Hello fellow Imperialists! I just returned from a trip to Los Angeles and ran across a car that I wanted to share with you. I visited the private collection of Jim Powers, a Ford designer from the '50s-'60s who was chiefly responsible for the '61 Thunderbird design. He also designed the see-through model engine produced by Revell in the '60s, among many other iconic toys for Cox. Mr. Powers has an amazing collection of about 25 absolutely flawless low mileage cars from the 1950s to the present (including a brand new FORD GT race car).  Among the Lincolns, Cadillacs, Ferraris, etc. was a beautiful Glacier Blue 1983 Imperial. In talking to Mr. Powers, I discovered that this '83 has approximately 7,XXX original miles on it. Even more interesting was its original owner--none other than Lee Iacocca himself! Mr. Powers showed me extensive documentation, including the original invoice, title, and even a cash receipt for Lee's payment of $16,XXX for the car new in '83. I thought it was interesting that Lee actually purchased one of these cars for himself in 1983 . . . considering he must have had many demos for his use and it would seem unnecessary for him to actually purchase a car.

The car is in absolute MINT condition, having been extensively detailed, including the entire undercarriage. As I mentioned, the car is finished in Glacier Blue, and it has a dark blue leather interior. One interesting feature of this particular car is that it has the "Frank Sinatra" console (of course, the FS had been discontinued for 1983). The FS console also had an Imperial Eagle emblem just above the Sinatra signature plate. I would guess that this was a one-off custom modification for Mr. Iacocca and would be the only 1983 Imperial to feature the FS console.

~Chuck Houston
Seattle, WA