Posted 2 years ago
dav2no1
(839 items)
Two Very Rare Classic Dodge Car
My local town has a "Cruise the loop" night in the summer. There's 6 events on Saturday evenings. People bring out their muscle cars, classics, trucks, military vehicles, antique vehicles, low riders, hydraulic cars, donks, custom semi trucks, motorcycles, etc. We have a large car culture here and you might see a Model A next to a "deuce and a half" military vehicle.
A few weeks ago was the last event. This lady was parked near me in a 1955 Dodge Royal Lancer. I talked to her for a few minutes and she told told me her husband was coming with their other car..a 1956 Dodge La Femme. I could not believe it! I was just telling my buddy about this La Femne that I had seen on a TV appraisal show. I had never even heard of the car before then.
1955 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer - super rare
1956 Dodge La Femme - also super rare
LA FEMME
Fewer than 2500 of the special Dodges were made in 1955 and ’56. And only 1500 were sold. Estimates are about 30 cars exist today. From what they told me, 2 are in my area.
The ‘55s included a special pink calfskin purse that matched the car’s interior. The purses came with matching compact, cigarette and lipstick cases, comb and lighter. The driver’s seatback had a special compartment to store a raincoat, rain hat and umbrella, which all came with the car.
The items today are very rare and only a handful of examples exist.
One special note..you can define the 55 and 56 by the little chrome fins on the back.
Beautiful cars. And of course the cars are powered from the rocket exhaust from those taillights.
Ha ha..yes! And both cars feature the push button transmission. Dodge thought the ladies would prefer this over shifting.
I believe the 1955 is actually a Dodge Custom Royal Lancer, which is the highest package available...vs Dodge Royal Lancer, which is the 2nd from top trim package. The convertible was only available in the custom Royal package.
dav2no1, I'm all confused, probably because I don't know much about automobiles.
I was thinking that the La Femme was the pink convertible, but then I found these links:
https://www.dodgelafemme.com/1956exteriors.htm
https://www.hotcars.com/things-we-forgot-about-the-dodge-la-femme/
https://franksclassiccars.com/inventory/1955-dodge-custom-royal-lancer-convertible/
What started me down this path was the particular shade of pink on the convertible. I wondered whether it was the photography or the weather that made it look like more of a peach pink than a 'true' pink.
Then I noticed that the convertible wasn't a two-tone, but rather one uniform shade of pink, so perhaps it's a custom repaint job?
If it seems like I'm developing a new obsession: not so much.
I'm just a bit pink-phobic. I liken it to how I suspect some black people might feel about watermelon.
Both vehicles have been professionally restored. The 55 convertible custom royal Lancer is now all pink vs 2 tone.
The 56 hardtop is the purple La Femme. Both cars were painted with factory colors. What may have confused you, was my picture that showed the accessories...I found that on the interweb..belongs to a 55 la femme pink car.
I asked the couple how much paint it took to spray those cars...they are big cars(212 inches= 17' 8")!...they both said, "we stopped keeping track..it was a lot"
OK, so while it's not a factory paint job, it IS factory color. :-)
It was probably just the lighting tricking me.
Yes nim not a professional photographer..and was using my phone camera. Also modern paints can look different than period era paint.
dav2no1, I wasn't critizing your photography at all.
The lighting in the picture makes the color of the car appealing to me, because if I'm going to have pink at all, it'd have to be something in that family:
https://icolorpalette.com/color/FFBE9F
Woaahhh!