(first posted 4/21/2017) The more daring something is, the more it’s likely to invoke strong opinions. Debuting for the 1969 model year, the “Fuselage” C-body Mopars were certainly a bold artistic statement. A sharp contrast to their boxier predecessors, as well as their crispier-styled GM and Ford competitors, the Fuselage Chryslers solicited a deep divide of lovers and haters, with seemingly more falling into the latter category. But as the greatest fictitious adman, Don Draper, said, “If you don’t like what they’re saying, change the conversation”.
With their much more conservative full-redesign another year out, Chrysler designers sought to give the futuristic C-bodies more traditional faces for the design cycle’s final 1973 model year in order to soften their polarapolarity.
Exclusively Plymouth-speaking, with the exception of the somewhat blockier-looking initial 1969 models, the 1970-1972 full-size Plymouths wore rather sleek, flowing styling. Highlighted up front by very forward looking loop bumpers, the wind-tunneled bodies of the big Furys did indeed look like they could possibly take flight — from afar that is, as up close they were positively massive cars.
Stylists took one final stab at making a bold statement for 1972, going for a busier and more polarizing front end, with a distinctive twin-loop front bumper and higher trims’ truly hidden headlights. Sales of this Fury III 4-door sedan, the second-most popular Fury after the Fury III 4-door hardtop, remained constant at 46K units, but for Fuselage’s final 1973 model year, Plymouth stylists would give the car some rather significant visual changes once again.
Going the opposite direction of the rather out-of-this-world 1972s, the 1973 Plymouth Fury sported a much simpler and conventional front end, ditching the loop bumper, split grilles, and available hidden headlights for a plainer finely-textured grille and quad exposed headlights across the board. A new hood was also in order, featuring a raised, arrow-shaped power dome.
The rear of the car was also redesigned, highlighted by new vertically-oriented teardrop-shaped taillights that were somewhat reminiscent of the Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight’s. Actually, along with the revised rear quarter panels, the ’73 Fury sported a hint of tailfin. Despite no changes to the actual decklid, the new rear end design gave the trunk of the car a physically higher and more prominent look.
Beyond the new exterior styling, little was changed for the Fuselage Furys’ final year. There was a little reshuffling of exterior colors and the electronic Chronometer clock was now standard in the range-topping Gran Coupe and Gran Sedan models. Apart from this, the Fury remained largely unchanged from an equipment standpoint.
Despite the more conservative, and frankly, boring styling, Fury sales slid by a noticeable amount for the 1973 models. This was likely due to a number of contributing factors, the primary one being simply that the Fuselage bodies had reached the end of their shelf life.
Completely redesigned C-bodies would arrive for the 1974 model year and unfortunately just in time for the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, which killed any chances for the new models to achieve any impressive sales totals. Despite handsome and far less controversial clothes, the 1974 C-bodies, and the Plymouths in particular, failed to turn many heads, relegating them to also-ran status for their short lifespan.
As for the Fuselage Furys, I personally much prefer the more daring 1970-1972 models, which I feel best capture the full effect of what designers were going for. The 1973 restyling just didn’t mesh as well with the body. It was like an Italian restaurant running out of sauce and serving spaghetti topped with salsa. In the end, the Fuselage C-bodies failed at gaining mainstream acceptance and greatly influencing the design of automobiles in the years that followed, two things Chrysler undeniable hoped for. Their greatest lasting legacy might just be their ability to still ignite a sharp debate. I guess some conversations can never be changed.
Photographed: Whitman, MA – April 2017
P.S. – Especially since I pulled up in my car, I got sketched out by a watching neighbor so I unfortunately just took these 3 pictures.
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When the 69 Furys hit showrooms I just figured they were “typical” Chrysler corporation styling, that is, a re-hash of GM styling. To me, they looked quite a bit like a 66 Chevy Impala.
Of the 4 years for the fuselage look, the 73s are pretty weak looking, like the designers pulled elements out of a hat with no regard for what the finished car looked like.
