Stepping out of the nearby park, heading home after a nice afternoon of “let’s take the kid out and have him exhaust himself so he will sleep well enough not to wake us up in the middle of the night”, the kid, wife and I stumbled upon this maroon yacht, that was like something from a different planet.
So I suggested my wife to start heading home, as she is really into old Plymouths (which means, she really isn’t), and I moved in closer:
Looks sad, doesn’t it? I mean it has a sad face, like an old dog who’s head bows down form the weight of all its 43 years.
Over to the side, and you can probably notice the far-from-original front wheel cover. I recognize this a first gen. Mazda3 item, of all possible alternatives.
Mind you, the back wheel cover isn’t original either, although at least this one stays in the family (and within period), being a Chrysler item. And you can probably see the emblem at the back.
Come to think of it, there’s no shortage of emblems on that car, from Plymouth to Chrysler through “Sport Fury” and “V8” to “Brougham”, not to mention the “Gran Fury” itself.
Here’s a better look at that Chrysler wheel cover. And I’m not sure at all that the “350” emblem on the bonnet (er, hood) didn’t come off a Camaro, goodness gracious.
Last photo from this specific venue is of the front, and the neatly inserted-in-the-bumper fog lights (that’s not such a bad job, actually).
I’m not going to outlay the history of the Gran Fury, you can read about it in William Stopford’s excellent post here. I’ll just add that these were ultra rare in Israel, being expensive and far too big for this country. They were outsold anyway hands down by Mopar’s own Darts and Valiants, which made much more sense in in Israel. As for this specific Gran Fury, I know it well from many meetings of the Israeli Five Club. It belongs to one of the club’s personnel (see above the small Five Club flag in the photos) and as far as I can tell, has never been restored, and it shows:
This is how I first saw the car, some ten years ago. Call me crazy, but I cannot understand why was it necessary to let go of these much better-looking wheels in favor of the current mismatched covers. But hold on, it could be worse:
Fast forward a few years, and the nice wheels turned into wire covers (with Chrysler emblems, at least). Brings out the broughamness, no?
And so we arrive to its present, somewhat neglected look, wheel covers and all. I do suspect that, looking at the photos, the vinyl roof was redone at some point. It looks far better than the rest of the car.
By now you’re accustomed to me uploading more photos of the same model from classic cars meetings, but as stated above, these were so rare in Israel this might be the only Gran Fury of its kind in the country. Therefore, I’ll cheat and post photos of earlier Furys (before they were Gran), all of which were imported to Israel in recent years:
This last black 1970 Fury is tasty, and see the difference a nice set of wheels can make. I’ll finish off this post with a photo I took some years back at the Brussels’ Autoworld, a vast car collection which included, among countless other classics- one of these:
The owner of the 1975 car definitely went wild with the incorrect emblems. I suspect it’s simply a Gran Fury Brougham and all the other badges (‘Royal’, ‘Sport Fury’, ‘350’, ‘V8’) have all been added. I guess the way the car left the factory wasn’t tacky enough.
And every time I see a ’73 Fury, I’m reminded of that jacked-up 2-door driven by that crazy redneck bastard in the movie Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.
The one with the trunkfull of rabbits, right? I caught that movie a couple of months ago. All the CCs and Catheriine Bach in it…
The fuselage coupes all look bigger than they are, a look hard to achieve on a car huge to start with. The 4 door sedans and wagons pull off the look much better. The days of the full size 2 doors were numbered though, all but disappearing in a few years. I do like the rear end, especially the taillights.
Was there ever a worse year-to-year update than the Plymouth Fury from 1974 to 1975? The 74 had not been tremendously original, but it was at least conservatively attractive – as close to “normal” as we had seen out of Plymouth for several years. But the 75? Blech!
Those awful single headlights are bad enough. But that conversion from 2 door hardtop with roll-down rear quarter windows to a coupe with fixed opera windows – this is the worst roof update ever. Ever!
There were only two updates to the original roof that kinda sorta worked. The Chrysler St. Regis-style with the painted C pillar and the Royal Monaco variation that pulled the vinyl down to be even all across the bottom and hide that original abrupt beltline curve. And those were only partially acceptable because it was the 70s when there were so many other not-great roof treatments. But this one is just awful.
