Photos courtesy McCormick’s Palm Springs Collector Car Auctions.
It’s no Dual Ghia, but it’ll do. In 1995, at 80 years old, Frank Sinatra had finally retired. He played his last public concert the year before, released his last album the year before that, and Hollywood was falling all over itself to laud him. And with his health failing and his family gearing up for a fight over his fortune, he made sure that his long-time housekeeper at least got something for her service: a 1986 Chrysler Executive limousine that will head to auction later this month.
Though he owned a variety of cars over the years, Sinatra seemed to always return to Chrysler – or, at least, Chrysler-powered – products. Such was the case in 1980, when he accepted Lee Iacocca’s invitation to not only help launch the resurrected Imperial with an ad campaign and even some new songs written just for the campaign, but also a special FS edition of the Imperial, one that featured special blue paint and a leather-upholstered carrying case for the 16 Sinatra cassettes that came with the car. Iacocca reportedly gifted Sinatra with the first of the FS edition Imperials as well as a 1982 Imperial limousine.
Iacocca’s influence apparently kept Sinatra in Chryslers for the rest of his life. The last car he drove was reportedly a 1985 Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country station wagon, but in his latter years he also owned one of Chrysler’s stretched and turbocharged Executive limousines. Conceived by Chrysler executive Bob Marcks as a way to fill a niche that neither GM nor Ford had bothered to touch during the 1980s, the Executive limousine used the front half of the K-car-based LeBaron along with a 31-inch stretch provided by ASC (the Executive sedan’s stablemate for the first couple years, the Executive sedan, made do with just a 24-inch stretch). Along with the stretch, ASC installed the New Yorker’s more upright grille, a division window, and special taillamps.
The Executive limousine went into production in 1983 and for the first few years used the Mitsubishi 2.6-liter overhead-camshaft four-cylinder engine. Only in 1986, the final model year for the limousine, did it get the 146hp turbocharged Chrysler 2.2-liter overhead-camshaft four-cylinder engine. Generally, all of the Executives came well equipped in just a handful of colors, but as LittleLimos.org – the enthusiast site for Chrysler Executive limousines – pointed out, almost no two Executives were identical to each other, with each one displaying minor trim and equipment differences. Over the four-year production span, Chrysler built an estimated 2,187 Executive sedans and limousines, about 138 of them in the 1986 model year.
Whatever Sinatra thought of his limousine – he didn’t appear to have a formal relationship with Chrysler after the end of the Imperial’s production run, though he did have a close personal relationship with Iacocca – he didn’t use it much. By the time he gave it to his housekeeper of 30 years in May 1995, he’d put just 6,500 miles on it. “Even though the bill of sale says that Sinatra sold it to her for $3,500, we think that was just a formality and that he actually gave it to her,” said Jason McCormick. Since then, she has put a little more than 70,000 miles on it.
McCormick estimates that the limousine, which comes with full documentation, will sell for $10,000 when it crosses the block with no reserve. The McCormick’s Palm Springs Collector Car Auction will take place February 20 in Palm Springs, California. For more information, visit Classic-CarAuction.com.
More gadget review in www.mamaktalk.com
