The Forward Look

’56 Chrysler four-door hardtop. (This looks like the car featured in Classic car.)

In 1956 Yr Fthfl Srvnt was 12.
Which means in late ’55 when the ’56 Chryslers were introduced, I was 11.
The October 2017 issue of my Classic Car magazine features a ’56 Chrysler, what I consider one of the best-looking cars of all time.
Right up there with the ’61 Pontiac.
Prior to the ’55 model-year, Chrysler products were staid. Very well engineered, but not much to look at.
Walter P. Chrysler, founder of the company, required his cars have enough headroom to allow a hat, usually a fedora.
Having just made the word safe for democracy, Americans wanted more.
General Motors was cashing in. Glitzy styling and chrome was in demand, and more power.
Ford and Chrysler played catch-up. Independents like Hudson, Studebaker, and Nash wasted away. Even mighty Packard couldn’t afford drama. They managed a new V8, but not an auto-tranny. Its ’51 model, heavily restyled, had to last through 1956. (Packard merged Studebaker in 1954.)

(I don’t like using scans of magazine pictures because what’s on the back page often bleeds through. But it’s the better picture.) (Photo by Richard Lentinello.)

(Slightly customized = brows over headlights.)

Chrysler hired Virgil T. Exner to glitz up its cars. The styling requirement was fins, liberally applied.
Fins sprouted on Chrysler’s ’55 offering. Finning became more extensive on Chrysler’s ’56 models.
In my opinion the rear of the ’56 Chrysler is weak. The front-end is fabulous.
This blog is titled “The Forward Look.” That was Exner. Chrysler’s ’55 and ’56 models were the beginning. How does one add glitz yet keep the cost down?
For 1957 the “Forward Look” found full-flower. Some of Chrysler’s cars became garish. The ’57 Dodge is a joke!
And for ’57 Chrysler didn’t look as good as this ’56.