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The 2005 model year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the introduction of an automotive legend: the original Chrysler 300, the first production car ever to crack the 300 horsepower barrier. It was born in the era of the Detroit Horsepower War, which began with the introduction of the first modern overhead-valve, high-compression V8s by Cadillac and Oldsmobile in 1949. Chrysler followed suit in 1951, Lincoln in 1952, and pretty soon similar V8s were sprouting all over the place. Chrysler's brilliant design was, of course, the original hemi V8. With so many new engines, it was inevitable that the manufacturers would vie with one another to see who could claim the biggest and most powerful one. Thus the Horsepower War.

If Chrysler advertised 220 horsepower, Lincoln would counter with 225, only to see Cadillac brag about 230, and so on in a dizzying upward spiral. The fact that many of these advances took place not in the engineering departments of the various companies, but in the fevered imaginations of their advertising copy writers, was an open secret at the time. The cars often remained blissfully unaltered even as the horsepower boasts soared on paper.

The public was, in fact, starting to get more than a little bit jaded by the spectacle when the Chrysler 300 exploded onto the scene. Significantly, no one questioned the stated horsepower of the 300 — not after listening to the uniquely erotic exhaust note of the 300's hemi V8 at idle, not after watching essentially stock 300s clean up the prizes at the Daytona speed trials that year. The 300 was the real thing.

The last "true" 300 was built in 1965, the 300L, although the expensive-to-build hemi was dropped after 1958. In subsequent decades, Chrysler made several attempts to revive the 300 series. The 2005 range marks the most ambitious effort thus far. Even the hemi is back — at least a modern version thereof — in the top-of-the-line 300C. Our test car was the 300 Limited, pegged one notch down with the "high performance" 3.5-liter V6. We hope to have a hemi to test in a few weeks. If so, we'll update this review.

The first thing that strikes you about the 300 is the design. With its unusually high beltline, it evokes the 1950s type of customized, hot rod sport sedan. This is a car people may love or hate, but one they won't ignore. I confess I loathed it when I first saw it, but I'm slowly getting used to it.

The interior styling, on the other hand, is absolutely wonderful. Everyone who experienced the cavernous passenger cabin during our test loved the 300 from the inside out. There are so many nice touches that indicate the amount of thought that went into the interior design — too many to list here, in fact, but I'll mention one:

A friend, who is a watch collector, remarked on the "railroad track chapter" instrument cluster. He was referring to the double rings (or chapters) that encircle the round, analog gauges, with crosshatch lines at three minute intervals, and which do sort of look like little railroad tracks. (Or, five minute intervals on the clock in the center of the instrument panel.) This design element was a common feature of fine watches seventy or eighty years ago. Harley Earl, the godfather of automotive design who established the first styling studio in the industry at GM in 1928, liked to do this sort of thing. It was his philosophy that a car should have interesting design elements that a buyer would continue noticing for a period of months or even years of ownership, and that would keep the experience fresh and enjoyable over time.

Perhaps of equal importance to the styling is Chrysler's return to a front-engine, rear-drive platform. Trevor Creed, Chrysler's senior vice president, design, notes:

"The rear-wheel-drive configuration gave us the freedom to sculpt a long hood, short deck and a dramatic profile with noble proportions, while maintaining a spacious interior package."

In the 300C, the hemi has been reborn as a modern, high-performance, fuel-efficient powerplant known as the 5.7-liter hemi V8. With 340 horsepower (254 kW) and 390 lb.-ft. (525 N•m) of torque. The Chrysler 300C can go from zero to 60 mph in just 6.3 seconds. According to Burke Brown, chief engineer for both the 300 and the related Dodge Magnum:

"Chrysler's new rear-wheel-drive architecture transfers hemi power to the pavement. Rear-wheel drive offers improved handling, with the front wheels steering and the rear wheels driving."

Yeah, well, WE always knew that, but it's nice to see that the boys in Auburn Hills are cottoning onto it again. Especially under the leadership of chief designer Tom Gale in the 1990s, Chrysler styling was often trend-setting. The engineering, on the other hand, always seemed forced, as if struggling to keep pace. The result was a stream of products that looked terrific but seldom had the all-around performance to match.

