There's 300 pounds' worth of extra bracing and beefing in the Helios's body. But that's less than Wilbur expected the car would need: "We started off trying to make a dual-cowl car because people said a four-door convertible couldn't be done," he says. "But a dual-cowl would've stretched the wheelbase three to six inches, destroying the proportions and adding even more weight." ASC engineers tore a 300C to pieces to analyze its structure, before hitting on the cross-car beam idea as a possible solution. According to the computer models, the Helios is two-thirds as stiff as the Chrysler 300C sedan and beats the Mercedes-Benz CLK and the Lexus SC 430 convertibles in structural rigidity. But no one has driven this car far on real-world roads. We're about to find out just how good ASC's engineers really are.
As is typical of a show car, some things don't work. The power steering wheel and pedals don't adjust, the front windows are out to lunch, and the turn signals won't flash--ASC's had to raid some of the 300C's circuits to provide power for the roof system. But the Hemi fires sweetly at the turn of the key. Pull the shifter into D, flip off the e-brake, and ease this priceless one-of-a-kind Chrysler out onto the street.
First surprise: It feels ordinary. The Helios drives like, well, a regular Chrysler 300C, mainly because, apart from the roof mods, Chrysler Sebring front seats (their integrated seatbelts neatly solve the problem of where the belt top mount goes once you lop the B-pillar in half), and ASC's own custom-made 20-inch alloys, it's otherwise completely stock. With the roof and windows down, you don't hear a lot of engine noise, so the muscular Hemi seems to ooze the car from light to light as unobtrusively as the head waiter working the tables at the Four Seasons. There's relatively little disturbance from the wind in the front seats, even at freeway speeds. It's a different story in the back, however, where the rush of wind from around the A-pillars ensures a breezy ride. ASC is looking at reprofiling the pillars and the header rail to better manage the airflow and developing small wind deflectors that deploy from the sides of the front seats.
A rubbery shudder comes back through the steering column over bumps, caused in part by the impacts transmitted from the stiff, 45-series sidewall tires. The tire pressures have been dropped to 20 psi in an attempt to smooth things out, but there's no doubt that, like any convertible, the Helios would feel better on regular profile wheels and tires, like the 18-inchers standard on the 300C. Otherwise, the Helios feels remarkably solid: Steeply angled driveways and ramps fail to produce any creaks or groans, and the doors don't rattle in their apertures. For a car that's literally been driven straight out of the shop without any fine-tuning, it's damned impressive.
Removing the roof doesn't harm the 300C's swaggering style: If anything, the convertible looks longer, lower, and more elegant than the sedan. Key to the Helios's good looks is the beautifully integrated cover for the roof, which carries the chrome beltline right around the car and includes small Thunderbird-style humps behind each rear-seat headrest. Ralph Gilles couldn't have done it better.
Although the deep central tunnel means it's strictly for four, there's not a convertible in the world capable of accommodating adults in the rear as comfortably as the Helios. The rear seatbacks recline through a five-degree arc, and there's plenty of room for your feet under the cross-car beams. You don't notice it so much in the sedan, but the pronounced rake in the beltline means the sheetmetal is almost shoulder high for rear passengers. You get an all-around view riding with the roof down. But you also feel secure.The technology that transforms a 300C into a convertible can be applied to almost any four-door sedan--in fact, ASC initially offered it to Lincoln, but was turned down. Maybe that was meant to be. Maybe Chrysler, the company that reinvented the great American sedan, is being given the opportunity to also reinvent the great American convertible. Come on, Dieter... destiny's calling.
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