(first posted 4/28/2012) Since the beginning of time, man has had the innate need to hunt. Early on one’s desire to hunt was in a direct relationship to whether or not he consumed protein. Many things changed and evolved as time marched on but the instinctual urge to hunt remains.
I had been hunting this Plymouth for five months. Seen infrequently around town, it was always taunting me by going the other direction or circumstances didn’t allow me a better view. The need to know more was strong. Lucky for me it was slumbering behind an insurance agency one recent Sunday morning allowing me to better examine it.
1955 was a great year for Detroit. Chevrolet had just introduced a V8 and a new body. Ford was in its second year of overhead valve V8 power and it had a new body too. Plymouth added to the excitement introducing its own new V8 and by having a body much sleeker than its plain 1954 predecessor (as seen above).
The car I found is a Savoy. In 1955, Plymouth was like Ford and Chevrolet in having three distinct models within its low-priced lineup.The Savoy was the mid-range model with the Plaza as the bargain basement model and the Belvedere the top of the heap (’55 Suburban CC here). One snarky period source commented on Plymouth’s use of the names Plaza, Savoy, and Belvedere also being names of prominent hotels.
Despite any wisecracks about the model nomenclature, Plymouth was very well received by the automotive press. Motor Trend magazine proclaimed it as being the easiest to drive 1955 model car. Another magazine was sarcastically concerned about the future of Plymouth by wondering what spinsters and nuns would now purchase as the Plymouth was now so much sleeker.
The American auto industry had a record year in 1955, selling just over 7 million units. As Plymouth sales were up 52% from 1954, to 704,455 units, any concerns of the new design’s appeal were unfounded. One-third of these were Savoy’s like our featured car.
The Savoy was the recipient of only two body styles, a two-door and four-door sedan. The lower priced Plaza and higher priced Belvedere each had five consisting of wagons, sedans, a business coupe on the Plaza end, and a convertible on the Belvedere side.
In addition to Plymouth’s new V8, available in either 241 or 260 cubic inches, Chrysler also had a new 2-speed Powerflite automatic transmission. This was also the first year for brake and/or clutch pedals to be suspended from the top, rather than being mounted on the floor – this helped eliminate drafts.
And, on automatic transmission equipped cars, the gear selector erupted from the dash, quite similar to current Dodge and Chrysler minivans – and early automatic-equipped Corvairs!
The Plymouth I found was not the recipient of either the new V8 or the new Powerflite automatic. It possessed the reliable flat-head six-cylinder and 3-speed manual transmission. The bottom of the ad directly above shows how one can distinguish a six-cylinder from a V8 by way of the chrome badge on the hood. Just over half of the Plymouths sold in 1955 had the six-banger engine.
This car was a very solid driver undergoing many refurbishments and updates. The paint appeared somewhat recent and the bumpers in pretty original condition. The rear package tray was in the process of being replaced. The trunk lock was missing. The seats had been recovered.
The Midwest is not known for having environments conducive for automobile preservation. When it snows, we use salt and calcium chloride. Such care and concern for this vintage Mopar is to be applauded.
Second, despite most Plymouths built that year being similar to this one, a four-door sedan with a six-cylinder and manual transmission is not universally viewed as desirable. That’s unfortunate. It would seem this car has defied those odds.
Pundits have opined half the thrill of the hunt is the chase. Perhaps that is so. However, the chase is over. For me the conquest is an even bigger thrill.
A very nice writeup of an all-but-forgotten car. I have such mixed feelings for these. You all know my Mopar-love tendencies. Finally some class-competitive engines, a real automatic transmission, and such a nice overall shape.
But what happened with the two-toning treatments on 1955-56 Plymouths? Both the Ford and Chevy took plain boxy cars and applied iconic 2 tone treatments that everyone recognizes. They highlighted the cars best features, and made everyone want the high-level models.
Plymouth’s 2 tone treatments look like the work of someone who put off the homework until 9 pm the night before it was due. This is one of the few cars of the 1950s that look better in base models.
Agreed; that particular treatment does not work. That lower molding was obviously created/used just for the two-tone. Pretty lame.
[Five years later:] Tonight I’ve been poking around at OldCarBrochures, eBay ads, etc. and I can’t find any sort of corporate photo where the two-tone is painted and “boundaried” in trim exactly like this. Am I missing something?
