THE BEAUTIFUL
BRUTE!
I was pretty much like
any other kid born lucky enough to sort out his teenage years in the
1950s. We were fascinated with automobiles, and the cars of that age
were going through an amazing metamorphosis of re-design that was
exciting and fantastic - almost an unbelievable gift. Designers and
engineers were collaborating to re-imagine the bulbous styling and
wallowing performance of the '40s cars, and transform them in a
rocket-inspired flurry that took us by surprise in year-after-year
revelations.
We could hardly wait for
each new year's car designs to be unveiled at the local dealerships.
And the dealers themselves did what they could to encourage this
frenzy by covering up the new models every autumn as they arrived,
and keeping them behind whitewashed showroom windows until the
official announcement date. We would literally count down the days to
the new-model car introductions, and even try to peek through the
shop windows of the dealerships beforehand to catch just a glimpse.
It was during this period
that Chrysler built its limited edition offering (from 1955 through
1965) of its Chrysler 300 "Letter Car" series - with the
early ones being designed by the talented Virgil Exner. These cars
were not actually the beginning of what later became known as muscle
cars, with their big engines in intermediate bodies; but they were
the very first over-the-top high horsepower cars to be offered as
stock in any manufacturer's showrooms.
As a kid I was always
fascinated by anything mechanical, so I took a few of my hard-earned
paper route dollars and spent them on a subscription to Mechanix
Illustrated. Tom McCahill was the magazine's new-car tester at that
time. He was a big goofy guy and he loved to throw the superlatives
around in describing the looks and the handling of every car he
squeezed into. I remember well that his standard of acceptability for
trunk space was always whether or not he could fit into it. The
bigger, the better.
Well nothing got this
teenage boy's heart pumping (almost nothing anyway) like the May 1957
issue where Ol' Tom test drove the '57 Chrysler 300C.
He described it
as an absolutely gorgeous car, and you could just tell by its huge
tailfins that it could fly.
The Chrysler 300C was a factory-built hot
rod that came with a 392 c.i. hemi engine that Chrysler had tricked
out with two Carter four-barrels, solid lifters, a race-grind cam,
and a whole bunch of other neat upgrades to pound out 375 horses in
stock form! People called it the Banker's Hot Rod. It was big, and
fancy, and fast. Tom raved about what an absolute machine it was, and
claimed - with a bit of puffery - that it would do 150 MPH. I knew
right then that it was all I could ever want in a car!
I totally dog-eared that
May issue of Mechanix Illustrated reading about the 300C over and
over, and I dreamed that someday I might actually be able to buy one.
As the following years went by I never lost my fascination with the
Chrysler "Letter Cars". So in September of 1962 I knew a
stroke of luck was just meant to be mine when I was looking to buy my
first car, and I saw a used Gauguin Red 300C for sale about 25 miles
from home in Grand Rapids, I couldn't wait to drain my savings
account of the $850 it took to buy it off the seller's front lawn.
That was nearly every dollar I had, but I happily agreed to trade it
for the most fantastic car in the world.
On the Friday evening I
picked the car up, I had planned a date with Judy, the gal who would
later become my wife. What a night that was going be. A date with a
gorgeous girl - and in the car of my dreams. There was simply no way
you could embody great luck in a better combination than that!
Well, unfortunately that
thrill lasted all of 20 minutes. As I was driving my awesome, newly
acquired ride to pick up my girlfriend, I stepped it down to pass
another car. I had downshifted to second gear, and I swear I hadn't
even reached 75 miles an hour, when that hemi engine - that Chrysler
work of art - blew to smithereens in a humongous cloud of blue smoke.
I was devastated as I let
it roll to the shoulder of the road. I got out and walked, numb in
disbelief, to a nearby farmhouse to phone a buddy. I asked him to
grab a tow rope, pick up my girl, and come help me out. He arrived
after what seemed like an eternity, and we dragged the car to my
Dad's house. Then we spent the evening on a double date in my buddy's
car with him and his girlfriend. I tried to buck up and enjoy the
evening somehow, but I'm pretty sure I was lousy company.
Over the next couple of
months, and with the generous help of a mechanic friend of my Dad's,
we were able to literally patch the engine back together.
We took
five pounds of parts out of the oil pan, welded a 4X4 patch over a
hole in the oil pan, sleeved two cylinders, replaced two pistons and
four bent valves, and reground the crankshaft. The wholesale cost of
the parts alone for that hemi was $481 - an amount that probably
would have bought a Chevy 283 long block from Sears Roebuck at the
time. And for all this, the mechanic "put me on the cuff"
and let me work the bill down by pumping gas for him on Saturdays for
several months. You can believe I was a grateful and loyal customer
of his shop for many decades after that. It's 54 years so far.
Judy and I loved that car
and we had a lot of fun dating in it for a too-short year and a half.
Even back in that day it drew a lot of attention and respect on the
local cruise circuit because nobody else owned one anywhere around us
in West Michigan. On a deserted road it would take a legendary 409
Chevy to show us a back bumper in the quarter mile. But if it went
beyond that, the 300C was off in the sunset.
I'm still not sure whether
the attraction was me or the car that tipped the deal, but my girl
agreed to marry me in 1964.
Unfortunately we were both still in
school at the time, so that meant we could either afford to keep the
Chrysler or get married - but not both. Back in those days it was not
at all surprising that a seven-year-old car was ready for paint,
chrome, tires, exhaust, brakes and tires - all at the same time. I
loved that 10 MPG Chrysler, but not as much as I loved her. We simply
could not afford it, and the car would have to go.
