1 Of 500: 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst Edition
If you were in the market for a Mopar muscle car in 1970, there were lots of options and it would have been a hard decision for sure. I wonder if anyone that was having trouble deciding between a Challenger, Charger or Barracuda ever made it over to the Chrysler dealer and considered one of these. Based on the Chrysler Imperial, this 1970 300 is a massive car with a wheelbase of 127 inches and a curb weight of around 5,000 pounds. Thanks to the 440 CI TNT under the hood, performance was still respectable. Find this rare piece of Mopar history here on Craigslist in Elko, NV for $9,500 or possible trade for another project.
This model is the result of a short-lived collaboration between Chrysler and the Hurst Company; who normally teamed up with GM for special editions like the Hurst Oldsmobile. After assembly, Chrysler delivered the cars to the Hurst shop in Pennsylvania for the special touch. Special features include the custom gold striping, fiberglass hood and trunk lid with integrated spoiler, heavy duty suspension, leather seats and the 440 TNT engine, there are probably a few I’m leaving out. The seller makes it clear that this is a project car in need of full restoration, on the exterior things don’t look bad, the body looks straight and the important Hurst parts all seem to be there. The engine runs, but the transmission is slipping and the brakes are not working.
All of the Hurst edition cars were equipped with Saddle leather seats. Automatic was the only transmission choice, this car is equipped with a center console and a floor shifter which was an option. Some cars were equipped with column shift, it’s interesting the Hurst Edition car didn’t have a Hurst shifter, weird. The interior is obviously in sad shape, the seats are completely trashed but replacement seats or material may not be hard to source since they are basically the same as in the Imperial.
Under the hood is the Chrysler TNT engine producing 375 HP, Chrysler used the TNT name for their high-performance version of the 440, Plymouth called it the Super Commando and Dodge called it the Magnum. Considering the size of this car it probably still performed well with almost 400HP and these cars handle and ride very well with the torsion bar suspension. The A/C system is still intact, this car would have been a comfortable cruiser for sure. I’m not sure what Chrysler’s target audience was for this muscle car/luxury car hybrid, maybe they didn’t put a lot of thought into it since only 500 were made. I like this car, I think this body style Imperial is a handsome car and it looks good with the Hurst touches. The seller claims 248 of these cars are known to remain in existence, hopefully, this car gets restored and returned to the road.
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Comments
It really hurts to see this grand old gal looking like this, like seeing your favorite Hollywood actress many years later. Somebody will scarf this up in no time, it’s that rare of a car. Just shows to go ya’, at one time, for someone, this was just a used car.
For that price, I doubt the car will be purchased any time soon.
ya i agree its way over priced. its omly worth about 2500,00 in that condition. If you do some research on the net there are a few (ABOUT 4-5 ) vehicles that are wrecked but have alot of parts on them that would make great donor cars to build one car. I added it up last week and threr are two cars on that wrecked web page and you could buy two cars on that site and build one out of two cars for about 12,000 plus shipping of both cars.this car is simply over price for the condition its in.
yup its only worth about 2500.00 (twenty-five) hundread dollars. in this condation and this guy wants 8000.00 on ksl. thats laughable in any comic book store or comic roast off. This one is a pyle its from Reno-Elko way, It has NEVER been taken care of because if you loved this car it would not be in this condition and you would surely not put pictures on the net in this condition and try to sell it. I would think you would clean it up a little bit or maybe this is as clean as it gets.LOL!!!
I’m always struck by how massive these big Chryslers were. The huge panels lend to the look for sure but dang these were big. This is a rare car. Hope it can be saved
These things were so large- you could seat 4 wide (we did when my buddy had one and we were younger). Smooth riding, and no slouch with the 383 either. He called it ‘large Marge’ and claimed it had an ‘8-body’ trunk. The largest trunk I have ever seen, no joke.
As rare as these hurst editions are we seem to be seeing a lot of them lately-
The same thing with the Pontiac Can Am.
Better than the Tempo / Pinto / Maverick fixation from a couple of months ago.
Nobody ever said Pintos/Tempos/Mavericks were rare.
It is odd that if 300 cars are left, how do so many end up on Barn Finds?
How is inventory in the muscle market generally? Seems to be a lot of project cars for sale lately. Could this be an early sign that the primary buyers are starting to age out. Obviously not the case here but in general I mean.
This is a rare 300 Hurst…it is a console car…only about 50 made this way…can’t seat 8… only 4 with the bucket seats…has 440 engine, not 383….well worth saving, but a little spendy just to acquire it in this condition…at least it looks original and complete…could easily sink $30K into the restoration
I suspect one of the distractions when owning this car would be the F14s circling overhead waiting for clearance to land.
