Chrysler 300 buyer's guide

Overview

The Chrysler 300 letter series (1955–65) invented the American performance luxury car: beginning with the C-300 of 1955 — the 300-horsepower Hemi flagship, America's most powerful production car that year and a NASCAR champion — and running through a letter a year (300B, C, D... to the 300L of 1965), each combining the New Yorker's luxury with the division's most powerful engines, heavy-duty chassis and subtle, specific trim. Alongside them sat the non-letter 300 (1962–71, covered in the full-size guide's family). The letter cars — the 1957 300C above all, and the 1960–61 crossram cars — are blue-chip American classics whose verification culture is exact: the letter series club and the cars' build records know essentially every survivor.

Generations and year breaks

1955–1956 — C-300 and 300B

• The C-300 (1955): the Hemi 331 with dual quads, the Imperial's grille in a Windsor/New Yorker-based hardtop, and a racing record (Tim Flock's NASCAR championship) that made the legend.
• The 300B (1956) added the 12-volt system and the 354 Hemi; the TorqueFlite arrived mid-year at the line's edge.

1957–1959 — the finned letter cars

• 300C (1957): the Exner masterpiece — the fins, the open grille, the 392 Hemi (390hp with dual quads) and the era's most complete performance-luxury statement. A convertible joined (1957 was the letter series' first ragtop).
• The 300D (1958) offered the Bendix Electrojector fuel injection in a handful of cars (all were recalled to carburettors — a "fuelie" D is a documented phantom worth verifying to the last paper).
• The 300E (1959) moved to the 413 wedge engine — the Hemi's production end.

1960–1965 — the crossram and the close

• The 300F (1960) introduced the crossram 413 (the long-ram induction that put the carburettors over the wheelhouses) — the era's most exotic induction, with the French-built Pont-à-Mousson four-speed manual in a tiny handful of cars.
• The 300G (1961) was the last of the finned cars; the H/K/J (the letter I was skipped) wound the series through the downsized 1962–64 cars to the 300L (1965) — a handsome, conventional flagship that closed the letter story.

Engines and options that matter

• 331/354/392 Hemis (1955–58) — the letter cars' first era; the engine codes and the dual-quad hardware are codified per year.
• 413 wedge (1959–65) — in crossram (1960–61, plus short-ram variants) and standard dual-quad forms; the crossram manifolds are valuable, identifiable components.
• The convertibles (1957 on) and the 1960 F's four-speed cars are the rarity summits; air conditioning and the full luxury specification are expected equipment.

What to check before buying

• Build records decide: the letter-series' documentation (Chrysler's historical records and the 300 Club International's registers) verifies each car by VIN — a letter car without its paper trail is a question, not a purchase.
• Fender/data plate and VIN: the early cars' serial plates sit on the door jamb; the letter series had specific series codes in the VIN sequence — decode before anything else. Non-letter 300s and New Yorkers dressed as letter cars are the standing fraud.
• Crossram induction: the manifolds, the linkage and the correct carburettors are a system; a partial set-up is a negotiation. The ram cars' cold-start manners are famously uncivilised — originality includes the compromise.
• Rust: the unibody cars (1960 on) follow the C-body torsion-bar pattern; the framed 1955–59 cars rot in their floors, sills and the frame's X-member area. Convertibles combine both checks with their own structure.
• Electrojector claims (300D): the injected cars were converted back by the factory; any claim needs factory-level documentation — treat all such claims as unproven until the paper closes them.
• Parts: Hemi and crossram components are a valuable specialist economy; trim unique to each letter year is the hunt; the club world is the buyer's infrastructure.