of its engineering and body structure with other large cars from the corporation. Different details, wheelbase dimensions, materials and equipment helped create a more exclusive impression, but mechanical independence remained limited. The new Chrysler family of cars was styled by a department headed by Virgil Exner, which abandoned the tall and heavy proportions of the previous generation. Imperial gained a longer, lower profile and a considerably fresher appearance.

Among its identifying features were generous chrome detailing, a formal grille, the eagle motif and rear lamps displayed almost like pieces of jewellery. Under the bonnet sat a Hemi V8 coupled to an automatic transmission. For mid-1950s buyers in this class, that combination was not extravagant. A large engine was expected to deliver abundant torque and effortless acceleration without repeated gear changes.

Approximately 11,400 Imperials were produced in the first model year, including formal versions. That was a marked improvement on the final years of the Chrysler Imperial, but the total was still modest beside Cadillac, which was selling considerably more than 100,000 cars annually.

A problem that a new grille could not solve

Although Imperial had its own badge, it never gained a comparably separate retail network. Its cars were sold mainly through Chrysler dealerships. A prospective buyer could encounter a costly luxury car and much cheaper vehicles employing similar engineering in the same showroom. That arrangement saved Chrysler Corporation the considerable expense of creating another dealer organisation. Its effect on Imperial's image was harder to measure.

At the top of the market, a customer bought more than a car. The way the vehicle was presented and serviced was part of the experience. Cadillac had spent decades developing a recognisable identity, a loyal clientele and a long association with formal motoring. Imperial was effectively starting again, despite the Imperial name being considerably older than the separate marque introduced in 1955. Chrysler could fund the development of an excellent car, but it could not quickly reproduce those deeply established associations.

This contradiction would recur throughout Imperial's existence. Sometimes the corporation invested in genuine engineering independence. At other times it reduced costs by increasing the use of Chrysler components. Both strategies carried risks. The first made a low-volume car expensive to build; the second undermined the reasons for charging a premium.

1957: Imperial finds its own character

The most important transformation arrived with the 1957 model year. Imperial gained a much more clearly differentiated body and construction, and its styling became one of the most recognisable expressions of Chrysler's Forward Look programme. Exner and his colleagues created slender pillars, extensive glass areas, a low bonnet and emphatic tailfins.

Those fins were more than ornaments attached to the rear. They grew out of the body sides and drew the eye towards distinctive tail lamps mounted high on the rear wings. An optional boot-lid contour, suggesting the shape of a spare-wheel cover, made the car still more conspicuous. Known as Flight-Sweep, it inspired both admiration and jokes about an enormous toilet-seat lid. Few details capture the divisive spirit of late-1950s American automotive styling quite so neatly.

Larger glass areas, curved side windows and carefully controlled proportions made the body appear lighter than it really was. This was a car more than 5.5 metres long, with an expansive cabin and broad seating. In the space it offered and the presence it commanded, it could stand alongside its principal rivals.

The 1957 model year was the separate marque's production high point. Model-year figures record 37,593 Imperials. That was several times the previous year's total, though still well below Cadillac's volume. Imperial would never again reach that level of production.

Styling success did not eliminate every weakness. Chrysler Corporation's rapid modernisation of numerous vehicles placed a heavy burden on manufacturing and quality control. Retrospective accounts of the corporation's late-1950s models repeatedly raise questions about body durability and finish. These shortcomings do not erase Imperial's strengths, but they help explain why an advanced design did not automatically produce a reputation as strong as that of more conservative competitors.

Engineering: Hemi engines, torsion bars and the frame Chrysler kept

Early Imperials are often remembered for their huge engines, yet the chassis was just as important to the driving experience. Beginning with the 1957 model year, Chrysler Corporation introduced its Torsion-Aire front suspension, using longitudinal torsion bars. In Imperial, these worked with independent front suspension, while a live rear axle on leaf springs remained at the back. The configuration reflected American expectations of the period: a supple ride, isolation from road imperfections and durability under the weight of a large car.

A torsion bar acts as a spring. Rather than compressing along its length like a coil spring, it twists when a wheel moves under load. This gave engineers greater freedom in arranging suspension components and helped them design a lower front end. It did not inherently produce sports-car handling, but careful tuning could improve control of a heavy body.