Oh, and while I am usually not that crazy about the 73 Fury, those two four door hardtops are beauties.
Actually, I kind of like the single-headlight Gran Fury grille myself, but that’s just me. If you went for a low-line ’75 model, you got a slightly modified ’74 grille complete with quad lights.
Two lights or four? That must be the only time the more-upmarket model looked cheaper than the low-line edition.
It seems the neoclassical fad of the 70s made two headlights “classy”, but cars really needed to have that Monte Carlo like execution to pull it off.
Oddly I think the Gran Fury may have been the only full size car made during the 1970s with two rather than four headlights. Maybe the first one since the late 50s to revert back to them?
If we’re including downsized models in the 1970s, the ’79 base Ford LTD had two rectangular headlights. I prefer this style to the upscale quad-light front.
I actually don’t mind either the 74 or the 75. Mind you they would not have attracted my attention back in those days, I was into compacts, or perhaps intermediates, and these were every bit full size. The black 1970 pictured shows how the hood over the top of the grille look is just too heavy. It is like a furrowed eyebrow look, that conveys just too much weight in its appearance.
These were ubiquitous in their day as taxis and police vehicles. Nowadays, I have not seen one of these for years, even at the Mopar Spring Fling car shows. Maybe this year….
Nice find!
An exceptional find, in more ways than one.
Neither of the non-covered wheels on both the 75 or the 70 are attractive, both look straight outta 1996.
Obviously a few emblems have been added, but I’ve heard Chrysler stylists detested marketing applying stripes on the Muscle cars during the 60s, so just imagine how they must of felt with the mile long cursive emblems, rub strips and puffy tops covering the entire roofline on their designs!
The front end reminds me of the 77-78 Dodge trucks, which also look sad
Corporate front end theme, anyone?
A co-worker of mine bought a 74 Fury to replace a VW squareback that had been rear-ended twice. I drove the Fury twice and what I remember about it was that it was relatively quick (I have no idea which V8 it had), the steering had almost no feel, and the brakes felt like they could have stopped the car on a dime. Build quality? Not all that great, as the vinyl roof was already pealing away from the bottom edges of the roof and the oyster-colored interior was assembled from parts that were at least 4 or 5 different shades of oyster. The big selling (buying) point for my friend? The rebate and steep dealer discount.
A not unattractive car cluttered up with too much vinyl and emblems from elsewhere. Still a terrific find, especially for being in Israel.
I’ve seen one of these in the last umpteen years. It was for sale, a black on black two-door. Seeing this one is a delight.
The front reminds me of this, which appeared here in Australia in 1976
Incredible find, Yohai, and great pictures.
I will say that yours are the first pictures of this generation of Gran Fury I’ve ever seen that made me see a family resemblance shared with the Volare.
I also noticed how much more I liked the script font of the “Sport Fury” (not original) badge on the decklid, versus the more curlicued “Gran Fury” emblems on the front fenders. The difference kind of echoed the 2-door Fury’s role having shifted from initially being something semi-sporty to more formal and frilly by the time our featured car was new.
Great find. Watching the Begin-Sadat talks unfold in the late 70s, 2 things struck me. First, Israeli politicians didn’t wear ties, and second, they all seemed to drive around in this vintage of C-bodies.
Actually, the 1973 Fury also appears to be a Gran Sedan, when “Gran” was the top lux trim level instead of a distinction between the C body and the B body.
For 1975, all full-size C-body Plymouths were Gran Furys, with various trim levels. The restyled B-body Plymouths were named Fury, and promoted as the “Small Fury.”
The opera windows and single headlight maybe was an attempt to have a “Plymouth Cordoba”?
“Ok, we’ll give the dealers Plymouth Personal Lux coupe, but we can’t use the B body, so take a C and whip one up”
Dodge and Chrysler C bodies had comparable roof treatments, so the Plymouth C body probably wasn’t a direct response to the absence of a ‘Plymouth Cordoba.’ Single headlights were somewhat in fashion, so it was an easy change to have a fresh look.
The Cordoba had been planned as a Plymouth and changed to the Chrysler brand in the same showroom. Either way, the same dealers sold the cars, so there wasn’t a particular need for a Plymouth alternative.