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The
Town and Country car was introduced by the Chrysler
Corporation in 1941, as a highly styled "station
wagon", designed to attract the wealthy. This first
incarnation featured "barrel back", or "clam shell"
rear doors, opening to a storage area behind the
rear passenger seats. The rearmost seats could be
stowed in a forward position, to enlarge the storage
area, or in a rear position, to enhance passenger
leg room. Two models were offered, a 6-passenger and
a 9-passenger. The larger car had limo type folding
seats, located between the standard front and rear
seats.
The
1942 model was a striking re-styling of the original
car. The entire front was wrapped in stainless steel
bars, that ran from wheel opening to wheel opening,
across the entire grille. This theme was carried to
the rear fenders, for quite a stylish "art deco"
treatment. Production was shortened by the
war. Chrysler manufactured 996 and 999 units in 1941
and 1942 respectively.
When
the Dodge Brothers introduced the first high
production car with an all-steel body in 1914, it
started a trend away from the use of wood in
automobiles. This would be pretty well complete in
North America by the end of the 1930s. The advent of
presses that could produce large and intricate steel
stampings made steel the preferred material for car
bodies.
Wood
still had glamour, however, and although more
expensive to fabricate, and prone to squeaking and
rotting, it continued to be being used in station
wagons. Also, in addition to wagons, decorative wood
found limited use in car bodies in the 1940s,
notably by Chrysler, Ford and Nash. The most
glamorous of these wood-clad cruisers was the
Chrysler Town and Country.
When
Chrysler decided to enter the station wagon business
in 1941 it did so with a flourish, introducing an
attractive six- or nine-passenger wood-trimmed wagon
called the Town and Country. Rather than the usual
commercial looking box-like wagon, it had a rounded
rear end with double, side-hinged "clamshell" cargo
doors. Chrysler had built approximately 2,000 by the
time automobile production ceased for the Second
World War early in 1942.
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