For 1957, Imperial used an enlarged Hemi V8 of 392 cubic inches, or approximately 6.4 litres. Its nominal factory rating was 325 American horsepower under the contemporary SAE gross method, equivalent to roughly 329 metric horsepower. That number cannot be compared directly with later SAE net ratings, which were established under different test conditions. Chrysler's three-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission made the substantial torque easy to use.

Towards the end of the 1950s, Chrysler replaced its first-generation Hemi engines with V8s featuring wedge-shaped combustion chambers. Subsequent Imperials used, among other powerplants, a 413-cubic-inch V8 (approximately 6.8 litres), followed in 1966 by the 440-cubic-inch engine (approximately 7.2 litres). These changes formed part of the development of Chrysler's broader large-engine family rather than an entirely separate Imperial powertrain programme.

For years, however, Imperial retained a structural feature that distinguished it from most other full-size Chryslers: a separate frame. When Chrysler Corporation moved many of its other passenger cars to unit-body construction for 1960, Imperial continued with a traditional body-on-frame design until the end of the 1966 model year. The decision helped maintain isolation from vibrations and preserve the character of a heavy luxury car, at the cost of additional weight and manufacturing expense. Imperial finally adopted unit-body construction for 1967.

Custom, Crown and LeBaron: a hierarchy of luxury

Imperial's range was more elaborate than a single saloon with several equipment packages. At different times it included four-door sedans, two- and four-door pillarless hardtops, convertibles and stretched formal cars intended for chauffeur-driven travel. The Southampton designation was used for selected hardtop models.

By the late 1950s the range included the entry-level Imperial, later identified as Custom, the more luxurious Crown and the flagship LeBaron. The names and their positions evolved as Chrysler reorganised the line-up; they should not be taken to represent identical specifications across every model year. The Custom series was discontinued for 1964, leaving Crown as the starting point.

LeBaron was a name borrowed from the tradition of American luxury coachbuilding. Within the Imperial range it primarily identified especially lavish trim and a more formal appearance, not a completely independent mechanical model. These cars often featured richer materials, distinctive interior details and arrangements intended to give rear-seat occupants greater privacy.

Imperial Crown convertibles were among the more theatrical cars of the era. Their elongated bodies, broad seats and power-operated roofs embodied the American conception of luxury in the 1950s and 1960s. The last factory Imperial convertible was offered for the 1968 model year. Later changes in the market and the economics of building enormous open cars made it increasingly difficult to justify a convertible version.

Crown Imperial: an American limousine with an Italian connection

The Crown Imperial limousine occupied a special place in the range. It should not be confused with the ordinary Imperial Crown. The similarity of the names did not imply an identical body style or customer base.

The earliest stretched limousines were prepared in the United States. Between 1957 and 1965, however, a substantial portion of their construction and finishing was entrusted to Ghia in Turin, Italy. Chrysler supplied the appropriate technical basis, and the Italian coachbuilder undertook extensive work on the lengthened body and fittings. The arrangements changed over time, with different base structures and construction methods used in different years.

These were cars for a very small clientele: governments, dignitaries and customers requiring a chauffeur, a generous passenger compartment and exceptional levels of finish. Ghia completed 132 Crown Imperial limousines between 1957 and 1965. Such small numbers carried high unit costs and made comparison with the larger-scale Cadillac Series 75 particularly challenging.

The Ghia collaboration ended in the mid-1960s. Subsequent stretched Imperials were also made by other coachbuilders, including the Spanish company Barreiros and later American specialists. But not every later limousine had the same factory standing as the earlier Crown Imperial cars.

The Ghia story illustrates Chrysler's ambitions. The company could produce a vehicle capable of arriving at a grand hotel alongside a Cadillac limousine or a European aristocrat's formal car. Building one was not the central difficulty. The challenge was persuading enough customers that Imperial deserved comparable status.

Exner and 1960-1963: from futuristic fins to neo-classicism

Automotive fashion changed rapidly at the beginning of the 1960s. Tailfins, a sign of design daring only a few years earlier, were becoming symbols of excess. Imperial was not ready to abandon its personality. The 1960 models received updated bodies while retaining much of the preceding car's engineering and broad proportions.

The 1961 design pushed the idea further. Its most surprising feature was a pair of headlamps in separate, projecting housings, recalling the external lights of older luxury automobiles. Tall fins and elaborate lamps remained at the rear. Exner's design team was attempting to combine a futuristic body with historical motifs, a recurring interest in his work.

