An Imperial With a Sting.... [PIC]

1966 was the year ABCTV was known as the "Two Car Channel' being the home of two super-heroes and their kick-ass cars. It brought together two of the most famous customizers at the time: George Barris and his Batmobile created from Lincoln's 1955 Futura concept; and Dean Jeffries customized 1966 Chrysler Imperial Crown "Black Beauty" for the short-lived "Green Hornet" series. Here's a still from the Batman episode that acted as a promotional for that "Green Hornet" series:

The price tag for Jeffries' creation was $50,000 and included a huge array of weaponry and sensors. The green headlamps were flip downs supposedly for low-vis night vision (don't try that at home). This AUTOart model was developed during the time when CCP were nationalizing  the diecast vendors and directing them into heavy industry and luring workers into areas like auto manufacturing that paid much better than model making. This model was to have a slew of working parts that would allow weapons bays to be posed in the open or closed position. The sharp rise in production costs made that economically nonviable, so the car was modeled with all the bays open. I don't think there were any plans to have the twin belt-fed 30 caliber fender mounted machine guns as I don't see any panel lines on the body to mark the locations. SO what you have is the "Black Beauty" in full combat mode facing an attack from all sides... minus the machine guns. The model is still impressive with a huge parts count, but as a lover of the stock Imperial, I would have loved to have the option of closing at least some of the panels.