(Photo Credit: Ann Saur)
It appears my practice of photographing curbside classics has brushed off on my mom. The other day while leaving the ATM, her first thought upon seeing this ravishing 1967 Plymouth Fury convertible was to take a couple of quick pictures (after asking the owner for his approval) and text them to me.
This ’67 Fury III features the most powerful engine available, the 440 cubic inch (7.2L) Super Commando V8, making 375 horsepower and 480 pound-foot of torque with its 4-barrel carburetor and dual exhausts. Refreshingly, it looks like the owner keeps it in original-looking condition.
1968 would be the last year of this body shell that was introduced in 1965. The far more subjective Fuselage Chryslers would follow for ’69. With more universal admiration and a generally better reputation for quality, most people consider these 1965-1968 full-size Mopars the best Chrysler ever built.
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Go, Mom, Go! Great to see, and it’s so cool that she asked permission even though it would be a total surprise if she were denied. Who wouldn’t want their collector car photographed? Isn’t that part of the reason to drive them?
I just shoot and ask questions later if the owner shows up! You’d be surprised that some people don’t like their cars being photographed, like I represent The Man or some such. So far though, no one has asked me to delete the photos from my camera, even after I offered to do so.
Sure there are privately owned parking lots, but I usually have no qualms about photographing in them unless there are “no trespassing” signs, something does not feel right, or it is hard to get in.
I knew a college kid drove a ’67 Fury, but he regrets about the size in Seattle.
Too big for me but these were in fact , *very* good cars , sturdy and good handlers after minimal simple suspension tweaks and adding decent tires .
I thought the Coupes & Sedans looks sharp , then and now .
-Nate
Manaquine heads?
Yes Teddy ~
I recently went to a trade school auction and those were in the Dental Lab ~ you could adjust how wide the jaw opens and even remove the teeth….
Kinda creepy looking , I wanted to buy some for my old Hearse but they zoomed past $125 each so I passed .
-Nate
I had the devil of a time posting that last reply .
-Nate
That’s a ’67 Fury III.
Yes, it is. I had a ’68 as my first car. For a barge, that think could scoot.
Yup. A 440 is business, especially if its a 4 bbl. That’s one of the thing I like about these cars, especially this one. Sure its huge, and more suited to stylin and profilin’… But it has enough muscle car mojo going on that it can be a cruiser AND a bruiser all at once. Its a win, for sure.
I was wondering why the 440 was such a memorable engine relative to the competition, and it may simply be a matter of fewer syllables and better alliteration. Four-forty is only three syllables with two ‘f’s’, whereas a Ford was either a four-twenty-eight or nine (or later four-sixty), and Chevy’s biggest engine was a four-fifty-four.
Not to mention that the 440 had the minerals to back up the marketing. Most consider the 426 Hemi as Chrysler’s most memorable big-block engine, but a strong case could be made for the 440. Not nearly as high-strung and prone to failure in everyday use, that’s for sure. A 440 certainly would have been my preference back in the day.
You touched on a lot of it. A 440 6pack would do most of what a Hemi would but much more streetable. Cheaper to buy and insure as well.
Recently I saw where a stock except for tires Challenger R/T with the 392 Scat Pak setup broke deep into the 12’s. That’s trespassing in Hellcat territory for a good bit less $$ and you can actually find them. The HC is touted as probably the best bang for the buck out there…provided of course bucks aren’t an issue. A difference of $15-$25K is huge when you consider that these cars are ”wants’ not ‘needs’.
@ rudiger
You said it ! .
As a Farm Boy , we’d _love_ finding some wrecked Dodge truck or Police Car with a 440 in it to re power some battered piece of crap with a worn out 318 ~ go daddy GO ! =8-) .
Good times , we liked the 413 truck engines too .
-Nate
Chrysler engineers spent a lot of time working on cylinder heads with good flowing ports for their big block engines, as well as improved cast iron exhaust manifolds with short runners instead of simple “logs”. They also designed fairly advanced “split pattern” camshafts with longer exhaust duration than intake duration to improve scavenging on the exhaust stroke. Finally, the 440 has very good internal geometry, so it can make good power for its size.
