Re: [Chrysler300] Fin revival

[cpaviper@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Having learned to drive on our '63 Newport 4 door sedan, I'll ditto Rich's comments on parallel parking in Chicago. The sloping right front fender didn't help either. 



Merry Christmas to All! 



Noel Hastalis 

in Chilly (28F) Chicago 




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Barber" <c300@xxxxxxx> 
To: lettercars@xxxxxxx, finsruskw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Cc: 63-64Chryslers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2010 2:05:53 PM 
Subject: [Chrysler300] Fin revival 

  




Cuzzin Gil: 

Thanks for your correction of the time line. I think the original author was off by a year, but the gut reaction of GM (& Studebaker & nearly everyone as we saw at ’57 Heaven) was most interesting. 

I’m looking at a picture of a ’64 300 4-dr HT that is on the back of the last Brute Force magazine and see those little finlets are there and believe them to be in good taste. Having owned a ’63 Newport 4-dr HT in the ‘60’s, I can see the finlets might help locate the right rear fender when backing or parking. The parallel ss strips on the sides are overdone IMHO and I much prefer the single spear and understated elegance of the trim on the 300K. More is not necessarily better, except under the hood. 

I recall one of the 300 principals being highly outspoken of the finless ’62. Bob Rodger? 

Ho, ho, ho. 

Thanks to you and all the readers and contributors to this server for the meaningful and relevant 300-mania and trivia over the years. And best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous and 300’ly New Year. 

Rich & Ruthanne Barber 

Brentwood, CA (Beautiful sunny day here, 53F @ noon) 

1955 Chrysler C-300 (100 Million Dollar Look, Forward Look—whatever—elegance wrought in Iron) 

From: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ] On Behalf Of lettercars@xxxxxxx 
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2010 10:52 AM 
To: c300@xxxxxxx ; finsruskw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] Interesting article on the history of fins on cars 

Rich and All: 
Just a comment or two on the article. I am sure the '56 changes would have been well along by the time it was known how well accepted the 1955s were. Doesn't seem like enough lead time to make such major changes. Regarding the "biggest fins yet" story: that must have occurred in late summer of 1956, not 1957. Obviously, Chrysler's fins of 1958 were the same height as in 1957. All GM could do to compete was to chrome up their 1958 models, since the 1957s were already in production. I am guessing the "biggest finned" cars Mr. Jordan saw were the first of the 1957 production cars. There is no Chrysler car assembly plant on Mound Road---just the truck plant near Eight Mile Road. 
On the full article, one could make a case for the 64 Chrysler still being a "finned car", couldn't one? 
300ly, Gil C. 

-----Original Message----- 
From: Richard Barber < c300@xxxxxxx <mailto:c300%40ez2.net> > 
To: 'Dave Schwandt' < finsruskw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:finsruskw%40iowatelecom.net> >; 'list server' < Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:Chrysler300%40yahoogroups.com> > 
Sent: Mon, Dec 20, 2010 8:21 am 
Subject: RE: [Chrysler300] Interesting article on the history of fins on cars 

Here is the interesting and relevant part of that article.. I never saw the 
“fins” on our 1955 Chrysler C-300 as pointing to the sky, but most folks 
think that design is pretty nice. Personally, I don't think the design 
improved with time and the fin race pooped out by 1962. 

There things might have stayed, fin-wise, if not for the smallest of 
Detroit's Big Three car companies, Chrysler. It had a reputation for 
engineering excellence but boring design. So the company lured Studebaker's 
styling chief, Virgil Exner, a talented man who had worked under Mr. Earl at 
GM early in his career. 
When Mr. Exner arrived, Chrysler's U.S. market share, traditionally about 
20%, had shrunk to about 13%. So he took to the drawing board. The result: 
Chrysler's 1955 cars looked like nothing else on the road. 
They had bushy-browed "Frenched" headlights, as the design was called, and 
big tail fins that pointed to the sky. Chrysler dubbed it "The Forward 
Look." The company's market share quickly jumped to 18%, confounding not 
only GM but government trust-busters, whose allegations that GM was a 
monopoly were undermined. In the first two months of 1955, Chrysler's 
earnings outstripped its net income for all of 1954. 
Emboldened, Mr. Exner added even bigger fins to Chrysler's tails in 1956 and 
in 1957, when the company touted its styling with the memorable slogan 
"Suddenly, It's 1960!" Mr. Exner was honored by the Harvard Business School. 
Tail fins "reflect the growing artistic taste of the American consumer," he 
proudly declared. Well, they reflected something, if not exactly that. 
Meanwhile, in the late summer of 1957, rumors spread around Detroit that Mr. 
Exner would unveil still more styling magic on Chrysler's 1958 models. So a 
Cadillac designer decided to do some sleuthing. His name was Chuck Jordan. 
Mr. Jordan took a lunch-hour ride one day up Mound Road, a major 
thoroughfare north of Detroit. As he passed a Chrysler facility, he spotted 
some cars parked in a grassy field behind a fence. He drove in, peeked 
through the fence and spotted the biggest fins yet. 
The young man tore back to the GM Technical Center, which housed the 
company's styling studios, and ran into the office of Bill Mitchell, the No. 
2 man on the design staff. "You've got to see what I just saw," Mr. Jordan 
sputtered, as he recalled when I interviewed him a couple of years ago. "You 
won't believe it." Mr. Jordan, Mr. Mitchell and another colleague piled into 
a car and drove back up to the Chrysler field. The sight at the site 
confirmed that GM was about to get out-finned. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy 300'ly New Year to all. 
Rich Barber 
Brentwood, CA 
1955 Chrysler C-300 (Bushy-browed with big tail fins??) 

From: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:Chrysler300%40yahoogroups.com> [mailto: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:Chrysler300%40yahoogroups.com> ] On 
Behalf Of Dave Schwandt 
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 5:12 AM 
To: list server 
Subject: [Chrysler300] Interesting article on the history of fins on cars 

OK, I'll confess!!! 

I stole this link from the Forward look site 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704694004576019463520583944.ht 
ml?mod=WSJ_Autos_LS_Autos_7_1 

Dave Schwandt 

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