Three Hundred Terror - 1966 Chrysler 300

Don't get us wrong. We like big-bore Mopars just as much as most people, possibly including you. Trouble is, too many people who like powerful products from Chrysler Corporation have developed tunnel vision and don't easily realize that they're not limited to Hemi-powered B-or E-bodies. It's a condition abetted by too many magazine articles and covers raining hosannas on said muscle cars, over and over and over again.

It doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to pony up the price of a nice pad in Palo Alto to enjoy real clenched-fist power in a Chrysler product. It doesn't even have to be in a compact or mid-sized package. You can instead opt for a full-size Chrysler (or Dodge, or Plymouth) from the second half of the Sixties, when you could truly have your cake and eat it too: gobs of room, comfort and punch, all in one smart-looking package.

Take 1966, which was a watershed year at Chrysler dealers in at least one respect: For the first time, Chrysler offered a 300 hardtop without the "Letter" that had signified each succeeding year of production since the Hemi-powered C-300 was introduced for 1955. The last V-8 Letter Car was the 1965 Chrysler 300L, and Chrysler had actually been offering Letter and non-letter 300s as separate models since 1963. In 1965, Chrysler sold 27,678 300s all body styles, compared to just 2,405 300L hardtops and 440 convertibles.

That likely convinced the bosses that dropping the letter entirely for 1966 was no big deal. It wasn't--sales of 300s leaped to 49,598. The letter wouldn't return until 2000, when the front-drive, V-6 Chrysler 300M first appeared.

Those 1966 300s included 24,103 hardtops, the line's most popular body style. Gordon Foster and his wife, Sherry, own a remarkably well-preserved, low-mileage example of the 300 done up in perfectly named Scorch Red below the beltline, with a white-painted steel roof. It's the culmination of his decades of fascination with large Chrysler products, which began when he sold De Sotos and Plymouths in 1960 before starting a career with the Wickes Lumber Co.

"In 1966, we ordered a brand-new Plymouth Sport Fury optioned just the way we wanted it. It was Flame Red with a white top and a black-and-white interior, and ever since I got rid of it, I've been trying to find another, especially with the same interior," Gordon said. "The Chrysler has the same lines as the Plymouth, the same colors inside; and when I saw this one, I just about fell over."

This generation of full-size Chrysler styling, which first appeared in 1965, was the direct result of a lot of other people falling over when they got a look at what preceded it. Those were the wildly sculpted 1963 and '64 Chryslers whose design had been supervised by the eccentric Virgil Exner, which left Chrysler sales buried in 11th place and led to Exner's exit, with Ford styling veteran Elwood Engel hired in desperation as his replacement.

"Exner went basically because his ideas were just too far out in left field," was Gordon's assessment. "The bean counters at Chrysler finally realized that if they wanted to get to number three like they wanted, they weren't going to do it with these bizarre-looking cars."

The full-size Chryslers were one of Engel's first projects, and their crisper, more orderly looks caused sales to jump 55 percent in 1965. Two of the 300L's more memorable elements were the standard 413-cu.in. wedge V-8 with a Single Carter 3880S four-barrel and 360hp, and a little plastic "L" in the grille that lit up when the headlamps were on. Both would be gone when 1965 ended, but sales would be up 12 percent.

Gordon's 1966 300 represents a refinement of Engel's themes. The sheetmetal's minor revisions gave it a little edgier, but still fresh, appearance. In 1966, the 300 was fitted with a slightly longer hood. It also received one-year only roof treatment that Gordon maintains was copied from the 1963-1/2 fastback Ford Galaxie's. It also borrowed the rear quarter panels from the 1965 New Yorker so it could be fitted with wraparound tiallamps, and two decorative finned pieces were inset into recesses in the front-fender sheetmetal.

"It really was quite a unique car despite the fact that it had no letter," Gordon said. "I never did find out if the windshield is interchangeable with other 1 966 Chrysler models."

What was interchangeable was a new version of the vaunted wedge V-8 that powered the 300 series. Since 1959, the Letter 300s' exclusive engine had been the 413-cu.in.V-8, although by 1965, the vaunted twin-carburetor, cross-ram induction system was off the option list. The basic 383-cu.in. wedge had, itself, been around since 1959, although it took Chrysler two years to adopt the short-deck B-series version of the engine, with a larger 4.25-inch bore that was originally intended for Dodge and De Soto use, as its own. The marriage had legs, with the B-series 383-inch big-block hanging on in full-size Chryslers until 1 971.

In 1966, Chrysler offered two 383s, the base Newport engine with a 9.2:1 compression ratio and 270hp, and the 300's powerplant topped with the Carter AFB 41 30-S four-barrel, its compression bumped to 10.1 and rated at 325hp, which may have deadened some of the purists' wailings that the non-letter car wasn't worthy of the 300 badge--which, naturally, stood for 300 horsepower.

Gordon has owned 25 to 30 collector cars of various types as an adult, and dabbled in selling them to make a few bucks. He was looking for one last score, a full-size luxury Mopar with a big engine, a car that, as he put it, "was enough to keep me busy and broke for the rest of my life." After some searching, he learned of a 1966 300 a couple of hours west of him, outside St. Louis. He grabbed a local car-collector pal, and they headed off to check it out.

