In 1955, Plymouth recorded its best year to date with The Forward Look, the Chrysler Corporation’s dramatic new styling theme created by Virgil Exner.

The imagination of Virgil Exner (above) transformed the Chrysler Corporation in 1955. The theme he created as the automaker’s head of styling, which he named The Forward Look, moved Chrysler from the rear to the leading edge on the Motor City’s syling front. The 100 Million-Dollar Look, as it was also called, included new exterior designs for all five Chrysler car brands. While the ’55 Plymouth was the least flamboyant of the group, arguably, it was probably the most critical, since Plymouth was the company’s volume leader.

More than a foot longer than previous Plymouths, the ’55 was styled mainly by Charles Gitschlag under the direction of Exner and Dodge/Plymouth studio chief Henry King. The forward-leaning front-end treatment and back-slanted rear accentuated the 203.8-inch length even more. Overall height was reduced two inches, making this the lowest and longest Plymouth yet, though the 115-in. wheelbase was just one inch greater than in ’54. This was also the first Plymouth with a wrap-around windshield.

In the Motor City tradition, the three trim levels—Plaza, Savoy, and Belvedere—used increasing amounts of exterior chrome to signify their status. The base Plaza had virtually none at all, while the Savoy featured a single ribbon of bright metal on each flank. The flagship Belvedere employed the most elaborate trim, adding a contrasting standard paint treatment for the Sport Coupe and Convertible (optional on others) that Plymouth called Sportone. It’s fair to say that Sportone was the Belvedere’s visual signature.

A novel feature on all Chrysler Corporation cars for 1955 was the dash-mounted gear selector for the optional Powerflite automatic transmission. Introduced in 1954, the Powerflite featured a torque converter and two-speed planetary gearset, and it remained in production through 1961. However, the elegant (we think) instrument-panel  lever lasted just one year, as Chrysler adopted its familiar push-button control in ’56 and stuck with it through 1964.

Along with the new sheet metal, Plymouth received its first V8 in 1955. While the other Chrysler V8s, introduced earlier, were hemi designs with expensive dual rocker-arm shafts, the Plymouth Hy-Fire used a less costly single rocker shaft for each bank and polyspherical combustion chambers. There were three states of tune for ’55: 241 cubic inches and 157 hp for the base V8, 260 CID and 167 hp with a two-barrel carburetor, and at mid-season, 260 CID with a four-barrel carb, dual exhausts, and 177 hp. The trusty L-head six was continued, too, with a bump in displacement to 230.2 cubic inches and 117 hp.

To declare that The Forward Look was a success for the Chrysler Corporation would be an exercise in understatment. Exner had hit a home run. In a boom year for the U.S. auto industry, the automaker had its best year to date in 1955, its market share rising to 17 percent. The Plymouth division had its best year to date as well, selling more than 705,000 cars.