When the 73 oil crisis hit, Chrysler couldn’t give any of their cars away, so they discounted their prices heavily. A friend “bit” on their rebates and bought a 74 Fury III. It was a decent enough car, but the assembly quality was pretty sad. The interior was a sort of “oyster” color, that was a different shade for every interior part and panel. The vinyl roof on this new car looked like a suit of clothes that was 1 or 2 sizes too small as it was already curling up at the edges around the rear doors. While the carpeting started to look a bit too worn after just 1 year. And while it ran okay, I seem to remember it made a few unscheduled trips back to the dealership to fix “things”.
Yet, as much as I am a Ford fan, I’d rather have one of these fuselage Plymouths (particularly a Gran Coupe) over the equivalent Ford. However, change that Ford to a Mercury and I’m back at the Ford/Mercury dealership.
For American car for vintage, I never know why the engine compartment needs to that large. The reason is the style or engine size?
It’s some of both. However, this same drivetrain could be found in physically smaller cars, so style would be the bigger factor in these full-size Furys.
Here’s an under-hood shot of a ’72 Fury with the 440 cubic inch V8. The 440 engine block is larger and took more space than the 318 (5.2 liter) block that powered a lot of these.
What I don’t like about this shot is it doesn’t show how much space is between the radiator and header panel.
However, the torsion bar suspension setups made underhood room surprisingly tight for a car of this size. I still remember learning the hard way that it was virtually impossible to access all 8 spark plugs from the top side of the car in my 77 New Yorker.
And who when changing oil on a Mopar V8 didn’t cheat and buy the little shortie PH43 oil filter to make it easier to clear the torsion bar without dumping used oil all over the driveway.
My experience has been that the oil filter on Mopar small blocks is a huge pain, and on big blocks is wonderful.
I read somewhere that the Fuselage Mopars were lengthened late in their design phase. Apparently Chrysler’s typical concern about headroom caused the design to be a bit taller than the designers wanted. As a result, the cars were made a bit longer to stretch out the overall shape.
Heh
Nice! A local I see 🙂
Great find, and amazing to see this car still on the road in Massachusetts! Hard to argue in favor of the ’73 facelift on this car, but loop bumpers were passé (and being ruled out by the Feds) as the ’70s progressed, so I can understand why Mopar would try something different. In a way, the ’73 Fury’s face looks reminiscent of the ’69 Fury–like reverting to that look after 3 years of loop bumpers.
The ’71 Buick LeSabre clone from Plymouth that replaced this Fury in 1974 may have been a more cohesive design than the ’73 (thanks, Bill Mitchell and team for the original), but it wasn’t anywhere near as interesting and original as this ’73, warts and all.
I like the front end on this car, It was decent way of incorporating the new bumpers,
I don’t car much for the ” power bulge” on the hood, It makes it look to fussy, It would look cleaner with out it. and the extra bulges for the hips are not really adding anything to what was a nice clean design.
But its nice to know someone has taken car of the car and that it’s surviving in that climate with out rust.
Mopars from about the time Exner was sacked to when K-based FWDs took over seemed to consistently look like the previous generation of GM models, hitting the market just as GM was moving away from that look. For the big cars, the ’65s got handsome but squared off styling that faithfully continued the design ethos of the ’60 Fords or Chevy circa ’63 just as Chevrolet moved to rounded-off Coke-bottle shapes. The fuselage Furys adopted a variation of that look as GM went to straghter beltlines in ’71, which Chrysler got around to in ’74. The ’79 R bodies of course were shaped like the ’77 GM B/C body (and were nearly as ill-timed as the ’74s).
Any ideas on why Mr. ’73 Fury parked so far from the curb?
It’s hard to tell, but it’s actually parked right on the edge of the road pavement. This street has a strip of grass between the street and sidewalk, though right where this Fury is parked it’s all dirt.
Great find and piece, Brendan.
I actually like the simpler front-end of the ’73, as well as the Imperial-lite taillamp arrangement. The ’72, with the hidden headlamps and dual-looped bumper, just looks like a bad pair of sunglasses to me. (And this, coming from someone who likes the ’70s styles and aesthetic for the most part.)
