Plymouth Fury

Plymouth Fury at a glance

The original Fury is a full-size, rear-wheel-drive two-door hardtop with a V8 engine. The name - "fury" means rage - suits the car's dramatic looks, and it later helped the Fury play the villain on screen. More American classics from Chrysler's brands are listed in our Chrysler catalogue.

The 1956–1958 Fury

The first Furys were sporty, exclusive models built in limited numbers and offered only as a two-door hardtop in a single colour: Sandstone White in 1956 and 1957 and Buckskin Beige in 1958. They had special interiors, bumper wing-guards and V8s with twin four-barrel carburettors.

Exterior

The Fury shared the "Forward Look" styling of the regular Belvedere, Savoy and Plaza, created under Chrysler design chief Virgil Exner. What set it apart was the trim: the grille, mouldings, badges and other brightwork were finished in gold anodised aluminium rather than ordinary chrome. On the rear fins, the trim panel - a continuation of the broad side moulding - was divided into four horizontal sections.

The 1957 redesign made the car longer and wider and gave it the large tailfins for which it is famous. Sharp, almost angular lines, plenty of chrome, prominent headlights and fins resembling the tail of an aircraft defined the look. Tailfins became fashionable in the mid-1950s, and within a few years almost every American manufacturer had adopted them.

Interior

Inside, the Fury looked much like other cars of its day. A thin steering wheel sat in front of an unusual instrument panel dominated by the speedometer, with smaller round dials for fuel level, engine temperature and other information on either side. The front bench is soft but not very comfortable by today's standards, while visibility is good. The front seatbacks fold forward to give access to the rear seats, there is plenty of room in the front footwells, and the doors carry attractive trim inserts. The boot is wide and large.

Engines and transmissions

The 318 V8 was shared with the Dodge Coronet. A three-speed manual gearbox was standard, and Chrysler's three-speed TorqueFlite automatic was available. The 1958 Bendix fuel-injection option proved unsuccessful: the factory recalled the injected cars and refitted them with a conventional twin four-barrel set-up.

Chassis

The Fury had a body-on-frame construction with rear-wheel drive. With the 1957 redesign Chrysler introduced torsion-bar front suspension, which gave its cars notably good handling for the period.

Christine

In Stephen King's novel Christine, published in 1983, a 1958 Plymouth Fury is possessed by an evil force - and in the story the car is red, a colour the real 1958 Fury was never sold in. For John Carpenter's 1983 film, several 1958 Plymouth Belvederes were therefore painted and dressed as Furys, and many were destroyed during filming. Today the surviving film cars are prized collector's items, and the story is one reason the Fury became such a cult car; enthusiasts have also restored many scrapped Plymouths of the period.

Later Fury generations

Key specifications (1958 Fury)

Strengths and weaknesses

The early Fury's strengths are its striking Forward Look styling, exclusive gold trim, powerful V8 engines with twin carburettors and good handling for its time, as well as its fame as one of the defining cars of American 1950s design. Its weaknesses are typical of the era: a soft but not very supportive bench seat, high fuel consumption and, today, the rarity and cost of good examples. Rivals included the Chrysler 300, Ford Thunderbird, Pontiac Bonneville, Cadillac Eldorado and DeSoto Fireflite.