Look at the rod/stroke ratio. A value of 1.75-1.80 is often touted as ideal. A 440 has R/S=1.80. In fact, all Mopar big blocks including the 426 Hemi have R/S between 1.80 and 1.88. Compared with other big blocks:
Chevy (396/402/427) = 1.63
Chevy 454 = 1.53
Buick 455 = 1.69
Olds 455 = 1.59
Pontiac 455 = 1.57
Ford 427 = 1.71
Ford 428 = 1.63
Ford 429 = 1.84
Ford 460 = 1.72
One can also compare based on bore/stroke ratio. For V8 engines of about the same displacement, the one that has a higher bore/stroke ratio (within reason) will have advantages in better breathing from reduced valve shrouding and also reduced friction. The 440 compares very well against similar engines in B/S as well.
Mopar 440 = 1.15
Mopar 383 = 1.26
Mopar 400 = 1.29
Chevy 396 = 1.09
Chevy 427 = 1.13
Chevy 454 = 1.06
Buick 455 = 1.11
Olds 455 = 0.97
Pontiac 455 = 0.99
Ford 427 = 1.12
Ford 428 = 1.04
Ford 429 = 1.21
Ford 460 = 1.13
I can also see from these two tables that the Ford 427 should be a superior engine to the 428, which is true from what I’ve heard and read.
Looks like a ’67 to me. Unless the owner has removed them and filled in the holes, that car is missing the side marker lights that were mandatory for 1968. The grille was different in ’68 as well.
Yes my apologies. Shouldn’t have just assumed on this on 🙂
Totally badass car with the 440 underneath the hood, weren’t they much rarer than the 318 and the 383 2 barrel’s?
Well your mom has hella good taste in picking a car to shoot, Brendan. Personally, I love any 2-dr Fury from ’63-’68 and this is one of the nicest Ive seen. The color scheme is a no-brainer and Magnums on blackwalls is doing it right. That car has ‘roadtrip’ written all over it!
This is a 1967. The grill and taillights were changed for ’68, giving the car IMO a cheaper look compared to the ’67 with its neat little hump in the middle of the trunk lid.
My ’67 was the Sport Fury Fast Top with a 383/TorqueFlite and white interior. I owned it in 1976-77.
The attached TV ad IS a ’68 because I couldn’t find a ’67 Fast Top ad.
The 1968 models from all the car makers also had side marker lights (rear side reflectors on Fords, I think). Chrysler’s marker lights were small circular lights on the front and rear fenders–I don’t see them on this.
I’ve been won over. When does my CP dealer open tomorrow?
My ’66 Fury III was an excellent car; when new it took me from NY State to Colorado where I taught at the Air Force Academy for several years. Even traveled to Mexico City on roads less than perfect. Never had any mechanical troubles with the reliable 318 cube V8. Could have used an a/c unit in the summer……..
These Plymouths were fairly common when I was young, although convertible versions of any full-size Mopar were quite rare. The 1968 version of the Fury led Plymouth to near-record sales that year, although that wasn’t enough to dislodge Pontiac from third place in sales. The full-size Plymouths and Chryslers did help carry the corporation to its post-1957 peak in market share – 18.9 percent in 1968.
These cars stick in my mind because Hot Wheels offered a police car version of the 1968 Plymouth Fury in 1970. Matchbox, meanwhile, favored full-size Fords for police cars during that time.
A neighbor had a 1967 Fury III station wagon. Talk about a long roof! Yeah, it had roof rails too. A lady in her bridge club had a 1966 Chrysler Newport. That was a whole lot of sheet metal in one place when those two cars were in the same driveway.
The Fury wagon was on the same wheelbase as current Chryslers were, if I remember correctly.
All the wagons used the Dodge wheelbase.
From 1965-77, all of the fullsize Mopar wagons were built off of a common wheelbase, across all brands. At this point the Dodge wheelbase was used, as Dan said. Later on in the 1974-77 generation it would be the Chrysler wheelbase. I get the sense that even in the era when the Dodge wheelbase was used, the bodies may have been made a little on the large side, in order to accommodate Chrysler.
I had no idea the 68 Fury convertibles were so rare.
My sister’s soon to be 1st husband had a 68 Fury convertible that she wrecked when it was less than 1 year old. I think it was a Sport Fury, but it could have been a Fury III. That car was the “typical for Chrysler products” avacado green with a white top and interior. Because they were so upside down on their loan and the insurance company wasn’t about to pay because my sister wasn’t the owner, they wound up “replacing” the Fury with a 57 Belvedere with pushbutton automatic.
When the Fury was finally paid off, they ordered a 74 Cougar but took home a Mustang II instead.
Wow–nice find! I know “resale red” gets a lot of flak but it looks quite nice on this one. The 440 callouts on the fenders are of course not original, but if that’s what I had under the hood, I’d probably want people to know too!