I actually like all the fuselage cars, although you are right the earlier more daring styling is better.
Don’t think I’d want to own one though, they are enormous cars. There was a nice 73 for sale very cheaply in town a few years ago, I stopped to look with my wife and was kidding her; “Look, it’s huuuuge, and it’s less than fifty cents a pound”
The fuselage Mopar’s are always a welcome sight, even if some of them missed the boat on styling (here’s looking at you, ’72 Polara).
The ’73 Fury is certainly a hodge-podge. The front looks decent enough but the tail lights always come across like the banana seat from a boy’s bicycle. The rear of the ’73 still comes across better (especially on base models) than does the rear of the base model ’71 and ’72’s where it looks like somebody just gave up.
A wonderful catch, especially for MA and its rust friendly environment.
LOL! Best description ever for the look of the ’73 Fury tail lights: “banana seat from a boy’s bicycle.”
Agree with you, Jason, on the styling of the 1972 Dodge Polsra…and this is from one who owned one!
Memories 🙂
My grandparents bought a 70 Sport Fury Brougham 4door sedan, med metallic green with white painted top, 318 new. They traded in a beige 66 Coronet 440, they didn’t like the looks of the 70 Coronet, so they moved up to a Fury. They had this until 79 when they bought a 79 Horizon (green again!). My parents had a 69 Polara 4dr, in a lighter metallic green, which bit the dust in 79, so we ended up with the 70 Fury, which was still showroom new condition.
70 was always my favorite from this era. 71 seemed like they tried to slap on extra details just for the sake of being different. 69 was ok, but lacked the loop look. 72/73 seemed too bulky in the rear hips. I had read an article in the past somewhere where the designers mentioned that for 72 they were going for a bit of retro lead-sled look.
I like the ’72 Gran Coupe pictured above. A lead-sled treatment with Mopar rally wheels peeking out under rear fender skirts would look great.
+1 – One of my faves of all the Fuselage Cars. That ’72 is even in a color I would pick for it, although Mopar’s dark green of that era was quite nice as well.
An old friend had a hardtop coupe for a while in the early 80s, a Polara, I believe. That thing was truly massive – with a tiny greenhouse. Talk about out of proportion! Chrysler’s lack of foresightedness back then sunk them big time.
I would have to say that trunk is definitely a “four body” size!
It would take the K-Cars to reverse their fortunes, and the minivan added to it.
A great find. I will join the crowd, as I never really understood this design from the beginning. Well, I guess I understood it – Chrysler knew that the Ford LTD had made “formal” the hot styling trend and Plymouth had to try to adapt a decidedly non-formal body to current trends. And not very successfully.
The power bulge that stopped short of the front of the hood, the grille and headlight treatment straight from a 71 Skylark and the strange outward cant of the taillights were three things I just didn’t get. But inside I still loved these – that may be my favorite steering wheels of the 70s.
I vividly remember that by 1973 I was really ready for the fuselage era to be over, because it seemed that the body had been there forever by then. The big Chrysler was the only one that made it to 1973 without looking goofy. The 74 Fury was more cohesive but today I would take the last fusey all day long.
I much prefer the ’73 Fury to the ’72. The ’72 Gran Coupe/Sedan with the hidden headlights and wide rear tail lights with the rubber insert in the bumper aren’t bad, but the lower trim models don’t really work at all. I suspect the Gran front was the original design and the exposed headlight models something of an afterthought, even though they were the volume trims.
With their loop bumpers, these Plymouths always looked to me like they were wearing trendy eyeglasses of the time. The hidden headlight versions, wearing sunglasses. Sorry, now you can’t not see it
I’ve never kept it a secret that I’m a huge fan of the fuselage Mopars, but the styling jumped the shark after ’72. Yeah, the Plymouth, Imperial and Dodge front and rear end treatments between ’69 and ’72 could kind of teeter back and forth on the brink between “way cool” and “just too far out”, but they were always interesting. (And the Chrysler branded variants always seemed to exemplify the purest interpretation of the fuselage styling concept, to me anyway.) By ’73 the original design concept had been deviated from to an extent that the plot was completely lost.
