For its annual fall meeting, the Tennessee Valley Region Chrysler Club celebrated 100 years of Imperial with the 2026 National Imperial Centennial Celebration. Imperial owners flocked to Chattanooga, Tennessee from near and far to celebrate and chew the fat with other fans of the illustrious marque. The 1955 Imperial limousine in the foreground dwarfs the ’80s models. This car is a monster, and a gorgeous one at that!
After the fin phase, these elegant ’60s Imperials bore the Imperial crest. Subtle changes every year make this generation fun to identify.
Floating headlights and a giant one-piece unit combining both front fenders and the leading edge of the hood stand out as classy design elements on this 1963 Imperial.
Long live the ’70s! These fuselage Imperials represented the earlier styling (1970 on the left) and later on the right (1972 or 1973?). That powder blue sedan led a geographically diverse life with many owners. Current owner Travis sports ’70s-appropriate pork chop side burns. and the rear license plate frame calls out “Women Wanted… Inquire Within.” Perfect!
Nick on the right won the long-distance award, driving his black factory carb-converted ’83 from Albuquerque New Mexico, over 1300 miles each way. The two-barrel 318 cid (5.2L) V8 averaged over 20 MPG with no overdrive, shaming many modern V8 pickups and SUVs.
Glenn wins the award for the longest trip in an original EFI ’81-’83 Imperial. Despite boasting technology and engineers from NASA, these high-tech marvels suffered reliability issues and many got factory carburetor conversions as a workaround. Most never-converted cars are lucky to get on and off a trailer by themselves, but when running right like Glenn’s, they are wonderful. This ’81 had one ignition issue on the way to Tennessee from Wisconsin, but a coil and some wire-jiggling saved the day.
Before this event, I’d never entered any of my vehicles in anything like a car show. Some calculations showed I’m unlikely to make the 200 years of Imperial celebration, so I bit the bullet and decided to make the 100, driving my Holley Sniper converted 1981 Imperial 350 miles each way. It ran great and I felt like King of the Road! Or maybe I should say Emperor in deference to the Imperial.
Imperial fans had fun playing “spot the differences” between the 1967 and ’68 Imperials. The clear turn signal lenses with Imperial crests at the front of the ’67 (right) get an official Chef’s kiss.
That’s not an Imperial! This 1970 Plymouth sedan stood out like a green thumb. Crank windows? Heaven forbid! Owner Pete has this 318-powered Belvedere show-ready and sounding like a big block. It brought back memories of my grandparents’ 1969 double-gold Coronet sedan, and I’d walk past a row of perfectly restored muscle cars to ogle this ride, purchased new for the family’s nanny.
How often do you see four running ’81-’83 Imperials together? Matt, Nick, Glenn, and myself came to represent the last RWD Imperials, Lee Iacocca’s technical marvel, sort-of. The two Glacier blue units are Frank Sinatra specials, their unique center consoles originally stocked with cassette tapes of history’s favorite high-rolling blue-eyed crooner.
This 1960 Imperial Crown convertible represents the penultimate year of the fintastic Imperials. You’ll get the Hollywood treatment wherever you go in this beauty!
Tip your hat to Robert Soule (far right) and the effervescent Laquita Soule for organizing and hosting the event. Thanks to BarnFinds reader Matt Hopkins for prompting me to twist the key and hit the road. Matt owns the other Frank Sinatra Imperial shown above. It took me nearly 60 years to enter a car in anything besides autocross or road course parade laps, and my first such outing was top shelf all the way.
That looks like a great time and a great event too. It’s good you decided to go for the 100 year celebration Todd. It’s great to see so many Imperials in one time too. Thanks for sharing that, and the great write up too Todd.
Great report Todd. The cars look to be in wonderful condition. Good to see these Imperials.
Sounds like it was a fun time, and I’m glad you took the initiative to go. And that you enjoyed it. Attending an event with model specialists can be both educational, and humbling. Often there will be experts who know every detail about certain models, model years, etc.
