200 MPH...

…speedometer, that is.

And did I mention that it’s a factory piece?




Anyway, a few weeks ago, I took some time away from the Studio and had an absolute blast, with good friend Josh dropping into the Valley for some time at the Barrett-Jackson auction (and subsequent menagerie of auto- and non-auto-related goodies and sights and sounds), as well as a Saturday morning trek for some breakfast and to take in a Chrysler 300 Show (the Chrysler 300 Club’s 15th Winter Meet). Josh is a big 300 fan, and owns a ‘57, too, along with his killer, slammed ‘58 Buick, and happens to be a great photographer, and true auto afficianado.

Back on track here, as we strolled the small –but high-quality– show, I was thrown for a loop by just how friendly these folks are, and how into the 300’s (letter and non-letter cars), and was just kinda soaking up the great rides on display, when I came across one of the coolest things I’ve seeen in my car-gazing life:

A 1960 300F (Special Gran Turismo).

Consider: a Chrysler 300 is a big, luxury automobile that brings performance to the table. Light years ahead off the competition, this was a muscle car in its purest form. In 1960, the 413 Wedge was the new engine, and cranked out 375 horsepower in stock trim. You’ve probably seen a few with the unique cross-ram intake, which places the carbs over the fenderwells (more on this later). Chrysler also created a special short-ram version of the engine (the tuned runners for the intake were about 15″ long), pushing 400 horsepower. They created only 15 of these cars, backing the mighty Wedge with the French Pont-a-Mousson four-speed transmission, originally created for the Facel Vega.

So, in effect, we have a luxury car with muscle car tendencies, wrapped in a killer styling package. All cool, but what blew me away was this:

…yes, that reads 200 MPH. Factory piece, from 1960. Consider that for a minute. (hell, the cars rode out of the factory on 15″ wheels wrapped in Goodyear Stock Car Special Blue Streak tires… the same as used in NASCAR!) This was no ordinary car. This was a race car with STYLE.

I just wanted to share this, as it’s a neat piece of history, and a very cool conversation piece, to say the least. We’ll touch back on these killer cars in the future, to be certain.