I was in High School from 64 thru 68. Our school’s athletic field fronted on the main highway through town which was used by truck transports to deliver Ford, Chevy and Chrysler-Plymouth cars to dealers in the next block. During outdoor gym class days in September I would always somehow end-up hanging on the chain-link fence waiting for the new car carriers to pass by rather than participate in class. (I was a total klutz so my Gym Teachers actually welcomed my non-participation rather than peel my pudgy body off the track or untangle me from the hurdles that I could never, ever get over).
So anyway I would get such a thrill from seeing the new cars pass by and on one particular morning absolutely marveled at the beauty of the ’67 Fury taillights since the ’66 Fury rear-end was rather ungainly.
That evening, when Dad got home from work I would tell him about all the new cars…we’d eat dinner then scoot out to the dealers to see the cars up-close. It was marvelous to see how the ’67 Fury tail lamps used the coved chrome inset to reflect the tail lights!
Dad was shopping for a new car that year, and although the LTD, Chrysler Newport and Fury III were high on the list he got a 1967 Bonneville…which was the worst car he ever owned!
Lucky you with your gym teachers!
Momma’s got the fever! Love it!
It’s a ’67. My high school drivers ed had them. Compared to my parents ’63 Rambler that I drove it was tank to me then. I guess they figured if you could drive it, you could drive anything. My dad had ’69 Fury the early 70’s. I later owned a ’65 Chrysler Newport and a ’70 Sport Fury. They were all basically the same car.
Southern 4501 fan? I am too.
I view the ’67 Fury as the high point of Fury design. Mr. Engel and his team crafted an automobile executed as well as any Cadillac, Continental, or Imperial and delivered it in the low-price field. Remarkable.
I prefer the edgier styling and finer detailing of the ’67 over the blockier ’68. The stand up hood ornament, Engel fendertop knife edge/rear door kickup, beltline molding, flow-through ventilation gills, semi-skirted open rear wheels, and rear beak really make this car stand out from the 68s. And remember, all the 68s lost much of their interior plated trim to placate the feds, and the VIP’s rear compartment became less posh with the deletion of the reading lamps (glass, Imperial-sourced), center armrest, and seatback lighter. Very unVIP-like.
But the ’68s occupy a very special place in my heart. My first memory of an automobile is that of my father’s ’68 Fury III 4 door sedan. Buffed Silver, red biscuit pleat vinyl, 318 2 bbl, 727 Torqueflite. He bought it off the showroom floor at Fairmont Motors in Hyde Park, MA. After a string of Belvedere, Lancer, and Nova wagons, he was ready to move up. And despite the 4 door post roofline and the lack of any convenience options, the Fury oozed class and I always felt special riding in it. And it was the car my mother learned to drive in.
The Fury came to an early demise in 1971 when visiting my grandmother in South Boston, a drunk blew a red light in Flood Square (I St. & West Broadway) and broadsided the driver’s side dead center. I vividly remember the driver, a man in his 50s in a narrow brim hat, getting out and leaning over me to check on my 3 year old sister who had been sitting on that side. Thankfully, everyone was fine, but I can still smell the booze on him.
A few weeks later the family departed Carleton Ford in East Milton in a brand new blue ’71 Ford Ranch Wagon that disintegrated by 1976. I distinctly remember turning around on the way out and gazing at the proud, silver Fury one last time with its caved in side.
All these years later, I still feel like we turned our backs on a family member in need.
No Petula, Plymouth Fury is NOT a fad, I know.
Long live the Plymouth Fury.
Great story! Personally I think ‘Fury’ is one of the more badass car names out there and its in dire need of resurrection. Preferably on the current 300 forged into a 2 door pillarless hardtop and boasting at least a 392 Hemi…
Glad no one was hurt in that wreck, that’s the main thing.
@ mcmlxv :
Thanx for your great story .
I spent a lot of time in The Southie in the middle 1960’s , back when they’d shoot from the Projects into the trollies going out to Columbia Point .
I had a school chum who lived just off Broadway , it was pretty grim there back then .
Memories ! =8-) .
I had a 1968 Chrysler Station Wagon in about 1973 , 383 and 127 slushbox IIRC , a good car indeed .
-Nate
I had a 67 Sport(I think) Fury that served me well as a winter beater .
It was a two door fastback with bucket seats ,318, automatic and power steering.
White in color with a surprisingly nice red vinyl interior.
As I owned and drove this car in the 1977-78 time frame it also had the obligatory C.B. antenna on the back deck with under dash 40 channel Cobra.
