Today’s Car Life vintage review belongs to a June 1969 comparison of what the magazine termed ‘Powercars’. Not exactly a term that caught on, but in their words, full-size vehicles carrying the largest factory engine available. Four vehicles took part in that ‘Powercar’ comparison; the Chevrolet Impala, the Ford LTD and two Mopar siblings, the Dodge Monaco and Plymouth Fury III.
We’ve previously covered the Impala and LTD reviews (links below). In the end, the Impala was the magazine’s favorite for its taut suspension and power delivery, while the LTD fared the worst for its poor handling and odd ergonomics. Meanwhile, the Mopar siblings’ qualities placed them right between those two contenders.
Since the Dodge and Plymouth shared much hardware and carried the same platform, CL mixed things a bit with their road test. First, they arrived in two body styles, with the Monaco coming as a hardtop and the Fury III as a convertible. Then, instead of having the corporation’s bigger 440CID V-8 in both, the Plymouth came with a 383CID V-8. The idea was to see what the platform felt like with a still powerful, but smaller version of Chrysler’s big-block engine. Strictly speaking, the decision bucks the ‘Powercar’ comparison argument to some degree, but considering the pair’s similarities, the editorial call makes sense.
Not surprisingly, some conclusions were foregone from the star. Yet, the magazine ultimately considered the comparison an ‘interesting’ one.
Reviewers expected the Monaco’s 440 to provide the best performance numbers, something it achieved with little trouble. Out of the whole group, the Monaco’s numbers were the quickest; 0-60 was reached in 7.6 secs, and its top speed was 127 MPH. Under use, CL felt the 440’s “exhaust note is healthy, yet in traffic, it was a gentleman.”
At this point, it’s worth mentioning that a 440 ‘Cuda was also reviewed in the same issue. Impressions of how the big engine behaved in the ‘Cuda are sprinkled throughout the Monaco-Fury III comparison. It’s a review that also appeared at CC a short while ago (link HERE), and showed that while the ‘Cuda had bragging rights in outright performance over the Monaco, the final product was a demanding and compromised whole. Understandably, the 440 delivered a more balanced and happier application in the full-size Monaco.
Meanwhile, the Fury III’s 383 with a 2.76:1 final drive got the better mileage of the group, while still providing decent performance. 0-60 was achieved in 9.7 secs, and its top speed was 115 MPH. All while delivering 11-14 Mpg (the Monaco’s consumption was 9-12 Mpg).
Performance numbers aside, reviewers found the 383 a pleasing package. “It was the slowest car of the group, but by such a small amount we’re inclined to guess that the Plymouth doesn’t give away as many horses to the Ford LTD as the ratings show.”
Considering the fame Chrysler products had developed for handling, the pair’s performance didn’t live up to expectations in that area. In final valuations, the Impala’s handling (carrying the F41 suspension package) had been CL’s favorite, while the two Mopars failed to impress.
Testers sensed “suspension designers may use some sort of sliding scale: As the cars get bigger, and move into markets thought to attract comfort-seekers, the spring rates go down… both understeered strongly. Both felt stressed around the test curve… On the open road, the Dodge steering was quite sensitive, and the car reacted to sudden motions of the wheel…”
Still, the pair faired far better than Ford’s LTD, which placed last of the group in overall handling.
With the Monaco and Fury III having the same braking hardware and being driven by the same pilot, stopping distances turned “into a tire test.” The Plymouth’s bias-belted Goodyear tires provided a dramatic improvement over the Dodge’s conventional bias-ply ones.
Being a convertible, the Fury III’s soft top operation gets a few paragraphs. Testers felt that the soft top “tucked away neatly… without any trouble. We didn’t even have to read the instructions.” Being an all-weather car, the Plymouth’s upholstery was also very sturdy, if not conducive to high-spirited driving. Materials were “like pleated linoleum. Slick. The testers skated across the car on the handling course, seat belts notwithstanding.”
Some commentary is given to both car’s instrument panels, as they provided “an interesting look at two ways to put the same number of controls into the same space and shape, without being identical.” Both layouts were considered functional and uncluttered, although there were minor operational quibbles with the Monaco’s.
In general, while CL chose the Impala with the F-41 suspension package as their favorite ‘Powercar’, it’s clear the Mopar siblings left a rather good impression overall.
