1960 Chrysler 300F Vs. 1996 Chrysler Sebring JX

Thirty-Six Years Of Convertible Rethink
Leg the throttle of a '60 Chrysler 300F and barometers dip in a tri-county area as eight ram-tuned carburetor throats attempt to inhale the hood. Tap the gas on a new Chrysler Sebring and its 24-valve, fuel-injected V-6 snarls with the ferocity of a sewing machine nibbling into a yard of velvet. What we've got here are yin and yang, the Terminator meets Shirley Temple, high-octane horsepower versus save-the-whales social responsibility.

More than three and a half decades of evolution and revolution obviously have had their way with Chrysler's flagship convertible. While the 300F blasts out of the '60s like a Minuteman missile with dual pipes blazing and dihedral fins cocked and ready, its lineal descendent bears absolutely no malice, visual or otherwise. With a slicked-back windshield, a chrome smile, and neatly cropped tail feathers, the Sebring is a smooth operator, packing enough poise and polish to outcharm a church fund raiser.

Chrysler introduced its limited-edition "letter series" in '55 with no grand plan beyond letting a few wild horses out of the laboratory and onto the highway. Briggs Cunningham and other racers had been coaxing Chrysler engineers to pump up their 331-cubic-inch Hemi V-8s for Le Mans, Indy 500, and Mexican Road Race competition. The free-breathing Hemi was easily tuned to 300 horsepower that first year by means of two four-barrel carburetors and what advertising copy called a "full-race" camshaft. A New Yorker two-door hard-top body was gussied up with an Imperial grille and a sumptuous leather interior. Chassis engineers did their part by stiffening the springs and firming the shock absorbers to kill the float and sway on the high side of 100 mph.

The first edition was dubbed C-300. Thus the letter series began, with a 300B for '56, a 300C for '57, and so on. With a seven-year sales volume of only 8006 coupes and 1400 convertibles (beginning in '57), this wasn't a profitable venture. The 300 line instead served a higher purpose: eradicating any hint of stodginess from the Chrysler brand by means of sheer speed and power.

Today, the situation is reversed. Chrysler's image currently needs no boost, so the Sebring's mission is simply to win satisfied customers. Instead of speed and power, the focal point now is value: a nifty convertible at an attractive price. Of course, value is a constantly moving target.

Fourteen years ago, when Chrysler reintroduced American-made convertibles after a six-year hiatus, it was acceptable to snip the roof off a LeBaron coupe; that approach is no longer viable. Equally impractical is a totally unique convertible model. Chrysler's creative compromise is best described as the global approach: gathering components from hither and yon to construct a softtop that's nicely made and worthy of the Chrysler nameplate but priced below $20,000 in base form.

Core Sebring steering, braking, and suspension components come from the Cirrus/Stratus/Breeze, a.k.a. Chrysler's JA platform. Mitsubishi supplies the 2.5-liter SOHC V-6 engine that's standard in the more expensive JXi model tested here. The body structure is all new, though it bears some kinship to the JA design. (Size-wise, the Sebring convertible fits neatly between the Sebring coupe and the Cirrus sedan.) Chrysler's Toluca, Mexico, facility handles assembly, while the Sebring badge comes from the coupe of the same name built by Mitsubishi in Illinois. The global strategy helped keep this convertible rejuvenation program within two tight confines: a 29-month gestation period and a $200-million investment budget.