Today, a 1961 Imperial is difficult to mistake for any other American car. At the time, though, its extravagance met a growing preference for cleaner, more disciplined forms. The contrast was particularly striking beside the new 1961 Lincoln Continental, with its straight surfaces and restrained detailing.

The 1962 and 1963 models gradually simplified the proportions and ornamentation, but the unusual separate headlamps remained for several years. Imperial faced a familiar problem for low-volume luxury brands: all-new bodies were expensive, and modest sales made frequent redesigns difficult to finance. Elements of an existing structure therefore had to survive even when prevailing design tastes moved elsewhere.

Elwood Engel and the 1964 Imperial

After Exner's departure, Elwood Engel took charge of Chrysler's styling operation. He had previously worked at Ford and was associated with the design of the 1961 Lincoln Continental. For the 1964 Imperial, Engel introduced more geometric lines, calmer body sides and far less flamboyant ornamentation. The car was still enormous, but its sense of luxury now relied more on proportions and finish than on the height of its tailfins.

Comparisons with Lincoln were inevitable, and Engel's earlier work made some of them reasonable. That does not mean the Imperial was simply a copy of its competitor. The redesign had to work around existing technical structures, mounting points, cabin proportions and large windows. Despite the new exterior panels, the characteristic wraparound windscreen still revealed something of the car's origins.

The 1964-1966 Imperials are often regarded by marque enthusiasts as some of the most elegant. There was still abundant interior room, the engines remained large V8s and the calmer styling aged more gently than the extroverted experiments from the turn of the decade. Chrysler had not, however, solved the underlying problem: the cost of maintaining a separate, heavy structure was spread across relatively few vehicles.

1967: the separate frame disappears, and compromises begin

The 1967 model year brought a more substantial technical change than the exterior suggested. Imperial adopted unit-body construction related to that of the large Chryslers. It still received its own styling components, and certain versions used a different wheelbase, but its mechanical independence was substantially reduced.

Engineers now faced different tasks. A separate frame could isolate some stresses and vibrations from the passenger compartment; a unit body demanded careful structural reinforcement, compliant mounting bushes and acoustic insulation. Weight could be saved, but preserving the quiet, floating ride that buyers expected required more precise development of the complete car.

The 1967-1968 Imperial range also included one of the most peculiar luxury options of its time. The Mobile Director package, offered on the two-door Crown Coupe, combined a swivelling front passenger seat, a folding desk and a reading lamp. The premise was straightforward: a chauffeur-driven car could become a travelling office. In practice, the package was expensive, occupied considerable cabin space and suited a very particular kind of use. Today it offers a telling glimpse of a period in which luxury also meant displaying a distinctive way of working and living.

1969-1973: Fuselage Styling and electronic braking

Another design shift arrived in 1969. Chrysler Corporation adopted rounded, almost cylindrical bodysides under the label Fuselage Styling. On Imperial, the approach produced a long, flowing shape, vast metal surfaces and headlamps concealed behind movable covers. It allowed a wide, formal front end to coexist with an increasingly simplified overall appearance.

The new Imperial looked imposing, but its relationship to the other large Chryslers was closer than before. Shared structures and components made costs easier to control. At the same time, technical differences between the cars displayed in a dealership became harder to explain. To justify its price, Imperial had to offer particularly rich equipment, better materials and technologies unavailable in less expensive models.

The most significant example was the optional Sure-Brake system introduced for the 1971 model year. Developed with Bendix, it used electronic control to limit wheel lock-up under braking. Unlike earlier anti-lock arrangements that acted only on the rear wheels, it addressed all four. Chrysler presented it as the first computer-controlled system of its kind offered in a series-production American car, and the technology was described in a 1971 SAE technical paper.

For a modern driver, Sure-Brake is easiest to understand as an early relative of today's ABS. Sensors monitored wheel rotation, while an electronic controller sought to prevent uncontrolled wheel slip during hard braking. It was not identical to contemporary ABS and did not provide all the functions of a modern system. The option was costly and seldom ordered, but it demonstrated that the luxury Imperial could serve as a platform for important safety innovations.

1974-1975: the marque disappears, but the car survives

The final Imperial generation of the marque's original period arrived for 1974. It featured a formal, vertically patterned waterfall grille, elongated rear-end detailing and a richly appointed interior. In the rest of its bodywork, however, it had far more in common with the Chrysler New Yorker than earlier Imperials had done. The two cars even shared the same wheelbase, whereas Imperial had previously emphasised its special status partly through larger dimensions.

Mechanically, this did not mean that development had stopped. The 1974 and 1975 Imperials came with disc brakes on all four wheels as standard, far from a universal feature among American luxury saloons of the day. Their equipment was intended to make long-distance travel effortless. Automatic climate control, electrically adjustable cabin fittings and extensive sound insulation helped conceal the work being done by such a large machine.

The 1974 model year arrived at a difficult moment for American manufacturers. The 1973 oil crisis had made buyers more sensitive to the costs of running large cars. Higher fuel prices and economic uncertainty hurt precisely the segment Imperial was trying to occupy. Production amounted to 14,426 cars for 1974 and fell to 8,830 for 1975. With Imperials available through several thousand dealerships, the average volume per outlet was low.

Production under the separate marque ended in June 1975. Yet Chrysler Corporation did not immediately abandon the automobile itself. During the 1976-1978 model years, its concept and many components lived on in the Chrysler New Yorker Brougham. Badges and some equipment changed, but the family resemblance was unmistakable. That is one of the paradoxes of Imperial's story: discontinuing the marque did not necessarily mean discontinuing the car it had represented.

The 1981 comeback: a new coupé, an old dilemma

At the turn of the 1980s, Chrysler Corporation was in a severe financial crisis. It needed economical new models and major reorganisation, rather than an expensive luxury experiment. Nevertheless, it attempted to revive Imperial as an independent marque for the 1981-1983 model years. Work on the car had begun before Lee Iacocca took control of the corporation; he subsequently played an important part in its promotion.

The new Imperial was nothing like the huge saloons of a decade earlier. It was a two-door personal-luxury coupé based on architecture related to the Chrysler Cordoba and Dodge Mirada. It measured approximately 5.42 metres in length, drove its rear wheels and had a wheelbase of about 2.86 metres. It was smaller than the earlier Imperials, although it remained a large, heavy car by early-1980s standards.

The shape was distinguished by its upright grille, sharply defined front wings and an unusual bustleback rear, echoing traditional bodies with a separately emphasised luggage compartment. Cadillac's contemporary Seville employed a similar motif, inevitably prompting comparisons. There is not, however, sufficient reason to describe the Imperial as a straightforward copy of the Cadillac. Work on its rear styling had begun earlier, and the bustleback idea itself had much older roots.

Equipment was intended to make the Imperial feel special. Electronic instruments, lavish cabin trim, leather upholstery associated with Mark Cross and decorative elements linked to Cartier were intended to separate it from cheaper Chryslers. There was also an FS special edition associated with Frank Sinatra, with distinctive blue paint, a matching interior and a collection of the singer's recordings on cassette. This was not a car conceived for anonymous fleet buyers. It was intended to sell participation in a particular way of life.

Electronic fuel injection and the new Imperial's difficulties

The coupé was powered by a 318-cubic-inch V8, approximately 5.2 litres, coupled to a three-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission. Chrysler fitted electronically controlled fuel injection as standard, distinguishing the Imperial from many of the corporation's other cars using related engines.

The rating was 140 hp under the newer SAE net method, equivalent to roughly 142 metric horsepower. That was dramatically lower than figures advertised for Imperials in the 1950s, but a simple comparison would be misleading. Test methods had changed, as had emissions requirements and engineering priorities. In 1981, a car of this kind was expected to offer relaxed progress, low noise and smooth power delivery rather than athletic performance.

Even against those expectations, acceleration was modest. Published road tests recorded a 0-60 mph time, or approximately 0-97 km/h, of around 13 seconds. Its weight and very tall final-drive ratio suited steady-speed cruising but made quick overtaking difficult. Reviewers also criticised the braking system, which had much in common with that of lighter cars from the related model family and did not always suit a heavy luxury coupé.

The fuel-injection system caused the most troublesome ownership issues. Although ambitious, it proved difficult to maintain reliably, and some cars were subsequently converted to carburettors. This does not mean that every Imperial of the period was defective. It does illustrate the risks of introducing complex new electronics while the manufacturer itself is undergoing financial and organisational turmoil.

