Had it been October of 1960, and I was standing at a Plymouth dealership, the title of this post would have been the first words out of my mouth. Sometime between 1958 and 1960, Chrysler’s design studio must have been captured by aliens. Whatever the aliens did had a profound impact on what appeared in Mopar showrooms in 1961. And the 1961 Plymouth full sized line was one of the most mutant of them all.
When Chrysler switched everything but the Imperial to unit body construction in 1960, apparently it wanted to prove that what it showed customers in the fall of 1956 was really what 1960 would look like. So the full line of Mopar offerings minus the all new Valiant showcased an evolution of the Forward Look.
Given that contemporaries from General Motors weren’t all that much more forward thinking in design, it didn’t seem like a bad move.
Only the Ford 4 door hardtops made any design leaps into the present with rather clean side details and the blind C-pillar borrowed from the 1958 Thunderbird. All of the design excesses of full sized cars began to seem obsolete for 1960. With the runaway success of more stoic compacts such as the Falcon, Ford and Chevrolet shed the frills of the 1950s with haste to introduce rather clean 1961 designs.
Virgil Exner just took a pair of scissors to the rear end, hammered on some concave rear fenders and put a heavy dose of eyebrow pencil over the headlights of the 1961 full sized Plymouth cars and called it a wrap. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce you to the 1961 Plymouth Mothra…. err… Fury…”
Pretty much all Mopars were, in some form or other, fashion freaks this year: from the reverse fin Dodges, the cock-eyed Chryslers and the neo-classical free-standing headlamp Imperial. The Plymouth doesn’t initially seem all that out of the ordinary. Then you realize that the Dodges were pretty clean in general. And the Chrysler wasn’t too ugly if you didn’t look it in the eye.
Something is remarkably out of proportion with the Plymouth. For one thing, there’s a healthy dose of the “crab legs” tread stance that make many a 1950s General Motors car seem like a sumo wrestler with small feet. In an era in which Pontiac was leading the way of showing off your shoes by pushing them to “wide track” dimensions and offering 8 lug exposed aluminum drums to dress the whole thing up, the Plymouth seems decidedly retrograde.
And then there’s that Science Fiction face. The 1959 Buick opened the door to many an aggressive face, and the 1961 Plymouth wasn’t the only furrowed brow scowling out of showrooms across the United States in 1961. But it was the one that possibly caused the most nightmares.
As we pull back from those furrowed eyebrows, I can’t help but notice how inharmonious the whole front end is. The grille has a “pinched waist.” The hood starts to flow down and then abruptly stops. Then there’s the cheese grater grille pattern with that gold emblem. I’m surprised I got this close to take a picture. At any moment it looks like this face could come alive and devour me in a torturous death. I don’t think a 361 Wedge V8 slumbers behind that hood. I think seventeen rows of sharp teeth lie behind there. Tell my mother I love her and I died doing what I loved: Photographing strange beasts in the wilds of South Berkeley.
As we flee, umm, move on to a examination of the disconnect between the front and rear, we notice the lantern jaw of a front bumper that dangles like a shelf off of the front end. Also questionable is the choice for convex curves that end with…
…Concave rear fenders. Concave rear fenders that seem to attempt to mimic the much more expensive Imperial by tacking on the tail lamp clusters to the rear fenders. Not exactly the “free standing” units from a Crown Southampton, and a far less an elegant solution to boot.
But like most alien races, the 1961 Plymouth was working with superior technology. The base Slant 6 was the most advanced 6 cylinder available in the big 3 cars that year, still in the infancy of developing its reputation of being an indestructible source of power and economy. There was a wide variety of well regarded V8 engines, from the work-a-day 318 V8 all the way to the SonoRamic Commando 383 V8 that could launch the relatively light Fury to 60 in the mid 7 second range, with all day longevity to cruise well over 100. The Torqueflite was already the standard of Torque Converter based automatics.
Like a true menace to polite society, the angry Plymouth could handle circles around any Impala or Galaxie and had a tighter structure less prone to squeaks and rattles as it aged, thanks to Uni-Body construction. And there was that oddball highback drivers side bench seat and square steering wheel. What’s harder to believe is this isn’t as bad as it would get for full sized Plymouths in the 1960s.
We’ve all heard the details of how the 1962 Plymouth and Dodges went from these 119 inch wheelbase proposals to the actual 116 inch “Plucked Chickens.”
I wonder if I’m the only person who thinks the end result was far better than one could expect after the matinee horror movie the 1961 models had been. Too bad the public didn’t feel the same way at the time. Although the 1962 models share some of the same elements of the 1961, they are far more tidy than one could hope for from the previous year.
It’s amazing what a design misstep the 1961 Plymouth was compared to just about everything else for sale that year. It is also one of those designs that could only happen in the era of mindless movies fascinated by aliens and giant lizards and insects destroying small towns. Maybe Virgil Exner was a big fan of Godzilla and in between sketches he popped into a local matinee and thought what he saw on the big screen was a good face for a car? I’m stretching here. But I thank him, and those loyal Plymouth buyers that looked beyond the face of these bizzare aliens of Highland Park.
We’ve yet to really understand aliens. More often than not they come in peace and offer us solutions to our problems. The Plymouth offered us zippy performance, tight handling and uni-body construction as the way of the future. These were values we wouldn’t embrace in our mainstream family sedans until the 1980s. We should understand and thank Mothra… err… Fury for all that it did to move us forward.
Good write up, even cooler pics. The only thing I missed was a little more detail about this specific Plymouth,… is this someones daily driver ? owner history ? yada yada..
The current owner actually works in the same building as me (and we have the same BART commute, he lives 4 blocks north of me). It’s a half hearted driven restoration project. He’s more of a Sci-Fi Nerd than Car collector. The Saab behind it in the driveway is his “daily driver.”
The Fury makes a odd appearance at Whole Foods once every blue moon, and actually appeared in a friends Facebook photo stream somewhere in what (architecturally) looked like my neighborhood, so I hunted it down.
This rendition appears to me that Virgil Exner watched “Forbidden Planet” once too often! Robbie the Robot must’ve been his hero, as there are ‘way too many design cues from the the movie and the robot to overlook! I never saw too many of these growing up, thankfully, as there were more Chevys, Fords and Ramblers. Most of the MoPars were of the Valiant and Dart and pre-1957 models. The larger MoPars were of the Dodge variety.
My aunt drove one of those large Dodges – a white two-door hardtop complete with blue interior and that unique square steering wheel! I’ve always been convinced she was a Californai girl at heart, stuck in Kirkwood, Mo., for when I visited, we would go places and run errands and she would let her dog jump in and he would immediately lay on the huge rear shelf under all that glass! Aunt Lee would have a scarf around her hair as women did then, a pair of white wing tip sunglasses, a cigarette and a bottle of Coca Cola on the seat by her side – no cupholders, then! We would then embark on our latest driving adventure together for that summer afternoon – never taking the same road twice! Always a lot of fun for a young kid!
Great articles like these bring back great memories! Thank you!
You appropriately compare the aggressive face to the ’59 Buick…but the Buick wears it’s anger far more elegantly, as if snarling at you while inbibing in a pre-dinner cocktail.
The Fury is just weird. I couldn’t envision any of the neighborhood Mom’s driving it back in the day.
(It memorably and auspiciously cameo’d as the police car, hinting at the rebellion of the inmates running the asylum, in the parade scene of Animal House.)
And why the square steering wheel? Sinister goings on in the design studio…
If cars are like women the 59 Buick is a socialite dressed to the nines in the latest fashions who looks sexy when she is angry. The 61 Plymouth is a grizzled old mountain woman dress in rags with bare feet, 3 teeth and 2 barrels on the shotgun she’s toting and her angry face means run for your life.
I had this comparison in mind. The 1959 Buick is Joan Crawford circa “The Best of Everything” The 1961 Plymouth is Bette Davis in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane”
I remember test driving one of these back in the early 80s. It was for sale at the Chry-Ply dealer when I was in college. I think this was when I owned my ’59 Fury. The ’61 was a silver sedan, I think it was a Belvedere, with the slant 6 and pushbuttons. Although it was a pretty clean car, none of the instruments on the dash worked, the exhaust manifold leaked and one of the hubcaps flew off when turning a corner. The unibody was tighter than my ’59, but otherwise it was a major downgrade and I kept what I had (for once).
I always kind of liked 90% of the car, but GAD – that front end. Looking at your pictures, I just started laughing out loud at it. What on earth were they thinking. That may have looked good on some other planet, but not the one we are all from. The dashboard was kind of cool, in a space-age kind of way. It seemed to say “Greetings, Earthling, you are my prisoner.”
The only person I ever actually knew with one of these was my second grade teacher, Miss Butler. She was an unpleasant old lady with no discernible sense of humor. This car suited her.
Great car, Laurence. You made my day.
I… want… your camera. lol.
Seriously, it would have already been an amazing piece, but the warm nostalgic tone of the CC shots just takes it over the top. Very well done!
and ugh, what an ugly car!!!!
Good piece as always, Laurence
This car has to be the result of butt kissing group think at its worst. Someone who had a pair SHOULD have stated the obvious: This is a butt ugly car and if we put it on the market we’re gonna get killed.
Apparently GM was not the only company where the truth could be dangerous to your career.
What I’m absolutely waiting for is that one person to say they actually like the looks of this car. I think this is the first oddball I’ve found where I might get universal raspberries for the styling. I don’t think anyone likes the way these look.
They aren’t so ugly they’re cute in a 1970s Japanese Car or AMC Gremlin/Pacer kind of way. They’re just “Wow, did they hire a bohemian artist on heroin with a grudge against corporate America” ugly, as if the designer wanted to sabotage the company that fed his mouth. Then again, facing the detail nit picking of the upcoming S-Series cars, maybe Virgil Exner was intentionally drawing ugly cars to see how far Chrysler would go.
I’m your guy, Laurence. OK, almost your guy. Graft a ’63 Dodge 880 clip on the front, and I like the car a lot. I have always loved that concave thing that wraps around the rear of the car, and the missile taillights are actually pretty cool. The general shape of the car gets me all excited, but then I look at that absolutely awful front end. Aaaaaghhhhhh. Is there an uglier front end in the history of auto design?
I think for me what kills it visibly is the wheel well openings, oddly. especially the rear one gives a sensation of too much unbalanced rear overhang. This made all the more odd because I think the Dodge Dart on the same chassis/bodyshell is so much more attractive in it’s weirdness to me.
If some of the details were more crisp, as they would be for the downsized ’62, I think it would have been more tolerable. I look at this and look and how crisp the 2nd set of Forward Look cars, even with their fins, seem light and airy and less effected than our friend Mothra here.
“What I’m absolutely waiting for is that one person to say they actually like the looks of this car.”
Here I am! Yes, I think this car looks quite cool actually, though that pic of the red and white ’60 is more swoon-worthy.
But the ’61 — call me crazy, but I always liked those taillights, the concave rear fenders, that front grille that looks like it came off some industrial-grade appliance, and those angry headlights. Yes, it’s ugly — but in a really creative way I find quite attractive.
Still, I strongly prefer the ’62. Another car no-one but me seems to love…
Laurence, I think he made your day!
I can’t dismiss people who love the way it looks. I have a curious love for all the other Mopar products of this period, The Valiant in particular, and the Valiant isn’t a car you look at first sight and say “beautiful.”
But I’ve always loved the 1962, especially in Hardtop/Convertible form. They were that American “Right size” (202 inches, I think) and the details were more intriguing and less blatantly weird.
The ’62 Plymouth is one of my all-time favorites, clean and space age, inside and out. How strange that its sibling, the ’62 Dodge Dart is so horrifying.
I’ve always liked the ’61 Plymouth’s front end. The way the full-length lines from each side sweep in, curve around, and swing back out through the headlight centerlines. Too bad the rear is such a poor match. I wish we could see how it must have looked before they sliced off its fins.
I was a child then and the faces of these cars never looked angry to me. I vividly remember the first time I saw the ’59 Buick, spread across two pages of Motor Trend. Simple, clean and elegant. Slanted dual headlights are so much more interesting.
I LOVE THE LOOKS OF THIS CAR!
My ride to on Monday after-school Catechism class in third grade was one of these. I used to dread it (Catechism), but the rides were memorable. It was harder for me to figure out what was going on with this car than the mysteries of Catholic theology. In the end, I realized they were both…highly questionable, and it’s possible the Plymouth helped me to see that. If man could create a car like this, then he was also capable of imagining a lot of other weird stuff.
I started skipping the class, and I’d hide behind a tree when I saw the Plymouth coming down the street. It was a liberating experience not to sit behind that weird raised front seat, and try to understand who dreamed all this up.
Edit: Oops;I try to avoid politics and religion at CC, so my apologies. Hope no one was offended
And I’m jealous that you found one first, Laurence. But you did it justice.
After reading, re-reading and reading again, I suppose you could make some weird comparison between this car’s design and Divine truth, based on man’s twisting established inspired (design) facts into something corrupted by tradition and to bolster one’s ego!
Fascinating thread, this. My theological take on this car would be that one person’s subjective idea of beauty may be a less reliable guide than he would like to imagine.
You would have had to been one drunk SOB to buy one new!
Rambler bumped Plymouth out of third place for 1961. That was partly because overall industry production was quite low in that recessionary year. But it is pretty remarkable that Plymouth produced less than 360,000 units. Rambler edged them out with almost 380,000 units even though its offerings had bodies that were among the oldest in the industry. People were buying perceived practicality rather than space-age glitz . . . at least for a while.
Ugliest car EVER made??? This thing makes a 49 VW look like a Ford GT. Feel free to opine!
The taillights have always seemed to me like they had the design almost ready to go and someone said “Hey, you need to put taillights on that thing!” And that ugly front clip…you know, a 62 Chrysler Newport or 300 front clip would fit too, and not look out of place with the rear.
I once looked at, drove, and almost bought a tan on tan 1961 Fury 2-door hardtop with the square clear plastic steering wheel and a 383 with the long-ram dual carb setup. Body was straight, interior was nice, but the steering wheel was turned 90 degrees when the wheels were pointed straight ahead. A few years later I actually did buy an old-lady Belvedere convertible, white on blue, 318 2-barrel with power brakes, power steering, Torqueflite, and a radio. It was a very straight and basically clean car whose interior had to be aggressively cleaned to get rid of the tobacco residues. I ended up owning it for such a short time that I never even had its top down. The fact that I also had my 58 convertible at the time was probably the main reason for that.
That ’61 convertible must have been one very low production car. I have read that those 60-61 Plymouth convertibles are starting to get a bit of a following just for their rarity.
About 15 years ago I was at the Labor Day collector car auction in Auburn, IN. There was a stippo 2 door sedan ’61 Plymouth in the lowest trim level. Slant 6, 3 on the tree, and it was salmon pink with gray interior. A gorgeous original car with really, really low miles. I actually wanted it. The color almost made the design work, for some strange reason.
At the fall Hershey Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) show last year, someone had a mint condition four-door Fury sedan for sale. It had the low-level V-8 and automatic…but he wanted $20,000 for it, if I recall correctly. Too rich for my blood or bank account.
These were the vehicles created as chariots for Emperor Ming. For whenever he toured the earth.
Ziiiiiiinnnnngggggg!!
A very nice write-up on one of the most bizarre cars every produced by Detroit. I often wondered if someone had spiked the water coolers at Chrysler headquarters with LSD when the 1961 line was designed and approved for production…there simply doesn’t seem to be any other explanation for how these cars made it to market looking like they do.
One wonders what Plymouth dealers thought when they first saw these beasts, and realized that they would be selling them against a very cleanly styled and slightly downsized 1961 Chevrolet and Ford. It was during the 1960-62 period that Plymouth was seriously wounded, and the wounds were inflicted by the parent corporation, not the competition. The division never really recovered, and was an also-ran by the mid-1970s. No one talked about Chevrolet, Ford and Plymouth by the late 1970s anymore.
That’s my personal theory too, that someone slipped them some LSD. That or the water cooler was full of some of the finest moonshine north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Its looks were agin it with a face only a mother could love but these things really stand out if you wanted to be noticed this car is the one to buy you sure as hell cant hide in traffic.
Great write up Lawrence I havent seen one of these in years but I remember one family in my little home town that had one I can still vaguely remember walking around it as a kid wondering what the hell Id found it was in the workshop where my dad worked,
Fury, it did look angry too, the beetling brows up front gave the impression it wasnt a happy car.
Last time I saw one of these I saw many there was a paddock full of 60s Chrysler products in Parkes NSW someone must have liked them enough to gather a crowd of em.
I take it that ad copy in French is from Canada? Note that there is no mention of DeSoto or of the Dodge Lancer – just the Valiant. IINM, there was no 1961 DeSoto in Canada (Chrysler’s Canadian branch saw the writing on the wall and didn’t bother with the half-hearted effort to market ‘61s that was undertaken in the U.S.) and the 1961-62 Dodge Lancer was not sold there either (until the late ‘60s, Plymouth and Dodge dealers both sold the Valiant, which wasn’t badged as a Plymouth or a Dodge, just a “Valiant”).
Come on folks, it was not that bad. The front maybe a very mad Christine, but the rest screams out Buck Rodgers. Imagine sitting in the captain’s seat, ‘Warp six Scotty.’
A couple years later Chrysler had a show car w/ a turbine engine. Nobody laughed then either. Tastes, as expectations, change. Do you really believe customers found this car that really weird after the ’59 Chevy?
Designs “aged” faster in those days…a car could look woefully out of date in just two years. Part of that was the annual model change, which conditioned customers to expect, at a minimum, a heavy facelift of full-size cars every model year. Part of it was that styling itself was in a flux from 1960-62, as manufacturers – at least, GM, Ford and AMC – were backpedaling from the extremes of the late 1950s as fast as they could. Most late 1950s cars looked pretty dated by 1961.
