"There is quite possibly only one man left in the world still pressing records for the Highway Hi-Fi." (Image by Bill McChesney.)

Starting in the mid-50s, some Chryslers had record players on the dashboard, called the Highway Hi-Fi, as chronicled in a new piece in the Believer. Of course the discs skipped no matter how good the car’s shock absorbers, and the automaker ceased manufacturing them in the 1960s. But some car collectors have maintained the systems, even though only one person still creates the special records they require. An excerpt:

“In the end, the RCA Victor Auto Victrola had an even shorter run than the Highway Hi-Fi, vanishing by 1961. The following year would bring the next serious attempt at car audio, a precursor to the 8-track deck by inventor Earl Muntz—’Madman’ Muntz, as he was known. But what could ever be half so mad as a dash-mounted turntable?

‘I first had a guy come to me years ago who had an old Highway Hi-Fi, asking about making a record,’ says Kim Gutzke of Custom Records. Vintage car owners email Gutzke a music file, and he custom presses whatever they want onto a 16 2⁄3 rpm acetate disc. And what they want, he says, is simple: ‘’50s rock and roll. Not the crappy music Hi-Fi put out.'”

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1960 Plymouth Fury with a Highway Hi-Fi: