'Celebrating 100 Years of Imperial' coming to America's Transportation Experience in May - Old Cars Weekly
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'Celebrating 100 Years of Imperial' coming to America's Transportation Experience in May
America’s Transportation Experience’s Spring/Summer featured 2026 exhibit, “Imperial: Chrysler’s Handcrafted Masterpiece,” celebrates 100 years of Chrysler’s flagship luxury
Hershey, PA - The Museum's Spring/Summer featured 2026 exhibit, " Imperial: Chrysler's Handcrafted Masterpiece ," celebrates 100 years of Chrysler's flagship luxury car. Launched in 1926, the "Imperial" name reflected its exclusivity and advanced engineering and quickly became a symbol of prestige, rivaling elite brands like Packard, Cadillac, and Lincoln. Favored by executives and royalty, the Imperial set trends with bold styling and top-tier craftsmanship. Custom coachwork by firms like Derham and LeBaron furthered its reputation for exclusivity. In 1955, Imperial became its own brand within Chrysler, a status it held until 1975, with a brief return in the 1980s.
Imperial was known for engineering innovation, debuting features like wind-tunnel design (1934 Airflow), four-wheel disc brakes (1949), power steering and fully electric windows (1951), curved side glass in American cars (1957), "Auto-Pilot" cruise control (1958), and America's first production-ready four-wheel anti-lock brakes (1971) and first four-wheel production caliber disc-brakes (1974).
Imperial made headlines with its 1926 cross-country endurance run, served as the Indianapolis 500 pace car, and transported royalty, including King George VI & Queen Elizabeth and Queen Elizabeth II & Prince Philip. It was also used in JFK's funeral procession.
The exhibit will showcase elite vehicles such as Imperials originally owned by Walter P. Chrysler, his wife, Della Forker Chrysler, and their son, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. All Imperial design generations will be represented. Other highlights of rare or unique examples include a 1931 Waterhouse Victoria, a 1951 Crown Imperial with early disc brakes, a 1935 Imperial C2 Airflow, a 1955 Imperial Newport, a 1959 Imperial Crown with a stainless steel roof and Nelson Rockefeller's 1960 limousine.
The exhibition begins with a Museum Members' reception on May 8th. It opens to the public on Saturday, May 9th.
Imperials on Display
Walter P. Chrysler's 1931 personal limousine AACA Museum, Inc.
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1958 Imperial Convertible AACA Museum, Inc.
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1926 Imperial 80 AACA Museum, Inc.
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1931 Waterhouse Victoria (1 of 3 existing) AACA Museum, Inc.
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U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller's personal limousine AACA Museum, Inc.
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Mrs.Chrysler's 1937 one-off limousine AACA Museum, Inc.
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Way back, John Brower, who was the promoter of the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival Festival "Strawberry Fields" that was held at Varsity Stadium in downtown Toronto on Sept. 13, 1969 tried before the festival to sell me his 1957 Chrysler Imperial Crown Coach, trying to raise money for his festival, I recall seeing it in the driveway of my home. It looked like this:
It was beautiful, but I already had a great car.
Probably better off without any thing Chrysler made with fins. I almost bought a used one back in 1964, the gadgets were amazing, self cleaning ashtrays, lol.
My father took me and the car out on the Reedman test track in Langhorne PA and at about 65MPH the fins were literally moving side to side and moaning,
and it only got worse if you went faster.
Certain models, I think it was the 57 300C had fins so big they limited what you could see through the rear window creating a passenger side blind spot that was really uncomfortable.
I ended up with a 61 Plymouth Savoy, no fins but the brake lights were very similar to the picture above.
Because I saved everything for many past cars, many years later we needed a brake lens for Smoking Joe Frazier's Black 58 (or 59) Imperial and we swapped two of mine for his
undamaged one; no one but Joe and I could tell the difference.
As I said on another car article I posted recently, I never owned a Chrysler product.
You were one lucky lawyer, lol.
As for being lucky, I did win a $5000 lottery prize once, and a paid trip for 2 to Rio de Janiero that my ex-wife didn't want to go to and all I could trade it for with the company that provided it was a week in Miami Beach when it was so cold we got to lie on the beach on 3 of the days, wearing sweaters.
Big luxury car. Years ago, 7 of us comfortably went to beach in an old late 60s Imperial friend bought cheap.
It had a 440 and would get down the road. and had cod AC.
Cold air conditioning?