I may be in the minority since I own a ’69 Sport Fury convertible, but the “Fuselage” Plymouths were well received, especially in Canada. I fell in love with the ’72’s when I saw one on the CTV/NBC syndicated series Police Surgeon, I sorta fell for the Sport Fury or the Gran Coupe, loopy bumpers notwithstanding. I thought it’d looked European, folks in Quebec liked them! Nary a time you’d see a Fury/(sic) Caravelle sedan or wagon paired up with a Citroen DS safari wagon, or a cute Pastel-coloured SM coupe around Montreal’s Little Burgundy, the Jewish Quarter (Fairmount), or in the L’Habitat car park. Montrealers loved their Plymouths and so do I, Take that, Yank nay-sayers!
Greetings from 69 Polara 500 convertible owner! 🙂 best to demonstrate the size, is from top perspective, in European city downtown..
That image should be on the back of the 100 dollar bill!
Wow! I would imagine that is visible from the International Space Station!
Normally I’d complain about diagonally parking, but that seems to be the only way to fit the car in this case LOL
That fusey is magnificent.
Priceless.
Thank you all for kind words. To defend parking, it was just for few minutes until pick up something and it was on lazy Sunday.
There is walk around video if interested.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M2CQPhUr2nU&feature=youtu.be
Ha! One reason why – although I wanted one badly – I decided against purchasing a Lancia Thema (the Fiat group’s variation on the Chrysler 300C theme) when I was looking for a car a year and a half ago. No matter how I tried to rationalize the purchase, I always got to the point where the thought of finding a place to park in down town Vienna reared its ugly head… Am looking for an older, US-made fun car now (one which will most likely never ever see a Viennese street) and I put the size limit at an early intermediate. Even living as I do now out in the country the full size cars are way too big.
Any fuselage but the ’73. Ugggg what a “me too” design that exemplifies the worst of Chrysler Co. lack of leadership in the styling arena.
The last model year where Plymouth Fury had unique looks, compared to Dodge’s C body platform mate. 74’s became badge jobs and one major reason for Plymouth’s eventual demise.
The 1969 initial C-bodies are the only Fuselages I liked. They seemed to have a purity of form as envisioned by the original designers, only to be baubled up in ensuing years.
Plus, as a kid, I was completely enthralled by left-hand-of dash ignition switch, to me, it was so throwback (to ’63 & earlier Ford products), what’s it doing on the swoopiest new car of “69! Make mine a black ’69 Imperial Coupe (with the optional pre-1/1/69 headrests), standard after that date.
Yes, Chrysler was the only cheap enough to not put in headrests until they absolutely had to, Ford and GM had them from fall ’69 intro.
Never much liked the look of the ’69 Fury front end but the ’69 Polara was A-OK, especially with its well-known reputation as being one of the hottest police pursuit vehicles with the 440 engine.
My dad worked at Dodge Main and was a Fury buyer every time he bought car. But his blue 1968 2-door was his last. When it came time to replace it in the early 70’s he couldn’t take the Fury styling direction and never bought another.
I’ve always loved the fuselage cars. I remember when they came out and were heavily advertised during the 1968 World Series.
My employer bought a bunch of Furys in 1971, including 3 of them for the fire administration staff that looked just like the red sedan in the brochure image above. In the mid-’70s, we were short of vehicles, and thus I had access to a retired 1972 Fury patrol car. The thing was shot, but I still loved driving it even though the 360 had some sort of manifold leak (can’t remember if it was intake or exhaust – a long time ago). It’s the only full size fuselage car I’ve driven.
I was sad the day I went to the wrecking yard in the late ’80s, and found one of the former fire administration ’71 Furys. I remember when it was new!
The ’73 cars were rather forgettable as far as the styling was concerned. We had Dodge patrol cars that year, but I’ll be darned if I can remember what they looked like. Even so, thanks for posting this gem, Brendan.
