A year after founding Chrysler in 1925 and launching the first Chrysler cars Walter P Chrysler moved into the prestige segment of the automobile market occupied by Cadillac and Lincoln.

The Chrysler Imperial 80 was first shown at the 1926 New York Show, the 80 signifying that the car was guaranteed to reach 80 mph.

To meet the guaranteed top speed the Imperial was fitted with a 4.7 litre / 288 cui straight 6 which produced 92 horsepower, enough to propel the car from rest to 60 mph in less than 20 seconds with a gearbox that featured only 3 forward speeds.

The first generation Imperial was offered with a variety of bodies that included; roadster with rumble seat, four-seat coupé, five-passenger sedan or phaeton, and a seven-passenger limousine.

Motor cycle racer and later publisher Floyd Clymer drove a Chrysler Imperial 80 in 1926 from Denver to Kansas in just under 14 hours to average just over 51 mph over 700 miles, astonishing given that only 200 miles of the route was on paved roads.

The first generation Chrysler Imperial remained in production until 1930 by which time a four speed transmission was available.

The Imperial 80 Roadster seen in these photo’s taken at last years Classic Run in Chipping Sodbury was first registered in the UK on the 23rd of October 1926.

Thanks for joining me on this “Guaranteed 80mph” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !