Updated January 29, 2023
In the 1980s, the New Yorker was still Chrysler’s top-level car, although it rode on a smaller K-Car platform than in the 1970s. If you wanted to get a limo version of the automobile, it was available as a special order that brought you the vehicle from a customizer that did the conversion for Chrysler. This edition is from 1985 and we’ve seen it before here on Barn Finds. But that was more than two years ago, and we wonder what’s been going on with the car since then. The price has been lowered from $9,500 to $4,900 here on craigslist and the vehicle is still in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. Thanks to T.J. for bringing us the newer listing and our own Scotty Gilbertson for the original homework in 2020!
This limo, which the seller believes could be a one-off, was made by American Specialty Cars (aka American Sunroof Company). They would take a standard Chrysler New Yorker and stretch the wheelbase to either 124 or 131 inches. This provided for a glass divider with total seating for seven with two extra jump seats in the extended version. What adds to the mystery of this being a special edition is that the seller says an extra 20 (or 24) inches was added to the total stretch. Everywhere you look in this vehicle you’ll find classic 1980s velour upholstery.
Since the stretch is extra-long, the jump seats were dumped in favor of two full-sized seats in the back. The limo has 80,000 miles, so it has certainly had its fair share of use over the years. Though no one has popped the hood to take a photo of the engine compartment, we assume a Mitsubishi 2.6-liter inline-4 is present which is a small powerplant for such a long car. These are supposed to be great engines.
As was the case in 2020, the seller says the car needs some TLC but does run and drive. So whatever issues may have been present two years ago may have yet to have been dealt with. But since the asking price has almost been cut in half after 25 months, maybe the incentive is there just to take it home the way it is.
How to show people that you haven’t arrived yet.
This is the limo that Beavis and Butthead would drive
Dang, if that was a regular factory version for that price. preferably with leather, it’d be hard to pass up. Nice one, Russ!
Nice writeup. I was thinking “trailer park limo” but will retract that. The GM equivalent would probably be a stretched X body.
A real unicorn, and good looking limo IMHO, is the “81, 82, 83 Imperial with or without fender skirts…like a 2nd gen Seville with an extra 18”.
Another radwood ready car one to take to cars and coffee and be the only 1 there with one of these
Seen several of these Louisville back in the day.
Actually the 2.6 Mitsu itself wasn’t a bad engine for it’s time in the 80’s3.Problem I always saw was with these cars was the Mikuni carb with driveability complaints.If you dialed in their fuel mixture they ran good.
You forgot the balance shaft problem and do not run low on oil
That mikuni was garbage. It had abouT 400 vac lines to places all over the engine. it was a total sealed cab Which means when you shut the switch off, all vapors from anywhere where supposed to be trapped. when they worked they were ok.one vac line crack meant a nightmare. Rebuilt came with a disclaimer. Warranty ended when attached to engine. I installed a weber on mine . got 30 mpgs and would bark the tires going into second with an automatic. even passed a sniffer test but not the visual.
After I removed the carb I’d remove the plug covering idle mixture , reinstall and adjust af ratio with our old Allen gas analyzer.about 2.5% co and 400-500 ppm on hydrocarbons at idle. readjust idle speed as needed. Never had one come back with a driveability problem and I probably did a few dozen back in the 80’s and early 90’s.Were they performance carbs nope . Did they do the job once tuned…yup.
Tha did nothing to solvevthe float problem. The pressure in the carb blew out gaskets. The floats got fuel logged and would not shut off the needle and seat. The 6 fuel soloinoids would leak and then stick . kits where 200-300$ carbs reman where 5-600 with no wsrrsnty. My brother was lead tech at mitsibushi and they bought back many cars due the carb. when they worked they were fine. With age they failed. He replaced most likely 100-150 at home for customers with a honda carb he could source and still pass inspections. The weber had one wire for choke and one vac line.
I saw Stacy Keach demolish one of
these on the Mike Hammer TV series
on CBS about that time, so the 1 of 1
claim goes out the window here. This
car is one of those E-class models
that Chrysler was hawking at that time. Don’t hold me to it, but I think
they started building them from ’83
to ’87. And if memory serves me,
they weren’t all that popular with the
public. In those days, if you wanted
a real limo, you had your choice between a Lincoln or a Cadillac.
with the latter having that God-awful
4100 V-8 that gave owners and dealers fits back then. You’ve got to
hand it to Lee Iacoca though, he got
a lot of mileage out of the K-car
platform and here’s the proof.
Chrysler built quite a few of these things, in 2 different lengths, but the seller of this car is claiming this one is stretched even more than a “stock” limo, which would make it a one-of-a-kind car if that’s true. Looking at the pics, especially the doors and separation panel, it looks like a regular limo version to me?
We had one several years ago. It was a very nice car the engine was good but the carburetor gave me fits. It would vapor lock on hot days. It would have to be towed home. Then get it and start and run like a champ. Also being 6 ft tall the driver’s seat would not go back far enough to drive comfortably, it was like driving sitting on dash. The rear had 2 jump seats so it was probably stretched only 20 inches. So maybe the driver had a little more room.
I used to deliver auto parts to a shop that had one of these parked behind the building. I guess Chrysler had to make something like this for their executives to be driven around in. By this time they made nothing but K-car derivatives to make limos out of. It’s not like they could have the big-wigs seen riding around in Lincoln or Cadillac limos. Didn’t they have the 3.8 V-6 yet?
No it was 3.0
The 3.0 v6 wasn’t available until late in the 1987 model year.
This is posted on many places on FaceBook, a limo with a 4cyl., pass.
A long heavy car with front wheel drive. Don’t drive on anything slippery.
A close friend had one of these in the 90s. It was a white one with blue plush interior. I remember surprise on first sight because I didn’t know they even existed. It was very comfortable. I’ve been driving a 91 Imperial for a long time, and I saw this stretched version of my Y-body Imperial 10 or 15 years ago. It was the deepest black finish I’d ever seen, and with a pearl coat, light seemed to fall into it. It belonged to a funeral director friend who was also a Mopar fanatic. He had (probably still does) a 1972 Imperial flower car, an “el camino” version of Imperial.
I like these! Lets see that 72 Imp flower car!
Glenn, I wish I had one to share. Our basement in PA was flooded during Lee in 2011, and I lost a TON of photos, my yearbooks, autographed materials, scrapbooks, and so on. I never took any digital pics of it. The car is/was up in Ohio where we lived until 2008. Last time I saw it was at a mopar show that year. I’ve lost touch with the man, and I’m not certain he’s still living (he would be pushing 90 by now). Regardless, the car was cherry and had low miles on it, so I’m sure it’s around somewhere. I don’t even know how many of those things were built per year. I think it was built by Superior, the same folks that built ambulances back then, but I won’t swear to that. It was a converted coupe.
The 2.6 can’t get out of its own way. The only good thing is it has a counter-balancing shaft which deadens the inline 4’s vibrations so it was very smooth. ..but it also sucks up the power.
I have ALWAYS hated K cars and this is simply more to hate
I’ll just leave this here…..
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Executive
This car is actually based a Chrysler LeBaron Coupe. Then stretched with New Yorker parts added. I’ve always loved this coupe based limousine design. Sad they don’t make them this way anymore. Cadillac Fleetwood 75 limousine were made this way. I love how plush 80s Chrysler seats are! Way to underpowered to be a limousine.