It's looking like a few early production cars escaped the factory with manual windows before Chrysler realized the crank handle interference problem and made power windows standard.
Without spending a ton of time, two searches did not produce any links to the article that I remember reading.
I did find two references to manual window cars, and of course they contradict each other a bit, but both claim there were a few crank window cars built early on.
A comment on a "Curbside Classics" article:
Ron. Iacovone.
Posted January 25, 2019 at 12:17 PM
Very Good Article. I Believe I Have The First 300 Hurst Produced. I Have Owned It Since 1985. It Is A Public Relations Car. It Was Produced C- 09. Or Dec 9, 1969. Mine And The Second Hurst Produced, Were Sold At The Same Dealership In Ohio. But Never Could Get Any More Information. Mine, And The Second Hurst Produced Have Consecutive Vin Nos. And Have Manual Windows. Mine Was Road Tested By Motor Trend. April 1970. Just Thought I Share Some Information On Mine.
Part of an article in Hot Rod Magazine:
by Karl Pippart III Sep 1, 2000
The 300-H made its public debut at the Chicago Auto Show, which ran from February 21 through March 1, 1970. The 300 Hurst prototype was used in factory publicity photos and had the Imperial seats, but with Chrysler headrests. The rear valance panel also had cutouts to accommodate the 1970 Plymouth Sport Fury GT chrome exhaust tips (Mopar Muscle September 1999, page 84). The prototype was last seen in Motor Trend's April 1970 issue, when it was taken out for some highway cruising in Michigan.
Production was originally supposed to be a very optimistic 2,000 units, but a sluggish economy brought the total down to about 500 copies. A Chrysler document from September 1, 1972, put the figure at 485. Hurst kept a pair of parade/promotional vehicles; one was the convertible and the other was a hardtop with a power-operated, sliding steel sunroof. It is known that three cars were built with manually operated side windows; two were delivered as new cars with consecutive VINS to an Ohio dealership, and the third was the test car for auto magazines. The test car lacked air conditioning (the only one?) and was first evaluated by Road Test in their June, 1970 issue (11/44 mile: 16.8 seconds at 87.3 mph), and then by Car Life in their August 1970 edition (11/44 mile: 15.30 seconds at 94.43 mph, with a 127 mph top speed).
Your father may have had that second Hurst that was sold at the Ohio dealership. I'll have to keep looking around for the article on the magazine car. I'm pretty sure it was in one of the Mopar mags that I subscribed to some time back.
Jeff
