Dan Wing's 1983 Imperial

Imperial Home Page -> Imperials by Year -> 1983 -> Dan

When I first got my 1983 Imperial in 1990, she was not all that old and most car shows made me enter under the "specialty car" category or something to that effect.

Even though my car has been repainted (not a very good job) and has a couple of small rust holes, (from the central NY winters we have here. The original owner drove it year-round, and there were pine needles in the trunk!) I actually won a trophy by default once. There were three cars registered in the 1980 or newer class and I won third by default. 8-}

I don't enter car shows to win prizes. I just have lots of fun with the curious looks and questions I get. Most people think that my car is a Mercury of some kind. They are quite surprised to find out that it's an Imperial. ("Never knew they made those.")  I also like to share a number of photos of Buddy Arrington's NASCAR Winston Cup Imperial and that always seems to blows their minds.

Most people think my car is quite a bit newer than it really is. The digital dash surprises them.  My '83 is a factory conversion to carburetor, so I get to talk about that, too.

This past Fourth of July, I entered a show which had a parade afterward.  I thought ...What the heck, I'll do the parade. As we drove along (I was behind a 1966 Plymouth Belvedere) I could hear comments like, "Hey, look at that Imperial" or "What's that guy doing in the parade? Did he get in by accident?".  I just smiled and enjoyed it.

The best part of all is that in 11 years, I have never seen another1980's Imperial at a car show. The closest was this past summer, when a guy entered a mint 1983 Chrysler Town and Country wagon which was the same color as mine.  I parked next to him and we had a ball. It really looked like a mommy and baby car next to each other.