The XNR in its full glory. The author long lusted after this car, figuring only he remembered it was pictured in ‘National Geographic’ magazine in Kuwait. Well, someone else obviously found it and restored it. Pebble Beach show program says the owner hails from Beirut. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.
By Wallace Wyss
Color Photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
Car hunters find their barn finds in various and sundry ways.
One of my ways is to commit to memory cars I see in magazines and file away mentally the last known location.
One car I had filed away in my cranial cavity for four decades was the Plymouth XNR. What a neat car for Pebble, I thought. Why? Because it’s American as apple pie underneath, a Valiant, powered by a Chrysler six that probably would set you back all of $200 at a junkyard. The styling was by Virgil Exner, during his reign as Chrysler design chief. He wasn’t the first Chrysler design chief to send a car to Italy to be bodied–in this case by Ghia– but while he reigned, at least 30 chassis were sent there to be bodied to Chrysler designs.
Exner sits in his creation. He claimed he was trying to avoid the static and bulky lines of many cars of the time.
I might have seen the car in Detroit, at the Detroit Auto Show, since it was shown there starting in 1960 but I do remember seeing it in National Geographic, in a story on Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. I recognized it immediately. I tucked that information in the back of my brain and vowed that someday I will contact the car clubs in those countries and see if the car can be found.
But when I went to the classic car tour in Carmel prior to this year’s Pebble Beach, damned if the XNR wasn’t sitting there, pretty as you please, already restored, found not in Kuwait but in Lebanon. And to rub in my disappointment even more, later on that week I saw it at Pebble. I think there must be a good story on how this car survived all the shooting and mayhem in Beirut all these years. The owner is listed in one source as Karim Edde. I have subsequently moved Beirut up on my list of Places To Look (I have also heard a rumor that there are some stolen Ferraris there).
The car used a 170 cid slant 6 for power and engine with a mere 101 horsepower, far less than the car would need if you were thinking of sporting use. The transmission was a 3-speed, on the floor.
Some statistics:
Length:195.5″
Width: 71.0″
Height: 46″
Wheelbase: 106.5″ (based on Valiant chassis)
Tires: 8.00 X 14
Now there could be a legitimate reason for the offset hood scoop. First the Valiant engine was laid a bit to the side, and maybe the car was equipped with a hop-up mod called “Hyper-Pak” long ram 4-bbl. intake and ductile cast iron split exhaust (it is known to have had dual exhaust). The street Hyper-Pak used a re-jetted Carter 2948S AFB and generated 194 horsepower.
This was a factory option. According to Don Madle, an expert in Ghia, back in 1960, “in a 30-mile compact car race at Daytona Beach (televised nation-wide on CBS, sponsored by Chevrolet), Hyper-Pak Valiants took 1st through 7th place, defeating all Falcon and Corvair challengers. First place Valiant driver Marvin Panch’s average speed was 122.282 mph.” The same Marvin Panch, by the way, who flipped a Maserati 151 coupe at some event.
Wyss can stop looking for this one but there was another Exner 'Asimmetrica' purchased by French detective author Georges Simenon. Photo by Hugues Vanhoolandt.
There were, according to Madle, other Valiant-based concept cars: Chrysler “250” (Ghia body, Chrysler built), “Asimmetrica” (Ghia body, but not built by Chrysler, “St. Regis” (Ghia body, but not built by Chrysler).
O.K. barn hunters of the world, I am now officially giving up on the XNR as a car that’s been found and restored. But I haven’t given up hope yet on the car that the hero of my novel “Ferrari Hunter” is searching for as the book ends–the Giugiaro-designed Bertone-built Mustang that disappeared some years ago….my starting place will be Monte Carlo.
More original pictures at http://www.moparstyle.com/history/xnr.htm
Wallace Wyss is the author of FERRARI HUNTERS, a novel, available from www.albaco.com
Wallace,
You have good taste my man, this car is special.
You must put Amelia on your “to do” list. The XNR was on display for the first time (finished days before) at Amelia this year.
By good chance, I met the owner the day before. He is from Lebanon and a very down to earth “car guy”. Not only does he have good taste in one-off show cars, but his “model” was a show stopper as well.
See you in Amelia 2012.
I also saw that National Geographic photo and clipped it!