Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Imperial just might turn your brown eyes blue. That’s because it’s a rare Frank Sinatra edition, which were all painted to match the iconic singer’s peepers. We’ll see if that, and its price, will someone say come fly with me.
How do you like your chickens, screaming? Your king cobras, hooded? How about your AMXs? Well, when it came to yesterday’s 1979 AMC Spirit AMX - which was both a car and a three-letter name that had been recycled over the years - you tended to like them… as it were, cheaper.
That AMX came away with a sad 60% Crack Pipe loss, meaning that the seller’s wife, who didn’t like it messing up her driveway decor, will need to find some other way to deal with her unfortunate Fung-Shui.
Do you know who never gave two craps about Fung-Shui? That’s right, Frank Sinatra; the Chairman of the Board, Ol’ Blue Eyes. That dude reached a point in his career where pretty much anything he said went. He also apparently knew a lot of mobsters so you didn’t agree with him, well you might be napping with the seafood.
Another of Sinatra’s cadre of friends was none other than then Chrysler CEO, Lee Iacocca. He decided to honor his friend - or maybe make good on a gambling debt - with a special edition of the company’s new top-o-the-heap Imperial.
The ‘81 - ‘83 Imperial was the car Chrysler dropped on the market to fulfill Iacocca’s demand for a Cadillac/Lincoln competitor. It was based on the 2nd-generation Cordoba platform. That had the new Imperial weighing in at 213.3 inches over all and riding on a 112.7 inch wheelbase which made it small in comparison to previous iterations, but still a damn big coupe.
It also had a bustle back trunk, a feature designed to emulate luxury cars of the past and first introduced on the Cadillac Seville a year earlier. Why on earth anyone thought this would be the luxe-boat design trope to take America into the ‘80s is anybody’s guess, but even Lincoln took the bait with the Fox-based Continental. This is probably the least egregious example.
The rest of the car is as swoopy and impressive as you could want with a design that features more front overhang than a Kardashian, and fins like nobody’s business. hidden headlamps finish the old-school luxury looks.
This 1982 Frank Sinatra edition is - like all 278 so kitted - painted Glacier Blue, supposedly the color of the crooner’s eyes. It was also sold with an interior festooned in platinum carpet and sky-blue velour as its original owner apparently eschewed the leather option.
Amazingly, the car also seems to have seven of the original Frank Sinatra cassette tapes in the console, which were part of the FS package. What it doesn’t seem to have - at least in the pics - is a headliner. That’s out of the car for recovering and in addition to that renovation there are some cigarette burns in the upholstery that you might want to patch.
On the outside, it has newish paint and chrome that has been replaced with fancy chrome tape! The 318 engine is claimed to run but in need of a new carb. These cars originally came with EFI (Chrysler’s first since 1958!) but it proved too wonky and the company offered owners a 2bbl retrofit kit. There’s also some brake work that needs a-doin’ despite the claim of $400 already having been poured in there.
At 64K the miles are low. The years however are high and these were never the best things Chrysler ever built, despite being the brand’s range topper. Still with a little elbow grease this one should make for a pretty sweet ride. Plus, when was the last time you saw one of these, never?
You’ve seen this one, and now it’s time to see if it seems to be worth its $4,000 asking price (which dropped by $500 just yesterday). What do you think, is that price as sweet as the Summer Wind? Or, is that too much to for you to want to do it “My Way?”
You decide!
New Jersey Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Jonee for the hookup!
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