FEATURE - 1965 Chrysler 300L

Photos: Ben Hosking

Mention ‘Chrysler 300’ today and most people think of the brawny sedan that debuted in 2004 (as the 300-C) and was only discontinued in Australia a couple of years ago. That car wasn’t the first “300”. It owes its name - and much of its styling - to a Chrysler that had debuted almost 50 years earlier.

The original Chrysler 300, known as the ‘C-300,’ was conceived as a car for driving enthusiasts; those that either owned or aspired to the high-performance sports cars and grand tourers that were coming out of Europe and the UK in  the early 1950s. Chryslers themselves hedged their bets when launching the ‘C-300’ in January, 1955, describing it as a “sports touring car”.

By that point, the Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Thunderbird had already made their debuts, but they appealed to a different market sector. Where the Corvette and Thunderbird had a youthful image, the C-300 was more mature, reflected in its mix of Imperial (Chrysler’s luxury line) styling, with elements lifted from the New Yorker and based on a Windsor two-door hardtop body. The C-300 was also a full-sized car for five, where the early Corvettes and Thunderbirds were much smaller and strictly for two.

Why Chrysler didn’t offer a direct rival to the Thunderbird or Corvette was mainly due to their precarious financial position at the time. The smallest of the ‘Big Three’ American carmakers simply didn’t have the resources to develop and produce an all-new sportscar model for what was, at that time, a small market segment. What Chrysler did have was an awesome engine in the form of their ‘FirePower’ Hemi V8 - they just didn’t have the right vehicle to promote its virtues. The C-300 was born as a way to maximise the impact of the Hemi, both in the showroom and on the racetrack.

All About Power

The all-new model drew its name from the 331 cubic inch Hemi V8’s 300 horsepower (220kW) output – a first for an American-made production car. In NASCAR competition, a pair of C-300s that were only mildly modified from stock dominated the 1955 season, with brothers Tim and Fonty Flock winning 20 of 45 races.

That did as much for the C-300’s image as its range of standard appointments that included leather upholstery, a custom steering wheel and recalibrated 150mph speedometer, along with options like air conditioning, power steering, power front seat adjustment, power windows, a heater, wire wheels and various radio configurations. In time, many of these options would become standard.

Super Starter

The C-300 was a premium model at a premium price (US$4,100 versus US$2,818 for the two-door Windsor it was heavily based on) and just 1,725 examples were built for 1955, but its reception – and the positive PR it generated for Chrysler - was enough to ensure a continuation into 1956. This is when the ‘letter series’ moniker applied to these cars came into effect.

The ‘300B’ of 1956 was externally similar to the debut model, but introduced a larger Hemi engine, a manual transmission option (the C-300 had been auto only) and other minor changes. The 300B also picked up where the C-300 left off in NASCAR, winning 19 of 38 races for the 1956 season.

The 300C of 1957 arrived with all-new styling – part of the company-wide ‘Forward Look’ re-design for that year – and a larger Hemi engine producing up to 390hp (290kW). For the first time, the 300 could also be had as a convertible and 1957 also saw the introduction of the red-white-blue badges that would come to identify the model.

Evoution and Revolution

This pattern continued through 1958 (300D), 1959 (300E), 1960 (300F) and 1961 (300G). A ‘wedge head’ 413ci V8 replaced the Hemi in 1959 and various other spec and styling elements had changed, too. A much bigger change came in 1962 when Chrysler decided to capitalise on the 300’s success by introducing the ‘300 Sports Series’ as a replacement for the Windsor range. These weren’t the same as the letter series cars, but looked similar and could be optioned up to be a letter series in all but name. 

Unsurprisingly, this diluted the exclusivity of the letter cars and sales suffered as a result, with 579 units of the 300H built for 1962, compared to 1,617 of the previous year’s 300G. Production fell even further for 1963, with just 400 examples of the 300J (Chrysler skipped the letter “I”) produced and no convertible offered.

While the cheaper 300 Sports Series was a factor in buyers rejecting the 300J, the new styling for 1963 played a part, too. Both the ‘63 styling and that of the Forward Look cars of 1957 came from Virgil Exner. But where the Forward Look was wildly successful, the 1963 full-sized cars, including the 300J, look like bloated Valiants and Exner was thought to have lost his touch. Salvation was at hand, though, as Exner had been replaced by Elwood Engel in 1962.  