The 300 had enjoyed loving treatment, at least for part of its life. It was originally sold new to an elderly retiree from St. Louis, who didn't use it daily, and had put only 8,000 miles on it before he became ill in 1979 and was unable to drive any more. He died the next year, and his relatives, Gordon related, "didn't want the car. They put it into deep storage in a warehouse for 1 0 years, covered it up, and put some kind of grease on the bumpers to preserve the chrome."

In 1990, the car's second owner acquired it through an estate sale; removing the cover, he found the original paint filthy and thoroughly scratched, as the warehouse operators had been using the

300 as shelving for cartons. He was nonetheless taken with its completeness, originality and otherwise impressive condition, including the black-and-white upholstery. He refinished the car at a local body shop, thoroughly cleaned it and had the engine compartment detailed. He'd only put another 4,000 miles on it when Gordon and his friend showed up.

"It was beautifully painted; I looked and looked at it and I couldn't find a single flaw," he said. "I only know that the paint was basecoat with clearcoat, and I knew I had to have the car. My buddy hates Chryslers, but even he said that if he was going to buy a Chrysler, this would be the one. I had to sell two cars to pay for it--a 1956 Lincoln Capri, one of 4,500 built, and a 1 948 Nash with 30,000 original miles and a repaint."

Gordon has done virtually nothing to the 300 since he acquired it. The second owner had it retrofitted with 11,2-inch dual exhausts--for some reason, the stock 300 only came with a single exhaust. Gordon went a step further by tipping them with Flowmaster low-restriction mufflers. Option-wise, it's pretty well equipped as 300s from 1966 go, except for the optional center console and floor shift. The three-speed TorqueFlite automatic is, controlled from the steering column. The 300 was delivered with Goodyear bias-ply whitewalls, power steering, power drum brakes, AM radio, an interior light package, turn indicators atop the front fenders and a tissue dispenser built into the glove compartment. The original spare tire has never been on the ground. One issue Gordon does have with the car, ergonomically speaking, is its huge semicircular speedometer cluster, about 14 inches wide, which essentially wraps around the top of the steering column.

"It covers basically the entire spectrum in front of you, and under the speedometer there's a little gauge for fuel, and toward the passenger side, an ammeter," he explained. In the cluster, there's just a little green light that says "cold" when you first start it and goes out as the engine gets progressively warmer, and as you keep driving you just hope the red one (overheating) doesn't come on. I'd much rather have an actual temperature gauge. Warning lights do burn out, and when it's too late, it's too late."

With the higher-compression 383, and a hair under two tons of heft, the 300 is fully capable of bringing the heat. Gordon has never run his 300 down the quarter-mile, but has some great anecdotal evidence of its strengths, and shortcomings, depending on the terrain it's attacking.

"In terms of speed, it's pretty awesome. It's not a ground-pounder, but boy, it will go, especially if you're doing 55 or 60 mph and get it down into passing gear," he said. "One time, I was driving along on this long, straight road where I could see about three miles ahead of me, and this nitwit pulls up behind me in a Chevy Lumina and just sits there, right on my bumper. I let him go, and I could see that it was one of the hot Luminas because it had the little dual exhausts on each side. I waited 'til he was about a quarter-mile ahead and just nailed it, kicked it down, and those other two barrels opened up. I was on him in a heartbeat and went around him like he was tied to a tree, doing at least 90."

When the road starts to get sinuous and undulates, sort of like the top strand on a plate of overcooked Ronzoni linguine, the 300 does have one built-in handicap, its BF Goodrich Silvertown bias-ply whitewalls. Underneath, it also has aftermarket Monroe Pleasurizer hydraulic shocks, which were probably installed as replacements by the original owner back in the Seventies.

"I would like to put radials on it, mounted on a set of the Chrysler wire wheels, which would really set it off, but I have to save my pennies now that I'm retired," he said. "There are two good words here, torsion bars. They really help in cornering and help with anti-dive. In terms of body lean, there's virtually none, but the bias tires just don't grip. There's a road that goes to Turkey Run State Park with about 13 miles of bad curves, and if you get into one even a little too fast, you've really got to crank on the steering. But it stops excellently. I never tried to lock the brakes up, but I probably could."

For the most part, Gordon sticks fairly close to his home in west-central Indiana with the 300, preferring not to run up its impressively low odometer reading too drastically. But when he does hit a show or a cruise night, the Chrysler is on the street.

"I just don't like trailering cars," he said. "If you can't drive a car you're collecting, how are you supposed to enjoy it?"

Owner's View

GordonFoster of Hilisboro, Indiana, insists he's a Ford guy, or at least he was in his earlier years, but you'd be hard put to tell it by theway he gets woozy over his and his wife's 1966 Chrysler 300.

"I don!t think they could even spell ergonomics backthen, but this car is very roomy and comfortable, and it's everythingi ever hopedit would be. I was at a meet and I picked up an extremely rare brochure, a Chrysler brochure on traUering, and every single car in it is a red 66 300 like mine.

"The only really noticeable quality issue I have is the attachment of the rain gutters to the top, and the top to the body. There are several little places where you ~an see the welding wasn't. great;. it's wavy. I would have straightened it out, but I was so impressed with the originality of the car that I left it that way. 1 got invited to a concours with Duesenbetgs, Cords, Packards, the most gorgeOus cars you could think of, and I won first in my class. I was thrilled.

"Can you tell that I'm proud of my car?" --Jim Donnelly