Quote:
Originally Posted by MS Fowler
I have a copy of the Motor Trend, Car of the Year issue from 1964 in which they gave the COTY award to the entire Ford line. I have it becasue it has a road test of my first car--exact except for the color--the '64 Sprint convertible, 260V8, 4 speed.
Anyway, there is also a road test of a Chrysler Imperial. Accompanying that road test is one of the most impressive pictures I have seen--a '64 Imperial cresting a small hill with all four wheels off the ground!
How much energy did that require?
What happened after the car hit the ground?
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Absolutely nothing. My father once owned a 1964 Chrysler Imperial, built at a time when the Imperial was a separate line from other full-size Chrysler products, and not a content-enhanced New Yorker, which was the case post-1966. The '64 was an absolute Sherman Tank of a car, built body-on-frame to a much more substantial structural standard than contemporary Cadillacs and Lincolns. One day in 1971, my father had parked this car curbside at a restaurant. Suddenly, a 1963 Chevy Impala sedan comes out of nowhere and smashes into the back end of the Imperial. The occupants of the Chevy were a husband and wife who were engaged in a fight at the time, thus the accident. Enraged, hubby backs the Impala up and rams the Imperial again. Twice. The Impala finally dies, the police drop by, etc. The Impala left the scene by wrecker, the Imperial started on the first try and was driven home without further incident. Damage was limited to a battered rear bumper and rear quarter panel. Oh, um, and a taillight was broken.
Imperials of this era were prized contestants on the demolition derby circuit.