At the end of the 1970s, the Big Three were all moving towards smaller, lighter machines. Or, at least, that’s how the story goes. GM actually did move to smaller, lighter machines, starting with the full-size cars and moving downwards from there. Henry Ford II would only go kicking and screaming, and only after he saw the success of GM…ads from the later 1970s showcased the full-size girth of cars like the LTD II, Thunderbird and LTD. Even AMC, the perpetual fourth-place finisher, bowed out at the end of 1978 with no real replacement in sight. But at Chrysler, things were a bit more convoluted. The Lynn Townsend era had seen many, many screwups in management…the Sales Banks, the 1974 C-bodies that couldn’t have come at a worse time, a strict “no small Chrysler” policy that blew up in their faces when the Cordoba (yes, it was a small Chrysler compared to a New Yorker) proved to be a sales blowout that the company had desperately needed, and of course the problematic quality control gripes had eroded Chrysler’s reputation. Something had to be done, and for 1978, something was done. The B-body platform was updated to replace the departed C-body cars. Shorter than the 1977 Royal Monaco by five inches, narrower by three inches, and lighter by almost half a ton, the Dodge St. Regis (and it’s platform mates Chrysler Newport and Plymouth Gran Fury) should’ve worked in the market.
Unfortunately for Chrysler, their luck just straight-up sucked. The second gas crisis came in 1979, the car was bigger than the B-body GM or the new-for-1979 Panther platform over at Ford, the styling echoed the Buick LeSabre just a little too much, the old suspension design showed through, the big-block cop cars had gone so fleet sales wound up going to hell, and then there was the quality control issues. Remember, this is just before Chrysler nearly slips under the waves…what quality control? While police units who used the cars praised handling and had positive things to say about the 360-powered cars, when things are falling off, breaking, or worse, showing up on new cars not put on properly, the damage was considered done. The St. Regis today is an exceptionally rare sight and comes in two flavors: babied or absolutely and utterly trashed. There is no in-between. 
If you are going to go for the ultimate unloved unicorn, you go for the best. In this case, it’s a 360-powered St. Regis worked up to represent a Michigan State Police car. It wasn’t an MSP car originally, but it is a real police spec machine, originally hailing from Virginia. The 360 has been beefed up to a proper level and the car barks out through headers into Flowmasters. The neat clear-lens headlight covers are gone (most police departments ditched them) but everything else about this begs for a road trip. And maybe some donuts somewhere out of sight…and we don’t mean Dunkin.
Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a St. Regis that nice. I’m actually using some disc brake parts from a St. Regis on my ’66 Dart.
Had one ,115 mph top end but handled great, took a tremendous beating and hung together quite well..
My buddy had an ex Town of Avon Gran Fury, it was pretty beat when he got it. For reasons we never diagnosed it couldnt get out of it’s own way, but handled like a go cart..fun car, and new enough that people got out of your way in a hurry…or slowed down to a miserable fear soaked pace..
Where are the blinkers? They are supposed to be down in the bumpers?