Rare Rides: A 1967 Chrysler 300 - Large and In Charge

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis

A recent edition of Buy/Drive/Burn included a Chrysler 300M from the turn of the century — a car which represented the third time Chrysler created a line of vehicles wearing “300” badges. The other day, the Internet presented the 300M’s closest ancestor, and my curiosity piqued.

And since we’re into coupes on Rare Rides lately, come along as we check out a big, bold coupe from Chrysler.

The first iteration of the 300 existed in dealer showrooms between 1955 and 1965. All of these cars were two-doors in nature, and coupe, hardtop, or convertible in styling. Known as the “letter series,” the 300s were muscle cars. Powerful and quick off the line, by 1965 the 300L version had a 413 V8 (6.8-liter).

Overlapping the letter series was the second generation of 300, which is where today’s Rare Ride comes into focus. Sensibly known as “non-letter,” the run of cars existed alongside the end of the letter series for a couple of years. Starting in 1962, non-letter cars were there to replace the aged Chrysler Windsor and Saratoga models. That’s the U.S.-market Windsor only, as Canada held onto the Windsor name through 1966 (a rebadged Newport).

Considering the success of the 300 line, Chrysler expanded its offerings. Non-letter cars were available in both two- and four-door variations, with a traditional pillared sedan, hardtop, and convertible. The company reshuffled the lineup for ’66 after the letter cars headed out to pasture. Styling was revised in ’67 to a considerable degree, as the brand headed toward what would become known as the fuselage era. The four-door sedan option went away, and customers were limited to the largest 440 V8 (7.2-liters). A three-speed automatic or four-speed manual were available, moving just under 4,400 pounds in four-door guise.

Another styling update in ’68 concealed the headlamps, and the second year of the 1967-68 version would be the last. Revised again in 1969, styling went full fuselage, as the 300 came with length. The former model was a scant 218.2 inches long, and 79.5 inches in width.

The new version shrunk to 79.1 inches wide, but extended to 224.7 inches on the same 124-inch wheelbase. Heavy stuff. The 300 line made it through the 1971 model year, when it was cancelled. Its replacement was the new personal luxury Cordoba in 1975.

Today’s Rare Ride 300 is a very clean example listed on the Providence, Rhode Island Craigslist (removed). With factory air conditioning and an excellent interior, it asked $10,000.

[Images seller]

Corey Lewis
Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

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  • Speedlaw Speedlaw on Aug 07, 2018

    Chryco has been recycling the same body forever. The glass is the same as my 67 Fury II Coupe. Interior the same, seats better. Different nose and tail clips. Same dash. Road Hugging Weight was really a thing. The dash reminds me of my Grandfathers' 1966 New Yorker.

    • BigOldChryslers BigOldChryslers on Aug 08, 2018

      Before you trash-talk you might want to do a Google image search first to refresh your memory. This body with concave sides was new for '67, and was only used for 1967-68. Not surprising that the (new for '67) fastback coupe roofline and some of the interior was the same as the Fury coupe, they were both 1967 C-bodies. Other than the roof however, no body sheetmetal was shared between the Chrysler and Fury. If you looked at a picture of a 1965-66 Chrysler dash you would see they are very different. The 65-66 Chrysler dash is much more ornate and has a beautiful arcing instrument cluster with fuel and ammeter gauges ahead of the speedometer, unlike the 67's plain horizontal ribbon style speedometer with fuel and ammeter gauges off to the side. I had to look up the dash of a '67 Fury but they don't look very similar either. The 67 Fury dash looks a lot like the 65-66 Fury dash, which I am familiar with, but more stylized.

  • WildcatMatt WildcatMatt on Aug 23, 2018

    Like many, I find '60s ChryCo offerings to be very polarizing. This one is pleasing and I like the interior. The photos leave me with a couple of questions though: 1) Is the trunk longer than the hood? 2) What's visibility like with those C-pillars? On the one hand, that seems like a lot of body work back there, but on the other hand with the angles and how low the car has to sit I guess when you're looking back at traffic you're really only looking through the top third of the windows where it's narrower?

  • Cprescott Fisker is another brand that Heir Yutz has killed.
  • Dwford Every country is allowed to have trade restrictions except the US.
  • 1995 SC Are there any mitigation systems that would have prevented this though? We had a ship hit a bridge in Jacksonville a few years back and it was basically dumb luck it didn't collapse. This looked like a direct hit.
  • Cprescott Oh, well.
  • 28-Cars-Later "The Chinese Ministry of Commerce claimed the Inflation Reduction Act is “discriminatory”"This what your mainstream social communism has wrought: a foreign power, major geopolitical rival and the #1 global industrial competitor cries "racism" when an act of Congress in any way presents a challenge - and the saddest part is there are Americans who will process this claim and agree if only in their own minds. To be clear, Wo xihuan Zhongguoren but the under 40yo PRC raised Mainlanders I've interacted with do believe they are a master race - but that's fine right?
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