A new life to my 1929 Chrysler Imperial Le Mans Roadster

hello All I have read the thread on this car with some interest I know Chryslers pretty well and have restored in the past a 1929 Locke Imperial roadster,
so it will be of no surprise that I concur with others that this car is indeed an apparently stock "75'roadster,
The two Lemans Roadsters were fitted with centre lock wires not Bolt ons but that aside Id be surprised if this is one of the two in question.
"75 roadsters are a beautiful car and despite all of the comment about authenticity, i think that whatever Mr Le Grand has a lovely old car to enjoy, but with a revised / adjusted heritage thats all.
As is probably known the definition model 77, 75 , 80 65 etc in Chryslers is the speed achieved for 24 hours with each model originally.
I dont think i drov my Imperial much over 70 mph at anytime even though there was capability it was much more enjoyable and safer at 55/60. i feel thats true for a lot of cars .
in summary I think this forum does do one thing well in that it preserves the important accuracy thats essential in our collective knowledge base.
Interesting discussion and a subject I feel comfortable with for a change!!
Enjoy your cat Mr Legrand for what it is fold the windscreen down and you'll feel like like your at Le Mans doing a 100 at 35 mph..best regards alan sutton NZ

As to the ability of this car as a Series 75 to be a LeMans car, the book 70 Years of Chrysler by George H. Dammann (Crestline), page 157 states the following: "Shown preparing for the French Grand Prix is the new Series 75 roadster. This was the second year in a row that two Chryslers and two Imperials were entered at the LeMans classic." The fact that the car came from Australia is immaterial as cars, especially race cars, move around so much.

I do not believe the wheels can really determine if they are the same car. Chrysler offered both artillery and spoke wheels in both 1928 and 1929, so they could easily be changed out and still be authentic.

The cream and brown car looks like it has a 1928 Chrysler Series 72 hood (bonnet) rather than a 1929 Series 75 hood. The different style of hood and number of louvers between 1928 and 1929 would normally clearly help to distinguish the two years of production. The thin chrome radiator shell on the cream and brown car, however, was not seen until the 1929 model year (the 1928 radiator was much thicker). Could this photo show a late production 1928 with some early 1929 features? The front bumper also looks like a 1927 - 1928 piece and not a later 1928 - 1930 piece (the bumpers of 1927 and some 1928 are two horizontal pieces , while other 1928 thru 1930 have a tapered top bar with a straight bottom bar).

The cowl lights on both of these cars appear to be wrong. Although likely the correct size, they should be even with the belt line and not above it.

The light bar below the headlights on the cream and green car appear to be from 1930 not 1929 (the mounted crest in the center appears to only be a 1930 feature). Dammann's book also does not show any cars with dual external mounted horns. The bumpers at the front are missing the line details easily seen on the two-tone blue car at the link below.

There is a close copy of the cream and green car (with the correct hood/bonnet, lights, and bumpers) here.

Making one car from two is quite normal and that seems to be what's happened here, but I have to wonder why a restoration in Australia - a right hand drive country - would result in a left-hand drive car? At the time of the first restoration it was very difficult to register a LHD car here in Australia. Or did the subsequent resto in 2007 see the steering swapped over?

It now has a unique body with no golf club door.
All factory bodies had a golf club door just behind the LH door.
Any Australian bodied 75 roadster I have seen has had a golf club door also.

Are there any comments of Mr. Legrand himself? I mean there is something really wrong here with car, model, speed, wheels, LHD / RHD...must I go on? We would love to hear the facts of the owner himself if you don't mind. Thanks and regards, Joop

I am in completer agreement with Ian Murray. I would like to add that as photos 1 & 6 are the same, perhaps one photo is missing. However, that does not change anything as there is no doubt that two different cars are pictured in the 'old' photos.
All that this sort of dissembling achieves is to make the presentation of any meaningful research that much more difficult. All cars have 'History'', it is just that some have a more interesting history than others. Once history becomes valuable then it will, almost inevitably, become reality.

Best regards, Peter Maguire

In all seriousness, I think this raises some very important issues about authenticity and deception. Part of me agrees with Joop’s response that a story from one owner to the other can become reality if you keep believing in it. But when the story is told in order to dupe or deceive a buyer, then there’s a problem. Was Mr Legrand led to believe that these two black and white photographs are of the same car? Because clearly they’re different cars - just look at the wheels - or have I missed something?
And it’s not just the history of some cars which is falsified in order to embellish their providence, the world of automobilia is full of fakes and imitations which are passed off as authentic. Three days at Beaulieu and you could assemble quite a collection of fake mascots, photographs, Edwardian petrol priming kettles, motoring cigarette cases, and advertising items, all of recent manufacture, designed to deceive and sold as original. Such is the problem that some people are now alerting buyers by posting notices around Beaulieu.
I find it very sad that our hobby has come to this, but the reality is, wherever there’s a buck to be made, there’ll be someone ready to make it by whatever means.
I really don't mean to sound gloomy or depressing, but no matter how much you believe the story, if it ain't true, then it'll never be authentic.

Car on trailer has artillery wheels and is RHD.
Other pics show wire wheels and LHD????

I'm easily confused! Are we looking at two or maybe three different cars? Or is April Fools Day 5 months late this year?


editor: as far as I know Ian, this is one and the same car. JB

I will hunt through my old Autocar Road Tests, but I'm pretty sure that, in standard tune, a 75 would have been hard put to get much above 80mph- even when new. 95mph would require about 125bhp- more, I believe, than even a real Imperial in 1929. But I am bemused. Why would anyone complete an immensely expensive restoration like this (clearly a superb effort, given there was little left of the original coachwork), only to then thrash the 85 year old car to death at 95mph? There is also the small matter of stopping it. It's not for nothing that vintage brakes were often referred to in old literature as 'breaks'.

A told story from one owner to the other can become reality if you keep believing in it.

Wow! And this restauration even included conversion from RHD to LHD?

This is not an Imperial or a Le Mans car, it is a regular Model 75. The Imperial is the bigger Model 80 with the Vauxhall-like flutes along the hood. This car must have been seriously modified to achieve 95 mph. Two Chrysler 75s did race at Le Mans but this obviously wasn't one of them if it came from Australia.