President’s Message – January – February 2025
The saying “there is nothing new under the sun” is definitely applicable in automotive history. Many of the esteemed advances in todays automotive technology were already conceptualized and experimented with in the early 1900’s. As a student of automotive history, one cannot help but marvel at the various periods where it seemed the advances were coming too rapidly to keep up. One of the reasons I continue to be passionate about exposing our already afflicted younger members to different eras of Chrysler products is they are easy to further afflict. Lets take the time period of say 1930 to 1934. We went from the boxy sedans of 1930 to advanced streamlining in 1934 with the Airflow. This did prove to be too fast a development for public consumption but the genie was already out of the bottle. Imagine what a force of nature one must be to buy one ofof the largest auto companies, Dodge Brothers. Create Plymouth and DeSoto to compliment your already rapidly growing Chrysler Corp. Then, not a year after you are heavily overleveraged in doing that, the stock market takes a massive tumble. Let’s not forget the Chrysler building in downtown NYC was completed in early 1930. I can only imagine what some of those meetings would have been like. Certainly didn’t seem to slow down WPC though. He kept right on innovating and building. The 1931 Chrysler products had so many changes in 1931, there were 3 different iterations of the cars. If you bought a DeSoto in 1932, you may have had to replace it by 1934 and definitely by 1935 just to keep up with traffic. By 1934 and 35, most Chrysler products came with an overdrive, both 6 and 8 cylinder. Sorry Plymouth, you didn’t get one until after WW2. Though overdrive was available in most Dodge badged vehicles so you could make it work in a Plymouth. So in a couple short years, the average speed of most Chrysler products went up by 20 mph. Amazing. These innovations and more will be on display at the upcoming Chrysler 100 celebration this July 9-13 at the annual Chryslers at Carlisle event this year. We will take you on the entire journey through Chrysler history. From inception to reality. We’ll attempt to cover the many innovations that Chrysler brought to the public and how they implemented them in the vehicles. Chrysler racing history will also be prominently featured as many don’t realize Chrysler products were at the forefront ofcompetitions right from the start. Hill climbs, race tracks, endurance runs were all attended by Chrysler products. Many ofthese events have been lost to time so we will attempt to highlight what we can. Many of the early racing drivers drove forChrysler. Ralph DePalma, the 1915 Indy 500 winner, bested the Mt Wilson hill climb record by 2 minutes in a 1924 Chrysler.Louis Chevrolet, the founder of Chevrolet corp was an early race driver and experienced much success racing a Chrysler. He paced the 1926 Indy 500 in a new Chrysler Imperial 80. In 1928 2 Chrysler Model 72’s finished in the 3rd and 4th positions behind a Bentley and a Stutz at the 24 hours of Le Mans race in France. This shocked the racing world at the time. Chrysler first competed in Europe starting in 1925. If anyone has any more info on early Chrysler racing history, we would love to hear it. Thanks for reading another of my ramblings. If you can’t tell, there are so many aspects of each year of Chrysler products that I enjoy and find fascinating. I sincerely hope more of you will join with our efforts to preserve this valuable history. Any friends that are also enthusiasts should be encouraged to join if not already. It really is the best way to preserve our hobby and our cars. See you on the road, Bill Adams, Oakdale, California
Editor’s Message – January – February 2025
Greetings fellow Chrysler enthusiasts,
We welcome in the new year, 2025. We begin to celebrate Ma Mopar’s 100th anniversary. We anticipate the next 100… The future of our belove marque seemed to be in dire straits. However, events of late , new management changes at the top and throughout the company spell a renewed energy. New directions for product development hope to put the company back on track to delivering vehicles that the buyers want and aspire to.. We look forward to the big celebration at Carlisle this coming July. Keep your eye on future issues of the WPC NEWS to keep you up to date as to our International Car Meet.
We welcome once again, new members to our fold. Great to have you with us.
This coming year, WPC NEWS hopes to expand our offerings, to attract new readers and broaden the scope of the hobby to include all decades of vehicles from Chrysler history. This issue will showcase a vehicle from the 1970’s. Our very own Kevin McCabe dug into his voluminous archives to give us another installment of “How Many Did They Build…”
This issue, we feature another article that was written by Richard Truesdell, our “photojournalist in residence.”
He has a story of old versus new, that he wrote some years ago, that readers are sure to enjoy.
We would like to hear from you, our membership, if you own and drive something that others might like to read about your joys and / or struggles that you have experienced in the pursuit of keeping your pride and joy on the road or in your collection. Please send to Readers Rides that which you might share with us.
WPC NEWS asks that the many regions that make up our international club, to please let us know what is happening in your area, for those who travel and would like to participate in your events. • EDITOR’S NOTE: In the last issue we posted a photo of a Christmas card drawing without crediting the author and artist. So to correct that, The title of the card is “Santa’s 1960 Chrysler 300-F is almost ready to roll”. The artist is Corey Correll © 2020
Yours in MoPar Motoring,
Frank T.Pascoe, Editor, WPC News.
EDITOR’S Foot-NOTE:
WPC NEWS brought this up last issue, but it bears repeating. The Swap Meet ads grow in each issue and are
becoming somewhat unwieldly to handle. Starting this year, 2024, ad placers will be limited to 6 issues from
the date of the first submission for each category. ( you are allowed one ad per category for each issue). After 6
issues, if you want to continue your ad, you must resubmit them to this magazine. If you had to pay extra for your
ad, based on the guidelines provided, you will also have to submit that payment again. After 6 issues if the ad is
not reinstituted, it will be eliminated. Thank you for your cooperation.
A REMINDER to please send to my address or email ONLY: Swap Meet written ads or written articles for the
magazine. PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME ANY MONIES FOR THE ADS AND PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME
MONEY FOR MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS, all funds must be sent ONLY to the WPC CLUB treasurer as follows:
WPC Club Treasurer, PO Box 185, Kingston Springs, TN 37082-0185
