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!