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...
Forward Look cars on display included a '55 Chrysler
C300, a '56 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer 2drHT, a '57
Imperial Crown 4dr Southhampton, 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.
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 at
least that DC is at least comfortable with make
cancellations that happened 40 years ago. 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. 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 annoyed 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 original 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.
=====
Mike Sealey, San Francisco CA
'57 Plymouth Sport Suburban
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