Chrysler Town & Country Convertible
The name ‘Town & Country’ came about by chance. On first seeing the car, one of Chrysler’s designers mentioned that the front of the car looked very ‘town’ and the wood panelling very ‘country’. It was as simple as that.
This Chrysler Town & Country Convertible can transport six people with ease. The car is 5.63 metres long and because of the wood panelling it weighs approximately 2,500 kilograms.
Most models were powered by a six-cylinder engine, but this one has a 5.3-litre eight-cylinder, producing 135 hp. The Chrysler was fitted with a ‘fluid drive’ semi-automatic transmission and hydraulic clutch as standard. Automatic gearboxes were still in their infancy at that time. The car has a rare accessory: a second windscreen for the rear compartment.
After the war, when other car manufacturers did no more than update their pre-war models, Chrysler continued the Town & Country range with the introduction of a completely new model.
The car was not cheap: a Town & Country cost 3,500 dollars, making it more expensive than an average Cadillac. The wood panelling of the Town & Country was also very expensive: one door cost 234 dollars, about three times the price of a steel door which cost 73 dollars. At the end of the 1940s the real wood was replaced with a type of wood grain called Di-Noc.