His First Car Was a 1967 Chrysler Newport; 32 Years Later, He Got This Identical Survivor

That’s not revealing much, isn’t it? 1967 was the year of the first Plymouth GTX, the first R/T Dodge (a Coronet), and also the year of a Spicy Gold Newport from Chrysler. That’s the car we’re interested in today, and that’s the Car Paul Habura turns to when he wants an answer to the riddle in the first paragraph.

As if the pleasantry of having to solve such heartwarming conundrums wasn’t enough indicator of what a good life is, Paul also has to decide whether to drive in the shade or let the wind blow free through the cockpit. His convertible Mopar is a survivor and holds a special place in its owner’s heart.

In 1973, a very young Paul Habura paid $700 for his first car, which happened to be a 1967 Chrysler Newport convertible with a black top, a gold livery, and pretty much everything else identical to the example featured in the gallery. The Chrysler in this story and the one from 51 years ago are not the same (sadly), but it was good enough for a nostalgic man who always wanted to relive that first drive in his first car experience.

In 2005, he struck gold in the Chicago Tribune advertising section—but we anticipate a bit here. In the early 2000s, Paul was happily driving a Coronet R/T (also a ragtop) as his daily fun machine, and one day, he passed by a scrapyard. Sitting on top of a big pile of crusher candidates, waiting to be turned into raw material for a steel mill, was a 1967 Newport convertible.

Mr. Habura knew there, and then that one day, he’d get his first car back – or at least one just like it. It was the latter, found almost by accident – or by a magnificent stroke of luck – in the last ad on the last page in the 'For Sale' section of the Chicago Tribune. No photos, just a simple description and a phone number. He picked up the phone and made the call.

Much to his disappointment, he was told that a man from Wisconsin was coming to see the Newport. Still, he didn’t give up, and two days later, he called again. Wisconsin didn’t like the Mopar, so Paul drove there, saw it in person, paid up, and that was it. A near-identical twin to his first car was his new pride and joy for $4,500.

Good deal, I know, even for 2005. Even more exciting is that the car had been parked in 1980 and barely moved after that. Precisely 25 miles were added to the odometer in 25 years. And the cherry on top? It was an impeccable survivor – rust-free, with no fender-benders or any other hidden flaws, a great running motor, all in one piece, and all original equipment.

When Chrysler retired the DeSoto brand in 1961, the Newport nameplate—promoted to standalone model status—replaced the outgoing moniker. In 1965, the second generation debuted, making do with just two powerplants instead of three of the previous series (1961 - 1964). From 1965 until 1968, the Newport could be ordered either with the Chrysler 383 V8 (in two—and four-barrel carburetion guise) or with the mighty 440 TNT.

The 6.3-liter V8 under the Habura example is the standard big-block, the entry-level 2-bbl eight-cylinder that fired 270 hp and 390 lb-ft (274 PS, 529 Nm). Not a lot, but not a garden snail – and the ultimate purpose of the model wasn’t to smoke tires, stoplight competitors, and fuel in high-RPM clinches but to be a comfortable 18-foot cruiser. That’s five-and-a-half meters of Mopar right there, even if the Newport was the entry offer in the Chrysler brand lineup.

The owner of this magnificent survivor enjoys the car fully and uses it just as ChryCo intended almost six decades ago. Sure, the ten miles per gallon fuel economy (23.5 liters / 100 kilometers) isn’t a great incentive for long cruises. However, putting the top down on a sunny day with an empty strip of road in sight is worth it.

If you play the video below – the work of Lou Costabile, another Chicago-based gearhead – at 09:55, you’ll notice the odometer reading ‘09636.’ That’s 109,636 miles (176,442 kilometers) on an engine that’s never been out of the car. Does anyone care (dare?) to counter this performance with something better?

In all fairness, it could have been better, but only if this drop-dead gorgeous Newport would have had the four-barrel 383 (325 hp, 425 lb-ft / 330 PS, 576 Nm). Even better, the biggest gun ever in the Chrysler arsenal, the 440 cubic-inch mastodont (aptly marketed as the ‘TNT’) fired a broadside salvo of 375 hp and 480 lb-ft (380 PS, 651 Nm in metric)—nothing the three-speed automatic Torqueflite couldn’t handle.

The 1967 Newport series consisted of two lines—the upper-level Newport Custom and the base models. The convertible was the scarcest, with only 2,891 units out of a total model production run of 107,396 cars. That year, the nameplate was the biggest seller for Chrysler (the brand, not the corporation). The 300, the New Yorker, and the Town & Country station wagons amassed just over 111,000—barely above the Newport series.

Why the drop-top was so rarely ordered is almost irrelevant today; what matters now, 57 years later, is the number of cars that are still on the road. Paul Habura can vow for one of them. The rest of the 2,980 ragtops are scattered between scrapyards, museums, private collections, and discerning caretakers who never forgot their first feeling behind the wheel of their first-ever automobile.