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One of the things I like about Imperials and other,
lesser large cars is how well they take to names. My grandfather loved
Chryslers, and had a '55 that was called "The Queen Mary." It was never
just "Queen Mary," but always "The Queen Mary." One time I remember him
pressing the starter and it didn't catch right away. He lamented: "C'mon
Queenie, you never did that before!" He complained to my grandmother later
that day that he'd erred and called the Imperial "Queenie." I was 15
before I knew it had a "real" name, e.g. Imperial.
Both he and my Dad were Chrysler worshippers.
They both told me (and my poor brothers, who to this day could give a hang about
cars) that Chryslers were built with the highest quality in mind, and that I
should always respect all of the work that the Chrysler engineers did to develop
the fabulous cars. (My Dad, an engineer himself, particularly stressed this
point) I always did respect the engineering and design and a Cordoba, the
300 and my current/first Imperial later, I still think about and
appreciate the extra effort that these cars plainly required. That
being said, both men also admitted that many people thought Chryslers weren't as
pretty as other luxury cars. Perhaps they both succombed to peer pressure
because my grandfather drove a '50 Cadillac for years, and my dad still has
one. I guess they weren't real pursists!
About names: Besides the Queen Mary, my grandfather
had Big Red, his 1970 Chrysler 300 4dr Hardtop that I inherited when he died in
about 1985. (He had to cut a panel out of his garage door to fit
the rear bumper of Big Red. He had a red cap from a can of WD 40
hanging on a string from the rafters of the garage, and when he pulled the car
in and the cap tapped the windshield, that meant he was about 1/4 inch from
smacking the back of the garage and it was time to stop. The cap is still
there on the same string, and my cousin, who lives in the house now, stops her
Toyota against it. Of course, she's got lots of room! She had the
door fixed, however). The Chryslers we had in my family had names too,
some not sanctioned by my parents. The Cordoba was always known as
The Barf, for reasons not to be repeated here. When I got the '70
300, I called it "The Mighty 300." I've tried various names for
my '58 Imperial, but I just call it "The Mighty Imperial" and that always sounds
great. Why improve any further on perfection? I sometimes call my
daily driver the Mighty Whitey. It's a 300 too, though sadly not Mopar,
but one of the reasons I like it is that I can call it "The 300."
Everytime I do I kind of feel like I'm cheating because plainly, despite the
script on the trunk, "300," it's not REALLY a 300 unless it's a
Chrysler!
I'm bathering. Sorry. It happens
sometimes. It's an Imperial thing.
Patrick in Louisiana
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 7:39
PM
Subject: RE: IML: Imperial names
The Cold War was raging in 1959, so in
the spirit of dentente, how about Sputnik?
Neal Herman
Aquitania
Miss Dorothy
Bonnie Prince Charlie
Bianca d'Azur
Christine Corinthia
Le Nouveau Riv
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 2/21/2005 9:39:05 AM
Subject: RE: IML: Imperial names
I was always fond of big ships as a kidd and I gues I never grew
out of dreaming to owning an old pirates ship and sailing the sea. but
as with the name of a ship on my imperial I can sail the open roads.
the story behind me thinking of nautilus was a few days after I bought
the 59 imp I walked into autozone and was asking for any parts they have for
the 59 imperial, and the guy at autozone said there is no such thing .
he thought I was pulling his leg, because I used to make up stuff
in my past and I would get a kick out of watching them go crazy
trying to find the parts that didn't exist . so I then showed them
pictures of the car and they seemed like they belived me, but they still
thought I was pulling some sort of gag on them, but after I left
autozone and went to NAPA " the napa in my town had merged with a local
machine shop. so I wanted to see if they would rebuild the engine and other
parts for my car, as I talked to jimmy at napa, a friend of mine,
I told him about what had happened at auto zone , and he told me I should
name the car the nautilus because of the jules vern novel. about a mythical
ship/sub.that none could believe to exist. and that the name would fit
well that the nautilus was supposedly been indestructible and had
inventions that were unheard of for it's time.
on another note. one of my kidds suggested a few names " he is into
video games"
LANDBARGE - because it is the largest car he has ever seen. and the
fact that the car is 4 ft longer than our pontoon boat that is 16 ft.
DOOMTRAIN.- from his final fantasy games. he thinks it is so cool he
used to make train sounds while running through the house , yelling here
comes the doomtrain.
and my other son suggested I should name it VOYAGER. because of the
cars tail fins and the rocket type tail lights.
"Steve B." <imperial59@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
This
is a second try on the reply for Neal Herman
like ocean liner names
because of the mystique (and I don't meant
Mercury!) and the size of
our Imperials. One of my choices was obvious:
Imperator, a
Hamburg-America Line competitor to Cunard's Mauretania &
Aquitania
(see below) and White Star's Olympic (sister to the Titanic).
Another
reason for this is the large bronze eagle figurehead on the bow.
After
World War I, she became the Cunard Line's Berengaria.
The
Imperator's sister ship was the Vaterland, which has no panache.
But as
part of the war reparations she was transferred to the United
States
Line and became the Leviathan, a much catchier name. As the
Leviathan,
she was the largest ship in the world in the 1920s.
Neal
Herman
1959 Imperial Crown "Aquitania", for reasons
aforementioned
1966 Imperial Crown "Miss Dorothy", after my grandmother
who owned a '64
Imperial
et al.
-----Original
Message-----
From:
mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Jay King
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 12:10 PM
To:
mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: IML: Imperial
names
(Imperial names)
Hello, list,
Maybe my
children and I had been watching too many Kevin Smith movies
around the
time I acquired my '73 LeBaron, but it is named "Silent Bob."
I don't
really know why, except that my nickname is "Jay." Previous to
Silent
Bob my driver was an '84 Olds 98 called "the Wide Ride." After
son
Jamie was t-boned in that car I was given another '84 Olds 98 that
is
known as "Ordell" after the Samuel L. Jackson character in the
"Jackie
Brown" movie, who shot and killed a henchman in the trunk of a
similar
car. Elsewhere in the fleet: "Baby Flattop," a 1985 Fifth Avenue
named
by a co-worker who called my driveway an aircraft carrier dock, a
'93
Caravan called "Dodge Van Dam," and my daughter's '93 Grand Am,
"Rob
Grand Am." Yeah, she watches wrestling. Thanks for all the stories
of
Imperial names!
Jay King
Meridian, Mississippi
j_king@xxxxxxxxx
Honey Gold 1973
LeBaron 4DHT
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