The Full-size Line was Mildly Facelifted

Walter Percy Chrysler honed his native mechanical skills on the great Midwestern railroads, then learned about cars by tinkering with a $5000 Locomobile he bought in 1908. Within a few years he became plant manager at Buick under Charles W. Nash, then took over for him as Buick president. But Chrysler didn't get along with GM's Billy Durant, so he left to run his own car company (as did Nash). After being hired to straighten out faltering Maxwell/Chalmers, Chrysler acquired control of the company by 1924, the year he introduced a new car under his own name. Thus was born the last of America's "Big Three" automakers (though it wasn't formally incorporated until 1925). It was designed with instrumental assistance from three superb engineers: Fred Zeder, Carl Breer, and Owen Skelton, the "Three Musketeers" who would dominate the design of Chrysler Corporation products throughout the '30s. Power came from a high-compression 202-cubic-inch L-head six with seven main bearings and boost endurance 68 brake horsepower -- 0.3 bhp per cubic inch, outstanding for the day.

Also featured were four-wheel hydraulic brakes (well ahead of most rivals), full-pressure lubrication, attractive styling, and competitive prices around $1500. It couldn't miss, and it didn't. Sixes remained Chrysler's mainstay through 1930, when the make offered four different engines ranging from 195.6 to 309.3 cid. The smallest was the four-main-bearing job in the cheap CJ-Series