The first Chrysler Flathead Six, a 68-horsepower engine displacing 201 cubic inches, appeared in 1924, and it was still being installed in Dodge Power Wagons and military M37 trucks as late as 1968 (the last of the Flathead Six-powered Chrysler cars rolled off the assembly line in 1959). After that, Chrysler kept making the engine for industrial and farm use well into the 1970s. 50 years, or just close to it? We'll need input from you serious vintage Mopar experts to know for sure!
[Wikipedia, Allpar]

I'm not including the Dodge- and Plymouth-branded Mitsubishis here; you'll need to check out the 450 DOTS: The Japanese post for the Colts and Arrows.

1947 Plymouth	1950 Dodge	1950 Plymouth	1951 Dodge
1951 Dodge	1952 Dodge	1952 Dodge	1955 Plymouth
1956 Imperial	1957 Chrysler	1961 Plymouth	1961 Plymouth
1962 Dodge	1962 Chrysler	1962 Chrysler	1964 Imperial
1964 Dodge	1964 Dodge	1964 Chrysler	1965 Plymouth
1965 Plymouth	1965 Plymouth	1965 Dodge	1966 Dodge
1966 Dodge	1966 Dodge	1967 Plymouth	1967 Imperial
1968 Plymouth	1969 Dodge	1969 Dodge	1969 Dodge
1970 Chrysler	1970 Dodge	1970 Dodge	1970 Dodge
1971 Chrysler	1971 Plymouth	1971 Imperial	1971 Chrysler
1971 Plymouth	1971 Plymouth	1972 Plymouth	1973 Plymouth
1973 Dodge	1974 Plymouth	1975 Dodge	1977 Plymouth
1978 Chrysler	1978 Dodge	1978 Dodge	1984 Plymouth
1986 Dodge	1986 Dodge	1990 Chrysler

When you're done here, check out the rest of the 450 DOTS Celebration:

This gem was sitting riverside at the Orphan Car Show, and gathered a constant crowd. Even though DeSoto was already on the way downhill before World War 2, Chrysler whipped this vehicle up as soon as production resumed and though it didn't sell terribly well (the relatively high $2,093-2,631 asking price probably had something to do with that), you can't argue with its piles of style. It's got everything we love about post war-era cars, a flat-head straight six, acres of chrome, effortless passenger room and so much wood you wonder how the forests survived. Just look at that rear door, four different types alone. Then there's the rear load floor deck which would be taken up and modified in the Kaiser Traveler a few years later, super cool. Imagine driving this car and attempting to avoid a solid blinding from all that dash chrome, that's a problem we'd probably suffer through without complaint.

The RB series, which included the 413, 426 Wedge, and 440 engines (as well as the trivia-question-obscure RB 383 of 1959-60), might well be included with the B (it was a taller version of the B design) but we're going to stick with the B alone here. The Chrysler B engine, in 350- and 361-cubic-inch displacements, debuted in the 1958 model year and was dubbed the Golden Commando by Plymouth, the D-500 by Dodge, and the Turboflash by DeSoto. The 383 is the best-known of the Bs, being installed at some point in just about every vehicle Chrysler made during its 1959-1971 run, and let's not forget the 383-powered Jensen Interceptor! The final B engine was the smogged-down 400, which was essentially a bored-out 383; the last one drove onto the Malaise Highway in 1978.
[Allpar, Wikipedia]

The folks at the Imperial Club site have obtained and scanned vast quantities of these helpful technical documents from the 1947-1978 period, and the early ones are heavily illustrated with the disturbing-yet-lovable figure of Tech.


Tech has a blocky body, gigantic globular head, and what appears to be a segment of dowel for a nose. In Tech's world, mechanics wear military uniforms; no doubt they've just returned from duty wrenching on P-47 remote turbochargers and Studebaker Weasels in France, or maybe Korea.


Tech makes fixing that Dodge, DeSoto, or Chrysler real easy!


Just to let you know you're in the 1940s, Tech even throws in some hair-raisingly racist and/or sexist caricatures when explaining complicated stuff.


We're sure Tech has become more enlightened in his old age, though. Remember, ya can't go wrong with a Chrysler (unless it's a Sebring or Cirrus, that is). Thanks to 57Sweptside for the tip!
[Imperial Club]

Jorge, visiting the Island That Time Really Forgot from his native Venezuela, took these shots a few months back and was kind enough to share them with us. We've got Polski Fiats and Ladas, plus a '56 Belvedere "Special Racing Edition," a '57 Dodge, and a '55 DeSoto FireFlite convertible. And you've got to admire the ingenuity behind a 1950 Chevy cab powered by a Mitsubishi four-cylinder engine (though off-the-line torque might be a little lacking, reliability is probably quite good).

This is one of two beauties that are within a block of each other, parked on a main artery in downtown Toronto!
First up, I found what I believe to be a 1959 Desoto Fireflite four door. While taking the pictures at 10:30 a.m., a guy three sheets to the wind stumbles out of the house it's parked in front of, and although he's not the owner, he tells me that he knows the owner and says the car has not been not restored! She's beauty marked with some rust here and there, but aside from that she looks pretty solid for an almost 50 year old automobile. Drunk guy said she's parked there every day so he can watch it for the owner. Yeah, when he's not passed out on the floor! It's the little things on this car that catch my eye, the mirrors, emblems, tail lamps, even the hub caps all have a certain attention to detail modern cars are devoid of, and that's what makes something like this car special.

