Few Detroit dream cars are designed around their engines, but that’s how the 1960 Plymouth XNR came to be.
Race cars are generally designed around their engines, naturally. Detroit dream cars, practically never. Often, they don’t even have engines. The Plymouth XNR is an exception. Inspired by the asymmetrical configuration of the company’s new-for-1960 Slant 6 engine, Chrysler design chief Virgil Exner expanded the off-center theme to create a prototype sports car. And indeed, it was originally called the Asymmetrica, later renamed the XNR (Exner = XNR). According to his son Virgil Exner Jr., additional influences included then-current offset Indy roadsters and a Studebaker two-man Indy car from the ’30s.
The actual construction was performed by Ghia of Turin, Italy, Exner’s usual collaborator on prototypes and “idea cars,” as Chrysler called its dream cars and show vehicles. The hand-formed, all-steel body was fitted over a production 1960 Valiant chassis, retaining the 106.5-in wheelbase—hence the long, lean look. While the headrest and tail fin recall the Jaguar D-Type and contribute to the asymmetric styling theme, we can still clearly see Valiant elements in the front and rear fender development.
Naturally, there was a 170 cubic-inch Slant 6 under the hood, upgraded with Chrysler’s trick Hyper-Pak hardware, including high-compression pistons, a racy camshaft, and a ram-tuned intake manifold with a Carter four-barrel carb. (Reportedly, the tall-deck 225 CID Slant 6 didn’t fit under the hood.) Exner’s mission was to create a true 150-mph sports car, and he personally hit 142 mph in the XNR at Chrysler’s Chelsea Proving Grounds. Later, with an aerodynamic nose designed by Chrysler engineer and Ramchargers member Dick Burke, it did comfortably top 150 mph.
Both Motor Trend and Road & Track magazines featured the XNR on their covers in May of 1960. That’s remarkable, as the editors usually insist on exclusives for cover stories. Motor Trend jumped on the bandwagon in support of the XNR’ as a production vehicle, touting it as a legitimate rival to the Chevrolet Corvette. But given the high tooling costs, small potential volume, and the Chrysler Corporation’s numerous challenges at the time, a production XNR was probably never in the cards. Ghia floated a plan to market a limited number (25) of civilianized XNR variants called the Asymmetrica with a conventional windshield and a folding top, but it never went anywhere.
The one and only XNR prototype passed from Ghia through a series of private collectors, including Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. Somehow it wound up in Beirut in the midst of the civil war, where it was rescued and eventually sent to RM Restorations in Canada for a complete renovation, guided by Exner Jr.’s extensive original materials. In dazzling condition, the car is shown periodically at classic car events by its owners, Linda and Paul Gould. We shot the photos used here at the St. John’s Concours in Detroit in 2014.
Another example (the Avanti also comes to mind) of how Americans were never going to be interested in exotic European designs. That aside, it was surprisingly ugly for a Ghia-related design. Especially the front clip.
Mr. Exner’s street legal Plymouth Indy roadster showcasing the brand new OHV buzzin’ half-dozen! More Novi than Watsonesque, the quad headlamps the only flaw.
The Rumchasers safety-wired the intake & flywheel, put a timing light on it, blocked off the grill then dumped some pop in it to run 150+mph. They said you didn’t sit in the XNR, you wore it like a pair of trousers…
Meh, concept cars never really did anything for me, kind of odd, since fins on each side were disappearing, let’s make one down the middle. The “Hyper-Pak” was indeed a marvel, but very few were ordered, and I read discontinued in 1963, but it put out as much HP. as a small V8. Not many wanted to cough up the extra $500 for one, however. Concept cars do have a purpose, as some features end up in production cars. Front looks a bit like the ’63 Plymouth, no? So clever, “XNR” ( I didn’t get the reference at 1st) I bet it was a blast to drive.