Lured away from Ford after designing the 1961 Lincoln Continental (a design classic even today), several Thunderbirds and other Fords, Engel’s first major project at Chrysler was the experimental Turbine Car of 1963, followed by a makeover of the Imperial for 1964. However, with so much future planning already set in place prior to his arrival, Engel wouldn’t be able to implement his vision for the future of Chrysler styling more broadly - and the 300 letter series specifically - until 1965, which is the year of the car featured.

Rise. . .

On numbers alone, the 1964 300K looks like it was a success, with 3,647 built; a ninefold increase from the year before, despite almost identical styling and no major spec changes. However, this rise can be attributed to a starting price that was almost US$1,000 lower than the 300J. Chrysler were able to achieve this by moving many of the 300’s standard features to the options list.

Thus, the leather upholstery that had been standard on the 300 letter series from the outset was an extra cost option on the 300K, as were power seats, a tachometer and other items. In a similar vein, the rest of the 300 letter series’ instrumentation, along with the wheelcovers and most of the badging, was now shared with the regular 300 Sports Series, leaving precious little separating the two.

Other changes for ’64 saw a four-speed manual transmission introduced and the gimmicky push-button transmission for the TorqueFlite three-speed automatic finally replaced with a floor shifter. Standard engine output from the 413ci V8 that had been introduced for 1959 was set at 360hp (270kW), although a 390hp (290kW) version was optional, as part of a ‘Special Package’ that also included heavy-duty brakes and suspension.

. . .  then Fall

On styling alone, the 1965 Chrysler 300L was a world away from the 300K of the year before. The full Elwood Engel touch was applied fully to this model, with the slab-sided styling having obvious echoes of the Lincoln Continental he’d created earlier.

On a two-inch longer wheelbase, with more glass and marginally larger overall, the 300L looked much cleaner and simpler, with the ‘crosshair’ grille and quad headlights the only elements to carry over unchanged from the 300K. The 300L’s flanks were topped by stainless steel trim pieces with red inserts, while the taillights switched from a hexagonal shape to a segmented horizontal design, set into a bright metal panel. 

Mechanically, the 360hp 413 V8 from 1964 carried over for the 300L, as did the two transmission choices, but the 390hp engine upgrade was discontinued. 

Engel’s styling for the 300L had also been applied across the entire 1965 Chrysler line and was no doubt a factor in production increasing 54 per cent over the year before. Despite this, the future looked grim for the 300 letter series, not just because of the healthier profit margins in the non-letter cars.

The arrival of Ford’s Mustang in 1964 and many carmakers shifting from full-sized cars to intermediates for their performance models (Pontiac GTO, Oldsmobile F-85, etc.) meant the writing was on the wall for “big” performance machines like the 300. In Chrysler’s case, the torch was passed from the 300 to the smaller, B-body Dodge Coronet and Charger, as well as Plymouth's Satellite and Belvedere, leading to models like the Super Bee, Charger R/T, GTX and Road Runner.

Despite this, Chrysler got as far as completing full-sized mock-ups of a ‘300M’ for 1966, and it came close to being signed off for production, but ultimately wasn’t built. That leaves the 300L as the last of the “true” 300 letter series. In 1999, an all-new 300M debuted, followed by the retro-styled 300C in 2005 that most of us are familiar with, but neither of these can be regarded in the same vein as the original letter series cars.

Jeff’s Special

The owner of the car featured, Jeff Nairn, is a Mopar enthusiast through and through. His first car was a 1973 Dodge VJ utility with a 265 Hemi six and three-speed column manual that he converted to a floor shift: “Lots of great P-plate memories in that car!” Jeff laughed.

Jeff’s also owned a ‘69 Plymouth Roadrunner, ’73 VJ Town and Country ute, ’80 CM Valiant GLX sports sedan (noticing the theme yet?), ’69 VF Regal hardtop, ’71 VH Charger XL and a ’76 CL sedan.  He currently owns a 1972 Valiant Ranger XL and a 1974 Valiant VJ Charger XL in GreenGo (1 of 20) with the factory option 265 Hemi and four-speed. The latter car was featured with JUST CARS back in 2021.

The 300L obviously keeps the Mopar theme going, but it wasn’t Jeff’s first choice when he wanted a new addition to his garage back in the mid-2000s.

“I was looking at base model 65-67 Dodge Coronet and Plymouth Belvedere coupes and sedans, but it was hard to find a good one with a big block V8 in my price bracket,” Jeff explained.

The search began in late 2006 and lasted almost a year with no suitable examples turning up.