What's better than a 50s station wagon with vast expanses of chrome and crazy swooping body lines? Yes, you got it: a 50s station wagon with vast expanses of chrome and crazy swooping body lines and a Hemi! Just imagine the kind of hooned-up family vacations that were had in this 1955 DeSoto Firedome wagon (go here if the ad disappears) back in the day, with the unbelted kids and dogs wrestling in the back, Mom and Dad chain-smoking unfiltered Luckies up front, Patsy Cline on the AM, and formations of F-102s hunting Commies overhead. And, naturally, the sound of a 291-cube, 200-horse Hemi eating up the endless ribbon of asphalt. Now, to get this wagon back to that condition is going to take some doing, because the seller says it's been sitting since 1963 (actually, I suspect the seller is looking at the "63" series number embossed on all yellow-on-black California plates, meaning the car may only have been sitting since, oh, 1968). But it looks fairly complete, and most or all of the impossible-to-find glass and trim seems to be present. We're not sure what to make of the price, which is "5,000 asking ( firm )," whatever that means. A firm asking price probably has some negotiating room, we figure. Sure, every single component on this car will need to be messed with, but: Hemi Firedome Wagon!

The problem with a DeSoto, however, is that DeSoto was a division of Chrysler. Hemi or not, that's just too mainstream! Perhaps a Studebaker is the wagon for you! And not just any old Studebaker; we mean a genuine 1958 Studebaker Provincial wagon (go here if the ad disappears), available for the same price as the DeSoto. This one hasn't been sitting quite as long (a mere ten years), but the damper climate of Seattle means those promiscuous oxygen atoms have been busy gettin' down, gettin' funky with the iron atoms in this Stude's sheetmetal. The statement "Chrome removed and some sanding was done, but never finished" isn't very reassuring in this case, but compensating for that is a column-shift manual transmission with overdrive and some of the most outrageous fins ever installed on a station wagon. There's a Studebaker 289 engine, which we think is just pleading for the McCullough supercharger used on the Golden Hawk, and all the glass seems intact. How hard can this project be?

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First we have this creampuff of a 1950 DeSoto Deluxe sedan. Sure, it's missing the grille and the engine looks like it hasn't turned over since LBJ was president, but are you going to let that stop you from taking on a project with such huge potential payoff? Look at how beautiful it is, and it's just waiting for your healing hands (and wallet) to get it back on the road again! One nice thing about this car is that it shares a lot of components with other not-impossible-to-find Chrysler products of the era. Only $975 or best offer for a shrewd wheeler-dealer such as yourself, and the seller might even throw in the tow chain for free! The seller doesn't waste our time with description, letting the photos tell the whole story.

But when you get right down to it, you deserve better than a car with a 112-horse flathead six-banger. Why not spend the extra 25 bucks and score yourself a car with a 374-cube OHV V8 rated at 290 horsepower? Well, maybe a few of the horses have escaped this car's engine over the decades, but it's still a Packard! In fact, it's a Packard Patrician, a name that just radiates dignity and authority. Does it run? Sure! It just needs, er, "a couple of things." We're guessing they're fairly expensive things. But don't worry, because you can save a few bucks by trading the seller your gun safe, or maybe your '83 Bronco lift kit; come on, ya cheapskate- the seller has already marked this car 50% off!

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Why is it that the '57 Chevy, rightly or not, is regarded as some sort of pinnacle for Detroit? Or, for that matter, 1957 in general? The Gray Lady took al crack at that question yesterday, and her article is packed full of interesting facts (e.g., 10% of 1957 Chevrolets built are still driving today). But '57 wasn't just about the Chevy; at the time, the not-much-changed-from-1956 car seemed a bit lackluster next to Ford's all-new lineup (featuring an optional supercharged 312 engine) or Chrysler's stunning horsepower ratings (an optimistically rated 375-horse Hemi). And, as we all know, the following year's crop out of Detroit just didn't look as good (though we dig crazy fins, of course). – Murilee Martin

Fifty, Finned and Fabulous [New York Times (sub. req.)]

Related:
Jet Ace! Ramjet Fuel Injection For The '57 Chevy [internal]

In 1956, you could hardly call yourself a proto-audiophile if you didn't own any of the fine Chrysler products that featured this sweet in-car phonograph. This 'Highway Hi Fi' system featured a turntable that would slide out from behind a drop-down door from underneath the dash to play 45-speed or 7-inch records in certain formats. As you might imagine, there was one little problem with the system: skipping. Also, an exclusive agreement with Columbia meant that you could only listen to artists signed to Columbia Records (talk about DRM issues). Alas, the good die young and the system was soon abandoned. Oh to live in those halcyon days of convertible Desotos with my choice of The Sparklers Quartet or the Lennon Sisters on my own personal phonograph...– Matt Hardigree

Chrysler's In-Car Phonograph [Crave]

Related:
Test for Echo!: New Lincoln MKX Crossover to Have THX Sound [Internal]

The trend these days in the crate motor world is to punch famed big-block displacement numbers out of small block designs. Chrysler's the latest on board with their new 440 Super Commando and 392 Hemi crates. The 440 is based on the LA-series 340 Resto Block, but designed to work with later-style Magnum parts for EFI or carbureted applications. It's bored and stroked to make the magic 440 number, which is pretty impressive, considering Chevy only got 427 inches out of the Z06's LS7.

The 392 Hemi starts with the 6.1L Hemi block from the SRT-8 editions of the Magnum, Charger and 300C and goes from there. Frankly, we're just stoked that they brought back the Super Commando name, which simply reeks of badassness. Now all we need is a Six-Pack version. Somebody get Barry Grant on the phone.

Related:
Edelbrock's new 460hp Chevy Crate Motor