When I started (or got brave enough) to take my '67 Newport 2-dr hardtop to a local car cruise with other of our Mopar Club members, parking in the "display" area with them, I heard many of the same "My grandparents had one of these 'boats'. It was a great car." This was in the later 1980s. I had taken pains to keep the original white vinyl roof as soft as I could, the Turbine Bronze paint as shiney as it could be, and add a '68 Dual Snrokle air cleaner to the factory 383 4bbl motor (with an incognito Edelbrock intake and OEM Holley 4bbl on it), with very good and correct underhood detailing. YET most people walked by my open hood, glanced, and continued to walk right to the 440 6-bbls a few cars down the line from mine.
The few who stopped to look did like the car and how nice it was, but then the "My grandparents . . . ." comments followed. Followed by the "boat" comments I did not like, as to me, that implied "nautical" handling, which was much more a GM and Ford trait than a Chrysler trait. So, my car sat "alone" as the crowds were around the 6bbl or HEMI cars near it. After a few weeks of this, I went to parking on the other side of the parking lot, away from the fray. Then, one night when I got ready to take the car back to its place in my storage building a few miles or so away, I found a worn fan belt that had been apparently thrown from an engine, which had landed on the hood, leaving a few sand scratches in the color. That was the last time I took that car to such a show.
When the Letter Cars were more-"alive", they were appreciated for what they were and could do, by almost everyone who knew about them. When the LH 300M cars came out, as great as they were, usually besting the earlier Letter Cars in all performance criteria, the typical 300 Letter Car owner was well into "retirement age". Having lovingly taken care of their Letter Cars for decades.
In more recent times, I suspect that current Gen III Hemi enthusiasts might not know of the Hemi Heritage, other than the Gen II HEMI from the later 1960s, if at all. OR really care about the earlier Letter Cars, either. THEY are the ones very upset with Stellantis for killing THEIR beloved 800+ horsepower cars, not fully knowing the real "why" of the situation, either. Although one key factor, like for the Gen I Hemi, is "production cost". Rather than cost of actual production, Stellantis was purchasing "clean car credits" from Tesla to counteract the poor mpg performance of the Hellcats and such. Not to forget that when tooling wears out, you can keep doing the same thing or you can spend the same money on new engine designs that will go much farther into the future. A future which has changed from the 1990s when the Gen III Hemi arrived.
Obvioiusly, as "bad" as our current USA "economy" might be, there seems to be lots more money available to fund $500K 2500 sq ft new homes "in the country", with $250K+ of rolling stock in the driveway, and 2 high school-aged kids. PLUS the cost of maintenance of such. $3K house payments would have been insane not too long ago, but now seem to be "normal"! So, there could well be "space" in the budget to purchase a Chrysler Letter Car for that 40'-50' metal building on the back of the 2-5 acre "estate", if desired.
The only other thing that has to happen, with the seeming increased interest of "classic cars" is for the Letter Cars to be discovered by younger generations who now have their "updated" '55-model cars, appreciate the styles of that decade of cars, and how much nicer the Chryslers were to start with than their "re-manufactured" Chevies. Realizing that a Letter Car can be a better investment than a customized vehicle, in the long run. OR, for that matter, a similar year Chrysler New Yorker (as many NYs were scavenged for LC parts)!!
To me, the feel of the Letter Car engine firing up, the firm "thunk" from pushing the "D" button of the TorqueFlite, and then the throttle response of the throttle as the car accelerates thorough the gears, normally, can make me smile bigger than if it was a supercharged Hellcat I was in. NOT having to endure the "dealer-gouging" availability charges to own a Hellcat, either!
In ONE respect, driving a forward look car is not too different from driving a similar year Imperial, back then or since. EXCLUSIVITY! Many with "money" (or a good banker) can own a HELLCAT, not fully understanding all of the complexity that can happen after the factory warranty goes away, in the process. To me, it took a different breed of person to own and appreciate a 300 Letter Car, then and now. Plus APPRECIATE it for what it was and IS. From a time when the only other car which might come close was a Corvette.
Hopefully, these things will work themselves out before any of the existing cars degrade very much, having been restored 60 years ago.
Enjoy!
CBODY67