Couple of corrections for you, Scott.
1. The 300 Hurst is not based off the Imperial, it is based off the standard Chrysler 300 of that year.
2. Hence, it has the 124″ wheel base, not 127″.
Friendly advice, Scott: readers will not let you get away with technical errors like this. Details like this aren’t hard to find; an extra 10 minutes to fact-check is time well spent.
The FL highway patrol Plymouths were similarly equipped. As a teenager at the time on an illegal for the road dirtbike, I can attest to the fact that they really move.
Mark Worman needs to buy it, restore it and put one of his astronomical prices on the restored result!
Nah, it’s not high enough on the desirability ($$$$$$) ladder for him.
Used to see one of these in Kirkland, Washington (Seattle suburb) back in the early 70s when I was kid. Was hard to miss because it was such a big car. Anyhow, a guy I know claims to have owned a convertible version 70 Hurst Chrysler 300, and he claimed only 2 were built – said he ended up scrapping the one he had in the early 80s after it got wrecked. Fact or fiction – who knows if Chrysler built a convertible version? Definitely a question for Galen Glover . . .
I want one of the 6pk Cars. Missed out on one as a broke 17yr.old in 82′. $950 and Original owner too! Have owned two Convertible 300’s since but, that Hurst 6pk. is the one that got away.
That’s true. Supposedly several 300 Club members saw the car and it was to far gone.
I wonder what percentage of the remaining Hurst 300s have been featured on Barn Finds. Seems like quite a few of them have passed by here!
there is Christine!!!!
Phantom Works did a mild restore a few seasons back.
I have 2 Hurst cars. 1 is an all original unrestored HRDTP. The 2nd is a fully restored Hurst Convertible Tribute. All the info I have gathered including talking to Bob Rigle (Hemi Under Glass) Joe Schubeck (Hurst Hairy Olds) and Linda Vaughn, all confirmed to me that they Knew Nothing about more then 1 300 Hurst Convertible which was owned by Steve McCloud for many yrs after being taken out of service from Hurst. The car was sold after Mr. McCloud’s passing. It has been festured at many Big Mopar evrnts around the country. The Convertible I built has been mistaken for the real car on many occasions and my cars have been featured in several magazines and a few TV Programs including American Muscle Car and Counting Cars.
Very nice car Tom ! Nice bit of history you have on it too. Have an appreciation for these growing up with my dad’s ’70 Fury convertible. Nothing quite compares to looking out over a hood like that from behind the wheel. Ours was only a 383 2bbl, still a lot of fun.
Tom, seen the episode on Counting Cars…both your cars are gorgeous…and you seem like a very down to earth good guy. I’ve shared the story on here how I took an axe to the decklid on one in my friends boneyard…the car was nice…but we were young and dumb…the sad mistakes of youth. Wishing you many happy miles with your cars!!!!
Gorgeous!
Just plain Ugly in my book…
I am surprised by how many cars Hurst stuck their name on, more than Shelby.
20-ish years ago I used to see a ratty one locally, being driven by someone who didn’t strike me as a car enthusiast. They probably just bought it as a cheap used car to drive into the ground. I sometimes wonder if it survived. It always kind of surprised me these were so ignored, for so long. Maybe they are finally getting some love from collectors but $10K for this one seems way optimistic.
My older brother bought one of these in ’79, right after the second OPEC oil crisis hit. He paid $450 to the original owner. After about 4 months he couldn’t afford to put gas in it so he put it up for sale. Didn’t get one call! Right before he left for college he sold it to the junkyard for $80
A local guy had two of them years ago. One was a beater that he was either going to restore or use for parts, the other was his daily driver. The daily was beautiful. It burst into flames one day as he was heading home and burned to the ground. Not long after that happened the other one disappeared.
I have a car review from 1970 of this in an old Mopar book. Don’t recall the publication but I do recall they were disappointed because it differed too little from a regular 440 Newport.
Cool cars but little is special about them beyond the trim.
Lovely looking car. I’ve always loved the 1969-70 Chrysler 300. The problem I see with this Craigslist ad of the car is that there’s not enough pics to see the whole car. For me, the more pics posted, the better.
It looks like a very good start for a doable restoration. I am not so sure of the $9500 price…
In 1979 when I was 18 I had a 1969 Impala Conv. An old lady ran a stop sign in one of these Chryslers my fender was gone and she didn’t even have a scratch on her bumper.
buddy of mine, jim, had 3 of them, all in WAY, WAY better condition than that. To do that car, you’d need to drop 100 large on it.