To Permit Operation on Regular-grade Gasoline

However sumptuously trimmed, a wide variety of options was available to tempt the prospective buyer, including items that are customarily standard on today’s cars: air conditioning, automatic speed control, power door locks, rearwindow defogger, and tinted glass. Boar-grain vinyl roofs in four colors were a $152 option on the Crowns. Lavant-grain vinyl roofs in six colors were standard on the LeBaron, necessary to cover the fiberglass panels used to generate the smaller, more formal backlight. From a powertrain standpoint, little was different from previous Imperials, nor did it need to be. Ample forward motion was supplied by a big 440-cid four-barrel-carbureted V-8 — Chrysler’s largest — developing 350 bhp and teamed with the legendary A-727 three-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission.

To avoid wheel lockup (and, Chrysler claimed, shorten stopping distances), the computerized system mod­­ulated brake pressure to each wheel during a panic stop, allowing the driver to both maintain steering ability and bring this nearly 5,000-pound behemoth to a dignified halt. Developed by Bendix in conjunction with Chrysler engineers, Sure Brake was specified by a mere 293 buyers in 1971. Customers apparently did not appreciate the system’s value or were put off by the hefty $344 price tag. Also optional was a new electric headlamp-washer system wherein small brushes wiped the low-beam lamps at the rate of 50 strokes per minute, fluid being supplied by a separate washer reservoir. Rear-wheel-only antilock systems from General Motors and Ford were priced around $200, and consequently more popular with their clientele.

Offered in six colors, the seats reeked of the opulence of a private club, inviting driver and passenger to sink luxuriantly into their welcoming embrace. With the four-door sedan gone, Imper­ial’s lineup consisted of two- and four-door hardtops in the Crown and LeBaron series. Also new was the standard Rim-Blow steering wheel with which you sounded the horn by squeezing a thin black vinyl “tube” located inconspicuously on the inner circumference of the wheel rim. It was a neat idea, but, as the engineers would say, it was not a “robust” system and thus prone to erratic operation.

However, this is more evident in hindsight than it was back then, and automotive journalists of the day continued to regard the Imperial on equal terms with Cadillac and Lincoln. Customers expecting exclusivity in their luxury-car purchases, however, would have to turn to Cadillac and Lin­coln to satisfy their desires. Realistically, though, part of this new Imperial’s success would depend on potential customers not noticing the similarities between it and that $2,100 cheaper Newport at the other end of the showroom. That must have been a keen disappointment for Imper­­ial’s chief product planner Bob Mcgargle, who had worked so tirelessly, even passionately in promoting the Imper­ial ideal with low-volume image-building programs like the ritzy 1957-65 Ghia-built limousines and the inventive Mobile Director “office on wheels” option for the 1967-68 Crown Coupe.

Cummins, however, discovered that there was a bit of money available for an experimental die program and persuaded the stamping folks to do tryouts using temporary tools. Much time and attention was lavished on the grillework recessed inside the loop. Cummins, conceding that “the prototype parts were not good.” But continued effort proved that the bumper could indeed be made well in one piece. A delicate eggcrate texture, bracketed top and bottom by a thin chrome outline, was fronted by narrow black and chrome horizontal bar that reinforced the width of the car. The adoption of hidden headlamps for the first time on an Imperial allowed the elaborate diecast grille to span the entire width of the bumper opening.