I had a ’56 Savoy back in 73 or so, 6 banger, 3 on the tree…wish I still had it.
I was thinking the same thing.
Thanks for that! – I thought I was odd, not liking Mopar’s side-trim in general for the 1955-56 model years. They ALL have a hint of the bizarre (or French) to them, except for the top-model DeSoto and the Chrysler line.
My 1955 Savoy was a 2-door post, black/red, with the reliable flathead 6, and the auto stick shift was like the one pictured above.
My Dad had the savoy in a charcoal grey and pink model. The cool color scheme of the day. When I drove that baby and it was not often let me tell you the babes at the pool took notice of me in my brush cut and white bucks.
When I was growing up, a family up the street not only had a pink-and-grey Chevy Bel Air, but also had their house painted to match.
Beautiful car and a good writeup. The old guy I am today would take the manual six with a four door and not care about the color. I remember the V8 as being ok but nothing better. Same with the Dodge. Now when the sixties arrived they were something else.
I know why flatheads died but I miss the simplicity.
Great write-up. I now see where the designers of Canada’s flag, which debuted a decade later, got their inspiration.
Amazing what you learn on this site.
I was unaware that Canada’s current flag was so recently adopted.
I was about 13-14 when the Canadian Flag went from a Union Jack design to the red/white maple leaf. We used to sing “God Save The Queen” in school too.
A nice write up on this car.
As to JPcavanough,
I don’t mind this two toning treatment of this car, it works, though I would agree, it’s not as good as on some.
I would love to see two tone paint treatments come back on modern cars and please, give us something like pink and gray or putty and beeswax or yellow and white or…
In any event, fun when you’ve been on the prowl for something and you finally score it after years of searching. I’ve done that, the most recent being a record I once had as a kid back in the very early 70’s as part of a small stack of 6 or so 45’s at our church garage sale at the time, virtually all from around 1966-69 time frame. Eventually, it broke and then tried to get another copy but when I did, it’d been years and forgot who the group was and the name of the song. Around 2000, thanks to the internet and I think AllMusic.com, discovered the group’s name, and the song but that’s it and had tried to find another copy to no avail, fast forward to late 2010 and YouTube, finding a full recording of the song and some Googling to find out why it’s so hard to find locally. It’s not a popular song, so the record was not nearly as common as their one big national hit.
Ebay came to the rescue and early last year, bought it as a buy it now purchase and it’s now part of my Blue Eye Soul CD mix and in the process I discovered that not only did the group, and the song hailed from Detroit, but that Detroit was home to hundreds of independent record companies, most only in business for 2-3 years at best, including the Smash! label that the song I was looking for was on.
BTW, have their one major hit as well, also on a 45.
Tom, what a nice find, and in the Midwest no less!
After all that, you’re not going to tell us what the name of the song was? I was a blue-eyed soul brother during that era myself.
Paul,
To quickly answer your question.
The group was a 4 guy, 1 gal group from the Detroit suburbs called the Shades of Blue.
The song? Happiness, only hit in the 70’s on the Billboard charts nationally, #12 in Detroit.
They did have a major hit with the Edwin Star (yeah, the same guy who did War a few years later) penned hit, Oh How Happy, which hit #1 Detroit, #12 nationally and the label was the Smash! label, the label itself only ran from 1965 until very early ’67.
The group had one other “hit”, With This Ring (it also hit #12 locally, in the 70’s nationally) and all three were released in 1966, the group dissolved in 1968 after their hits dried up.
Ciddyguy, while I’d love to claim credit for this Savoy, Jack Lord located it and wrote the piece. It is in the Midwest though, just a bit more southwest of my location!
Do’h!
Sorry Tom,
For some reason, I was thinking you wrote it, but in scrolling back up, I see Jack’s name in the byline.
No problem. I don’t think I have heard Happiness, but Oh How Happy is a favorite of mine. I never knew who recorded it…
Most people probably haven’t heard Happiness since it never made it big and is now not so well known, unless you have their greatest hits on CD, which does contain it, their 2 other hits I mentioned and others that I’m not familiar with at all.
Aha; now I need to comb my memory banks…I remember cars much better than lyrics.
When I got these records, most of them obscure I think, I was, what, in the 2nd grade, maybe in 1st grade, I don’t recall now, only one or perhaps 2 remain of that stack to this day.
The only reason I know the details like this is from Googling around on the internet.