The 2005 Chrysler 300 feels all of a piece, with design and engineering that are operating at the same high level. Technologies such as the electronic stability program (ESP), all-speed traction control and anti-lock brake systems (ABS) have reached new levels of advancement in their ability to control rear-wheel-drive cars in ways that are transparent to the driver.

ESP enhances driver control and helps maintain directional stability in turns, including uneven surface conditions and patchy snow, ice or gravel. If there's a discernible difference between what the driver indicates through the steering and the vehicle's path, ESP applies selective braking and throttle control to put the car back onto the driver's intended path. The system is calibrated for better control of the vehicle under a variety of conditions and operates in a manner that is not intrusive under normal driving.

The Chrysler 300C is also the first modern volume production vehicle in North America to feature cylinder deactivation. MDS turns off the fuel consumption in four cylinders of the hemi engine when V8 power is not needed, improving fuel economy up to 20 percent. This is the same basic idea that Cadillac tried to pioneer with its V8-6-4 engine back in 1981. That application didn't work well because the computer processors then available simply weren't sufficiently developed. It was a bridge too far. But computer technology has advanced dramatically in the past quarter-of-a-century, needless-to-say, and Chrysler is not the only manufacturer working on this sort of system today.

More good news: All-wheel drive is available. It is listed as an option on the 300 Touring and Limited models equipped with the 3.5-liter V6, as well as on the hemi-powered 300C.

Chrysler engineers developed three engines and two transmissions for the 300.

The base engine is a 2.7-liter, DOHC V6. It has been mated to a revised version of a proven Chrysler Group four-speed automatic transmission: the 42RLE.

The Chrysler 300 Touring and 300 Limited models feature a 3.5-liter, SOHC V6 engine with high-output performance, matched with the revised 42RLE four-speed automatic transmission on RWD applications.

For the ultimate in performance, the Chrysler 300C is equipped with a standard 5.7-liter, hemi V8 engine. This engine offers more power and torque than any Chrysler passenger car engine since the legendary 426 hemi of the 1960s and 1970s. Today's engine produces 340 horsepower (254 kW) at 5,000 rpm and 390 lb.-ft. (525 N•m) of torque at 4,000 rpm.

The 5.7-liter hemi is mated with the DaimlerChrysler five-speed automatic, offered for the first time ever in a Chrysler Group passenger car. The five-speed automatic transmission features the AutoStick driver-selectable range control, which offers a fully automatic or manual shifting selection.

[As this goes to press, a 300C SRT-8 model has just been announced. This car will feature a 6.1-liter hemi rated at 420 horsepower. Look for a Ride&Drive review in coming months of this model, too.]

With Hondas being built in Ohio and PT Cruisers being built in Mexico — to cite only two of many possible examples — it is getting harder and harder to say what is an "American" car and what isn't. Chrysler is certainly an American nameplate, but consider the pedigree of the 300: Vehicle assembly takes place at Brampton, Ontario, Canada, in the plant American Motors built in the 1980s to manufacture thinly-disguised Renaults. The hemi engine is built in Chrysler's Saltillo Engine Plant in Monterrey, Mexico. The 2.7- and 3.5-liter V6s are built in the Kenosha Engine Plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin (that's the old Nash plant). The four- and five-speed transmissions are built at Chrysler's Indiana Transmission Plants I and II, in Kokomo, Indiana.

The only complaint we had with our 300 Limited test car was the way the air-conditioning compressor cut out whenever the engine was turned off. This necessitated punching the A/C button on the instrument panel each time the car was restarted. Everything else came on automatically — the fans, the sound system, etc. Just not the A/C compressor. What a boor. It was suggested to me that the car was set-up this way in order to reduce engine load at start-up. Perhaps, but it's Mickey Mouse and Chrysler needs to fix it.

In sum, I'm still getting used to the boy-racer exterior styling of the 300 but loved just about everything else. Best of all was the window sticker: Our 300 Limited test car came in at $30,735, delivered. That's not much money these days, and our test car was certainly worth every penny. It is hard to say how many 300s Chrysler will sell. Their car business — as opposed to their highly successful truck business — has been in the dumps for years, so the only direction is up. But anyone wanting a large, mid-market sedan should definitely take a serious look at the 300. R&D