Customers would not have compared this car to the 1959 Chevrolet, which was old hat by the fall of 1960. When it came time to comparison shop, they would have judged it against the 1961 Ford, Chevrolet and Rambler. If they were comparing it to the style leaders of 1961, they would have judged it against the Lincoln Continental, Ford Thunderbird and full-size Pontiac.
Parked next to any of those cars, the 1961 Plymouth really WAS weird. The sales figures tell the story – Plymouth tumbled from third place to seventh in the sales race.
I actually like these, just for the sheer bizarreness of them. I have a ‘Plymouth’ hood script and ‘Belvedere’ badge off a ’61 from a visit to the junkyard with my dad about twenty years ago. It was a red 4-door sedan if I remember right, and the grille from that car hung in the junkyard’s office for years after. The front end reminds me of a boat, with the brows being the waves coming off the bow.
Nice! I never saw that before.
Here is the car with a custom touch. Anything would be an improvement.
It’s amazing how history repeats itself a half century later: the 1961 Plymouth looks like the polar opposite of the current Mazda3 smiley face.
It’s as if the head of Mazda design held up a picture of the front of a 1961 Plymouth and said to his design staff, “Make the front of all new Mazdas look as happy as this car looks mad…”.
I suspect that the 1961 Plymouth Fury was the car Stephen King really had in mind when he wrote Christine. He just got the year wrong.
The Chrysler design studio definitely was taken over by Aliens during the early 60s. These cars were truly bizzare, with equally crazy interior. The speedometer was like a saucer perched on top of the dash. At least it looked like nothing else on the road. the 1962 dodges are equally crazy, with lines and shapes that came out of nowhere. So is the 61 Valiant and Imperial with free-standing headlights. Virgil Exner must’ve been one really interesting guy. DIdn’t he also did the “coming or going” Studebakers? Maybe he’s half-alien!
According to Wikipedia, he was the final designer of the ’47s, but credit went to Raymond Loewy. Vigil Exner always struck me as a Science Fiction name that belonged to an actual human.
Hey at least you won’t pull up next to yourself at a traffic light!
Another one who actually liked the ’61 Chrysler line (DeSoto excepted, of course) just because it was so off the wall. And I have always adored the ’62 Plymouth, especially in the two-door hardtop version. Pity they had to go and bulk up to the bigger car, and get more conservative, to boot.
See, I really like everything about the 1961 Chrysler, although I can’t reconcile whether I like the face or not. Like the 58-60 Lincolns I can’t decide if I’m for or against canted headlights.
Especially in the Chrysler’s case it looks like a 1957-60 Letter series 300 front end was solid ice cream, melted in the sun a bit, and got put back in the freezer. What you got for dessert was the 1961 Face. The rest of the body is a crisp refinement/final blow out of the Forward Look (the 1960s are prettier in the face, but the fins are a bit duller). But that butter face. It’s like someone with an excellently toned body and… well… butter face….
You Leave It To Beaver fans should recognize the Cleaver family car of the final 1962-63 season; a 1962 Fury four-door hardtop. Perhaps Ward thought it safe to leave all alone with the 318 2bbl, although Wally pined for a 413 Max Wedge!
June would’ve wanted a New Yorker . . .
Tach it up, tach it up, buddy gonna shut you down . . .
Ward Cleaver actually got a ’63 Fury sedan toward the end of the final season.
There was an episode where Wally used Dad’s new car to drive to the prom when Ward and June were out of town.
Lumpy Rutherford bashed the front fender and Wally paid to have it fixed before Ward got home.
Looking at that car again makes me wonder: Old Chryslers, Oldsmobiles, Buicks and Ford products of that vintage all looked about in the same general shape around the St. Louis area by the late 1960′s. Even though midwest winters took their toll on everything, the cars mentioned seemed to fare worse. Either that or there were just that many more Chevys – no, that’s not true, my 1961 Chevy was a rustbucket, too, but sans dents! I stand self-corrected! Dismissed!
The ’61 Plymouths are so far out that I love them – and would like to have one. Make mine a less-pretentous Belvedere. First memory of the ’61 was Little League in San Rafael, circa 1969. Played lots of games at Peacock Gap.
