IMPERIAL

The Chrysler Imperial, to my mind, is the finest American luxury make ever made, and should be ripe for a comeback. Cool name, uber-powerful design, embodying everything that is wrong, and right, with America.  I've wanted one since I was a little boy, admiring the gigantic '50s models parked in front of our house on Lake Calhoun, shining in the bright summer sun.  At the Chrysler showroom in 1963 I tried to steer my dad over towards a hunter green Imperial, but he instead went with a white '64 Chrysler 300, with a stick shift.  Odd choice.  Washburn High classmate Astrid Johnson's father had one.  I've never even sat in an Imperial, let alone ridden in one.  I've ridden in a Rolls, and in a Mercedes 600. Very fancy, very cool, but not Imperials.  Breaks my heart to think of the '66 Imperials destroyed in the making of the Green Hornet movie.  I wish they had saved me just one.