I really like this era Plymouth’s dash,and its unique lighting.
I had a 67 Sport Fury for a while back in the mid-80’s. Copper tone with white top and interior. It had the economy – minded 383 2 bbl with single exhaust, but would sure step out when I mashed on that ironing board- sized foot feed. The stereotypical for the time “Chrysler no feel steering” took a little getting used to. I had to let it go due to competing priorities, but it still holds a place in my heart.
Chrysler products from the Lynn Townsend era always get grief because of how they were constantly cribbing last year’s GM styling. But, so what? Engel did a masterful job of taking GM designs and making them Chrysler’s own, and they were invariably at least as good (and in most cases, better). It was the safe play and worked well enough until the economic downturn (and other issues) of the seventies.
So it is with the ’67-’68 Fury. Yeah, it looks like a Pontiac, but it’s still great and, to many who were around in the sixties, really says, “Plymouth” more than any other car from the brand. Nobody did the basic three-box design better than Plymouth from ’66-’68 throughout the entire Valiant, Belvedere, and Fury lines.
This is one beautiful car, love it!
The “Super Commando” power plant makes its return in 2015:
https://youtu.be/Wdz8exDVfcs
Careful, mom may be prowling for your job here.
Love that page of ’68s from the brochure. Wish today’s cars came in several body styles. That page shows a lot of fender skirts, which were relatively rare options
on these. Should have been standard on VIP.
Agree with many here that the ’65 -’68 Plymouth was a great looking car, and durable, they were a fairly common sight on the road into the 1980’s.
Always thought that Plymouth should have bypassed the slavish following of Chevy with trim lines. The Fury I and II were both very similar strippers. The I should have been fleet trim, the II the Impala fighter, and the III the Caprice / LTD.
If it was mine I’d remove the non-stock 440 callout (borrowed from a GTX AFAIR) and go stealthy.
When I was a kid growing up, the neighbor across the street was the service manager for the local C-P dealer, and got a new Fury every fall. The one I most vividly remember was the ’69, first of fuselages, and how funny it looked with it’s too small windows, and that it lacked headrests when all ’69 FoMoCo and GMs had them. About 3 weeks after he got it, he showed up home missing his rear bumper and extension moldings. Apparently, the body shop had to filch them to repair a customer’s car that had been damaged in transit, and there no body parts in the pipeline due to the newness.
> The one I most vividly remember was the ’69, first of fuselages, and how funny it looked with it’s too small windows
They made-up for it with the ’70 Sport Fury with its loop bumper and hide-away headlights. That’s a mean looking car. Available with a 440 6-pack too, though there were few takers. By then, most people that wanted a 6-pack were buying B- and E-bodies.
I was 16. the old Rambler was on its last legs. took my mother to the local
Chrysler Plymouth dealership. One hour later, brand new 1967 Belvedere 2. 383, torqueflight. I can still smell that new car smell (it was different back then). It was basically a four door roadrunner. Sedate enough for mom, almost too fast for me. I can still hear the complaints about constantly having to fill the tank. Honest mom, I don’t know where it all went.
I like these – the ’65-’68 big Mopars are my favorite big cars of the era. By ’68, Plymouth was trying to graft coke-bottle flares onto fenders that were designed to be straight, the result being fenders that don’t match the windows or the car itself very well. Insides were still roomy and practical, with great outward visibility that would be lost come the fusaglege models in ’69.
Way back in 1968 my school had a Fury III sedan for drivers ed. Boy was I impressed. Big, luxurious and comfortable. Breeze to park with the fingertip power steering of the day. Thought the floodlight instrument panel lighting was cool. Even had A/C! Seemed a definite cut above the ubiquitous Impalas of the time.
Elwood Engel did a remarkable job in bringing Chrysler back after Exner went off the deep end in 1962 and almost killed the company. The suicide door Lincolns may be the highlight of his styling resume, but these proved to be more important.
One beautiful car! I’d take it.
I learned to drive on a ’68 Fury II 4 Dr post. My dad’s first and only brand new car. Fun fact, without a key in the ignition, if you turned on the 4 way flashers and the left turn signal while standing on the brakes, the radio would come on.
I thought that the 66 Sport Fury improved on the 65…amazing how a minor difference in side trim made it look so much longer and sleeker. To me, the VIP looked plainer outside. I didn’t like the 67’s as well, but the 68’s were great! this is a picture of my 66 Sport Fury that I sold recently. 🙂