(Team was “Don Collins Buick”!!). Bill Brazda, a ringer of a player to us 9-10 year olds, was ferried to practices and games in his folks’ ’61 red Belvedere coupe. The high-back driver’s seat, “space pod” gauge cluster and the dashboard rear-view mirror. Our ’65 Dodge Custom 880 six window sedan was pretty tame by comparison (and the ’61 Pontiac Catalina Safari 6 – pax wagon I usually was ferried around in back then).
Maybe Plymouth designed them especially for police fleets. Strike fear in the heart of the criminals and ne’er-do-wells.
Cops will drive Furies untill they make a car called KILL, you could be right.
It just looks so right with a gumball machine on the roof (from aldenjewels flickr)
Good enough for Officers Toody and Muldoon. Khrushchev’s due at Idlewild!
Zackman – stories of you being from Missouri and relatives with Mopars reminds me of my childhood where we’d all fly TWA from San Francisco to St. Louis and visit the relaitves in Audrain County. Grandma/Aunties and Uncles gravitated to Mopars back in the 60s, so much so, that I think it influenced my Dad’s decision to ultimately wind up with a leftover ’65 Dodge Custom 880 (brought home late January of 1966.)
A deciscon, which he ultimately regretted as the Dodge ate through three Torqueflites in five years (covered under the first Chrysler 5/50 warranty). Pop went back to Oldsmobile, Buick, GMC and eventually to Honda where he’s been ever since 1980.
As a six year old, at the time of the ’65 880 coming home, I tried to talk my Dad into bringing home the new ’66 Charger. No such luck.
The trip from the airport one memorable year after landing in Missouri was my throwing up all over the back of my Grandma’s new 1964 Dodge Custom 880 which, I now recognize as having the interior almost part and parcel carried over from the ’61 DeSoto.
Uncles and Aunties in our extended family in the Show-Me state back then drove Dodge Lancers, Coronets, Dodge Monacos, Plymouth Savoys and Belvederes. Early memories of reduction-gear “Hammtramck Whiner” starters. I began to recognize ’62 and newer Mopars back home in California by sound alone . . .
At least the interior was brown so my technicolor yawn of M&M’s mixed with turbulence courtesy of TWA’s “Star Stream” Convair 880 didn’t stain the upholstery.
I remember being cleaned up next to a pond off of (then) “U.S. 40″. Said upholstery and my Mom’s dress were also cleaned up courtesy of some guy’s trout pond. Then off to U.S. 61 and Vandalia!
Missouri and Mopars seem to go together! Come ot think of it, ANYPLACE and Mopars seem to go well together. Saw my first ’11 Metallic Lime Green Challenger R/T today (Honolulu).
Wrecked my car back in the 70s, and a friend had one of these, a black 4 door, sitting behind his barn for a couple years, and told me I could have it if I could get it started. Slant 6 automatic, put a battery and gas in it, and fired right up. Was actually a very clean car with straight body and nice interior. Drove it for 6 months as I recall. My girlfriend took one look at it and named it “The Darth Vadermobile”. Parked it behind our barn, then one COLD january day, needed a car to run parts… and it was “hey, we can use the plymouth!”. Engine compartment packed full of snow, had been sitting for 6 or 7 months. Dug out a hole for the battery, shot starting fluid in it, and voila! instant snow blower. Darn near indestructible. I gave it away, and last I’d heard of it was 4 years later, still being ‘gifted’, and still running. I still think it’s where Darth Vader’s helmet design came from. Ugly as sin, but dead reliable.
I loved many of the futuristic, at times over the top styling of these Chryslers during the late 50′s and early 60′s and my parents had between 1961-1964, 1960 Dodge Dart Seneca that they bought gently used in ’61 to take with them to Europe as my Dad was being transferred there.
They would begin their tour in Germany and would then move to Prestwick Scotland where they lived from 1962-1964 before moving back to the states.
That summer while living with Mom’s mother before moving out to Washington St where Mom still lives to this day as my sisters and I too, they had to buy a new car and bought the 1964 Dodge 330 station wagon with the 225 slant six and torque flight auto.
I’ve seen photos of the old Dart since it was all before I was born and it looked to be light green with a green interior and was, what my Mom called the businessman’s coupe or special and compared to the Plymouths of the same year, it looks much more conventional on the outside although both had that fantastic frosted white back-lit speedo that perched itself on the dash where as it was both lit from light bulbs at night, but also by the sun from behind and it floated out from the dash itself. The push buttons were to the left on a pod, as were the Plymouths too. Such designs! Yes, Plymouth did get a little carried away and I find this year Fury to be somewhat odd in the taillight/backup light treatment and front clip but Dodge wasn’t all that much better in 1962, perhaps ’63 but by ’64, they’d cleaned up their styling greatly and the ’64 330, 440, 770 wagons and of course, the Polara/Polara 500 and its more plebeian coupe/sedan had the same body and chrome work with the larger low beam headlights and smaller high beams. I know some Polaras didn’t have the separate high beams and that section was a blank with the pentastar in the middle. My maternal Grandmother had the base 330 coupe in the same white with blue interior, also the auto and 225 slant six that she had for years and years, finally “upgrading” to a late 70′s Volare in the mid 80′s at the instance of her younger son (Mom was the oldest of the 2) and he kept that old 330 stored at his place and may STILL have it, though my grandmother had it resprayed at least once, if not twice in the same white to keep it fresh looking.
My parent’s wagon had AM radio, rubber flooring, base vinyl seats and door panels, factory AC, a roof rack and full wheel covers and was white with blue interior. By 1968,they were tired of the white and had it painted a light robin’s egg blue which it remained until we finally sold it in 1977, well used and pretty rusted out, thanks being transferred back to Jacksonville in 1968-69 before moving back out here to Tacoma.
This was when the “large” Dodges were on the shorter platform due to a misunderstanding about GM “downsizing” when they were in fact only making a smaller model in their lineup.
To this day, I have a soft spot for the 64 Polara and its siblings.
It wasn’t until my own kids came along that I realized the benefits (of wanting) a car with vinyl seats and rubber floor mats.
I did have a ’00 Chevy Venture which, I actually loved. The Scotchguard on the seats did all the said they were supposed to do IRT cleanups being easy as a sick child (after eating pizza the night before) caught the flu bug and took the “Buick to Europe” all over the Venture’s seats. Nasty – but it cleaned right up. Can’t say the same for the floor mats.
To early 60s Dodges – I mentioned the 880 story – a quick last-minute addition to the mortally-sales-wise-wounded ’62 Dodge line up – the Bob Newberg fiasco. Dodge divison being the whining bitch-sister of Mopar – got a 122″ full size car for March of ’62. Take the ’62 Newport body with quarters, design and cast some ’round’ bezels into the Newport tailight casting; take the ’61 Dodge Polara rear bumper (actually Chrysler itself cribbed this piece for ’62 so I guess this doesn’t count) . . . . graft on the ’61 Dodge Polara front fenders, grille and add the ’62 “Fratzog” . . . take literally the ’61 DeSoto interior, dashboard, hardware, seat patterns, colors and all and create the “all new 1962 Dodge 880 and Custom 880!” First year ’62 880 even had the drivetrain (361 2-bbl 265 horse engine and Torqueflite) carried over part and parcel from the ’61 DeSoto!
Grand-mama had a metallic turd-brown ’64 followed by a similar colored ’66 Monaco. Both cars had Airtemp A/C – a novelty to me as a small child as our cars back in the Bay Area were ‘sans air’ – but a growing must in the very humid summertime climes of Northeastern Missouri. I used to like the 1960s Mopar “Max AC” button! Meat locker cold!
I don’t see this as ugly, I see it as a cartoon illustrator’s idea of what a big old early-’60s generic “car” should be. But if there’s an ugly side, it’s the rear…have you ever seen a more half-assed ass on a car? “New Plymouth design is due tomorrow–did you ever decide on the taillights?” “Well, I was thinking…aw screw it, let’s just stick something on there and go get drunk.”
cflclark – agree with you on that. Remember, through 1960, Virgil Exner (and I am a BIG FAN of “Ex”) touted Mopar fins as “stablizers”. So did Mopar advertising. Suddenly, on Plymouth, and on Chrysler and Imperial for ’62 – the fins disappeared. How did dealers explain that after all of the hype surrounding the ‘stablization at speed’ advertising of the previous several years? For Plymouth and most Dodge salesmen in ’62 anyway, I think they ALL went out and got drunk!
I think I recall reading that getting rid of the fins was a corporate edict that was handed to Exner in styling. Exner was not a fan of the finless cars and called them shavetails. But maybe upper management had a better handle on styling trends, as the final finned cars did not look very fashionable in 1961.
I believe that maybe corporate edict may have ordered EX to shave off fins for ’62 definitely as the “chicken wing” quarter-paneled ’62 mockups of ’59 did show that trend of direction, but for ’61 only Plymouth got the “plucked chicken” treatment. Well, Dodge sort of – but they had the “reverse” fins. Long live Ex!
