We Imperial owners are some of the luckiest in the hobby. We like
automobiles that everyone at car shows love to look at but don't
want. I was in the Dallas Mopar Club for many years and was the
only member without a "muscle" car. Most of the guys in the club
would rather have been dead than own an Imperial, unless they could
pull the engine(to drop in a Roadrunner or some other seen-one-seen-
them-all B-body)and push the carcass in the river. But when show
time came, you could barely see the car for the solid wall of
people looking at it! A friend of mine & I would take turns
staying with the car('61 LeBaron) just to explain what it was and
to detail the joys of Imperial ownership. One of the best comments
I ever recieved was "Good looking Cadillac! What year is it? I
once had a '65 LeBaron, good silver paint, black leather that was
flawless, everything worked, good chrome, no dents or rust, and
tried to sell it. I couldn't give it away! I finally traded it for
a '61 Crown!
parts car. We Imperial owners rough it with cars th
at have ALMOST no reproduction parts made and very few remaining
parts cars. I have better luck findng parts for a '36 Pierce-Arrow
than I do for the Imperials. I wouldn't trade the experience for
anything!
Jim Payne
'59 LeBaron
'61 LeBaron
'65 Crown Coupe
'65 Crown Cv.
From: <dansgarage@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 2006/12/10 Sun PM 11:08:40 EST
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: IML: Is it just me?
Hi All...Last week my January issue of Hemmings Motor News arrived
and with it, not surprisingly, enclosed in the plastic wrapping,
were a coupe of catalogs filled with 'Car Guy' stuff for Christmas
presents! Again, this is nothing I'd call 'new'! Also included was
a booklette referring to the upcoming ('07) Barrett-Jackson
auction in Scotsdale, AZ. Usually I would look through this type
of auction brochures with 'curiosity' more than anything else,
since unless I hit the lottery I could no way afford to even
think !! about affording one of these cars! Yes, there are always
vehicles up for auction that i would LOVE to own, but I have to
ask myself "If I bought a $100,000.00 GTX with only 250 miles on
it, would I even take it out on the road??'......Sure there are
less expensive cars out there but USUALLY the best ones (I realize
that the term 'best' here is relative!) go to auctions such as the
Barrett-Jackson ones since there are usually lots of folks with
the big bucks attendi!
ng these functions. Now, after looking through the b
rochure that came with my Hemmings, I saw a number of great
vehicles I would love to be able to own, but!!! although I may have
missed it, I SAW NO IMPERIALS AT ALL listed for the upcoming
auction! After thinking about this for a bit I guess its a good
news/bad news thing, cause if the IMPERIALS were as in-demand as,
say, Dodge Daytona's, Roadrunners, Chrysler 300's or any of the
muscle cars, there would be no way that someone like myself could
ever have bought one in the first place! ...and I have been
fortunate enough to currently own two! I must admit though, it is
beyond me why IMPERIAL's in general are not MUCH more in demand
then they currently are! I think they were built so much better
then other cars of that era, they certainly are not a vehicle you
are liable to see passing you on the road whenever you DO go out
for a drive, the production numbers are certainly not high enough
for them to have been called 'commonly seen' even when they were
new!! If I had a 10 car garag!
e ( and the $$ to fill it up!) I'd surely have 10 Im
perials in it (OK, maybe only 9 with one Hemi, 4-speed GTX!). I
know it sounds corny and allthat, but I truly enjoy owning my
Imperial(s) even if I just stand there and look at them! So, its
GOOD NEWS that these cars not not skyrocketing in price (so far) so
we can all afford to own one! The BAD NEWS (if you want to call it
that) is that because they are not in great demand, the parts are
not as easy to find as, say, parts for a '57 Chevy or a Roadrunner
might be. I guess thats what EVERY old car owner has to deal
with....and, the more I think about it, thats part of the enjoyment
of owning an old car in the first place!...that, along with the
looks you get when taking the car out for a drive! I just know that
some of those folks are saying to themselves "I sure wish we had
kept Grampy's old Imperial! what a car that was!!".......But I'm
still disappointed that there were no Imperials going to the
Barrett-Jackson auction! (that I know of)
I hope everyone has a GREAT Holiday ...stay safe and have a Happy!
Dan Melnik
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