Here is what the 73 Polara looked like for you. My 4 door hardtop on the right and my friend’s 4 door sedan on the left.
That’s what they looked like! Now I remember that the ’73 Dodge patrol cars in our fleet were the first to utilize light bars. Those first ones look blunt and crude now, but back then I thought they were quite sleek and futuristic.
In spite of what I said, I think your hardtop Polara looks rather stylish.
The styling of the ’73 Mopars seems like it was a transition car, preparing the public for the brand-new, non-fuselage ’74 cars.
Unfortunately, as is well-known, the usual Chrysler bad timing was in full effect for 1974; no one wanted a big car, regardless of what it looked like. Coupled with the steady downward slide in quality, the mid-seventies was a very dark period for the company.
I owned & loved a ’71 Gran Coupe, green wit a black vinyl roof, 2-tone green vinyl seating. Ran good for its day, with the 360 2bbl engine.
That said, I always thought the ’73 was one great looking car. The front end is beautiful, and the bulge around the rear wheels, combined with the Imperial-like taillights simply exudes class.
I seem to be in the minority, but I like this car. The styling is pleasant, and the rear quarters were rather unique. The optional fender skirts were a sharp addition to the cars so equipped.
A little defense for this car, it was the final year of a five year long generation – an eternity for full-size cars that were previously seeing two year styling cycles at Ford and GM. The ’73 Fuselage cars were a holdover that received an extra year when the replacements were delayed into 1974. In ’73, this car was up against Chevys that were all new in 1971, and brand new completely restyled Fords. That sales slipped a bit is not a surprise.
I’m a big fan of the controversial high-end 1972 front end, so this car is pleasant, if a bit bland by comparison. But, it sports a nice face born of the need to meet 1973 Federal impact regulations on a car that wasn’t supposed to be in production anymore. With a minimal budget, Chrysler demonstrated its rather typical deft execution of Federalized bumpers.
Agreed on the 72. Given their basis, these 73s are the mildest of an astonishing series of bodies from all four bropars.
My advertisement at the end of the article was a Toyota Yaris IA. Polar opposite. I’ll take the Fury.
Count me as a Fusi-Fury fan. My first Mopar was a 1970 Fury III 2-door formal hardtop, beer-bottle brown with a (peeling) Gator Grain vinyl top. Under the hood was a 383 2-barrell that had enough oomph. Of course the first thing I did was to flip the air cleaner lid (teen-aged Ram Air) in order to get the desirable cop car intake-roar effect I eventually found a set of white letter tires and dog-dish caps to replace the whitewalls and full wheelcovers (similar to the 1973 pictured in the post). Fun car-I wish I would’ve had the smarts 34 years ago to keep it. (although a year and a half after selling iot, I did buy a 1971 Fury wagon with the police package, ex-sheriff’s dept. wagon-also wish I would’ve kept that, too).
I always liked the1973 fury-mainly as a cop car (I remember ’em new and mostly as cop cars). The Seattle PD had them (see the movies ‘McQ’ and ‘Sweet Revenge” for celluloid appearances). The high school one town over from where I grew up had a fleet of 1973 Fury I’s as driver’s education cars (318-powered, everything-delete package). They were used well into the 1980’s.
I always felt the 1974 restyle was a retrograde step back (but still liked the police versions). The fuselage era always looked ‘right’ to me. They always had my favorite view out the windshield-the dished 3-spoke steering wheel, the curved dashboard with the rectangular speedo (preferably reading up to 140 mph and marked as ‘certified’), and the way the a-pillars curved, framing the windshield. (no blocky, right-angle lines here). I also call for extra bonus points for the twin humps on the 1970 Fury hood-too bad it was a 1970-only styling feature.
Count me as a fan of the fuselage Chryslers. While one can hardly call them ‘beautiful’ by any means, they’re certainly distinctive, and I admire the way in which they seem to confidently revel in their gargantuan size and exaggerated proportions.
That said, I have no love for the 73’s, as the revised front and rear clips appear rather ill contrived, and destroy the hegemony of the overall design.
