What the Hell is it with everybody disparaging wide whitewalls? They are what they are, and some of us think they're cool.
Just a personal preference with me. I don't really like w-i-d-e whitewalls much at all, but I accept them for the periods when they were popular, which was before 1961. 1961 was the turning point between wide whitewalls and the start of not-so-wide whitewalls.
My wife would love it, exept for the no A/C. She loves all the weird details on the 59-63 Imperials. Like the head lights on stalks, square steering wheels, and the tail lights that look like they were added as an after thought.
I love the wide white walls, but I'm biased. I do think they look a little better on darker cars though.
Wow! Beautiful! I am in the "Like" camp on the wide whites. I think they look good on a can such as this. But that's but my opinion. I've always thought that the headlights that are completely separate from the body is a weird idea that actually works on this car. I dig it.
I had a 1963 LeBaron for a couple of years, bought it in 1978. It had Firestone 500 tires on it. Believe it or not, the thin whitewall first came out in 1957. There are tire ads in LIFE Magazine showing them, don't recall which company had them though. They obviously didn't catch on. You can see back issues of LIFE through Google Magazines. There was a bright red with white top '65 Crown coupe here with ridiculously wide whitewalls on it. That wasn't a good look. But, I prefer any whitewalls to no whitewalls, although the wagon only has two now, and the SUV doesn't have white letter tires anymore either.
