Imperial Home Page -> Imperials by Year -> 1967 -> Michael Amodt's 1967 Mobile Director Coupe
The newest prestige car in a decade reveled Chrysler Motors Corporation. Yet, in spite of all the effort and costs involved, only 13,227 Imperials were produced that year. Cadillac outsold Imperial by a ratio of 15 to one!
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| Featured prominently in it's advertising of Imperial '67, was the Mobile Director option. It was described as an executive board-room paneled with rare wood, complete with conference table, turn-around executive chair and a high-intensity reading lamp that mounts in any of the four cigarette lighter sockets. The inspiration for this novel accessory was a lavish experimental luxury car which appeared throughout the country at the 1966 automobile shows. Called the Imperial Mobile Executive car, it had the fittings listed above as well as a small television, 2-way radio-telephone, Dictaphone and an early version of the fax machine. It was designed to be an office on wheels. Reacting to its favorable response at the auto shows, Chrysler decided to offer a scaled-down version in production models. Available only in the Crown Coupe, (though a LeBaron may have been more appropriate) the cost of the Mobile Director option was a staggering $597.40. Just 81 Mobile Director Crown Coupes were sold. For the few so equipped in 1968 the option's cost was lowered to $317.60. | ||
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| It's often wondered why the original owners of these cars would opt for such a highly unnecessary and expensive feature? This example was ordered from Normandin Chrysler Plymouth in San Jose, California by a lady physician. She was chief of staff at a local hospital in addition to maintaining a private practice. She thought the table handy for note-taking when making house calls. When the Imperial was just a few months old the doctor died unexpectedly leaving it to her closest friend, a prominent businesswoman. It was to be her car for the next twenty-eight years. After giving up driving at the age of 88, she offered her beloved Imperial to me. Though spot-painted at times during her ownership, the car is original and in the condition in which it was received. | ||
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Original pictures | ||
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| Blank-Off piece (it weighs 3 pounds). Chrysler provided for the possibility the owner might want to remove the table at times so the cap covers the floor mount! | Literature for the Mobile Director option states the lamp stores under the front seat but if it does, I have never been able to figure out how. | |
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Armrest |
Swivel
Seat turns towards rear |
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