“The Aussie dollar was good at 0.85, but even so, the price - and in some cases quality - of the 68-71 Plymouth and Dodge muscle cars was still out of my range.”

A deal on a restored ’67 Dodge Coronet R/T tribute came close to fruition, but annoyingly, the seller decided to retain the car.

“After months of frustration I decided one afternoon in early December 2007 to type in ‘1965 Chrysler’ into eBay US,” Jeff recalled. “The first match was “300 Series 300L” with two days to go before bidding ceased. I had heard of letter cars, but hadn’t considered the ‘65 C-body models.”

Jeff liked what he saw, so placed a bid that he could afford – just – and crossed his fingers. Despite Jeff’s bid being under the reserve, the seller accepted and Jeff had himself a 300L.

“My heart skipped a beat,” Jeff laughed. “I then spent the next three days organising the import paperwork and emailing an unknown person who was selling the vehicle on behalf of his good friend.”

Jeff entrusted longtime JUST CARS advertiser John Cain Imports to handle the shipping from LA to Newcastle, with all the paperwork processed by 13 December.

A last-minute scramble to get the Chrysler onto one of the last ships to leave the LA docks before a three-week Christmas shutdown saw Jeff implore the seller to break his Mexico holiday to return to the US, collect the car and drive it 300 miles on Christmas Eve to make the final pre-Christmas departure: “He virtually drove the car into the container!” Jeff laughed.

Despite this, the ship didn’t actually leave port until 2 January, 2008, arriving at John Cain Imports three weeks later.

Sterling Silver

The 1965 Chrysler 300L Jeff had bought was stock in virtually every way. Delivered new to San Francisco, it had three previous owners, all in California, which goes some way to explaining its solid condition, although Chrysler’s improved quality control and rust-prevention measures during this time were also a factor.

The second owner had repainted the car in its original Silver Mist metallic and had the front and rear seats reupholstered, too. All other interior trim, including the carpets and headlining, was original, as was the exterior trim and chrome.

Work done under Jeff’s ownership has included new hoses, belts, gaskets, seals, bearings and other perishables. Jeff likes to drive his Mopars, so the power steering was recoed and the air con regassed, while some brake issues were rectified with new pistons and machined drums (Despite their sporty focus and high-performance engines, the 300 letter series used drum brakes for the entirety of the model’s production).

The factory torsion bar front and leaf spring rear suspension was retained, but Jeff added new adjustable Koni shocks. The only other variations from stock are a set of 8x15-inch Mopar ‘Police’ steel wheels in place of the factory 6x14-inch wheels and hubcaps, and a police-style remote spotlight. The blackout finish of the wheels gives the 300L a touch of menace and has echoes of those NASCAR entries for the 300’s early days.

Most recently, the auto transmission was serviced ahead of a run from Jeff’s home near Maitland, NSW, to the 2020 edition of Chryslers on the Murray, which was the last major car show to be completed here before COVID brought such events to a stop for the next couple of years.

Big, Bold, Beautiful

While it comes from the same family, Jeff’s Chrysler 300L is a very different machine from every other Mopar he’s owned – and that’s part of what he loves about it.

“The build quality is very high, and it has the best of both worlds with a nice balance of muscle car ability and creature comforts.”

Pre-COVID, Jeff attended car multiple shows in the 300L and picked up plenty of awards, including ‘Best Mopar,’ ‘Best Chrysler’ and ‘Best Car’. Back in 2016, the car was used for a photoshoot with Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska for Vogue magazine, and Jeff adds that the 300L appeared briefly in the 1994 movie, Golden Gate.

While shows and trophies are nice, it’s the performance of the 300L that keeps getting Jeff behind the wheel.

“You can’t help but love the deep sound of a big block Mopar V8 when slow cruising and the roar when under acceleration,” Jeff enthused.

“It has a smooth ride and handling, with brutish performance that outperforms most other large American vehicles.”

Given that level of enthusiasm, it may come as a surprise that Jeff sold the 300L last year. When JUST CARS first got in touch in late 2019, Jeff said he'd only sell to a fellow Chrysler enthusiast. Fortunately, he found one and the 300L now resides in Gympie, Queensland.

Until then, keep an eye out for this machine if you’re in the NSW Hunter region. It’ll be pretty easy to spot, as Jeff says it’s one of only three known examples of the 300L in Australia.

The story of the original 300 letter series cars came to end with the 300L, but this particular example has more chapters left to write.