Registration number: CH-13-03

What an impressive car! A little piece of history. The first Chrysler Town & Country was a sedan with a wooden body, known as the 'barrel-back', from the six-cylinder Royal line of 1941. Unlike most cars with a wooden body, Chrysler's Town & Country had lacquered wood in the interior and high-quality upholstery. Chrysler believed that a luxury production car would attract a certain category of buyers to the showrooms. It was important that the car would be refined; this meant elegant enough for city drives, but also practical enough for country life. Chrysler used the pre-war station wagon design as a basis, with a wooden frame made of ash wood and contrasting panels of Honduran mahogany. The wooden parts were supplied by Pekin Wood Products from Helena, Arkansas, and were shipped to Chrysler's Jefferson Street Plant in Detroit for final assembly.

The reactions were so positive that after the war, a more extensive range of five body variants was planned for 1946. The 'sedan-wagon' was eliminated, but a brochure was published for two- and four-door sedans, a three-passenger roadster, and both hardtop and soft-top convertibles. Ultimately, only the four-door sedan and the soft-top convertible were put into production. The production sedans were equipped with Windsor six-cylinder engines, while the convertibles from the New Yorker were fitted with eight-cylinder engines.

The convertible was based on the New Yorker's wheelbase but longer than the sedan version. Additionally, the car had the standard equipment of the New Yorker: a 135 hp eight-cylinder engine with Prestomatic Fluid Drive transmission. Approximately 8,368 New Yorker Town & Country convertibles were built for the model years 1946 to 1948.

Our example was featured in the film "Arrêt d'urgence," of which we have some beautiful photos available. Additionally, this Chrysler is the coveted 'woodie' version and was the most expensive woodie of the late 1940s. This Chrysler has also been in Europe for a long time.

The car is in good condition. It is an older partial restoration that was carried out several years ago. Since this is an older partial restoration, we can say that the paintwork is in reasonably good condition, as well as the chrome work and the soft-top. The underside is still in a very original state. The interior is in neat condition, and the beautiful clocks, large steering wheel, and dashboard look handsome and well-maintained. Under the hood, this example, given the older partial restoration, is in good condition. The car drives well, and the automatic transmission performs adequately.

A very nice Chrysler with a beautiful history. Interested? Please feel free to contact us via the 'request more information' form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.