Ertl 1:18 1957 Chrysler 300C

Before WWII, sports or performance cars were a limited market, mainly the wealthy who had the money to spend on a second or third car. Most cars were designed to be passenger cars with performance that didn’t challenge your heart rate but kept it steady. But the post war era changed all that – suddenly there was a mass market for responsive high powered sports cars that went beyond the polo set. In Europe, Jaguar and MG’s among others enjoyed incredible success offering a new breed of affordable personal sports cars and this was soon emulated in America by Ford with the Thunderbird and the Chevrolet Corvette.

Virgil Exner, the design guru at Chrysler saw an opportunity –take advantage of the sports car craze, but combine it with the jet-age styling that was beginning to fire the imaginations of Detroit’s design studios and give it luxurious appointments the sports car munchkins couldn’t attain. In short: the 300C was to be a man’s car – a stylish and comfortable luxury coupe that could light ‘em up.

The result: a car and RC2 (ERTL) Authentics model of brilliant form and incredible power with the mixed pedigree of a mutt. There’s the trademark grille originally appeared on the Imperial. Here it is deftly replicated, and for the sports car enthusiast invokes the image of a Ferrari 166. This design accent is echoed on the present 300 series. The body for the 300 belonged to two cars: the front extruded from the New Yorker with rear accents – the tail lights are a showstopper in any refracted light - coming from the Windsor. The resulting 300C shape is remembered more than the parts.

RC2 fashions realistic chrome to wrap the front and rear bumper, door handles and embellish the light bezels. The lack of chrome on the side panels is actually understated for the age. The one exception being the chrome spears with the famous enameled 300 badge embedded on the rear quarter panel which accent aero-inspired fins. Chrome accents frame the “cab forward” designed passenger compartment.

Open the substantial doors and you can view the cabin well despite the dark colors, On a side note, a white interior would look delicious with this gorgeous copper brown exterior. The seats are soft and the front seats fold down. Flocked carpet, chrome accents on the dash, door interiors and steering wheel as well as the photo etched sills will have you reveling in the luxury that Chrysler owners came to expect. The doors do need an extra push to snap shut, but the resulting tight lines are worth this minimal effort.

The flocked trunk houses a covered spare. The car is massive – wide and low slung – so it’s obvious why it mastered the beaches at Daytona so quickly. The stance – with working suspension travel on the model - combined with raw power and torque from the 300 hemi engine overwhelmed rivals. The engine throttles up the detail quotient: it's precisely colored, wired and plumbed though it does lack accents more modern diecast molds like soft belts and printed stickers. From Ormond to Bonneville, the 1955-1957, the 300C was consistently the fastest production car in America.

When this model was originally put into production years ago in basic black, it was to be the first in a series called the Walter P. Chrysler collection. The rest of series never materialized – but if you had to choose one Chrysler to be brilliantly executed in a precision diecast, the 300C is a great choice. Since that basic black, it has re-appeared in green and red, and now as part of the Authentics series in copper brown. While brown cars don’t seem to top the sales charts, out of the 300C’s made this one is easily my favorite, both because of the uniqueness of the paint and because the chrome absolutely dances in contrast to it. While we reviewers tend to always crow about how far the hobby has come in terms of detail, ten years on, it can still be argued that this mold produced the best 1/18 scale model of a 1950’s American coupe. Like the car, this model was ahead of its time and will be a magnificent presence in your collection.

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