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SEMA 2016: In A Sea Of Overkill Show Cars, This 1961 Chrysler Stands Out From The Crowd!


SEMA 2016: In A Sea Of Overkill Show Cars, This 1961 Chrysler Stands Out From The Crowd!

Outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center, you will find some of the really wild cars…wild paints that you shouldn’t look at directly during full sun, wheels that have to be one-off customs, engines that are as pretty as they are powerful. Combine that with the noise from the driving events nearby and the sounds of thousands of people taking it all in, and the outside is almost more insane than the showcase halls. But I go outside for one reason: every year I’ve gone to the show, without fail, there is usually a late-1950s car parked out front that blows my doors clean off. For my last two visits, both cars were 1957 Buicks, and I was wondering if I’d see another sweep-spear beauty waiting for me. I didn’t find a Buick, but I was not disappointed to see this 1961 Chrysler parked on the sidewalk.

sema-2016-tues_2And oh, am I digging this beauty. The gray-blue paint, the fat whitewalls, the wheels…everything about this Mopar encourages you to find an empty highway and open ‘er up. From the slanted headlights to the trunk, which no longer had the “toilet seat” spare tire motif embossed into it, the car proudly boasts it’s upscale, suburban showboat heritage proudly.sema-2016-tues_3

It’s clean, it’s subtle (even before being parked next to trucks on monster wheels) and while we aren’t sure if it’s a 300G or not (we suspect it’s a Newport, but we don’t know for certain since the only visible badges are “Chrysler” scripts) back in the early 1960s Chrysler Corporation had plenty of underhood grunt for the discerning gentlemen in the form of early big-blocks that could come factory-rated as high as 400 horsepower with the aid of ram-tube intakes.

Hell, with the way this boulevard cruiser looks, we wouldn’t give a damn if it had a Slant Six under the hood. Just give us the keys and let us cruise it up and down the strip one time, and we will leave Las Vegas happy men. Will that happen? Not if the owner is smart. But be honest…you’d want the same, right?

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4 thoughts on “SEMA 2016: In A Sea Of Overkill Show Cars, This 1961 Chrysler Stands Out From The Crowd!

  1. Mopar or No Car

    Sure looks like a Newport to me. Not all Chryslers got the toilet seat trunk lid, so this could very well be original. What you should be remarking on is the “mobile director” seat configuration. AFAIK this was only a factory option in ’67 Imperial Crown Coupes. This looks like custom work, and it’s very good.

  2. Bill Adams

    The Newport was the shorter wheelbase Chrysler and the New Yorker is on the longer wheelbase as was the 300G. Was all in the nose. So this is either a New Yorker or Saratoga. The toilet seat deck lid was a ’60 option, not ’61. The car is indeed stunning.

  3. Bill Adams

    Upon even further reflection, the model with the shorter wheelbase would have been a Windsor and not a Newport, that was a 1962 model

  4. Ian Smale

    The car is likely a 1961 Newport. In 1961 the US built Newport and Windsors were on the shorter 122″ wheelbase while the New Yorker and 300-G were on the 126″ wheelbase. The “Flight-Sweep” deck lid, AKA toilet seat was still available as an option in 1961 but significantly less of the 61 models were equipped with it than in 1960. This is the short wheelbase car, and being so, could also be a Windsor, and, if so, the “Windsor” script on the rear flanks has been removed. Otherwise the 2 models were identical other than the rear script and an upgraded interior on the Windsor, which had moved up a notch in 1961. The interior in this car of course has been completely customized to resemble the Mobile Director option on the 1967 Imperial. There was no US built Saratoga in 1961, but the name survived in Canada until at least 1964 and remained the mid priced model there.

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