After some searching I found a contact to Eric Stoddard (for those of you that don't know Eric designed the crossfire). I asked him if he would do a write up about the crossfire and what it meant to him. I also asked if he would share the influences of the design.

This is what he wrote:



Hi Jerid,

Glad to see you're enjoying your Crossfire! That was one of those
unique projects where everything aligned almost magically. Crossfire
started life in fall 1999 as a design proposal for one of the concept
cars for the 2001 Detroit Auto show. That design was selected from
hundreds of designs submitted by the Chrysler design staff. My concept
was to create a grand touring coupe, combining European driving
dynamics with a distinctly American taste as a halo car for the
Chrysler brand. Some of my inspirations include the 1935 Auburn
Boattail Speedster, 1963 Corvette and the 1965-68 Mustang fastback. I
also took a lot of inspiration from Art Deco architecture and
streamline designs from the '30s to the '60's. The original concept
car was designed on a shortened Prowler platform. The decision to
produce the Crossfire on the SLK platform was made shortly after
public debut, and the design was adapted for production.

FYI I visit crossfireforum.org from time to time as "Creator." Drop me
a line sometime!

Keep driving,



Auburn


Stang


vette