About Maximus
Since bringing the car home I have made a few fixes. The fuel tank, its mounts, the fuel lines and fuel pump have been replaced, as the fuel tank was full of sludge. I have replaced the original open-diff with a limited-slip one, which has made the car significantly more usable on loose surfaces. I have put in new carpets. The car is also now equipped with dual intake snorkels and dual exhaust, which are correct to the model of the car and make the car a replica of the "HP option" (high power option).
As mentioned on the "bringing it home" page the car is extremely well optioned, and the Imperial had a large number of luxurious, and technologically advanced features that came with it from the factory. The leather in Imperials was known to be rubbed in whale blubber. While you could never buy this today, and for good reason, whale blubber is extremely good for preserving leather and keeping it supple for a long time. This particular car was optioned with headlights that can detect ambient light and dim themselves accordingly, as well as an automatic high beam dipper. The high beam dipper on this car no longer works due to a blown valve, but the repair is supposed to be relatively pain-free.
The car was optioned with mechanical cruise control, which Chrysler called autopilot, and works, kind of. I noticed that it has a habit of slowly creeping to higher speeds if left to its own devices on long drives, fixing this should also be relatively simple but may require a bit of patience and trial and error. This car is fantastic at eating miles with ease.
This model of Imperial has 11 magnificent golden eagle emblems adorning it. It has proven tricky to conclude whether these are real gold or not, but it seems likely, as previous models did use real gold.
There are two foot-switches in the car, one controls the high beams, and the other tells the radio to automatically search for the next available station, which was very impressive technology in 1967. Both are working flawlessly, and the radio still sounds surprisingly good.
There is very little way to confirm it on a car of this age but there is a lot of evidence suggesting that the car has done less than 100,000 miles from new. This car is to me an excellent example of not just this model in particular, but also the period in which it was built in America. It is divine opulence and class, draped in excess. It is marvellous to drive and comfortable in a way few realise was possible before much more modern cars existed; an illuminating example of why Chrysler has sometimes been referred to as "the engineering company".
