The Birth and Death of the Limited Edition Plymouth Fury

The Plymouth Fury was a genuine eye popper when it debuted in January of 1956. This was probably the most radical departure from what Plymouth had stood for since it inception in 1928. It had always been regarded as a solid, down-to-earth economical family type car and was known for its dependability.

The problem was other car makers had jumped ahead of Plymouth in styling and engines. In 1954 Plymouth had dropped all the way down to fifth in sales from their normal position of third for the first time since 1930. The Plymouth did a lot of catching up in 1955 as they were equal to Ford & Chevy in the looks department as well as the horsepower with a 260cid (cubic inch displacement) V-8 with up to 177HP (horsepower). Their sales went up and they moved up to the fourth position for both 1955 and 1956. In 1957 they were able to regain their number three spot.

I believe a lot of the credit for them being able to climb back up the sales ladder was not only the new styling and V-8 in 1955 but the debut of the Fury in 1956. Plymouth realized they needed something more to get customers into the show room besides styling and horsepower of the 1955. After all, the Ford and the Chevrolet both had nice styling and V-8's and there was nothing Plymouth had that could match the Thunderbird and the Corvette for bringing potential buyers into the showroom.

Now that the 1955 was doing well Lee Iacocca decided they should have some fun and at the same time get people excited. Thus the Fury was born. Basically the Fury was designed around a high horsepower engine. This appeared to be the primary reason for building the Fury. What has puzzled people since the debut of the Fury was why they didn't use one of the Hemis that Chrysler had come out with in 1951 and by 1955 was the main engine for the Chrysler C-300, the car with the most muscles at that time.

One of the theories of why they didn't use a Hemi and the one that I like is that if the Fury would have been allowed to use the 300HP Hemi it would have beaten all the other Chrysler hot rods including the C-300. Plymouth didn't want to just hop up the engine they had so they did the next best thing and picked up the 303-cid polyhead V-8 from the Canadian Chrysler. Not only was this engine a prime pick but it was right at the top of NASCAR Class 5 which had a limit of 305-cid. It appears they were planning to do some stock car racing.

Because this was going to be a limited-edition factory hot rod the engine was deemed to be lacking in the horsepower department. To get the horses up to where they wanted they put in a high lift cam, solid lifters and domed pistons which upped the compression to 9.25:1. Finally they put on a four-barrel carb and dual exhausts. When they were finished it dynoed at 240HP or about .8 horses per cubic inch. Of course it they could have used the Chrysler Hemi they could have offered 300-cid and 300 HP (with the optional high-compression head) for the magical 1 horse per cubic inch.

The Fury kind of took after Henry Ford's famous saying that you could any color Ford you wanted as long as it was black. Plymouth announced that the only color you could get a Fury in was white eggshell white paint and white vinyl upholstery with black inserts. What really set the Fury apart though was the full-length bodyside sweepspear with a gold-anodized aluminum insert. Anodized gold also decorated the grille center and the special "spoke" wheel covers.

Now Plymouth had a car that could match or even outdo Ford and Chevy for drawing a crowd. It certainly drew people in to the showrooms where they bought a lot of family sedans. Plymouth was starting to close back in on third place.

1957 was a special year for me as I drooled over the Fury, but couldn't figure out how I could afford one and pay for insurance, too. I bought a red and white Belvedere instead and was almost as happy with that instead of my dream car, the Fury.

The 57 Fury had the same paint scheme and basic trim as the 56 but the body style was completely different with a large tail fin. The gold side trim accentuated the tail fin. Along with restyled body the engine got a bit of a change as it was bored out to 318 cubic inches, got high compression heads and dual four-barrel carbs. The horsepower was now up to 290HP. This was the first year for the typewriter transmission (3 speed pushbutton Torqueflite) and it got rave reviews, although they used a stick shift to go from 0 to 60 in a little over 8 seconds and top out at about 120 MPH, it was still pretty impressive for that big of a car.

The 58 Fury was a clone of the 57 except for the dual headlights and some minor changes to the grill and tail lights. The engine was the big news for 1958 with the introduction of the 350-cid wedge head called the Golden Commando. It put out 305 HP and fuel injection kicked it up to 315HP. The 315HP engine would do 0-60 in 7.5 seconds and 16 seconds flat in the quarter mile at 90MPH. Believe me those were pretty impressive numbers for 50 years ago.

Sadly 1958 was the last year of the limited-edition Plymouth Fury. Although the name was retained it became a standard model and could be had in all the different body styles. While Fury only lasted 3 years it did wonders for Plymouth's image not to mention its sales.