Among American car designers, the name Virgil Exner remains prominent nearly two decades since his death in 1973. More than most stylists, probably more than any of his contemporaries, Exner produced show cars bearing his personal stamp. Between 1951 and 1962, when he left the company, he successfully spun-off their ideas on numerous production models. It is generally conceded that by 1957 -- largely with design ideas evolved from his earlier show cars -- Exner's blend of extroverted innovation and classic-era hallmarks had the legs of everybody else in the industry, including Harley Earl's vaunted General Motors. Asked about his show cars by writer Michael Lamm in the early Seventies, Exner explained: "There was really only a single purpose in all of them, and that was to let the public know that Chrysler was thinking ahead as far as styling was concerned." But in contrast to the contemporary specials from General Motors, for example, Exner's cars were always built with production requirements in mind.

In my own conversations with Exner, he was almost wistful about this last point; he really did want Chrysler to build a sporting rival to the Corvette and Thunderbird. On at least three occasions he created show cars which could easily have been translated into production automobiles. One of these was his 1953-1954 series of Dodge Firearrows. Virgil Exner and Chrysler Corporation built three and one-half Firearrow show cars. Though it never saw production, it influenced the low-volume 1956 Dual-Ghia. The Firearrows followed a logical progression from dream car to producible vehicle. The first one-which we ought only to count as one-half-was a "buck" on a Dodge chassis. It didn't run and was really only one step up from a full-size clay model. Establishing a proportion Exner strove for, this 1953 Firearrow I was more than twice as wide as its body height at the cowl. It was the diametric opposite of typical mid-Fifties design. For more information on the 1953-1954 Firearrow, continue on to the next page.

For example, the concept of a massive bumper/grille, flowing around at the sides, may have originated at the Kaiser-Frazer studios in the late 1940s, while the Firearrow's chrome exterior tailpipes were seen in almost the same place on Frank Spring's Hudson Italia, the first of which was built in mid-1953. On the latter they merely housed taillights; on the Firearrow they were fully functional. The full-perimeter bumper was painted metallic gray rather than chromed; the car itself was red metallic, with a yellow-buff leather interior piped in maroon. This model also had quad headlamps, possibly their first appearance on a show car. They first appeared in production on the 1957 Nash and Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. Mounted on a stock 119-inch Dodge Royal wheelbase, it was powered by a 250-horsepower Royal V-8 with Gyro-Torque Drive (Chrysler's famed M-6 Fluid Drive with torque converter). While its basic shape was unchanged from the Firearrow I, the howing above the cowl and 24 inches sunk into the slot! For more information on the discovery of the 1953-1954 Firearrow, read on to the next page. I went from Chevys to Classics, like the Cadillac V-8, Cord 812 Sportsman, and '31 Duesenberg Rollston Victoria. Around 1971, I began to get interested in special-interest cars of the Fifties and Sixties. It was before their time. People would say, 'I can see why you'd want one of those things -- but six?