wpete just posted this at the Cohort. But I’ll let you tell me what’s been hybridized. Here’s the rear view:
Cohort Sighting: There Were Hybrid Taxis In 1958?
– Posted on February 6, 2013
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Curbside Classics Archives
wpete just posted this at the Cohort. But I’ll let you tell me what’s been hybridized. Here’s the rear view:
Well, obviously, it’s a Plodge – Dodge front, Plymouth rear. So this is presumably a Canadian car?
1958 Dodge Regent, right? I used one with a Christmas tree on the roof from some horror movie for my Christmas Card this year.
The back of these always bothered me – so much fin to fill, and so little taillight to fill it with. That said, I would love to have it. I wonder what the powertrain is? Somehow, a flathead 6 with a 3 speed would be attractive in one of these.
As I look longer at this, I really like the combo of the Dodge front end and the Plymouth rear.
The ’58 Mayfair came standard with 313cid V8 with polyspherical heads. The flathead-6 was standard on the lesser Plodges: Regent and Crusader.
Good (though not necessarily useful) to know. Did these employ the Torqueflite, or were they still getting the older 2 speed Powerflite?
Looks like a 58 Coronet with either the Getaway 6 or the Red Ram V8.
Yeah, the ’58 Plymouth front end was better than the ’57, but the ’57 had the better, full-length tailights:
Possibly pasted together after an accident!
Thanks for the reminder. I think I will watch IAMMMMW tonight. I haven’t seen it in a while.
Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World jumped to my mind immediately, but I stopped because those were 59 Plymouths (both front and back) in the movie.
I have a question for a 59 Plymouth expert. The taxis in IAMMMMW were Savoys but appear to have the trim of a Belvedere, was that a trim option for the Savoy? My Grandfather gave my mom his old 59 Plymouth Savoy around 1966 when I was around 10 or 11. I remember it was pretty basic with just a V8, auto transmission and deluxe wheel covers, it had no chrome trim on roof drip moldings and only 1 chrome strip down the side. Anyway will have to find that movie and watch it soon. Remember seeing it the first time around 1966 and laughed so hard I cried.
IAMMMMW is an actual funny movie which children under age 16 can watch since it is:
without cursing – no f-bombs just to score a PG-13
without sexual innuendo or situations or any level of lifestyle promotion
without the promotion of any sort of social agenda (for/against/with/without)
has no computer graphics that push the story into the background or create unrealistic situations (the plane actually flew through the sign)
does not include toy or video game marketing
has no sponsored products included
and the thieves actually get arrested in the end…
My 9 and 12 year old children love it.
The movie is much like a live action cartoon.
I remember seeing it as a little kid and not understanding the plot really, but thinking it was hilarious.
+1. Not many like that any more.
And don’t forget the cameo appearances from the greats, like Buster Keaton!
Good question. Mine was a Fury, so I never paid much attention to the “lesser” Plymouths. A couple of shots on IMDB IDs the cars as Belvederes, and they certainly have Belvedere trim. A 59 Plymouth Taxi brochure on Old Car Brochures.com says you could order a taxi in both trim levels. I have not seen a shot clear enough to make out the nameplate, though one of the cars does seem to say Belvedere. I am not aware that you could upgrade the trim from Savoy (with a single bright strip on the side) to the Belvedere (2 diverging bright strips), I think it more likely that either a nameplate got switched with some bodywork somewhere along the way, or that (given Chrysler’s quality rep at the time) someone just put the wrong badge on the fin. I cannot imagine that anyone gave 2 thoughts about a 3 year old Plymouth sedan when they were making the movie, so who knows what the car started out as.
Thanks for the reply. I just seem to remember them or some saying Savoy and thinking at the time that it is fancier than Granddads and it is a taxi. It appears from the screen grab that the one above says Savoy.
Looks like they were indeed Belvederes, I found a better picture on imcdb.org:
Maybe I just assumed Savoy, did not realize Plymouth offered the fleet special in Belvedere trim. Thanks!
We bought a ’59 Savoy 4dr with the 3spd manual for $400 in 1963. It was low mileage and still smelled new. It had the fancy pleated aluminum trim on the side between the two chrome strips. That was the only option it had other than radio. I thought it looked strange having the fancy side trim but not the toilet seat dummy spare on the trunk lid.
Looks normal Paul this is what we got flathead 6 tree shift Plodge from canada.
Hodge podge Dodge?
Officially a ’58 Dodge Mayfair, Regent or Crusader depending on trim level. This one is a Mayfair.
http://www.58mayfair.com/
Cars like this confused many mechanics when getting parts,Plymouths were often sold abroad as classier Dodges,De Sotos or even Chryslers.GM were guilty of selling Chevys as Pontiacs.Not sure if Ford did this though.
Dodge Kingsway and Plymouth Savoy were the same car here.
