The Tailfin Era: Chrysler's Forward Look

Virgil Exner, a veteran of Raymond Loewy's design team which styled the post-World War II Studebakers, introduced the "Forward Look" at Chrysler Corp. in 1955. This all new styling, which featured conservative tailfins which grew to greater proportions, arrived with a new polyspheric-head V-8 engine. By 1959, the Forward Look had evolved into perhaps the handsomest tailfins, large but well-proportioned, as on this '59 Plymouth Fury.

Along with the Forward Look, the Chrysler line introduced the so-called "Letter" cars in 1955, with the 300 Series. These provided brute power in a luxury car and continued through the '50s and into the '60s. The Chrysler 300s from 1955 through 1958 were powered by hemi engines (331, 354, and 392 cubic inches). The later Letter 300s, 1959-1965, were powered by the new 413 cubic inch "RB" wedge V-8. By 1961, Chrysler had run through the 300 B, C, D, E and F to this Chrysler 300G. The 300G was powered by a 413-cubic-inch wedge V-8.