For sheer, unadulterated automotive extravagance it's hard to go past this 1959 Dodge Custom Royal. It's one with the lot, a super-supreme, the full-monty ... about motoring's last big fling before some common sense prevailed. It is simply magnificent.
While some today might ponder how and why the '59 Dodge Custom Royal evolved there is a logical explanation ... and no, despite rumours to the contrary, chrome did not grow on US trees in the 1950s. Nor did massive fins, tail lights the size of Darwin stubbies, or blue paint jobs that make a perfect Gold Coast spring day look pale in comparison.
The 1959 Dodge Custom Royal was the culmination of a set of circumstances that have to do with over-reaction, freedom and the pure joy of liberty and life without shackles. In the immediate post WW2 period Chrysler – owner of Dodge, Desoto and Plymouth – was living in the past. After the conflict cars were selling quickly and the company rested on it's laurels. Its lineup was quickly dating in appearance as other manufacturers – GM and Ford – moved quickly to have cars designed to suit post-war buyers, no longer inhibited by the austerity that gripped the world for a decade.
This was a time for Americans to look forward with confidence and enthusiasm ... and car makers needed to move quickly to meet the demand. It took Chrysler until 1955 to turn around the post-war designs to cars that looked as if they had been designed after the war, not before it. Behind the new designs was show-car designer, Virgil Exner, who had been with the company since 1949.
The first Dodge Custom Royal ran off the production line in 1955 along the entry-level Coronet and mid-range Royal. The Coronet featured either a 230 cubic inch flat head straight six engine or a 4.4 litre Red Ram V8. The Royal only came with the V8 but a coupe or wagon was not available. The top-of-the-line Custom Royal came as a hardtop coupe or convertible with the same 270 cubic inch Red Ram V8, but boosted with hemi heads and called the Super Red Ram. In appearance these 1955 cars were at least line ball with Ford and Chevrolet offerings.
Between 1955 and 1959 the Dodge grew with larger tail fins and lights until and became more sporty as it became longer and lower. Along the way the Custom Royal also gained a lot more bling – before the term was invented – as well as push button TorqueFlite transmissions that also became familiar in Australia in locally built AP4 Chrysler Royals and the 1961-62 Chrysler R and S Valiants. By 1957 the Custom Royal was enjoying a 325 cubic inch Red Ram V8.
All Chrysler passenger cars received a re-styled body for the 1959 model, but were still based on the same platform from 1957. The 1959 Custom Royal however, took the cake for the most outlandish makeover. Even by US standards at the time it was over-the-top. Even the 1959 Cadillac looked conservative alongside this Dodge. Did the buyers shy away? No Sir. An option on the 1959 Custom Royal was a swing-out swivel-seat. The driver simply swung the seat around, hopped in and then swung his or legs into the car, with the seat following closely behind. Then it was simply a case of locking the seat in.
The 1959 Custom Royal came with a standard Ramfire 361 cubic inch V8, but there was also an optional 383 cubic inch V8. The year 1959 saw and end to the large-finned cars and there were none finer than the Custom Royal and the Caddy of the same year. The style started by Harley Earl from GM had run it's race and gave us some of the most outrageous cars ever. These finned monsters were signs of hope and extravagance borne out of the WW2 era of the hope for peace ... and enforced austerity, that ended in the early 1950s,but with designs that continued until the early 1960s.
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