The downfall of the Chrysler Norseman
10/07/2011
On July 25 , 1956, the "Andrea Doria", Italy's largest and most modern passenger ship at the time, collided with another passenger ship in a fog bank on its way to New York and sank as a result. The unexpected accident - the ship had been considered the safest ever - claimed the lives of 46 people, but 1,660 people were saved. But what does this have to do with cars?
There was also a prototype on board the Andrea Doria, a so-called "Idea Car" from the Chrysler Corporation. Virgil Exner had given the design study,christened the "Chrysler Norseman", a forward-looking design. The one-off was built at the Ghia bodywork plant in Turin. It had taken fifteen months to build, 50,000 working hours had gone into the design and a total of around £500,000 had been invested. After test drives at Chrysler's proving grounds, the car should have been the star of the 1957 motor shows, and it had the looks for it. But that was not to be.
The design of the Norseman gave a foretaste of the upcoming American body line, which aimed for longer and wider vehicles. The Chrysler prototype was 577 cm long, 203 cm wide and only 145 cm high. The aluminum roof above the completely postless body was designed to be free-floating and self-supporting and was intended to be able to carry eight times the weight of the car. Safety was also taken into account with individual seats with seat belts and upholstered dashboard. And every conceivable ease of operation of the time was built into the prototype.
For fans of the Lancia brand, it should also be noted that 50 brand-new Lancia Aurelia B24 Spiders were pulled down into the depths of the sea when the Andrea Doria sank, destroying almost 10% of the entire production.
