Chrysler 300C Hardtop

Chrysler 300C at a glance

What the letter series was

Chrysler created the series in 1955 with the C-300, a two-door hardtop with a 331 cubic inch Hemi of 224 kW (300 hp). It was sold to private customers so that it could be homologated for NASCAR stock-car racing, and the chief engineer behind it was Robert MacGregor Rodger. From then on each model year carried the next letter of the alphabet: 300B for 1956, 300C for 1957 and so on until the 300L of 1965.

The 300C is not the same car as the modern Chrysler 300C, the rear-drive saloon of 2004–2023. The modern car borrowed the name and the Hemi idea, but it was a four-door family saloon rather than a limited-production hardtop.

There was no 300I: Chrysler skipped the letter to avoid confusion with the number one. By our calculation, about 16,980 letter cars were built in eleven years, and the 300C accounts for roughly 14 % of them. Only the 300K and 300L, cheaper cars sold when the line had lost its exclusivity, were made in larger numbers.

The 392 Hemi engine

The 300C's engine grew to 392 cubic inches (6.4 litres) from the 354 of 1956. It kept the hemispherical combustion chambers that gave the Hemi its name and its free breathing, and it used two four-barrel carburettors and solid valve lifters, details normally found on racing engines. With 280 kW (375 hp) at 5,200 rpm and 569 Nm, the Chrysler 300 Club describes the 300C as the fastest and most powerful production car in America in 1957.

The 291 kW (390 hp) version had higher compression, larger exhaust headers and a low back-pressure exhaust, and came only with a manual gearbox and without power options; just 18 were built. By our calculation the standard engine gave about 44 kW per litre, and a hardtop carried about 6.9 kg per kW; the club's own figure is 11.3 lb per horsepower. Our power-to-weight calculator sets that against modern cars, and the power converter turns American gross horsepower into kW.

Exner's Forward Look body

For 1957 every Chrysler Corporation car wore the "Forward Look" styling developed under Virgil Exner, marketed as the "100-Million-Dollar Look". The 300C gained tall rear fins and a new trapezoid grille unlike any earlier Chrysler. Much of the body still came from Chrysler's parts bin, but the letter car was set apart by details:

• a full leather interior;
• very little chrome, with a single spear-like moulding on each rear wing;
• round "300" medallions in red, white and blue on the wings, bonnet, boot lid and glove box;
• rectangular openings below the headlights that ducted cooling air to the front brakes, needed because the 14-inch wheels left little room for large drums;
• single-colour paint only, and no vertical guards on the front bumper.

The convertible, new for 1957, weighed 70 kg more than the hardtop and cost 430 dollars more.

Chassis: torsion bars and TorqueFlite

The 300C used Chrysler's new Torsion-Aire front suspension, in which longitudinal torsion bars replaced the coil springs of the 300B. The rear axle was a hypoid unit with a 3.36:1 ratio as standard. The TorqueFlite three-speed automatic was standard on the 300C, while the 291 kW cars used a manual gearbox.

The old version of this page gave a top speed of 241 km/h and 8 seconds to 100 km/h. We found no reliable source for these figures and have removed them; period tests of the 300C were run in American units and under different methods.

Production and 1957 prices

All 300 letter cars were built in Detroit. The total of 2,402 made the 300C the most successful letter car of the 1950s.

The 300C in Chrysler's history

The letter cars were Chrysler's image models of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The 300B of 1956 won NASCAR races for the team of Carl Kiekhaefer, and the 300C carried the image into the Forward Look era. The broader story of the company is told in our history of Chrysler.

300C compared with its 1957 rivals

The 300C was larger, heavier and much more expensive than the Chevrolet and Ford alternatives, but it had the strongest standard engine. That combination of luxury and power is why many historians see the letter cars as early ancestors of the muscle car, and our comparison tool lets you set a 300C against later cars; our muscle car section follows the type from there.

Buying and collecting a 300C

A 1957 300C is a rare car: only 2,402 were made, and the convertible is far rarer than the hardtop. Points to check:

• Matching numbers: the 392 Hemi, the TorqueFlite and the axle should match the car's records; a marque club such as the Chrysler 300 Club can help to verify a car's history.
• Correct details: leather interior, the red, white and blue medallions, single-colour paint and the brake-cooling ducts.
• The torsion-bar front suspension, and rust in the lower body panels and floors.
• Very rare options: a genuine 291 kW manual car should be documented beyond doubt.

More classic cars of this decade are in our classic cars section, and the brand's later models are in our Chrysler catalogue.