The glamorous Imperial marque was, by the late '60s, reduced to a
trashy, pseudo-luxury harlot walking the streets for its pimp, the
Chrysler Corporation. By 1971, only the Imperial LeBaron was left and it
shared the monstrous slab-sided "fuselage" styling of corporate
siblings like the Chrysler New Yorker and the Dodge Monaco. Appearing to
have been hewn from solid blocks of mediocrity, the Imperial LeBaron
two-door is memorable for having some of the longest fenders in history.
It was powered by Chrysler's silly-big 440-cu.-in. V8 and measured over
19 ft. long. The interior looked like a third-world casino. Here we are
approaching the nadir of American car building — obese,
under-engineered, horribly ugly. Or, it would be the nadir, except for
the abysmal 1980 Chrysler Imperial, which had an engine cursed by God.
The Imperial name was finally overthrown in 1983.
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