The big question was – what comes after fins? That was the challenge at the time – I think Exner was pointing to a new direction: sculpted -and a
concept that tied everything together – the ’61 does achieve this – everything is unified from one end of the car to the other. After this pivotal moment in automobile style, you’ll recall everything in the 60′s became large, wide, and square like a box on wheels. Exner and his team were showing us another approach and it’s usually corporate meddling and the unimaginative and timid public that kill every original idea before it has a chance.
I’m thinking of something like the Mad Men episode when Paul pulls his alcohol fuelled all-nighter and forgets to write down the greatest idea of his life.
In the alternate version, he sketches up some outrageous artwork in angry frustration against the pretentiousness of the client before hitting on a true masterpiece . Unfortunately, while he is throwing up in the mens room the next morning, his assistant goes into his office, picks up the wrong design from his desk, and sends it off to the printers.
this car is one of the coolest cars youve had on cc i would defo love one of thease ,super super dark dark dark red almost black super super gloss clear coat and some real cool pinstripeing ie a few cobwebs red band tyres with cool spinner hub caps thats all nothing eles needs to be done,a very cool car indeed
I swear to God this story is true. When I was a kid, my mom and I would spend summers with my aunt and her family in West Rutland, VT, a small town with a Chrysler dealership. She owned a 1958 DeSoto Firesweep that I thought was the most exotic car I’d ever seen. Not too many DeSoto dealerships where we lived in upstate NY.
My aunt was ready to trade the DeSoto in for a 1962 Plymouth because DeSoto was defunct for ’62. When she saw the new 1962s she thought they were small and ugly, so she bought a leftover 1961 Plymouth. Here’s the upshot: my cousin Wayne liked his mom’s car so much, he bought one, too.
There were TWO of these things sitting in the driveway. No wonder I thought New England was so darned spooky. Maybe Stephen King and I have the same phobias, Exner era Chryslers included.
Great writeup and pictures. Looks like you used a Lomo. As for the car, I also wonder what was in the water coolers at Mopar when they designed the Plymouths. I liked the Dodges and Chryslers of that year much better. When I was a little kid in the late ’60′s, an old couple next to us had a big black ’61 Chrysler. I remember thinking it was pretty cool, especially next to our ’61 VW. I always liked the rear view mirrors mounted on the dash, and the sharp fins.
I can tell that the author really likes the car – if only for the wierdness! I am
the proud owner of a 1961 Fury 2 door Hdtp, and it does attract flocks of people when I take it out. Most people say the’ve never seen one before, what is it?!
From the famous “scowl” front end to the “lobster eye” taillights. I had to get a
retro “Sonaramic Commando Power” emblem to put on the trunklid (Cooolest
logo ever), even though mine came originally w/ the 318 2bbl. Add a square steering wheel, the optional factory record player, and the 383 crossram induction, and man, let me tell you, this is truely like nothing else before or since!
Virgil Exner fell ill during a critical phase of the Plymouth’s design this year
and most of the work fell to fellow designers Cliff Voss and Homer LeGassey.
True, it happened on Exner’s watch. The 1961′s rear-end was partially
inspired by the 1958 Chevrolet styling, which sold well in a recession year, and
was released on the public at just about the time the 1961 was being planned at Chrysler. Somehow the “venus” styling for the rear of the car ended up on the front of the car too as everything was about to go into production. To
many, it is the ugliest Plymouth, but to me the whole thing was a happy accident, because I think it’s great! Hey, look at it this way – if you took all
the nameplates off of today’s cars, you’d never tell one apart from the other.
Everything now is a cross between a jelly bean and a bar of soap, style-wise!
Cheers!
Love it! Whatta personality!
the 60, 61 plymouth is probably the most under appreciated designs of all time. i think they blow away any chevy or ford ect!!!!!!!!!!!
i think the whole 1961 lineup is very cool,the desoto too!!!!
I want one of these, probably because I am a Sci-Fi geek like the current owner.
Just watched an old Twilight Zone episode half an hour ago with Joseph Wiseman (Dr. No) in his bunker awaiting a nuclear holocaust. At the end he’s hallucinating that it’s happened, but it hasn’t. The police arrive to help him. Their police car, a 1961 Plymouth Black and White.
We had a 59 Plymouth Suburban Station Wagon. In October or so of 1960 my father was at the Plymouth dealer in Lake Worth, FL to get it serviced. The owner of the dealership who he didn’t know very well came up to him heart beoken about the look of the new Plymouth. He told my father that the dealers were complaining to Chrysler about how ugly they were. He said they requested that Chrysler as k Ford and GM for help with their designs.
Seems like Chrysler opted for a Ford designer to save the brand:
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwood_Engel