I wonder if Peter Falk or Rochester will chime in…
I am pretty sure it was a TorqueFlight. I think the 2-speeds died after `56.
And probably was a pushbutton as well. Then again, a lot of cabs were manuals. But it would be awfully hard to drive a manual in a place like NYC…
PowerFlite lasted at least through 1958. In fact I remember seeing a dark blue 1958 Belvedere convertible with no ps or pb, a 2-barrel 318 engine, just one piece of side chrome, and PowerFlite. One of my 1958 parts cars was a PowerFlite car too.
I think my granddads 59 Savoy had a powerflight transmission. It had no Power Steering or brakes but had the 318. I distinctly remember the pushbuttons only having D and L for forward gears.He had traded a 55 Belvedere 6 for it and all I remember as a young kid is how much gas that big V8 used.
Powerflite lasted through 1961 model year as the ‘standard’ or ‘low-cost’ automatic – but – only on the full size Plymouth and Dodge of 1960-61 as the Valiant/Lancers debuted with a special aluminum cased “Torqueflite 6.”
This is a ’58 Canadian Plodge . . . and could’ve had either Power or Torqueflite.
I believe the Powerflite was last offered in 1961.
The Powerflite stayed in the catalog through 1961 as a lower-cost automatic. I don’t think it was too widely ordered after the first year or two of the Torqueflite. I suspect that most PF sales were to fleets. For all of the Chevy Powerglide apologists out there, the Mopar experience of 1957-61 showed that when people were given the choice between a good 2 speed auto and a good 3 speed auto, they took the 3 speed.
I’ll admit to not knowing. I do know that some plymouth taxi’s were given perkins diesels about that time frame. Think they went to England though, not Canada and unsure of the time.
Go ahead and tell us how they were Hybrids.
As Bryce correctly points out, out NZ-new RHD Plymouths and Dodges were generally the Plymouth body from the windscreen back, with the brand-specific front clip only. This is especially noticeable in the 57-59 model years – my grandparents former ’59 Belvedere was identical to the ’59 Dodge excepting the front. It’s always strange to see a US-spec LHD ’59 Dodge here with the different rear fins. Here’s an NZ-new RHD ’59 KingswayDeluxe:
That’s the angriest 59 Plymouth I have ever seen. 🙂
Don’t forget Plesotos – Dad had a De Soto Diplomat briefly.
I’ll stop by now and admit to being the guy who posted these pics on the Cohort. I saw the car in Tacoma a couple of years ago.
I do not believe that it started life as a taxi. It’s the equivalent of a Belvedere and has the extra-cost aluminum trim on the sides between the chrome moldings, and iirc it has a Torqueflite transmission. The paint struck me as being original – it’s not the usual more orangey yellow that one sees on Yellow Cabs. Also, it doesn’t have a taximeter inside. For these reasons I believe that someone attached the taxi gizbob on the top and painted the lettering on the sides. But this retrofitting to look like a taxi is not what is at issue here.
I’m thinking it may take someone old enough to have seen more than one or two of these 1958 Chrysler Corporation cars to catch what is retrofitted. Even though I’ve had more than half a dozen 1957 and 1958 Plymouths I didn’t catch it until several days after I’d photographed the car.
The best hybrid Dodge I’ve seen was several years ago on a show called “$100 Taxi Ride”. The show’s host went to different cities and hired a cab to take him as far as he could go on a US $100 bill. In one episode, he went to Havana and grabbed a ’57 Dodge taxi. The original drivetrain was long worn out (hey, it’s Cuba) but the resourceful Cubans dropped a Soviet drivetrain into it – an engine and 4 speed tranny from a Volga sedan with a hole cut in the floor to accommodate the truck-sized shifter. It seemed to stall on a regular basis but the patient driver always got it going again and took his passenger to a villa well out of Havana. He likely needed another $100 to get back into Havana…but that’s another story and another old Detroit cab with a recycled East Bloc drivetrain.
This car is parked at Yellow Cab in Tacoma, WA. I don’t know if it runs-it seems to have been in the same spot for at least the last 15 years. (maybe they do fure it up once in a while). Given Tacoma’s relatively close proximity to Canada (specifically Vancouver, British Columbia) It is a Canadian ‘Plodge’ spending its retirement in the states…
I’d love to know the back story on this car.
It’s a 58, but either a Franken-car put together after an accident or a Canadian import, has California black plates (which were issued between 1963 and 1969) and is in Washington now.
There’ve gotta be some great stories.
A 1958 Chrysler hybrid? Surely, it must be the little-known HemiTurbine. I heard it runs on a mix of kerosene, tequila, and 98 octane.
The biggest problem with the Hybrid 57-58 Mopars was that the exhaust emissions were largely comprised of iron oxide. 🙂