Chrysler Newport (1967) – In the Wild

Recently, colleague Lars Krijgsman spotted a beautiful Imperial Crown from 1965. Now, thanks to AutoWeek forum member Johan82, we have another Chrysler creation from that period in front of us; a Newport from 1967. Two years younger, but very clearly a car from the same manufacturer and with roughly the same design as the Imperial Crown. Yet it is actually a completely different story. Although this Chrysler Newport was technically related to the Imperial Crown of that time (a generation newer than the spotted example), the Newport fulfilled a completely different role. That was a bit of a budget Chrysler, where the Imperial Crown under the Imperial name, which came from Chrysler, was the crème de la crème.

Chrysler Newport

The Newport was also slightly smaller than the Crown, although that is of course very relative for such a battleship. It is no less than 5.57 meters long, longer than the current Mercedes-Maybach S-class. Just on the tailgate alone you almost seem to be able to park a Fiat 500. The whole ‘big, bigger, biggest’ continues happily under the equally immense hood. There you will find a (fortunately running on LPG) 6.3-liter Firebolt V8. Despite its immense swept volume, the eight-cylinder engine delivers around 330 hp to the rear wheels. However, this was quite decent for the time, although the weight of about two tons meant that the Newport was not really a great car.

This particular Chrysler Newport is a polar opposite of the Imperial Crown from recently in another respect, because it also looks quite tired. From front to back we see rust brown coming through the green-blue paint. It gives him a bit of a rat look, but this may have been a conscious decision. After all, it also has something. In any case, the current owner has had more than seven years to make changes if desired, because that is how long the Newport has been in his or her name. By the way, it had a Dutch license plate for the first time just before the person got the keys.