1955 is a symbolic date for Chrysler Corporation. To the four familiar brands - Chrysler, DeSoto, Dodge, Plymouth - was added a fifth: IMPERIAL. This would not be a sub-luxury car from shared body dies, but a rival to Cadillac and Lincoln. That was the thinking of Chrysler executives, at any rate: the company needed a prestige brand, not just a dressed-up New Yorker. The public didn’t see it that way and went on calling the new car the Chrysler Imperial.
One piece of good news doesn’t travel alone. Chrysler unveiled its first cars conceived by Virgil Exner. He had worked in the company’s design studio since 1950, and was named "Chief of Styling" in ’52. There was plenty of work for him to do, for the 1950-’54 models had quite conservative lines that drove away younger customers. Not even the new Hemi engine could atone for the stolid appearance of the New Yorker and other (Chrysler Imperial) Crowns.

Exner’s ideas, already glimpsed in the Ghia show cars, burst on the scene in 1955, taking GM and Ford by surprise. The Forward Look was born and would leave its mark on competitors, especially after its second development in 1957.
To return to the Imperial: The heavy bodies of 1954 are swept aside in favor of a superb car derived from the three much-admired "parade phaetons" that were Exner’s first product for Chrysler. One sees the characteristic arched wheel openings, the sculpted flanks, and little touches from the show cars, for example tail lights perched on the fenders (these were seen on the K310 and the d’Elegance), a mark that would stay with Chrysler for 10 years.

There was no problem on the engineering side. The "Hemi" engine of 331 cu.in. (same displacement that Cadillac used), driving a two-speed Powerflite automatic transmission, propelled the two-ton car with ease. The price was set at $141 more than a Cadillac 60 Special, to emphasize that this was not just a luxurious Chrysler…
In this first year of the new Imperial, only two C69 models rode a 130-inch wheelbase: A four-door sedan and a two-door hardtop called the Newport. Still, a prestigious name needed to offer a limousine, so one was drawn from the "Crown Imperial" lineage of earlier years. Two C70 models were presented on a 149.5 in. wheelbase: A Crown Imperial 8-passenger sedan and an 8-passenger limousine, the latter having a glass divider behind the chauffeur. The styling of these Crown Imperials was like that of the C69 except for a smaller rear window to shield distinguished occupants from envious inspection by people in cars that followed. On the other hand, the 1952 Crown Imperial’s disc brakes were not retained, a regrettable omission. A cabriolet prototype was built but it never went into production.