Car Story: Murray Pfaff

1959 Imperial Speedster
"The Imperial Speedster is the concept car that Chrysler never envisioned. Penned and built by designer Murray Pfaff, this two-seat sports-car features the fabrication of Detroit’s most talented craftsmen and engineers. Starting with a 1959 Imperial Crown Custom 4-door sedan, the body was cut into 46 major sections and welded back together to create a vision unlike anything before.

This garage-built marvel has gone on to win over a dozen of the top awards in the country including hot-roddings biggest prize - the Go For The Gold, Tulsa, OK., the Mothers Choice Award - given to the top 10 cars at the SEMA Show, Las Vegas, NV., and was featured at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, CA. With over 11 magazine features (twice in HOT ROD) the Imperial Speedster is one of the most famous customs in the past ten years. In addition, this road-reliable show piece completed the Hot Rod Power - twice, giving it the label “the trailer-queen without a trailer”.

The Imperial Speedster took over 10,000 hours to build, fusing modern technology and classic styling from the Motorama era. The result is a sleek, sexy roadster that could have come straight from the drawing board of Chrysler design chief Virgil Exner himself. Virgil Exner, Jr. stated “I know my father would love it. A beautiful and well thought out special build, excellently presented”.

After seven years and almost 7,000 miles, Murray and the car are not resting on their laurels. At the risk of upsetting enthusiastic fans the Imperial Speedster, it has been treated to an evolution. The iconic champagne and orange colors have been replaced with a stately PPG Envirobase “Evolution Green” designed by Pfaff. To compliment that, a chocolate brown folding top and plaid accented interior by Shawn Paul Custom Interiors, Clinton Township was created, along with gauges by Con2r. And finally “Throttle” billet rollers with tri-bar knock-offs from Schott Performance Wheels complete the transformation.

You can also follow “Evolution” on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/The-Imperial-Speedster"