The info on Detroit indie labels I stumbled upon in my search and found it interesting to say the least.
I doubt the song Happiness itself is known much, if at all to this day, but Oh How Happy, definitely is since it was a fairly big hit back in the day.
Hey ciddyguy for future reference Discogs is a great source for music on a variety of formats: https://www.discogs.com/Shades-Of-Blue-Happiness-The-Night/release/2087240
And here’s “Oh How Happy”:
https://youtu.be/ve6VIM3oTZw
As a fan of 60’s music, and having grown up in the Detroit suburbs, I was curious about this song. I remember the group, and their hit “Oh How Happy”, but can’t place “Happiness”. So, it was over to eBay; I just did a BIN on an EX copy to put in my burgeoning jukebox collection. I don’t have the jukebox yet, but it will be a Seeburg SS160. Just waiting on the right unit (and a place to put it). On a related trivial note, I did some random touch up paintwork for a sportscar vendor in Southfield in the mid 70’s; one day I was in there picking up something or other and my buddy the salesman showed me a vehicle that had just come in on trade, from Edwin Starr. It was a Marcos GT – at the time I had little idea what it was but wish I had taken a photo of it with my Polaroid Land Camera. In regards to the topic at hand, I worked with a guy in the 90’s who bought an all original 1956 Plymouth (I think it was a Savoy) 4 door sedan from a retiree. It was turquoise with white accents, 6 cylinder w/column shift. It right away became his daily driver, and as he was rather rough on things (combined with Michigan winters) it deteriorated quickly. Within a year it was being shifted with a pair of vice-grips, and the rare radio delete plate had gone missing. The last time I saw the car it was behind a barn in rural Michigan, with flat tires, broken windows and the chrome trim delineating the two-tone ripped off by vandalous youth. A sad ending.
Here’s a really good website about the Detroit R&B scene:
http://soulfuldetroit.com/index-home.htm
Yesterday I saw a modern Commodore (Pontiac G8) with a Foose-style black/charcoal upper and red lower, split at a character line just below top of fender/bottom of window level – didn’t take a photo of it however, because it was a vendor’s car at a classic car show!
It was a good show too – with 3 Deloreans and 3 Rolls Royce Camargues (525 built!) there it would give an idea of the breadth and number.
Our high school principal, a pretty conservative guy otherwise, had a 1956 Plymouth Belvedere V8 Powerflite sedan in bright turquoise and white, inside and out. This was actually quite a departure from earlier Plymouths, and while the featured red and white Savoy doesn’t look much like a 1954 or earlier Plymouth, I’d suspect that it would be difficult to tell it apart by the way it drives.
As long as it is since I’ve bought a whitewall tire, I think the thin whitewalls with the red wheels go nicely with the red and white paint job.
Beautiful car! Congrats on bagging the game.
The styling of the 1955 Plymouth convertible reminded me a lot of the Packard Caribbean of the same year to the extent that I always wondered how it affected sale of either the Plymouth (improved sales since it looked like a bargain-basement Packard) or ate into the meager sales of the ultra-expensive Packard (lost sales because no one wanted to buy a Packard that looked like a Plymouth that cost half as much).
Interesting you should mention a ’55 Packard. I recently bagged one of those, also. Stay tuned.
Nothing wrong with naming cars after classy hotels. Plaza and Savoy are much nicer names than Mainline or One-Fifty, etc. Who wants to be reminded every day that you bought a stripper?
BTW, all Corvairs with automatic had selectors on the dash. The second generation had a much more attractive design, similar to the Chrysler products, but without the long handle.
I have to wonder how the owners of the Plaza felt at being the bottom-rung Plymouth! Diminution of the brand? 🙂
Those ‘strippers’ are the sought after models today, in my book, and difficult to find, in nice condition, maybe because they were not very highly thought of back then, and not worth saving. All that brightwork trim on the high dollar models was just a rust point underneath! I’d love to have the Plaza, One-Fifty, and Mainline models today!
I had a ’56 Plymouth Plaza 2 door…. manual trans and the good old flathead six. Same blue and white two-tone as the wagon pictured. Very reliable and boring, but I did love it anyway!
This is truly a forgotton car. The main reason to me, is it looks identical to a 1956 Ford! I’m a big fan of all things Plymouth, though, and I would take this car home imediately.
