Crunching the 1955 Numbers

Just as we are crunching numbers for the first 300, Chrysler says the 300 model in 2023 will be the last. The beginning and the end of a fine motorcar.

The file for 1955 has 1724 records. Published sources say 1725 so we are already off by one. With four cars in the file missing data, the count is 1720. That is good enough for our purposes.

68% of the 55 production (1,173 cars) have paint code 30 Platinum. 16% (289 cars) were paint code 01 black and 14% (248 cars) were paint code 25 Tango Red. There were eight special paint cars; one car in code 11, Porcelain Green (this car survives), one in code 99 (this car survives), 2 cars in code 13, Jade Green (one survives), one in code 17, Embassy Grey (not known to survive), one car in code 20, Canyon Tan (not known to survive), and two have code 21 (unknown paint and not known to survive). Two cars have special trim code 99.

There were 81 cars with transmission code “3”; Powerflite without power steering. Most of the 55s (1,638) were transmission code “8”; Powerflite with power steering.

There was one car with transmission code “1”, manual transmission. It was a late production car (June 7, 1955) and was built for Carl Kiekhaefer.

The 55 was available with a few rear axle ratios. 36 cars came with gear “1”, 1,588 cars with gear “2”, 28 cars with gear “4”, 18 cars with gear “5”, 1 car with gear “6”, 2 cars with gear “7” (both Kiekhaefer), 44 cars with gear “8”. 3 cars have no code.

467 cars got the optional electric clock.
965 cars had radio code 518; Music Master radio and antenna with rear speaker.
236 cars had radios code 511; Electro Touch Tuner radio and antenna with foot control and rear speaker.
206 cars got radio code 519; Electro Touch Tuner radio and antenna with no foot control and rear speaker.
161 cars had radio code 514; Music Master radio and antenna.
20 cars had radio code 515; Electro Touch Tuner radio w/o rear speaker, w/o foot control.
17 cars had radio code 516; Electro Touch Tuner radio and antenna w/o rear speaker, with foot control.
119 cars were radio delete.
940 cars got power windows.
960 cars got 4 way power seats and one car got the 2 way power seat.
112 cars got wire wheels code 8.
1,683 cars got heater (code 4).
11 cars were built with AC (code 5).
36 cars were heater delete.
1,489 cars got Solex glass.
31 cars were exported.
One is coded 2 but not given a destination.
One to Antwerp.
One to Caribbean as personal baggage.
Four to Casablanca.
One to Havana.
One to Hawaii.
Three to La Guaria.
One to Montevideo, Uruguay.
Two were “export to New York City.”
Eleven to Paris.
One to Switzerland.
One to “unreadable.”
One called “factory delivery.”
There was one chassis exported to Ghia.

1955 production was concentrated into March, April, and May. These three months produced 90% of the total. The first car (recently restored by Mike McCandless) was built February 10, 1955 and the last car was shipped June 24th.

44 cars were built with every option. 18 cars were built that had only a heater. 10 cars were built without any options at all. Of the 1725 production, we estimate that 278 remain.