--- David Homstad <Dhomstad@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> My guess is that Dodge was looking for an upscale
> name series that portrayed elegance by referring
> to royalty (thus quality) and the Age of Chivalry.
> Hence Coronet, Royal, Regal, and Lancer. Custom
> Royal was then an upscale of the Royal. Lancer
> compared the excitement of a hard top to a
> charging knight.
Pretty close to what I was going to reply if nobody
else chimed in. (This might be the first case of
another Chrysler make having a model name first, there
having been a Chrysler Royal from the mid-'30s to
1950, and again in Australia from '57-'64.) There was
also the export Plymouth clone called the Dodge
Kingsway, which actually predated the later royal
references by a number of years.
A little extra Dodge trivia from a few years earlier;
when I was in high school, there was this babe a year
ahead of me whose family had a '50 Meadowbrook, and
knowing I was into MoPars, she asked me if I had any
idea why they would call a car something so
non-automotive. I wish I'd known this story at the
time, I might've impressed her and who knows how
different my life might've been? Anyway, "Meadow
Brook" was the name of the mansion belonging to one of
the Dodge brothers' widows. So, next time you hear a
Ford guy explain the origins of the Fairlane name, you
can remind him that, once again, Chrysler did that
first...
Anyone besides me remember Bruce McCall's satirical
brochure for the '58 Bulgemobiies in the National
Lampoon? As we know, all the DeSoto V8 model names
(except Adventurer) started in "Fire-", and as many of
us know, all the Chevy wagon names in '59-'60 (except
Nomad) ended in "-wood". Hence the station wagon
version of the '58 Bulgemobile, called the "Firewood"!
=====
Mike Sealey, San Francisco CA
'57 Plymouth Sport Suburban
'64 Chrysler 300-K 2dr Hardtop
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