Who build up the first pillarless hardtop coupe ? The right result is Chrysler , with the 1946 Chrysler Town & Country Hardtop . However , most masses answer General Motors , exact that the 1949 Buick Roadmaster Riviera , Oldsmobile 98 Holiday , and Cadillac Coupe de Ville were the first to have this democratic torso trend .
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In fact , it was three years earlier when GM ’s hardtop design was still just a 3/8 - scale modelling . Chrysler Division President David A. Wallace was driving the Town & Country hardtop shown here .
Wallace see a full demarcation of Town & Countrys for 1946 , include a hardtop , two - door brougham , two-seater , four - room access sedan , and convertible . Only the saloon and convertible made it into production , but Chrysler considered the other simulation seriously enough to include them in its advertising that yr .
" The Wallace machine , " as this one is in the main sleep with among Town & Country aficionado , is the fifth of seven epitome Town & Country hardtops built . It is believed to be the only one still in existence .
The railcar ’s power make out from a 323.5 - three-dimensional column inch straight - eight engine .
Wallace drove the car in its original form from 1946 to 1949 , then had the factory blusher it Navajo Brown , enlarge the rearward windowpane , and impart a cushiony top made of Tolex ( a form of gator - pattern vinyl ) . He kept it for several more yr , then direct it in the Chrysler motor puddle . From there , it made its way into individual custody .
The car ’s current possessor , Lloyd Mayes , of Las Vegas , Nevada , ease up it a meticulous physique - off restoration in 1998 . Surprisingly , the Tolex DoI and top were in excellent circumstance , needing only to be restitched in places .
It is often unmanageable to assign an exact time value to such one - of - a - sort cars , but Mayes has turned down offer as high as $ 250,000 for it .
ordinarily he does n’t let the car ’s quarter - of - a - million - clam value stop him from driving it . But for now , he ’s parked it long enough to display it at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles .
