The Chrysler 300 was thought-about the businessman’s muscle automotive when it arrived in 1955 with a mix of fashion and rear-wheel-drive efficiency flowing from the early Hemi V-8 engine.
Chrysler went again to that system almost 50 years later with a reimagined descendant that turned a popular culture icon and rejuvenated the corporate’s picture. The automaker sought to create a cool however inexpensive automotive that was “unabashedly American,” recalled Stellantis design chief Ralph Gilles, who grew up in Montreal and was design director for the 300 that debuted in 2004.
The 300’s run involves an finish in December, when manufacturing concludes so Ontario’s Brampton Meeting Plant could be retooled for electrical autos. A relic of the DaimlerChrysler period, the 300 was the lead automobile on the LX platform that additionally underpinned the Dodge Charger and the short-lived Dodge Magnum.
A well-kept 2005 mannequin, Gilles stated, nonetheless seems to be good on the street in spite of everything these years. He stated the nostalgia issue of the design hit a chord with the general public when it debuted.
“In the event you bear in mind again within the late ’90s, and even all through the ’90s, we had been displaying the Chrysler model as a really premium American model,” Gilles informed Automotive Information on the 2022 Detroit auto present, the place Chrysler unveiled a final-year, 485-hp 300C particular version. “A variety of grand present automobiles, we had been displaying all these very highly effective, very hard-to-forget sort of designs. That was the concept with the 300, to recapture that, that proud American automotive. For some time, American automobiles had been making an attempt to be Eurocentricly styled. We’re like, ‘No, do not be ashamed of who you’re. Have fun your swagger.’ “
Twenty years in the past, Chrysler wished the 300 to take the model to a brand new place whereas remaining true to its heritage.
Though the 300M that got here out in 1999 bore the identify, the “cab ahead” sedan, as Gilles referred to as it, was a front-wheel-drive entry with a run-of-the-mill V-6.
The subsequent 300 would have rwd and want a extra substantial entrance finish to chill its Hemi V-8 engine. Designer Bob Hubbach, Gilles stated, wished to convey again the “grand” American automotive.
“They began there and we toyed round,” Gilles stated. “And at last, we noticed a theme, nevertheless it wasn’t the favorite theme, really. I beloved it in the beginning. I simply thought it was cool, and I took it below my wing and saved working it, saved making an attempt to get proportions proper.”
The design crew crafted a mockup and started displaying it to shoppers throughout analysis clinics. The automobile, referred to as the Nassau, had no badging that would tip individuals off on the model.
Most of the shoppers within the clinics had been child boomers of their 40s, 50s and 60s and instantly acknowledged it as a brand new Chrysler 300, stated Mike Perugi, who was the automotive’s advertising and marketing launch supervisor. “And no person anyplace, besides us internally,” he stated, “had even seen this factor.”
Perugi stated the design reminded individuals of bygone instances after they went for Sunday drives with their mother and father. The manufacturing 300 carefully resembled the Nassau.
“We stated, ‘We have one thing right here,’ ” Perugi stated. “There was an inside joke that for those who had been researching autos, you can inform whether or not or not you are going to get 5 years out of them or greater than 5 years. And this one, we principally stated to ourselves, jokingly, we may get 10 good years out of this mannequin. … Quick ahead, we’re simply wanting 20 years on that automobile, and it is nonetheless accomplished very nicely to today.”
There was some debate throughout the firm about what to name the 300. Among the newer executives wished to make use of the identify Nassau.
To make the case for calling it the 300, Perugi procured an array of classic 300 fashions from collectors and parked them within the automaker’s government storage. He then gave the management a fast historical past lesson.
“We had to determine a method to present them that this factor is predicated on a real lineage of classics and that the Chrysler 300 means one thing to its clients,” Perugi stated. “For us to name this automotive something aside from the 300, we’d be capturing ourselves within the foot.”
The 300C debuted on the 2004 Detroit auto present, just a few months earlier than its spring gross sales launch.
It had a excessive beltline, brief home windows and a entrance finish impressed by the Chrysler Chronos idea proven in 1998.
“What we love to do as designers is create one thing that can look good eternally, and numerous that is good proportions,” Gilles stated. “We reduce a extremely good take care of engineering to provide us a extremely good stance on the automobile. As soon as a automobile has good stance, it ought to at all times look fairly good eternally.”
The brand new 300 elevated the Chrysler model from the Concorde, LHS and 300M. Perugi stated it was one of many first fashions to make use of elements from Daimler autos.
The sedan was so fashionable at first that Chrysler was backed up with orders for about 5 months. Perugi stated Chrysler’s share of Black shoppers doubled throughout the first 12 months. Among the many early clients had been rapper Snoop Dogg and then-Sen. Barack Obama.
U.S. gross sales of the automotive almost reached 113,000 in 2004 and topped 140,000 in every of the following two years. Chrysler CEO Christine Feuell stated the model has offered greater than 1.2 million 300s for the reason that launch.
Canadian gross sales totalled 3,463 in 2003, jumped to 10,480 the next 12 months and peaked at 14,654 in 2005.
Gilles stated one of many secrets and techniques to the 300’s longevity is that it got here to be considered as a canvas for self-expression.
“Typically you should buy a automobile ready-made together with his expression all stated and accomplished, and there are particular autos that welcome it,” Gilles stated. “The Wrangler is a type of; 300 is a type of, the place it simply begs individuals to place their very own spice on it.”
The 300 appeared in music movies for artists corresponding to 50 Cent and on “MTV Cribs,” a present that peeked into celebrities’ houses.
Its embrace by the hip-hop neighborhood led Chrysler to place the Beats audio system from producer and rapper Dr. Dre within the 300S, with Dre himself showing in an advert marketing campaign for the automotive.
The popular culture placements had been the handiwork of BJ Birtwell, who was Chrysler’s youth advertising and marketing supervisor throughout the 300’s early years.
Birtwell was tasked with driving engagement and consciousness amongst multicultural and youthful patrons. This was earlier than social media took off, so platforms corresponding to music movies had been prime actual property.
The model used numerous guerilla advertising and marketing to garner consideration for the 300, Charger and Magnum, he stated. Birtwell credited Gilles and his group for birthing a design and DaimlerChrysler for giving the artistic freedom wanted to make it successful.
The “road group” typically swarmed cities with a set of lowered 300s that had been outfitted with 22-inch rims and tinted home windows. They as soon as took just a few onto San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge for a photograph op.
The automaker partnered with Dub Journal, which covers city customized automotive tradition, on a sequence of special-edition fashions. The connection prolonged to elements corresponding to flooring mats, chrome accents, reducing springs and a 3-inch efficiency exhaust.
There was even a diamond-studded 300C clock from Jacob & Co., a preferred jeweler amongst rappers.
Birtwell stated the trick was to put the 300 with the correct individuals whereas avoiding overcommercialization.
“Despite the fact that [musicians] may afford a Bentley, there was one thing concerning the 300C or the Charger and even the Magnum that was actually fascinating,” Birtwell stated. “I bear in mind doing stuff with Nelly, all sorts of completely different artists, that had been simply very easy collaborations as a result of the product was sizzling.”