At this point, the Chrysler 300 had established itself as the car to beat on the sand at Daytona, the oval tracks of Nascar, and of course, the new interstate highway system. This was really the fun part.......in 1956 there were no traffic jams or sneaky radar traps to interfere with a driver's desire to see if he could make his passenger cover his eyes and start praying. Cops were few and far between on the highways, and why wouldn't they be? Most of the junk that came out of Detroit in those days could barely make the speed limit, much less exceed it. The few cars that could, other than Mr. B, were owned by older people who didn't really care if the family Fleetwood would do 100 mph. It would, but the factory tires would probably explode. 300 owners, of course, were a different breed. They had better tires, too.

For 1956 the 300B got a little sheet metal facelift, a 12 volt electrical system, and the first vestiges of fins appeared. The rest of the car looked pretty much the same, and you still had the overwhelming choice of three colors. If you didn't like red, white, or black, well, too bad. That's all they had offered in 1955, and why change things now? Rumor had it that white was for Nascar, red was just a snazzy color associated with fast sports cars like the Ferrari, and black was for the executives who liked a formal looking car. It was also for the midnight maniacs who liked to bury the speedometer in the middle of the night. Made it harder for the local PD to figure out what just roared by at 120 plus. A few special order colors were produced, though, as they had been in 1955 and would be in the future. You could also now get the nice Imperial air conditioning system.

To make sure that 120 plus was a reality rather than just a figment of somebody's imagination, Chrysler upped the ante by upping the cubic inches. The hemi now had a displacement of 354 and standard horsepower of 340. To make things worse, mainly for the competition, there was also an optional engine with a little more compression, three inch exhaust, manual brakes, and 355 horsepower. That made Chrysler the first automaker to offer an engine with more than one horse per cube. The Powerflite continued (now pushbutton controlled) and later in model year the new 3 speed cast iron push button Torqueflite debuted. Another option for do-it-yourselfers was a 3 speed manual Dodge transmission. Stick cars had a black 1953 steering wheel and a few '55 dash pieces that covered the pushbutton control area. New center plane brakes were added, along with backup lamps. 31 stick shift 300Bs were built.

One option I find interesting is the "Instant Heater." This little gasoline fired puppy was jokingly referred to as the "burn yourself alive" heater by some Chrysler mechanics I knew. This toasty little option was continued through the 1959 model year, then dropped when the 300F came out. Maybe there was a problem nobody was willing to publicize. I never heard of anybody going up in flames with this device, but I wouldn't want to be the first to have a passenger give me that funny look and say "Hey, what's that smell?" A word to the wise; let Mr. 300  warm up in the driveway while you have a cup of coffee.

All in all, Chrysler did a nice job of refining the C300 without changing the concept. The car continued to be big, fast, and expensive. It became a little more luxurious with some new options, and it continued to break records on the race track. 1102 customers ponied up the $4312 necessary to throw a rope around the beast and lead it home. Got one today? Some 200 or so exist. Just watch out for that heater.