Chrysler Built the First Real Muscle Car in 1955 and Almost Nobody Remembers It.

The man in the stake bed truck on US Route 1 heard it wrong. It came up behind him low and heavy, closing faster than anything should, and when the headlights swung wide it was long, white, four seats, a trunk and a heater. Something a bank president drives to church. He told people afterward it was a Cadillac. He was wrong. Bob Rodger was 37 when he proposed building a race car out of the parts bin because Chrysler had no money for tooling. New Yorker in the middle, Imperial grille in front, Windsor quarters at the back, and a 331 Hemi with twin four barrels, solid lifters and a Le Mans camshaft. It made 300 horsepower, which is where the name came from. Seventeen days after it reached dealers at $4,109, Tim Flock won at Daytona in one. Carl Kiekhaefer's team, funded by an outboard motor company, took both national stock car titles that year. Chrysler built 1,725 of them. Pontiac sold 32,450 GTOs in year one. So where do you land, and can you defend it? #Chrysler300 #LetterCars #Hemi #FirstMuscleCar #DetroitIron