About Imperial
Imperial was the Chrysler Corporation's prestige automobile brand between 1955 and 1975, with a brief reappearance in 1981 through 1983.
The Chrysler Imperial had been the company's most luxurious model, and in 1955 when the company decided to introduce a separate luxury brand, Imperial was the natural choice for the nameplate of the new spin off vehicle line, meaning that the Imperial would be a separate make and division within the corporation and no longer bear the Chrysler name. Imperial would see new body styles introduced every two to three years, a solid underpinning of very dependable V-8 engines and automatic transmissions, and technology that would filter down to the lower rungs of the Chrysler corporation's sister offerings.
1955-56
In 1955 Chrysler introduced Forward Look Styling, which took the industry by storm and featured the styling of Virgil Exner, who would define Imperial's look (and the look of cars from the other four Chrysler divisions) from 1955 to 1963.
The 1955 models are said to be inspired by Exner's own 1952 Chrysler Imperial Parade Phaeton show cars. The bodyshell was shared with that year's big Chryslers, but the Imperial had a wide-spaced split eggcrate grille (later used on the Chrysler C-300 "executive hot rod") and "gunsight" taillights mounted above the rear quarters. Models included a two-door Newport hardtop coupe (3,418 built) and a four-door sedan (7840 built). The engine was Chrysler's first-generation Hemi V8 with a displacement of 331 in³ (5.4 L) and developing 250 bhp (186 kW).
