Istorie
The car shown in the Collection is a CQ Series Imperial Convertible, but the engine beneath is a "Red Head" version, which means the cars has borrowed the more powerful Custom Imperial engine. The car is one of a mere five known to exist after a total production of nine 1933 Imperials powered by the Red Head Straight Eight engine.
Full description
The Chrysler Imperial, introduced in 1926, was the company's top of the range vehicle for much of its history. Models were produced with the Chrysler name until 1954, and again from 1990 to 1993. The company positioned the cars as a prestige marque to rival Cadillac.
In 1931, the Chrysler Imperial was redesigned. The car received a new engine, a 384.84 cubic inch (6309 cc). Marketing materials for this generation of Imperial referred to the car as the "Imperial 8", in reference to the new in-line 8-cylinder engine. The engine would be found in many other Chrysler vehicles.
In 1932 and 1933, Chrysler offered two variants of its model: the standard Imperial and the Custom Imperial. There weren't any engine differences between the two in 1932, but 1933 - the last year before the launch of the brand new modern Imperial Airflow - brought a totally different Chrysler philosophy.
The standard 1932 Chrysler Imperial (CQ Series) was an all new, smaller car which was downsized about nine inches from comparable 1932 models. Also, it had a smaller straight 8 engine: a a 298,65 cubic inches unit producing 108 HP.
On the other hand, the 1932 Custom Imperial (CL Series) was the richest Chrysler ever. As usual, the factory catalogues semi-custom long hood bodies were produced by LeBaron and only six chassis were supplied to custom coachbuilders. Standard Custom Imperial features included Delco Ramy ingnition, Lockheed hydraulic brakes, "Floating Power" technology, rust proof fenders, automatic heat control and safety glass thorughout. The Custom Imperial kept the 384.84 cubic inch straight 8 engine from the 1932 version: 135 HP at 3200 rpm.
The car shown in the collection is a CQ Series Imperial Convertible, but the engine beneath is a "Red Head" version, which means the cars has borrowed the more powerful Custom Imperial engine. The car is one of a mere five known to exist after a total production of nine 1933 Imperials powered by the Red Head Straight Eight engine.
This car has covered 45,256 miles (approx. 72,800 km).