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Nice writeup Todd. I considered attending, but I had just come off a 2000-mile road trip that included Chattanooga. Was it hot? One of our days in Chattanooga it was 99 degrees, in September!
Now I’ll always wonder if my ’65 LeBaron would have made the 519-mile trip from Tampa.
Hi Rex. Love that green. What a beauty. It was hot one day but pleasant overall. A functional emergency brake and a fire extinguisher will minimize the worst case scenario. That’s slightly tongue-in-cheek. Only you can decide. In VA I could run Antique plates and no inspection, but I run regular plates and inspection just to get a second set of eyes on them every year. Happy motoring!
Rex, any production numbers on this color and year? it’s a beauty.
Thanks 370. Not sure on the color numbers, but there were just 2165 of these 4-door LeBarons built in 1965. It is hard to imagine that Chrysler made any money producing the Imperial during the period….well….ever!
I guess Chrysler couldn’t just give up and cede the luxury market to Cadillac and Lincoln, so they had to field a car to compete. Frankly, I feel the bodywork and engineering on the Imperials is actually superior to the other two makes. But, I think that the rust/build quality issues of the ’57-’60 cars damaged Chrysler’s reputation beyond repair.
I really do feel that once Elwood Engel got to Chrysler the design and build quality were as good or better than GM or Ford, but the damage had already been done. Own a mid-60s Mopar and you’ll see how nice they are, both in engineering and build quality.
Why wouldn’t it
It was great meeting and spending time together Tod! Your way with words and a wrench are to be applauded both here on the page and under the hood of your 81 Imperial,My original 81 EFI Frank with sun roof was a solid hit with the crowd, many in awe of it covering the 800 miles in 15 hours to Chattanooga with air on! Thank you for letting me drive your retrofitted Snipper fuel injected Imp! It really putts you back in your seat! Robert and Laquita our gracious host are to be commended for a once in a life time experience!
Thanks, Glenn! The pleasure was mine. I’m jealous of your AC for sure. I may have the only square-bore 4bbl / Sniper ’81-’83 with an AC compressor. I need to get that thing working! Hope to see you around!
Todd,
Thanks for sharing! Some really cool cars!
Very good writeup. I had a “52 Imperial 4dr in highschool through part of college …331 hemi with fluid torque drive. I regret not going as I had penciled it in early this summer. A Milton Berle/Ethel Merman in a 63 convertible or Mr Drysdale in a sedan dress-up would have awesome.
I was there! The Soules put a lot of planning into the event and it was wonderful!
Back in the 50s and 60’s Mechanix Illustrated magazine had a writer / car tester named Tom McCahill who said that Imperials were the finest automoibles built…. he loved the power and handling…
My dad ordered a new 62 Crown 4 door..The dashboard covering was mis cut and left a gap / hole in the far right end where curves make the corner of it. A person’s thumb could fit in it… I couldn’t understand how that got out the door….
a lot of nice looking imperials in 1 spot for sure but you can keep the later models.
Apparently, some folks did keep ’em. And that’s a good thing…
just LOOK at all those OLD croaker-sacks sittin’ around !!
WOW! Great articles on the lovely Imperials! Top of the line for Chrysler. Have seen several “Initial” Imperial ad L’s @ various car shows over the years, always drawing the interest of the participants.
Cool…..owned a few from 1955 up to 1975….
100 years of RT66, which I went on this year, and 100 years of the Imperial’ Would have been a good Imperial Club road trip year.
Travis’ powder blue sedan is a 1973. Note the fine texture grille and blocky rubber bumper guards. Also no hood louvers at the base of the windshield as seen on the 1972.
My Dad had a 1970, and a 1972 that once belonged to John Ricardo’s wife. Loved that car, and it was probably the nicest car I have ever driven.
Thanks for sharing – what a great event for special automobiles! As a lifelong “MoPar or No Car” guy, I remember watching with both horror and pride a demolition derby in the early seventies where a black ’64 Imp took it’s heat and the final, and the grille was still perfect at the end of the evening.