My new Imperial

[ImperialAtom]

Would be interesting to know if that side mirror is factory or not.

[wypowerwagon]

Correct on the mirror being factory or not, would be interesting to know. There is a box on the punch card that is for mirror. I have seen 2 different styles of mirrors, some are on the door & some are on the fender. I wish I knew how to decode the punch card.

[slantflat]

I need to study my punchcard some more but haven't had the time yet. I can tell you the driver's side mirror is worthless, and the passenger mirror sits up a couple inches higher.

My interior code is 99, and the Chrysler people say they don't know what that means. Also the seatbelts are called out, a rarity for 56 I'm sure.

I read that in 55 the Imperial became it's own make, and Chrysler sent notice to all the DMVs to record them this way. Funny all these years later they are still called Chrysler Imperials and any attempt to correct it is met with opposition. Well, we'll see what I can come up with.

[wypowerwagon]

The driver side mirror on my car isn't that great either lol.

I forgot you had mentioned seat belts. No doubt that is rare.

It is strange that the Imperial never lost the Chrysler part of the name. I've seen titles for Imperials done both ways. So far any of the titles I have transferred I have been able to get the make changed to Imperial, hopefully you can too.

I have been meaning to try to figure out what makes it a Crown Imperial or not so I researched that a bit today. The information in this picture indicates the Crown Imperial was a Limousine & the description of the side trim on a Crown matches that on a Limo. Another interesting thing is the '56 Imperial Limousines used fenders with the '55 shaped wheel well openings for the front & rear. Sorry the picture is sideways, I can't figure out how to change it.

[slantflat]

I think my saving grace will be that the current title lists the make as Imperial. When I talked with my insurance person(Hagerty), she asked if it was a Crown. I said, I'm not sure it's actually a Crown but that's a good Imperial word so you can call it that if you want. But I stressed that it isn't a limo. I replaced a Mercedes on the policy and the premium went up 4 dollars.

The 56 limo I think is "almost" the same as the 55. The big bumper things on the back are still there from 55, I think it was a cost-saving measure.

Thanks for the picture. That's some good information. It seems they were boasting when they said the Imperial went 0-60 in 12.8 seconds with a top speed of over 104. Damn try to to get that behemoth stopped after hitting 104.

[ImperialAtom]

I cannot imagine trying to stop that thing from 100+. If you can, you likely only can do it once.

[wypowerwagon]

No problem on the picture. Never checked the 0-60 time but I can say that my car will definitely exceed 104 mph. One time of many that I had gone joy riding as a kid, a guy in a Camaro with all of the "looking & sounding like I'm fast" accessories pulled up beside me as I was cruising down the highway at about 65. He was on & off the throttle a couple times, knowing I shouldn't, I responded with full throttle on the Imperial. It was door to door till about 75 & I started pulling away. Around 100 he really fell back & may have decided he had enough. The Imperial was nice & smooth at 100 so I decided to keep going, it was climbing pretty slow by 115 & decided that was enough. I have no idea how many miles it took to get there, probably at least 3 or 4. The guy in the Camaro had a passenger so I can only imagine the crap that he caught over that.

That wasn't the last Camaro that tried messing with the Imperial & didn't get it done. Luckily for me, my parents never seemed to figure out I was driving it when they were gone, much less racing it some. Wyoming has a lot of open country so stopping in a short distance isn't much of a concern other than deer & antelope getting in the way. Weighing in around 5300 pounds isn't something that stops on a dime.

Agreed on the '56 limo. Other than they would've been even longer, I've always thought they would've looked proportionately better with the '56 back end.

Good your title says Imperial, that will help keep it the same. Since they were Imperial & not Chrysler, I'm not sure why they started the vin with a C. That might throw some people off too.