I can see that, just with Packard-style headlight surrounds and a bit more slope to the roof and trunk than the Ford. And people say that today’s cars all look the same…
We share in our love for these oft forgotten and neglected un-sung stars of the simpler days of elegance and pride… Thanks for making me fall more madly in love with this often overlooked vixen in disguise. Long live the Savoy’s!
Great article. I’ve still got my 1955 Plymouth Savoy with V8.
I have had a 55 Belvedere for the past 21 years, V8 with three on the tree. Not a great driving car but I can’t bring myself to part with it.
ive got a 55 belvedere sport coupe and a 55 plaza . my granddad had 1 when 1 was young.
my sport coupe
I have a 55 Savoy 6 cylinder 3 on a tree 60,000 original miles for sale. Anyone interested?
Here’s my mom in my parent’s first car, a ’55 Belvedere, on Skyline drive in 1958. The roof-only two-toning works better here. Note the tin worm has already made an appearance, after only 2 Pittsburgh winters. And no whitewalls!
Lovely looking car. I’ve always liked American cars of the early 50s.
My dad had a 55 Dodge Crusader – or should I say Plodge. It was a Canadian dodge with the front clip of the Dodge plugged on to the front of a Plymouth. I loved that car, although my Dad had trouble starting it in wet weather. Here is it with some kid sitting in front of it. 🙂
1955 was a great year for tasteful styling on the lower-trim domestic cars. You really couldn’t go wrong with a Chevy, Ford, or Plymouth. But, of the three, I like the early ‘Forward Look’ of the Plymouth best, with nice-looking, stubby fins. A Belvedere hardtop looks good, but a convertible is really the styling champ.
My only real complaint is that the bigger technical improvements didn’t happen until the following year (when the fins began growing, too). First is the change from a 6-volt to 12-volt electrical system. I’ve heard this isn’t too bad as converting a ’55 Plymouth to 12-volt isn’t particularly hard.
A more difficult change is converting the 2-speed Powerflite to the much more preferred 3-speed Torqueflite, particularly as the 1956 Mopars went to the pushbutton selector while the 1955 cars had a dash-mounted shift lever.
The two speed Powerflite had a four element torque converter with two stators instead of one so it offered a wider ratio multiplication than a Chevy Powerglide. So, not that bad for the time. They kept using them until 1965, although the 3 speed Torqueflite came out in 1957.
Good point about the PowerFlite not being as bad as the Powerglide. Also fascinating that the PowerFlite ended production in 1965, while the Powerglide stayed in production quite a bit longer (1973). Oddly, Chrysler’s push-button controls were eliminated for the 1965 model year, so the last PowerFlite vehicles were, evidently, lever-controlled, just like the first ones.
I think the Torqueflite was a mid-year 1956 offering.
Are you sure the PowerFlite went to 1965? Allpar says they stopped in 1961.
You may be right, but I’m trying to think what cars they would have been used on. Even our most basic Valiants in Australia had TorqueFlites from the start in 1962.
It’s just what I’ve been able to research on the Internet. Can’t say as I’ve ever seen one. That’s why I wondered in what vehicles later PowerFlites might have been installed. Trucks and/or fleet vehicles, maybe?
The source that the PowerFlite made it to 1965 was Wikipedia but I would guess it’s an error. Allpar’s assertion that 1961 was the last year for the PowerFlite sounds more plausible.
Of course, they also say the PowerFlite was used exclusively with V8 cars through 1961 while the Slant-Six got the TorqueFlite, which is undoubtedly an error, too, probably owing to the earlier V8 TorqueFlite being of a cast iron construction at the same time the Slant-Six got a brand-new, lighter weight TorqueFlite (A904) that had an aluminum case. The V8 cars did get an aluminum case TorqueFlite after the Slant-Six.
Essentially, you got a choice of PowerFlite or TorqueFlite (aluminum case if it was a Slant-Six) through 1961 but, after that, it was an aluminum case TorqueFlite only.
My Dad bought a 55 in Bimini Blue just before he married Mom
it’s probably the first car I ever rode in and the first I remember
(I was perplexed by the dash layout even as a Toddler)
The Plymouth Colors that year were named for Florida Places
Current car manufacturers need to be offering these colors on all of the model offerings. The people want variety in color!
Over the years I’ve seen many more 1955-56 Chevys and Fords than 1955-56 Plymouths, even though the Plymouth production numbers were fairly high at this time. I wonder why that is.
