One of Three: 1959 Chrysler Scimitar Town Car Phaeton Heads to Auction

In 1959, the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation wanted to prove that aluminum had a bigger future in the auto industry. Rather than publish a technical report or build a simple display, the company commissioned industrial designer Brooks Stevens to create three complete concept cars.

The result was the Scimitar, a trio of full-size Chrysler-based show cars that debuted together at the 1959 Geneva Motor Show. There was an All-Purpose Sedan, a Two-Door Convertible, and the most unusual of the three: the Town Car Phaeton.

Now, 67 years later, that Town Car Phaeton is headed to auction. It will cross the block at Mecum Monterey on Friday, August 14, 2026, with an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000.

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Built to Sell Aluminum

Olin Mathieson had entered the aluminum business during the 1950s and wanted the Scimitar project to demonstrate what the material could offer automakers, particularly its strength, low weight, and resistance to corrosion.

Stevens, whose long career included work on everything from Jeeps and Harley-Davidsons to the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, started with three 1959 Chrysler New Yorker chassis and designed a different body for each.

But the cars weren't built in Detroit.

The chassis were shipped to Karosseriewerk Reutter in Stuttgart, Germany, the coachbuilder best known for producing bodies for the Porsche 356. Reutter combined conventional black-painted steel with large sections of brushed, silver-anodized aluminum.

The contrast became the Scimitar's defining feature. Stevens drew the black side panels upward through the silver body in a long, curved sweep inspired by the blade of a Turkish scimitar sword. The shape gave the cars both their visual identity and their name.

Three Scimitars, Three Different Ideas

Although the three cars shared the same basic design language, each explored a different approach to the automobile.

The All-Purpose Sedan was essentially an early luxury wagon with a rear roof section that could disappear, an idea that would later appear in vehicles like the Studebaker Wagonaire. The Two-Door Convertible experimented with an elaborate retractable roof.

Then there was the Town Car Phaeton.

Its roof was divided into separate sections over the chauffeur and rear passenger compartments. Each could retract independently, allowing the car to be fully enclosed, open over the driver, open over the passengers, or opened completely.

It was part formal town car, part phaeton, and part engineering demonstration.

More Than Just the Roof

Stevens gave the Town Car several details that separated it from the other two Scimitars. Most obvious was the pointed spear running through the center of its dramatic V-shaped nose. On the Phaeton, that piece was finished in gold.

At the opposite end, things became a little more familiar. The triple round taillights were borrowed from a contemporary Chevrolet Impala.

Inside, much of the basic layout remained recognizably Chrysler. The gray cabin received custom touches, but the dashboard retained its 1959 Chrysler origins. Power windows added to the car's luxury-showpiece character.

The result was unusual even by late-1950s concept-car standards: German coachwork, American mechanicals, an aluminum-industry sales pitch, and Brooks Stevens styling all wrapped into one car.

350 HP Under the Aluminum

Underneath the custom bodywork was serious Chrysler hardware.

The Scimitar used Chrysler's 413-cubic-inch Golden Lion V8, rated at 350 horsepower, paired with a three-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission operated through Chrysler's push-button selector.

The chassis was much more conventional than the body surrounding it. It featured independent front suspension with longitudinal torsion bars, a live rear axle with leaf springs, and power-assisted hydraulic drum brakes at all four corners.

That combination makes the Scimitar an interesting snapshot of 1959. Mechanically, it belonged to the era of enormous body-on-frame American luxury cars. Visually, it was trying to figure out what came next.

The timing was significant, too. 1959 marked the final year of body-on-frame construction for Chrysler's full-size cars before the company moved to unibody construction for 1960. The Scimitars therefore became some of the last coachbuilt creations based on a traditional full-size Chrysler chassis.

From Geneva to Amelia Island

The three Scimitars traveled the show circuit after their Geneva debut, demonstrating both Stevens' ideas and Olin Mathieson's vision for aluminum in automobile production.

Then, unlike so many concept cars from the period, they survived.

All three were eventually reunited and displayed together at the 2019 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, putting the complete Scimitar experiment back in one place six decades after Geneva.

That survival makes the Town Car Phaeton particularly unusual. Concept cars were often modified, dismantled, destroyed, or simply lost after their usefulness on the show circuit ended. This one made it through.

One of Three. Going to Auction Friday.

The Town Car Phaeton is now Lot F98 at Mecum Monterey 2026, scheduled to cross the block on Friday, August 14.

Mecum estimates it will bring between $150,000 and $200,000.

That's buying more than an unusual 1959 Chrysler. It's one-third of an entire concept-car program, designed by Brooks Stevens, coachbuilt by the same Stuttgart firm that produced Porsche 356 bodies, and created during an era when a chemical company could commission three outrageous cars simply to convince Detroit that aluminum was worth taking seriously.

It was built to convince the auto industry to buy aluminum. Now someone gets to buy the sales pitch.