'My Classic Car' '70's Land Yachts

In this episode, Dennis compares a '77 Grand Marquis and a '77 New Yorker. While a majority of you here still see these as nothing more than engine donors, a few of you will enjoy them for what they are.

Kinda sad we'll never see cars like this again, but isn't it amazing how far we've come power wise with less cubic inches?

I was always amazed by the sheer size of the quarter panels on the 2-door Chryslers.

^^^ I read somewhere many years back that the "fuselage" era Chrysler & Imperial 2-doors had the longest quarter panels ever stamped.

My Dad had a '70 LeBaron 4-door that was a great highway car...

I had a '71 Newport 4dr and it always amazed me for how huge by large the car was, the interior wasn't much bigger than a B-body. More shoulder room for sure, but knee room was identical.

watched that show yesterday. My Grandfather had Imperials, and my Uncle always had a '69-'71 300/New Yorker. Great cars. Love to have one for the wife's dailey but not in the rust belt.

That was very enjoyable. I love that Chrysler....Of course!

Rick Goldschmidt's car, it's really nice.

I dvr My Classic Car, I watched that one last night.
I've grown to really appreciate the C-Bodies and all the land yachts.

Rick Goldschmidt's car, it's really nice.

I agree.

If I remember right the Imperials were banished from demolition derby's because they were indestructible.

You are correct sir. I had a friend that would buy them, yank the 440 and stuff a 318 in them as far back as he could. Needless to say he was the Demo King for a long time.

Thanks for sharing that video Satellite
My grandfather who lived in Alabama, bought a brand new 1976 Mercury Grand Marquis 2 door...IIRC it was light Dove Grey with grey leather.
I used to own a '69 300 convertible, that car would float down the road.... I miss that car.

Thanks for sharing. One reason that NY'er looks good is that it has no body side molding. Most of them did, and it was a long horizontal black strip on stainless, bolted on.
At first, I thought the car was my previous car. ONLY when I seen the sun roof, I knew better.
Enclosed 2 pictures of my previous 8,500 mile car.
I had to sell the car for ????

My previous 79 Lincoln Contential " Town Car ". Much bigger and better riding than Chrysler.
And I had to sell it for ??

Yeah, those big old land barges were really plush - I loved them. The two you just posted photos of are beauties - living rooms on wheels. Great cars to take the GF out in!

Great cars in this thread. That Grand Marquis is beautiful.

Love the land yachts. My Dad had big cars, Imperials and New Yorkers mostly. What was said earlier about the room in a C-Body is right; I recall being a kid in the back of Dad's powder blue 2-door '72 New Yorker. No room, tiny windows and had the "Flight Bench" front seat with the high seatbacks so I couldn't see forward unless I sat in the middle. As a kid I hated that car. I do remember that it could do huge burnouts and Dad had the lid of the aircleaner flipped so that when he stood on the gas and the secondaries opened it sounded like it was going to suck birds out of the trees.
Here's a pic of my '72 Sedan de Ville. My uncle Jerry bought it new and took extreme care of it. All original paint, upholstery, chrome, etc. It sat in his garage for over a decade undriven and he decided to give it t me. 36,000 miles. Battery, oil change, fresh gas and a brake line and I drove it nearly 400 miles from Bradford PA to Central Ohio without a hitch.This is a picture of Uncle Jerry and Aunt Jo the day dragged it out of the garage.
Last year I drove it to Daytona. I had replaced the coil springs and shocks, the car handles great. None of the "wallow and float" that plagued these cars when they got some age on them. Ran with modern traffic, 80+ mph much of the trip. MPG? I averaged 8.9!

The good old days....around 1986-1987 at Santa Fe...

I know someone who has several of that style New Yorker/Imperial. Haven't seen him for years he moves around a bit with military.

I also know someone with an identical deville to that but I think it has matching roof. Don't know if he still has it, I vaigly remember him saying that he traded it to someone for work on his corvette. I was out with friends trying to revive a Fleetwood that was hibernating for 30 years and the very next day I saw the same body style deville a block from my house. A few hours later I was out somewhere and it passed me in a residential area so I figured that was sign and followed it a couple blocks till he got home. He actually started going to my buddies garage for a while for service.

Tough to see in the pictures but the top on the deVille is dark green, the interior is matching dark green nylon.
There is some amusing family history with the car. My Dad liked his cars loaded with every possible option. Uncle Jerry's Caddy is very lightly optioned. Doesn't even have power locks or cruise control. When someone would make an admiring remark about the Caddy Dad would refer to it as a "Glorified Oldsmobile".
Dad had interesting cars when I was a kid. '60 Plymouth wagon, '59 Imperial, '63 Imperial LeBaron, '66 Imperial pale yellow with green interior, '70? New Yorker sedan, pale blue/dark blue '72 New Yorker coupe. That car stayed in the family for about a decade, became the "second car", then my brother ended up with it. I will have to hunt around to see if I have any pics of these things.
I really like the big stuff and I still have a huge car, but it's not a Mopar. My '69 LeSabre I have owned for 37 years!

Woah! The Caddy and the Buick are awesome! More pics please.

I am amazed by the same thing. Huge exterior dimensions, but the interiors were not much bigger. So much of the extra size was an enormous trunk, and wasted underhood space and overhang. In a lot of cases just the area between the grille and the radiator was enough to fit a person DAMHIK.

Thanks! I don't want to make this thread all "GMey" so here's 2 more pics and I promise I'll follow this up with a C-Body and no more Buick/Caddy.
I bought the Buick in spring of '82. Changed the coil springs and run shorter shocks to get the low ride height. Still has decent suspension travel. Warmed-over 350, original a/c car. I converted it to front disc brakes using a Scarebird kit. The wheels are 18" Americans, custom- made to fit the car; the rears are 1/4" deeper that the fronts. You can't get a finger between the fender lip and tire, yet nothing ever rubs, even turning full-lock to pull into a driveway. There used to be a deal where full-time NHRA employees got a 40% discount on any purchase from American Racing which came in real handy.
The Caddy? What can I say? It's as damn-near perfect as a 48 year-old car could be. There was never any drinking, eating, smoking in Uncle Jerry's cars. When it was washed they would take off the fender skirts to wash and dry behind them. Always stored in heated garage. He had the Fleetwood hood ornament (see picture in the driveway) dealer-installed but kept the standard hood trim which I replaced. When I moved to Buckeye Lake I lost most of my extra garage space so I gave the Caddy to my nephew who just adores it. I figure my uncle gave it to me, so it made sense.

Wow, no idea why the Buick pic is upside-down, Sorry about that.
Here's the promised C-Body pic from a local show last Fall

My oldest brother Bob and I watched that episode yesterday...good stuff! We had 4 '70's C-bodies in the family at one time or another.

That guy's hat has to go. Same goes for that 1850's mustache.

As a kid I always loved the big fuselage C bodies !!! In tech school I had a couple 69 300's - 2 door. One that was running, looked like crap, but I had a rebuilt 440 in it and loved surprising the Chevy crowd ! LOL . . . ended up with (3) 70 300Hurst cars (two were serial # sequential !!), unfortunately one had the engine removed and put in a boat !! . . . anyhow, I built my 70 300Hurst from parts . . . also had 71 Fury II & III cars too . . . kinda miss the ole ragtop . . . anyone in California see it ?? Last time I heard the guy was in Davis, California . . . . .

Those are beautiful cars.

the Hurst cars are beautiful, but man that blue '69 is killer!

Was that a real 300H ragtop, or a clone? i thought the only 300H ragtop made was the parade car that Linda Vaughn rode in, the one with the huge shifter on the deck lid. Either way, your 300 was gorgeous... Would love to have one someday, hardtop or ragtop.

Really dig the 300 Hurst cars, that clone convertible is a knockout.

X2 on the blue one, just wreaks of hot rodding. I would drive the sh!!t out of it.

Enjoyed them all !

Yorker, what a beautiful New Yorker you had!!!

62Maxwgn I love all three of those beauties!!!

Yes, especially the 63-66's

Always had an appreciation for 'em.

This one is still kickin'..... now improved with a 440, HEI/TFI ignition, and upgraded '73 New Yorker seating.

I had not seen that green machine in a while...wasn't sure it was still with us.

Oh yeah. You know, I'd probably let it go to a good home.

Forgot, it also has a professionally installed, brand new windshield (wasn't easy to find)

It sounds pretty okay these days too (for single exhaust)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb7dstT8e_4

I was just thinking, after looking again at the New Yorker body lines from that show....the lower body lines are very similar to the '71 Charger, the way it has sharp
creases that slant downward towards the rockers, and as they said in the show, the taillights are reminicent of the '56 Chryslers...pretty cool!

I love almost all of the big '70s American Land Yachts, but in the context of 1977, if I had to buy and actually drive one every day, Id be skipping the Mopar and Ford dealers (Chrysler already had the stench of death by then and Ford wasn't far behind) and dropping my cash on one of these, with a 403 please.

Here’s my 1997 ...... the actual name of an AirStream motor home...