I advertised the 300C in
Hot Rod magazine in the spring of '64, and a fellow by the name of
Fred Luther from Muskegon came to see the car and bought it from me
for $650. When he came to pick it up a couple of days later, it
surprised me that he arrived in a rusted-out and raggedy white '57
300C, and just for chuckles he let me thrash that car for a few miles
out in the pucklebrush before he and his son drove off with my
Gauguin Red car back to his home in Muskegon. The vivid memory of
that bittersweet day has never left me.
We bought a Valiant, we
got married, we had kids, we changed jobs a few times, we moved
around, and life was wonderful; but we never forgot the fantastic
300C we had dated in. I never even saw one on the road in the
following years, but I did often dream that we might be able to buy
one some day again - maybe even in Gauguin Red like our old one was.
So I joined the Chrysler 300 Club International in the late '70s with
the hope that someone there could help me find one.
Then in 1981 something
strange happened. An acquaintance of mine by the name of Bill
mentioned that he had a good friend, Dave, who was really into these
Chrysler 300 Letter Cars and owned at least a dozen of them. He
doubted Dave had my old car, but thought he might be able to help me
find one. Well I immediately called Dave and chatted for a while
about his collection of 300s. Then he said he had heard of me before,
and also of Fred Luther in Muskegon. Then Dave dropped this bombshell
- as far as he knew Fred still had the very car he had bought from me
some 17 years earlier! Wow!
After thanking Dave
profusely for coming up with Fred's name and information about our
very own 300C after all these years, I could hardly wait to phone
Fred in the hope that I could persuade him to sell it back to me.
As
luck would have it, Fred was still in the phone book and I called
him. He remembered buying the car from me, and we talked for about 20
minutes about what a great car that was. He told me that he had
scrapped out the raggedy white 300C, and that he had swapped its
engine into my Gaugin Red car instead of the patch job engine it had.
Now it was time for me to
move in with my pitch. I said that I could tell that he probably
loved that car too much to part with it, but it would sure mean a lot
to me if I could just drive up and visit it for old times' sake.
"Well," he said, "I'm sorry if I didn't make myself
clear. I don't have the car anymore. I sold it just 3 months ago to a
young fellow near Cleveland by the name of Vic."
Three months? I missed it
by three lousy months? Aw, man, after all this my good luck had
finally run its course, and I had barely missed getting our dating
car back. Well, at least Fred offered the phone number for Vic, and I
called him. "Vic," I said, "You have my old dating
car, and I absolutely have to have it back. Name your price."
"Sorry," said Vic, "I love the car and I'll never sell
it under any condition.
So find yourself another one." I was
convinced he meant it.
So over the next couple of
years I kept looking for another 300C, but I would also phone Vic
every few months to ask him to sell me "my car". The answer
was always the same. "I told you I am keeping it, so you might
as well quit bothering me. Go find another one." But on an
October afternoon in 1983, I got a strange call from the Chrysler 300
Club president. He said Vic had just called an ad in to the club
publication to sell our car. And didn't I want it?
Within moments I was on
the phone with Vic. He apologized for not calling me first, and gave
me the price he was asking. I told him the deal was sealed at his
price, and then I asked him what so suddenly changed his mind. He
said he was getting divorced and his wife had a pretty mean streak in
her. "Last week she took a shot at me with a .45", he said,
"but she missed. This week she told me she is going to burn down
the garage with the Chrysler in it, and I believe she will. So if you
really want that car, you'd better get here tomorrow before she
torches it."
I grabbed a flight to
Cleveland the very next morning, and Vic picked me up at the airport
at 8 am. We quickly drove out to where he kept the 300C, and we
wasted no time barreling out of that planned demolition site. Then we
went over to Vic's house where we traded cash for title, and I hit
the highway for home in West Michigan. The day was drizzly and
overcast for the entire drive home, but it was one of the proudest,
most beautiful days in memory to me. And what a thrill it was to pull
into our driveway 5 hours later and show it off to my wife - and to
my two teenagers!
Over the next 26 years we
would occasionally get the car out for a car show or a local parade,
but mostly it was just mothballed and waiting for me to give it the
full restoration it needed so badly.
Finally in 2009 I lifted the
hood one day and thought, "I'll bet it would look better under
here if I spent maybe $40 and painted the inner fenders." I
could tell you the whole story of what happened from there, but it
would be all too familiar.
With the help of a body
shop, we burrowed down until we ran out of bad stuff to fix. We
didn't stop until all that was left was a rolling frame. Then I built
the car back up, piece by meticulously restored piece, until the
whole car was fresh and essentially as brand new. Nearly two years
after we started I worked right through an entire night to finish it
up for the deadline of entering it in a car show at 9am. Five hours
later it took home a blue ribbon. It's looking and driving better now
than any day since it rode off the Chrysler Jefferson Avenue plant
production line.
Since then we've put on
several thousand miles driving to Chrysler 300 Club meets, and other
car shows and cruises, and it thrills us every time. We know we are
one of very few couples who have the privilege of owning the very
same car they dated in after so many years. And to have it be such a
rare and special one as our 1957 Chrysler 300C is beyond words to
describe.
This spring (May 18-22)
Judy and I are going to host the Chrysler 300 Club International meet right
here in Holland, Michigan. We hope to have about three dozen of the
Chrysler 300 Letter Cars - the "Beautiful Brutes" -
rumbling into town for socializing, cruises, and sightseeing in one
of the most attractive and friendly places in the country. Needless
to say, our 300C will be the featured car.
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