Related CC reading:
Vintage Reviews: 1969 Chevrolet Impala — Car Life’s Best Family Sedan; Power And Handling
Auto-biography: 1969 Plymouth Fury – Somewhere East Of Laramie
eBay Find: 1969 Dodge Monaco – This Fulsom Fuselage Is Fundamentally Fine!
They don’t say anything about ride quality or noise levels.
Back in the day when one had to cherry pick options that we take for granted today like P/S, P/B, automatic, etc. I would imagine there were group packages that include some of the aforementioned under one price.
Also, like the idea of disc brakes coming into the picture.
The link to the Impala doesn’t work.
Fixed now.
A lot of folks forget that Chrysler softened up their suspension settings in ’66 in order to be more comparable to the soft basic suspensions by Chevy and Ford.
This comparison is of course a bit unfair in that the Chevy had the optional F41 suspension, but based on other test of base-suspension Impalas, I suspect the Chevy would still have come in first, or at least tied with the big Mopars for handling.
I remember seeing those cars on Mannix and MISSION: Impossible. Chrysler was the sponsor and corporate tie-in.
I think the 69 Fury was the best looking of all the fuselage cars. Its 2 bbl 383 was the same powerplant I had in my 68 Newport – it was not fast, but had good torque and was smooth.
I go with the big Dodge for 1969 (although the Chryslers are best), and the reason is the header panel above the grille. Where the Dodge is mostly grille up to the leading edge of the hood, for some reason, the Plymouth stylists have this section as a taller, body-color panel, looking something akin to a neanderthal’s forehead.
My uncle had a 1968 Newport with the 383. Coming from a 1963 Meteor with six cylinder and three on the tree, it was to him a rocket ship. He was constantly getting speeding tickets in it.
The article here shows a 0-60 time of 9.7 seconds and anything under ten seconds was considered fast. I doubt the Meteor could do 0-60 better than 15 seconds, so the Newport was 50% faster. With gobs of torque, it would have felt plenty fast, too.
Mopars did have higher levels of noise vs competitor’s full-sized cars. In ’71 what Plymouth called “Torsion Quiet” was a new feature on all the big Mopars: 10 rubber “sound isolator” bushings were added and body sound insulation was beefed up. Having owned 2 ’71 Fury IIIs the result was indeed a quieter car than earlier models like dad’s ’67 Fury III, but it was still not up to GM or Ford full-sizers in particular, at least not in comparison to the fairly serene ’69 and ’72 Ford Galaxies he had after the Fury.
Why didn’t they test the Chrysler New Yorker with the 440
In my youth I got to drive both the mopar’s and the GMs, in my opinion the GM car is always out handled the Mopar, however I guess the police didn’t feel that way in our area because all they drove was plymouths with big block 440s
I have had this issue of Car Life since I begged my mom for 50 cents to buy it at the drugstore in 1969. I have always felt that that 1969 was the peak year for cars of all makes. From then on it has been downhill. In 1969 I felt that cars would keep getting better every year. Boy was I wrong!
During a lifetime of reading everything I could concerning cars at some point I came to view comparison tests by car magazines with a jaundiced eye. Their blatant subjectivity and the fact that they received their test vehicles from the car makers made their findings highly suspect. In this particular comparison test by Car Life it is interesting to compare their results to those of that paragon of objective evaluation Consumer Reports.
The January 1969 of CR reported the tests results on a Galaxie 500, Chevy Impala, Pontiac Catalina, Plymouth Fury III and American Motors Ambassador. These are listed in the order of their ratings with the Ford best overall and the Ambassador last. Demonstrating superior performance in most of their tests the Ford stood out for its ride both lightly and fully loaded and was criticized for its slow steering. New for the Impala was the available three speed Turbo Hydra-Matic and the 327 as the standard V8 and still the Ford with the 302 outperformed the Chevy in both acceleration and fuel economy. As for the superior handling of Chrysler products due to their torsion bar suspensions they recommended a heavy duty suspension be considered for the Fury III to reduce its “boat-like” front end motions.
As a personal anecdote, one of my economics professors who became a friend and mentor was a Navy pilot in WWII and flew PBYs. (told me that although forbidden when flying into San Francisco pilots would fly under the Golden Gate Bridge) He had a 70 Country Squire that I would use on occasion and once commented to him on the steering feel to which he said he liked it because it reminded him of flying the PBY. YMMV