1960 Chrysler Royal Sedan (RHD)

Description

Produced by Chrysler Australia from 1957 to 1963, the Chrysler Royal was a local development of the American P25 sedan from 1954. Chrysler Australia made the decision to develop their own range, using as much of the existing tooling as possible, whilst also realising that the new car had to appear as different as possible. 
The doors and basic structure of the P25 sedan was retained but it used Plymouth front sheet metal from 1955, adapted to the P25 body, with the rear quarter panels were redesigned with input both here and from the States. A wraparound rear windscreen was also added, which caused development problems with Pilkington Glass, the Australian suppliers, which struggled to get the correct curved shape. The first version of the Chrysler Royal, the AP1 – AP originally standing for Australian Plymouth but later changed to Australian Production – was introduced in May 1957.
The AP1 was offered with two versions of Chrysler's valve-in-block straight-six engine, an 86 kW 230ci (3.8 litre) with manual transmission and an 87 kW 251ci (4.1 litre) with the Powerflite three-speed automatic. Chrysler's 313ci (5.1 litre) polyspherical-head V8 was also introduced as an option during the AP1 model run. These V8-powered Royals were popular with the South Australian Police, as Highway Patrol cars.