Auto Express Car Reviews

By James Foxall

September 2008

Lights, camera, action! With a name like Hollywood, this very special evolution of the Chrysler 300C is aimed squarely at the world’s most glamorous buyers.

The firm wants the kind of customers who will truly appreciate a rear compartment where passengers sit in the sort of opulence that the exposed driver can only dream of. This is a luxury car like no other built in the past 50 years, and we were given the chance to test it, first from the seat up front and then from the comfort of the back!

To make the Hollywood, Chrysler chopped an SRT-8 saloon across the middle, then added half a metre between the wheels. That increase in length doesn’t make life any more bearable for the driver, though. In fact, it does the opposite. The bulkhead that ensures rear passengers sit cocooned means legroom is tight. But it’s in the back where the money has really been spent. As befits a car designed for film premieres, entry has been made more elegant by moving the door hinges to the rear. Behind the privacy glass, the Rolls-Royce-style arrangement boasts only two seats, each covered in tan hide and sumptuously comfortable. There’s also a pair of 21-inch plasma TVs, and with a centre console machined out of solid teak, a feel of discreet lavishness.

Stretch your legs and even a six-footer will struggle to touch the bulkhead in front, so vast is the space. However, it does beg one question: why don’t the seats recline? If Lexus and Mercedes can manage it in their top-of-the-range limos, it’s a strange omission in a car which has been designed solely to pamper.
The Hollywood certainly hasn’t been built with driving pleasure in mind. It is not easy to manoeuvre, and the extra weight dilutes the power of the 6.1-litre V8 engine.

There’s little rattle and bang over bumps, though, and in the back seat, you are cosseted in real style.
There are no plans as yet to put the car into production, but Chrysler might not turn away serious buyers. It could just be that it has a real Hollywood blockbuster on its hands!