A very good question. Lots of Shoebox Chevys, an occasional Ford, but virtually never a Plymouth or Dodge. I can understand the later Forward Look cars never surviving due to their truly horrible quality control, but I don’t think the earlier cars were that bad and probably as good as Ford or Chevy.
I wonder if it has to do with finding parts, particularly for the engines that simply didn’t stay in production anywhere near the length of time the Fords and Chevys did.
I like the fact that Chrysler kept some angle to the A pillars, yet still had a wrap around windshield on their 1950’s cars.
A much better look than the vertical pillars of the competition in my opinion.
I love mine. So much fun to drive.
I have a 1955 dodge mayfair 270 cid.v8 with powerflite auto.transmission,this car a 4 door is completely rebuilt from the ground up all the chrome is finished ,the colour is cherry red under and gold top, with full disc hubcaps and white wall tires.
I love my 55 Belvedere. A 4 door sedan and running 6 cyl flathead and powerflite transmission. Great car. Here in England it’s very rare. Imported from York PN USA in 2011.
That is a very nice car!
Thanks. Its quite a head turner.
the 1955 Plymouth has features from earlier models, the frames are similar to the 1949’s, does anyone agrees?
This ’55 Savoy is interesting. It has the Hellcat option that wasn’t available in ’55!
https://www.motortrend.com/events/1955-plymouth-savoy-build-roadkill-nights-alex-taylor-lucky-costa/
Trying to add the picture…
The 1955 Plymouth is my favorite of that year, which is saying something since the ’55 Chevy and Ford were no slouches, either. In fact, I’d give the ’55 Plymouth my vote as the best of the decade. Unfortunately, it was another Maxwell Smart car that was ‘this close’ in several areas. Consider:
The entire center section, particularly the roof’s C-pillar. It’s just not styled very well, Someone else said it was similar to previous year Plymouths and that sounds about right. The two-tone treatment was lame, as was the symmetrical dash with gauges way over on the passenger side, rendering them useless.
Then there was the 6-volt electrical system which, granted, isn’t that hard to switch to 12v. Not as easy a fix is the 2-speed PowerFlite automatic.
All that aside, the styling (convertible, anyway) reminds me very much of the 1955 Packard Caribbean. I’d go so far as to say a 1955 Plymouth convertible is the poor-man’s Caribbean, which isn’t a bad thing, at all.
The Savoy featured reminds me of similar models I recall around the city where I lived as a kid. I’m there were a lot of these on the streets and certainly as taxi cabs. In fact, there is a picture on the family files of my two young aunts hamming it up with a taxi driver friend who was driving a Savoy.
Basic sedans were very common back then as young middle-class families were on tight budgets. Things would change into the sixties as incomes rose across most of Canada.
Very well-written piece. What a rare find that Savoy is. Really like this semi-basic model. It’s what a lot of people drove back in the day, contrary to most of the top trim level models coming through the TV auto auctions now.
AFAIK, the first car to have the gearshift erupt from the dash was the Citroen Traction Avant.
55 was slightly behind the times over here our local assembly Plodges were flathead 6 Ford US had finally discovered overhead valves and Chevy was a 6 as it should be, all three brands from that year were still plentiful as regular road cars well into the 70s as my generation bought them hotrodded them and killed them off, now days those RHD originals are like gold.
In 1955 my dad bought a new 55 Savoy, and custom ordered a 3 tone color scheme, black on the bottom, red, in the middle, and a white top. I don’t recall ever seeing another 3 tone factory ordered. At the same time his brother had purchased a new 55 chevy 2 door Hard top, 265 v8 with 3 on the tree, and a pr. of glass packs for exhaust and a single 4 barrel.
Ours was more mundane, a flathead 6, 3 on the tree, 4 door post, but we did have the full wheel covers. I do remember back in the mid west when it was cold, he used to choose a few choice selected words while trying to turn it over in cold weather with the 6 volt system. My dad was a trucker and the car arrived midweek from the dealer while he was gone, so g.parents drop us off at the dealership so we could bring it home. I remember the new car smell, and all the seats were covered with a thin protection type plastic, that we later removed.
I was reminiscing tonight to those good old days of a simpler life, and thought about our first brand new car that 55 plymouth. I typed 55 savoy and came to this site.
yelllowcub