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Chrysler K-310 from 1951 - Virgil Exner's first work at Chrysler changed the entire car industry

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Created on March 26, 2012

Reading time 4min

Written by:

Stefan Fritschi

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Archiv

12

Chrysler K-310 (1951) - das Konzeptfahrzeug hatte einen 310 PS starken V8-Motor

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Chrysler K-310 (1951) - das Konzeptfahrzeug und sein Motor

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Chrysler K-310 (1951) - 'Starring in Style' - wunderschöne Fotomontage des Werks

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Chrysler K-310 (1951) - elegante, fliessende Linien

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Chrysler K-310 (1951) - ein neues Gesicht für Chrysler

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Chrysler K-310 (1951) - Heckansicht

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Chrysler K-310 (1951) - Speichenräder und Zentralverschluss beim Konzeptfahrzeug

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Chrysler K-310 (1951) - Interieur und Armaturenbrett der Studie

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Chrysler K-310 (1951) - ausfahrbares Ersatzrad als Bedienungserleichterung

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Chrysler K-310 (1951) - Blick in den Motorraum

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Chrysler K-310 (1951) - auch der Motor der Studie war fast schon ein Kunstwerk

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Chrysler K-310 (1951) - enorm modern für seine Zeit

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Summary

At a time when Chrysler mainly built very voluminous and expansive shapes, Chrysler President K. T. (Kaufman Thuma) Keller found a new man in Virgil Exner, who revamped the company with its dusty design and brought a breath of fresh air into the automotive industry with several breathtaking Idea Cars. The elegant K-310 made the start, as a promoter of the new V8 Hemi engine, so to speak. This report describes the genesis of the design milestone Chrysler K-310 and shows it in many illustrations, as well as in a brochure published at the time and in the original press releases.

This article contains the following chapters

A more important position for the styling department
"Pure Automobile" as a promotion for the new 1951 V8 Hemi engine
Functional shape and raised rear lights
Design in Detroit - implementation in Italy
No money for series production
More information

Estimated reading time: 4min

Preview (beginning of the article)

At a time when Chrysler mainly built very voluminous and expansive shapes, Chrysler President K. T. (Kaufman Thuma) Keller looked for and found a new man to take the company, which had become dusty in terms of design, forward: Virgil Exner, who had already made a name for himself at Studebaker under Raymond Loewy. Exner's designs very quickly brought Chrysler out of its sales crisis and had a lasting influence on the design of more than just American cars. At Chrysler, he managed to take control of the entire process from design and model construction to the design approval of the tools. As a result, the position of the styling department suddenly changed completely. This was - without exaggeration - an important milestone in the history of the industry.

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