Never Say Never

Five weeks ago the CarPort explored the mysteries of convertible windows, a subject which resonates with a number of our regular readers. One of the oddities discovered in researching that story was the three-passenger Chrysler Town & Country convertible, and we speculated that no such car was ever built. Clearly there was literature for such a car, because we used it for illustration. As you can see here, there was at least one real three-passenger T&C; Fred Summers has seen it and took some pictures.

Last year, Fred, who travels a lot on business, was in Phoenix at the time of the marathon auctions. While cruising the parking garage at one of the hotels, he found this car in an area reserved for "sold cars." Not surprisingly, a group of men had gathered and they were discussing the car. One proffered the idea that it had been converted from a business coupe (Chrysler Corporation, remember, offered three-passenger coupes in all their makes, and for some reason the Chrysler catalog had business coupes in all series, Royal to New Yorker, through 1948. Thus with a Sawzall and some wood applique it would be possible to make a salesman's T&C.

Another person in the group said he'd seen another such car; that three were built, one Windsor and two New Yorkers (the Windsor, remember, had a six-inch-shorter wheelbase). He knew the owner of one of the cars, and he'd heard another was in Cleveland. This must be the third. Tire kickers have been known to spin (or repeat) tall tales, so we looked for some independent corroboration.

Richard Langworth has been delving the mysteries of the automobile for more than forty years. While many tire kickers were speculating, he was talking to the people who designed and built the cars, people now largely deceased. His book Chrysler - The Postwar Years contains a chapter on the T&Cs. Indeed, there was an intention at Chrysler to build more than just a convertible and a sedan Town & Country. In 1946, literature was printed showing five wood-bodied models,the convertible and sedan production cars, a "hardtop convertible" ( factory photos of which are quite well-known), the three-passenger car ("roadster"), and a two-door sedan version ("brougham"). In fact, the cut-outs of the two T&C soft-tops illustrating that August 10th item were taken from just such a brochure. There must have been more than one brochure, because this green brougham, headed the opposite direction, turned up in the CarPort archives.

Langworth puts the total of hardtops at seven, and records one brougham, built in 1946, sold to a private owner and never seen again. He says no roadsters were actually built. When asked about his sources and he said that Chrysler Historical had records on the hardtops and the brougham, but nothing on the roadster. According to one of the designers involved with the T&Cs, "not even a prototype was built." But that doesn't rule out something happening in a back room somewhere, and even the factory would probably start with the closest production body style, in this case a business coupe, just like a latter-day clone crafter.

So there we leave it. The fact that at least one Town & Country roadster now exists rules out "never." The relevant questions, then, are "Who?", "When?" and "How?"