Another fan here too. Personally the Fuselages are the only C-bodies I’d feel bad about pulling out a drivetrain from for a A/B-body project car. I never really cared for the much more widely accepted 65-68s, too boxy, too upright, too anonymous. The Fuselage cars tried to keep full size styling youthful and sleek, just as Ford and GM were going old and formal with them. Obviously this is why Chrysler was a complete also ran in this segment but as an enthusiast it comes down to whether *I* like the car, and these I like almost as much as 68-70 B bodies. 73s…. Eh. The rear end of the Fury I always found cool looking, it’s sleek formal, very(blatantly) Oldsmobile like of the era, but the front end just says “1973 car”, no character at all, which is really sad coming from all the distinctive and/or handsome executions between 69 and 72.
Funny you mention the ever common theft of drivetrain components from these. Their pitiful valuations today make that a real threat. Yes, most were likely 318’s, but a lot of 440’s made their way under the hoods of these as well. Grandpa’s ’73 Newport Custom was one of them. Sun Fire Yellow and black vinyl roof (very odd for a Chrysler). Said 440 and heavy duty trailering package, for the Airstream. By 1973 standards it was an absolute rocket. I would not at all be surprised if that 440 still lives on under the hood of a resto-mod B or E body.
Always a fuselage fan. Favorite was the ’69 Chrysler Newport driven by my best friend’s Mom. Back seat was big enough to hold a little league baseball team. Same color as below, but she had the 4 door sedan, not the hard top as per the picture.
My grandpa bought a 71 Fury III 2 door hardtop. It replaced his 65 Chrysler Newport sedan. It was massive – the hood was ridiculously long. It was also purple – Barney purple with a black vinyl roof and interior with those highbacked split bench seats. It didn’t have much in it – 383 4bbl, air, am/fm. But it sure was big and solid. I could always tell when my grandparents were coming to visit me in my North Philly neighborhood – in the Newport and the Fury – that high-pitched “whirrrr” I could detect a mile away.
>> The more daring something is, the more it’s likely to invoke strong opinions.
Evoke, not invoke.
Just got a Plymouth fury 3 and I’m in love. All original everything. 99,000 miles. Turns heads and tons of admiration.
We had a gold metallic ’73 Plymouth Custom Sub wagon with a 400 that was a great family hauler and trailer-puller for about 5 years and 120k miles. We also had a ’70 Plym F3 convert (318), ’71 Plym Custom Sub wagon (318, underpowered in a wagon) , and ’71 Plym F3 sedan (318). The latter car was probably the best car we ever had, and imo the ’71 and ’70 were the purest and best looking of the Fuselage Plymouths… my favorite large cars of all time.
My Dad had a 1973 Polara coupe in metallic gold with a black vinyl top. The interior was a black and gold brocade nylon trimmed in gold vinyl.
The two-barrel 360 was barely enough to move the behemoth.
It was a rather ridiculous car that was all hood and trunk with a moderately sized interior with lo-o-o-o-ng coupe doors.
At the time, I thought it was beautiful and enjoyed just looking at it in the driveway.
He traded it on a 1974 Chevy Malibu to save gas. Two days later, he was back at the Chevy dealer returning the Malibu and getting his Polara back.
Because the Malibu didn’t get any better gas mileage or because he didn’t like driving it?
Greenpeace called, they need help relocating a beach car park full of Mopar beached whales back into the ocean.
Or is this why Japanese are still into “whale research”?
Tic tic BOOM !!
I did prefer the ’73 Fury for no other reason than the sculpting of the hood. I had a ’73 Fury III, 2 dr. for five years and many miles. In the long-running Chrysler color that resembled root beer brown. Other than one wiring issue, it was bulletproof.
I had the 360/727 2 bbl. model. It had quite satisfactory acceleration and for some reason, a fairly high stall speed torque converter. An OSAC valve advance delay bypass was essential. I believe I timed mine at 8 seconds 0-60. It likely had a bit shorter gearing than some. I believe there were at least 7 different engine options on a ’73 Fury. From fleet only slant 6 on up.