It was kind of like meeting a movie star–seeing this beautiful 1957 Plymouth Fury parked at a garage on Washington Street in Boonton, New Jersey. Of course the movie I’m referring to is the 1983 Stephen King horror flick “Christine” (which I’ve seen maybe 6 or 7 times now–it’s that good!) We all know that the demonically-possessed Plymouth starring in “Christine” was a ’58 Belvedere 2-door hardtop in fiery red with a white top. But this ’57 is essentially the same body, with a few minor changes and special features. Standing next to this Fury I felt like I was actually in the movie with Arnie and his friends!
Arnie behind the wheel of his beloved Plymouth. Photo by Moviestore Collection / Rex Features (1544186a)
Perfect movie casting: 1958 Plymouth as Christine; Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham.
It’s easy to see why these Forward Look Plymouths were such a sensation when introduced in late 1956. Not only did you have sleek, spectacular styling; but powerful engine performance combined with steering, handling, and smoothness of ride that few other cars of the time could match. Truly revolutionary. I’m sure new car prospects who went for a test drive quickly realized, “This is so much better than the plodding old turkey I’m currently driving!”
Fury at this time was a top-of-the-line “special edition”, priced above the regular Belvederes, Savoys, and Plazas. It came with a 318 cubic inch V-8 engine with dual quads, a custom interior, and was only available in Buckskin Beige, single tone.
Interior shot. I had some trouble with reflections, but you can see there’s a 150 MPH speedometer and lots of optional equipment. This baby is loaded!
Lots of gold trim on this Fury…
Those aren’t dual headlights, but a single headlight paired with a large circular parking/directional light cleverly designed to give the look of duals. A prophecy of things to come!
There’s also a gold Plymouth emblem on the trunk lid. I think it’s supposed to be a modern interpretation of the Mayflower’s sails. See, when you just look at pictures of cars in books, you miss little details like this.
Notice how visually everything flows together here–this is when cars were styled!
All these little details–right down to wheelcovers with brushed gold accents.
Anodized gold aluminum trim added sparkle to several makes of cars at this time. It looked great, but the idea fizzled out within a few model years. Conversely, fake wood trim (which is borderline tacky and ridiculous) somehow remained popular even past the year 2000. “There’s nothing more durable than a bad idea.” –H.L. Mencken
Can you imagine this happening today? Everyone was so enthused about this all-new ’57 Fury that an artist was commissioned to create an oil painting–which you could send away for! How many people today would want a painting of their new SUV hanging in their rec room? (And would raise a toast to it!)
Leaving the scene–this picture looks as though it could have been taken decades ago!
Walking back to my ’60 Dodge Phoenix, (top of the Dodge Dart line). The Phoenix actually looks somewhat conservative and subdued compared to this sporty Fury. The Mopar “family resemblance” is definitely there.
Two Forward Look Mopars, still on the road after over sixty years–looking fine and giving good service. On the way home, a policeman directing traffic around a construction site gave me a big “thumbs-up” as I passed. I replied with a friendly toot on my horn–my Dodge has a great horn which sounds like a mini-ocean liner. Yes, it seems that when people see classic cars on the road, it brings out a mysterious kind of joy and happiness!
Related CC Reading
Vintage SCI Review: 1957 Plymouth Fury–The Best All-Round Performance Car Of Its Time? by Paul Niedermeyer
Museum Outtake: 1957 Plymouth Fury–The Forward Look, Once Again on a Pedestal by Aaron65
*Suddenly, it’s 1960* screamed adds for the 1957 Plymouth, and it seemed rightly so. Exners Forward look was perhaps best shown in Plymouth FURY, like this one. I recall, at age10 ,visiting a local Chrysler Plymouth dealership with Dad. While, I later developed a lifelong love affair with Imperial, I kept circling a FURY,while Dad focused on a dark Grey Imperial Crown. In spite of Lawrence Welk musically encouraging viewers to *Go ! Go! GO! In a Plymouth * On his Top Tunes show sponsored by Plymouth , It would be years before we parted with our Delightful, Delovely DeSoto.
Mr. Pelegrino, your 1960 Dart Phoenix is outstanding. Brings back many memories of my grandparents’ Phoenix. It was not a blue, but Hearing Aide Beige, as was their ‘63 Polara and ‘65 Coronet.
Excellent article about the ‘57 Fury. Sporty is correct. Beautiful work from MoPar at that time.
If you ever care to sell your Phoenix, keep my contact information.
Speaking of little details, what are the “vents” on the roof of your Dodge, functional, or just extra trim for the top model?
Extra trim– a Phoenix exclusive.
Steve, you did it again! Living in Valley Cottage, NY, I wonder if a tour is available to see the Fury. Love your Dodge, too. Seneca, Pioneer and Phoenix!
I think King missed the mark a bit in the book. It was described as a red, 1958 4-door sedan, which is obviously a huge error since they were all Buckskin Beige hardtops for that year. If he had, instead, simply went with the next year, it all would have fit since the 1959 Fury line was expanded to include a four-door sedan in a much wider color palette (including red).
Further, I always thought the 1959 Dodge Custom Royal was way more malevant looking and suspect it was the real inspiration for the novel. The problem was the name didn’t sound nearly as menacing as ‘Fury’. So, the Plymouth it was.
Yep ;
It’s beautiful and the color suits it well .
I’d prefer a red one but whatever .
Even my lowly 1958 Plaza stripper (no heater even !) with it’s flat head engine was a really good driver .
-Nate
I was just reading about the flathead six. I guess the 6v system could be problematic. But once Chrysler switched over to 12v in 1956, it was okay for its final four years before the leaning tower of power arrived for 1960.
Loved the 57 brushed cone discs, my brother put them on his 57 Ford back in the day… Cool looking hub caps… A cousin had a similar 57 fury In beige years back.. Oh, love your Dodge sedan, great car
A neighbor bought a new ‘57 Fury and my Dad and I took a close look. My Dad pointed out that it was “tinny” compared to our GM cars and sure enough those Mopars rusted out way faster than the competition and why you see so few survivors today.
Spent my early childhood in the back of a 57 Savoy. Nice memories.
Not to mention that GM sold 2 X times more vehicles. That’s another reason Mopar’s are worth more today than GM products…
The 57 Fury was a looker, alright. I always kind of wondered why, after introducing the 56 Fury as a halo/performance model, they didn’t apply the name to the top regular line and push Belvedere and Savoy down a notch. That would wait until 1959 (kind of), but then there was a Sport Fury above it.
Yes, these are cars that simply oozo cool details.
I traded my 1953 Studebaker for $600 and a white on black ’57 Belvedere as I knew where to find a wrecked ’67 R/T Coronet with a 426 hemi with torqueflite. I spent the $600 on the engine which I took to Don Garlits shop in Seffner, FL. It had a small hole into a water jacket so they blueprinted it welding up the hole. It actually dropped right onto the mounts in the Belvedere and I cut a hole in the floor to use a piece of threadall to shift with. The 830 lb weight pretty much collapsed the front end so I swapped everything out for brakes and torsion bars from a ’59 Imperial. Lots of improvements. The first I drove it I scattered the rear end so it was. back to the R/T for its rear end too. Had to go join the Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club and sold it for $1,600. Good Times
Wow, that Plymouth sounds scarier than Christine!
“Gulf Of Tonkin Yacht Club” That’s funny! I assume that means the Navy. So the Army would be the “Southeast Asian Country Club”?
What a fantastically cool looking car, and this example looks just about perfect. No offense to your very nice Dart, the 57-58 Plymouth was probably the best looking of the Forward Look Mopars, with the 57-59 300 also being in the running. Though I will say, the 60-61 Darts were much better looking than the same year Plymouths.
With so much effort so successfully applied to the styling, chassis and drivetrain, Chrysler would have had a hit for the ages if they could have put the same effort into workmanship and body durability. Like the 55 Chevy: it was nearly as revolutionary two years earlier, and it was actually built solidly, making the tri-fives eternally popular and much more common.
Agree with all of this.
What a beautiful Fury. Just so much to take in.
Also, from the article”
“The Phoenix actually looks somewhat conservative and subdued compared to this sporty Fury.”
Yea, the Pheonix almost blends in like a modern-day SUV compared to the Fury. (Ok, I’m joking, nice car).
Okay, I guess I’ll be the one to weigh in on a common vintage car issue: The year it supposedly takes for the automaker to iron the bugs out of its brand new model. I’ve heard it said the ’57 Ford, the ’49 Ford, the ’58 Edsel, the ’53 Studebaker, and the ’65 Chevrolet all had quality issues which were ostensibly corrected the following year. Even by old-car standards, the 1957 Chrysler Corporation were uniquely wretched, but 1958 saw marked improvement.
Here’s my question: What did the 1955 Chevrolet have that the others didn’t? I’ve never heard anyone carp about a crappy ’55 Bel Air. What gives? New from the ground up cars normally don’t get that sort of deference. Did GM somehow make the perfect car on the very first try?
I’ll take one 🙂
Until I read your post, I hadn’t realized that the Fury in 1957 was a special edition that only came in one color. I do love the detail on this. Were the gold-accented bits at the front end of the front fenders driver’s turn signal indicators? I have always loved that detail in the Plymouths and Chryslers that had it (fuselage-bodied cars as late as the 1970s had those). Totally pointless, and I can imagine that changing the bulb in those when it eventually burns out would be a challenge….which of course is where my mind goes on such things…but it’s way cool nevertheless.
The Fury painting that you could mail away for in 1957 is excellent. This inspired a (quick) look online for these things, and I can’t find one. This may be reflective of the fact that few people actually wrote away to P.O. Box 1518 in Detroit to get one. I mean, those dudes in the ad look more than a bit geeky, toasting a painting of a car. That may have been a bit of a reach even back in 1957.
I always thought the guy looking at the two men with the raised glasses was silently saying: “Are you guys nuts?”
My mom’s 3-years-younger sister had a ’55 Plymouth 4-door as her first car. IIRC, it was a Savoy and 2-tone green and white. For some reason (may the styling of the new ’57s), she traded it for a new ’57 Plymouth Savoy sedan with the six and automatic (probably PowerFlite). It was a striking car in red with a white roof, but the new-car excitement didn’t last long. She had endless problems with it (I was too young to understand), and she traded it for a ’59 Chevy Bel Air with a vow to never buy another Mopar again!