RE: [Chrysler300] Re: Breaking news...

[<john_nowosacki@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chrysler Letter cars were always many things to many people, but one thing is almost universally accepted-
they were the most powerful, best-performing Chrysler in the line-up for any given model year.  By the 57-61 model years, they could also be optioned to be the most luxurious, too. (A/C, power windows, seats, rear deffogers, signal seeking radios, automatic lighting and day/night mirrors, power door locks, auto-pilot cruise control, etc.)
The 2005 Hemi C (and even the 6-banger fwd 300M) certainly are/were the most powerful, best-performing, and most luxurious Chryslers in their given years in the Chrysler line-up.
I sincerely hope that someone (hopefully even me, if I can manage it) buys a fully-loaded Chrysler 300 Hemi-C SRT-8 with all the toys, all wheel drive, and 425 hp, and takes very good care of it for a very long time, so that it can be a nicely preserved specimen to be enjoyed by future generations of car enthusiasts.  If no one had done that with our cars, I wouldn't own a 58,000 original mile G convertible today.  I know and have seen even better preserved, lower mile, letter cars than my G,  and I hope to either preserve (or see someone else preserve) a 2006 425hp 'Mastadon of Muscle'.

As I approach my 50th year (Yes, I was born the same year as the 300 model name) and look back on why I started collecting 'neat old cars' 30 or so years ago, it was because between about 1972 and somewhere in the mid-to-late 90's, cars coming out of Detroit were pretty awful.  Smog motors, big ugly bumpers, vinyl and plastic interiors, 8-track players, 'plastic chrome', 85 mph speedometers, etc.  If you were old enough to remember big, powerful, luxury cars of the 50's and 60's, or muscle cars of the 60's and very early 70-71, you considered those years to be "the golden age" of the automobile.

I contend that we are now currently living in the real (or at least next) "golden age".  Almost every make of automobile on the planet has a 300hp version of something in their line up, which is why the SRT-8 had to be introduced to compete with the Cadillac DTS.
The thought of an affordable 425hp luxury car in 2006 is every bit as radical as a 300hp showroom stock C300 was in 1955.

No one knows for sure, but I don't think it's out of the question to think that 30 or 40 years from now, at some cruise night in the future, people will walk by a 2006 SRT-8 and say, "Wow, they sure don't build them like they used to."
If I'm still here in 30 or 40 years, I'd like to think that I'll still have my G convertible, AND a nice SRT-8 sitting next to it in the garage.  
300ly,
John

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Reed [mailto:mrreed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, November 19, 2004 6:29 AM
To: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Chrysler300] Re: Breaking news...




Here's a view on the new 300s from a different perspective. To 
explain "different perspective":
-- I've only owned one Chrysler product in my 51 years of driving -- 
my 300F
-- I've had a healthy respect for Chrysler products for most of 
those 51 years
-- Other than the "F" I've never owned an American auto other than 
GM products

The latter was greatly the result, I'm sure, of my intense 
involvement in stock-class drag racing beginning in '57. If you 
wanted to win in nearly any class you owned a Chevy or Pontiac. 
After the drag racing years were over, the GM "habit" stuck.

That said, my comments on the new 300:
-- I think it has a stunning appearance - hairy-looking - 
distinctive. 
-- The grill design is great, but is just a bit too big. It does 
seem somewhat out of proportion to the overall design -- (unlike the 
massive grills of the letter 300s).

There is an aura that has surrounded the word "Hemi" for some 40+ 
years, the very mention of which seems to quicken the pulse of 
Chrysler aficionados, raising their blood pressure, causing 
uncontrollable drooling, etc. And I don't blame Chrysler one bit for 
capitalizing on it. But... and said knowing my remark will be 
controversial... my opinion is that it is just that.... an aura. I've 
never found any evidence that hemispherical combustion chambers 
added more than a few horses to an engine -- less than 5%, probably 
much less. But the aura is there, and the word "Hemi" has sold a lot 
of cars for Chrysler, and now will continue to do so.

In the meantime, I dearly love my wedge-head (and am not at all 
saddened by its lack of a "Hemi"), and the car that encompasses it.







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