ROYAL RIDE
A classic fit for a Princess
Two gunsight tail lights mounted high on protruding fins are the first thing you see when Llewellyn Hunter lifts the garage door at his Langley home. There is the Imperial Crown sign on the trunk that also carries an imitation tire cover. This is no ordinary car of the ’50s.
The powerful 325-horsepower hemi engine fires up and the big convertible is backed out of its livery. This car has a history.
Begg Motors, a Chrysler dealer on Georgia Street near Burrard, was tasked with providing three new Imperial Crown convertibles for the 1958 royal tour. There was to be two black convertibles with Windsor tartan seats, and a white convertible with a blue convertible top and light blue leather interior. Princess Margaret, the 27-yearold sister of Queen Elizabeth II, would be driven in style as she toured the province to celebrate its first century.
Fifty-nine years have passed and the white Imperial Crown convertible used to convey a princess through Vancouver remains completely original, including paint, leather interior and top.
Llew Hunter’s father Rolly was a Vancouver realtor with a penchant for old cars. For several years, he ran a classified ad in the Vancouver Sun newspaper: ‘Wanted: classic, convertible and sports cars.’ He bought the Imperial Crown in White Rock in the mid-’70s to add to his collection of two-dozen rare cars.
Son Llew inherited the car and maintains it as the current ‘custodian.’ He says the two black Imperial Crown convertibles fell into disrepair. One is in very rough rusty condition near Nanaimo. The other was sold to an American collector who has completely restored it to the last detail including the custom Windsor tartan interior. The car is reportedly in a museum in California.
All three cars had a sterling silver plate attached to the dashboard stating: This automobile was used by HRH Princess Margaret on her tour of British Columbia during the Centennial Celebrations July 1958.
Chrysler Corporation advertised its Imperial line of cars to compete with Cadillac and Lincoln. The top-of-the-line Imperial Crown series was designed to take on the Cadillac Biarritz and the Lincoln Continental.
But the bigger-is-better statement made by automobile manufacturers in the late-’50s hit the wall when a deep recession struck in 1958. There were 16,000 Imperial cars produced in the 1958 model year, but only 675 were Crown convertibles. Three of those built were delivered to Vancouver for the royal tour.
When the tour ended, all three cars were returned to Begg.
Motors for sale to the public. Llew Hunter doesn’t know any of his car’s prior history between its royal usage and his father purchasing it.
An Internet search shows a YouTube video of his car carrying Princess Margaret and Frank Mackenzie Ross, B.C.’s 19th lieutenant-governor, riding in the open car along Broadway near Commercial Drive with thousands of Vancouverites lining the route.
The white Imperial Crown convertible was loaded with luxury options, including full leather interior, power windows, six-way power seat, signal seeker radio and power antenna. Llew Hunter reports that all options still work with the exception of the antenna.
“I drive it almost every nice day,” the 75-year-old retired electronics technician says.
The royal tour car is often seen parked outside Donegal’s Pub in Surrey on Tuesdays when he lunches with a group of fellow vintage and classic car enthusiasts.
He has another rare Chrysler product inherited from his father: a 1956 Chrysler 300, one of the industry’s earliest muscle cars that derived its name from the hemi engine under the hood producing 300 horsepower.
And he’s currently building a 1950s style Model T roadster hot rod equipped with a 1958 Chrysler hemi engine — the most powerful V8 of that era.
It’s doubtful that Princess Margaret knew what was under the hood of the Imperial Crown convertibles that carried her through British Columbia, but the cars were the height of style, horsepower and excess of that time.
Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@ peakco.com