A nod was given the American taste of custom detail with the spare tire metal shape of
the truck lid, and the free standing microphone taillights. Two versions were made. The
convertible being less successful as an advanced design study. With conservative
modification the coupe design was to live on in the Mullner bodied Bentley Continental.
Initially fifty K-310s were contracted by Chrysler to be sold at the princely sum of $20
thousand dollars, but the recession caused by the Korean War saw only a handful
produced. The car’s real significance was the sea-change it signaled at Chrysler.
The next car to come from this American Italian collaboration was the Chrysler Ghia
specials of 1953. A fine example of this series is the Thomas Special. The motivating force
behind the creation of this exercise was C. B. Thomas, who was then export director of
Chrysler. The design was once again based on the 125.5in wheelbase chassis used for all
Chryslers, except the Imperial. The design of the Thomas Special advanced Chrysler
design into characteristically unique territory. The car produced had the muscular look of
a Ferrari Berlinetta, and the lines of a car headed directly for a Concours. Once again it
portrayed another Exner design tenet, that you couldn’t take a European design and scale
it up to American size, or effectively reduce an American design to European dimensions.
The Thomas Special was an effective portrayal of a high performance coupe, with taut
graceful lines that defined this international relationship. About 18 cars were built.
’53 was a fertile year for the Ghia Exner Chrysler relationship. Simultaneously with the
design studies. It went a long way to cementing Exner’s position inside Chrysler as
implied earlier, these were not static display show cars, but runners; and serious runners at
that. With the ever increasing power of the Hemi, and matted to the new Power Flight
automatic transmission, the Firearrow Sport Coupe was timed at 143.44 miles an hour on
the Chrysler proving grounds. This was a clean, distinctive well proportioned design,
whose crisp peeked, unchromed fenders made one unified shape from front to back, and
produced highlights all the chrome of GM could only dream of.
Being able to produce this series of prototype cars in the Italian method, allowed
Exner and his team of to quickly explore contemporary shape and volume. From
the pages of the magazines, and the American and European autoshow displays, it
was becoming obvious an automotive future was being defined at Chrysler. What
that future held for the public at large, had yet to be defined. But soon would be.
III.
Impressed by Exner’s prodigious creative talents, Keller promoted Exner to
Director of Styling on the heels of Ford’s pushing Chrysler back to number three in
American sales volume. His mandate was simple, to completely revamp the
Chrysler line-up lineup for 1955. From the numerous concept cars of ’53, and
Chrysler’s publicity in support of them, it was expected that the Ghia cars pre-saged
Chrysler’s new line-up; but a funny thing happened on the way to the body presses
in Detroit.
All of the Chrysler Ghias that were making the publicity rounds at the
International auto shows in ’53 had been on the drawing board since ’51 & early ’52.
It was an event at the Turin auto show of ’52, and again in ’53 that changed
everything.
At the Pininfarina stand at the ’52 Turin show was a prototype Lancia based on the
B52 chassis. Dubbed the PF 200, it had a nearly circular center grill, rather
reminiscent of the K-310, Thomas Special and DeElegance. But the Lancia stepped
away from the Frazer Nash, Chrysler Ghia headlight treatment inset from the
fenders. Here the headlights defined the leading edge of the front fenders, setting a
clean a straight line all the way to the tail; a tail that became fins shaped by the
sloping sides of the trunk.
Another star of the show was at the Bertone stand; the Fiat Abarth 1400. Here too
the headlights, with strong chrome rings, defined the leading edge of the front
fenders, but from there on was a study in fluid sheet metal shapes. In the Abarth a
third headlight and a split grill replaced the central grille, so prevalent in the cars of
the period.