The price was another obstacle. On its debut, Imperial cost more than $18,000, several times the price of Chrysler Corporation's new entry-level compact cars. The production figures were 8,113 for the 1981 model year, 2,717 for 1982 and 1,555 for 1983. Total output was 12,385 cars. For a marque revived to embody Chrysler's luxury ambitions, that was not a sufficient volume to sustain production.

The Imperial name after 1983

The end of the coupé did not remove Imperial from Chrysler's vocabulary forever. Between the 1990 and 1993 model years, the company offered a luxury saloon called the Chrysler Imperial. This, however, was a model in the Chrysler range, not the product of a separate Imperial marque. It featured front-wheel drive, a V6 engine, a four-speed automatic transmission and a structure derived from the corporation's contemporary large saloons. The name had effectively returned to the role it had occupied before 1955.

Another reference appeared in 2006, when Chrysler unveiled an Imperial concept car. The monumental saloon was designed to recall older traditions of American luxury and used technology related to the Chrysler 300. It did not enter production, nor did its appearance signal the reinstatement of Imperial as an independent marque.

For a history of the marque itself, therefore, the two defining periods are 1955-1975 and 1981-1983. The earlier Chrysler Imperials, the later saloon and the concept are all relevant to the history of the name, but they belong to distinct chapters in terms of both market identity and corporate organisation.

Imperial in popular culture, racing and collecting

Imperial made a greater mark on popular culture than its sales figures might suggest. Its best-known screen appearance was as Black Beauty in the 1966-1967 television series The Green Hornet. The car was based on a 1966 Imperial Crown and modified by Dean Jeffries. Equipped with concealed devices, a redesigned front end and an almost fantastically sinister appearance, it appeared alongside the character played by Van Williams and Kato, portrayed by Bruce Lee.

Racing was never central to Imperial's identity. Nonetheless, heavily modified stock cars wearing bodies that echoed the early-1980s Imperial coupé appeared in NASCAR competition. They should not be confused with production cars, and their appearances do not establish that Imperial operated a full factory racing programme.

Collectors now see several different eras under the Imperial name. The 1957-1959 cars appeal to enthusiasts of tailfins and Forward Look styling. The 1961-1963 designs are more contentious, but for that very reason unusually distinctive. Cars styled under Engel's direction from 1964 appeal to buyers seeking more restrained proportions. The stretched Crown Imperials built by Ghia occupy their own category of rare coachbuilt vehicles, while the 1981-1983 coupés document a critical turning point in Chrysler's history.

Preserving an Imperial in original condition requires detailed model-year knowledge. Decorative trim, particular types of glass and weather seals, rare interior fittings and components for the final generation's fuel-injection system can all present difficulties. Mechanical commonality with other Chryslers makes some repairs easier, but it does not solve the problem of obtaining pieces manufactured in small numbers. Buying a car and restoring one properly are very different financial propositions.

Why Imperial never became another Cadillac

Imperial's decline cannot be reduced to a single cause. Its cars were often modern, carefully designed and exceptionally well equipped. In 1957, in particular, the marque achieved a convincing combination of distinctive styling and genuinely differentiated engineering. What followed exposed the limits of the overall strategy.

Scale was the first obstacle. Cadillac had a much larger customer base and stronger loyalty to its name. Distribution was another: Imperial never achieved sufficient separation from Chrysler in dealerships or in the public imagination. Then there was the economics of engineering. With low volumes, funding dedicated body structures, production facilities and constant redesigns was difficult. Increasing reliance on existing Chrysler components reduced costs but weakened the sense of exclusivity.

Long-term structural problems were compounded by changing tastes, the energy crisis, new emissions and safety regulations, and eventually Chrysler Corporation's own financial troubles. The 1981 revival tried to apply a familiar formula in a market that was buying very different cars. Advertising spectacle and Frank Sinatra's name could not replace a product sufficiently attractive to a broad group of customers.

Imperial was therefore more than an unsuccessful marketing exercise. In its strongest years, it demonstrated what Chrysler could accomplish when engineering and styling developed together. Its history includes some of the boldest American design experiments of the 1950s, interesting formal limousines completed on both sides of the Atlantic, and an early application of electronic braking control.

Ultimately, Imperial was a marque capable of building exceptional cars but unable to secure an equally durable place in the market. Today, that apparent failure is part of its appeal. Each chapter left cars unmistakably shaped by their time: occasionally extravagant, sometimes flawed, but seldom anonymous.