I was with you, til you mentioned that CHRY was very not-adverse to win
on SUN, sell on MON.
CHRY was VERY adverse to the active promotion of of racing, as a means
to sell cars, in the 50's.
The corp didn't believe that there was much if any relationship to the
two entities, and I can start with the privateer
300 efforts of Kiekaefer and continue with the abortive D501 RACING
program , which never really existed
and died aborning after Kiekaefer had his snit with NASCAR.
Dodge just quietly loaded-up the 102 (official) D501's with various
options (like rear window defoggers and plastic
sun visors) and either 'awarded' some to dealerships, or distributed
them to various parties, but CHRY Corp promoted
and supported the MoBil Gas Economy Run infinitely more than any
'factory' promoted competition effort.
PLY had a couple pencil/ink drawings of non-Furys at drag race events,
and DOD in 56 depicted a D500 at a stop light
(or was it at a drag strip) lined up against a Olds-looking car.
Wow---great competition promotion, there.
Neil Vedder
Jan & Roger van Hoy wrote:
Neil, you're engaging in a bit of revisionist history.
K.T. Keller was the "Fedora" man, and he was a good bean counter. He
started an expansion program in 1945, without which there would not
have been capacity for major changes.
L.L. "Tex" Colbert took over presidency of Chrysler in the fall of
1950. He was instrumental in making sure the models were competitive
and that the antiquated six cylinder models were phased out of the
senior lines by 1955.
Maybe it was possible to wear a hat in some '55 and '56 models, but by
'57 that just wasn't possible, nor was it still a concern to Chrysler,
though it was to my Dad.
You can't get much more "gearhead" than Bob Rodgers, the mastermind of
the Chrysler 300.
Chrysler did promote their high horsepower models in the 1950's, and
was not adverse to the race-them-on-the-weekend, sell-them-on-Monday
outlook. The 1953 and especially 1954 Dodges got lots of publicity
with the new Red Ram V8, and being pace car for the Indy 500 in '54
sure didn't hurt. Kiekhaefer's Dodge teams in '56 surely promoted sales.
I've heard these new 2008 ads are aimed at 14-year-olds. Certainly
not a target market, but any publicity is good publicity.
--Roger van Hoy, Washougal, WA, '55 DeSoto, '58 DeSoto, '56 Plymouth,
'66 Plymouth, '41 Dodge
----- Original Message ----- From: "Eastern Sierra Adjustment Svc"
<esierraadj@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 1:25 PM
Subject: [FWDLK] Not FWDLK-related, but of some interest to MoPar
gearheads!
...[here's the FWDLK part] : can you imagine what the public reaction
(read; Generic Motors, & Fart) to
the Fury's/Adventurers/500's/300's would have been, if CHRY would have
promoted its muscle cars, in
this manner, in 1956/1957 ?----and how different the automotive world
(trying to play catch-up) would have been, if real
gearheads (playing to the affections of post-WWII veterans) had run the
Corp, instead of guys who were (still)
concerned about not being able to wear a fedora, inside a FWDLK'er???
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