Here’s something for you M-body fans. I shot this ’85 Diplomat in 2008, at the Geneseo car show. This had to be the nicest Diplomat I’d ever seen, restored to a T. If the Blues Brothers had been filmed just a couple years later, we might have seen these instead of Monacos crashing through a mall .
That is one sharp Dippy!
At a point in time, I really wanted one of these. I have long been into unpopular oddball cars with horrid resale and favored by elderly people.
But I had to be honest – same crappy gas mileage as the big Panthers/GM B-C-D bodies but without the room, the big trunk, or the smooth ride. Also, everything I have read about these is that they are kind of a starter-kit. There are several mods that need to be done to make these into keepers.
But even after the logical side of my brain makes the case (and a good one) against one of these, I still want one. The interior trim in the civillian versions is quite nice.
“Also, everything I have read about these is that they are kind of a starter-kit. There are several mods that need to be done to make these into keepers.”
YUP! That pretty much sums up my lust, + my irrational exuberance for odd, unloved, dare to be different cars.
http://www.dippy.org/
If I ever got one I’d likely end up doing just as much to it… 😛
Thats an incredible Site. It gives Me hope For a great Toronado Trofeo Site in the future. So Hard to pin down some of these car’ specifics from not so very long ago.
There’s a collector for everything.
The few clean M cars left are begging for a Magnum 5.9/46RE swap. I don’t think that the “Beer Keg” intake would clear the hood though.
I haven’t seen a civilian one of these in years. There is a local guy who has restored a former Illinois State Police ’86 Diplomat. It’s a pretty neat car with a light bar and all.
Those are the same ‘cop wheels’ (you can tell by the large oval openings) that I installed on my 1971 LTD – a full 7″ wide! And with the correct vented hub caps too.
I recall reading a car-mag review of the police version of this car back in the 1980s and the performance was beyond abysmal – it had an incredibly steep rear end ratio (something like 2.71 or 2.61) and took a mind-boggling 18 seconds to reach 60mph (IIRC).
My memory of a civilian Gran Fury, in 1987, when they were still for sale, passed an elderly lady on Chicago’s Kennedy Expressway going 40 mph in 55 zone. Everyone flying past her. I was driving family and my mom says ‘Oh the poor thing’. Lady looked like she was 85 y/o at the time, but her Gran Fury was shiny new.
These days, eldery drivers have roots driving at highway speeds*, and rarely see any going less than 60-65 mph. The elder I mentioned in the Fury maybe learned to drive in the 1930’s.
*The current generation were young adults when the Interstates opened and 70-75 mph was legal.
I had an ’86 Gran Fury for about four years. Paid $1200 for it in ’98. Sold it for $1250 in ’02. Former county sheriff car I bought in Lawton, Oklahoma. It had been an unmarked car.
It ran great but was thirstier than a drunk on Sunday afternoon. It handled great, even if the 4 bbl 318 (with 2.73 gears) was about 75% up to the task.
The car was quite comfortable, but I never had anyone drive me in it.
The weaklink on these cars was the transverse torsion bar front end. Remember seeing some of them sagging on one side or the other. That was the cause.
Overall, good cars in a Model T sort of way. I agree with JP, I would love to have one (or another, in my case).
[Elwood and Jake Blues have a fight over the police car Elwood got after he traded away the original Bluesmobile for a microphone]
Elwood: You don’t like it?
Jake: No I don’t like it…
[Elwood Blues floors the pedal and jumps over an open drawbridge]
Jake: Car’s got a lot of pickup.
Elwood: It’s got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it’s got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It’s a model made before catalytic converters so it’ll run good on regular gas. What do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?
[a brief thinking pause while Jake attempts to light a cigarette]
Jake: Fix the cigarette lighter.
Hmmm, would this car’s 318 have made it over that bridge?
During the summer of 1981 I shared a house with a couple of guys I didn’t know very well. I had just purchased my ’72 Dodge Dart. One of the other housemates must have worked for the city and had a car like this complete with the wide rims, vented hubcaps and big tires (compared to my Dart at any rate).
I came up with a plan that I could just swap the wheel & tire package on the Diplomat/Fury with the wheels and tires on my Dart. This would give me some seriously big rubber compared to the E-70-14 Polyglas that I was running.
The plan came to no avail however, my poor little dart had been bought with manual drum brakes. Giving me a little 5×4 lug circle rather than the 5×4.5 of the disc-brake equipped cars. So the wheels would never fit.
For all I know it kept me out of jail.
I had the identical car, only a Canada only Plymouth Caravelle. The cool thing about mine was it was factory LPG! The bad thing was the single tank was placed behind the rear axle, making the trunk next to useless.
Still, the car handled and drove well. The stiff suspension and cop interior really stood up and these cars always had an excellent driving position. Best part was V-8 cop car performance with Tercel running costs!
Wow Canucklehead- I had the Gran Fury myself- there weren’t many of us who had M bodies that weren’t cops. Mine was purchased from St Vincent DePaul in New Orleans back in 1999, for a few notes due to it not running. (I think they’re still there- off Camp and Calliope, just under the GNO bridge) Yes, it had the feedback carburettor. However, it was slant six powered, and I knew there was a good car in there screaming to get out. I wasn’t going to buy it until I saw that slant six, and then nothing could keep it out of my hands. With a pep boys dizzy and carb for a ’74 Duster, I had it up and running sweetly. That car took me from New Orleans back to its birthplace of Windsor, Ontario where I was attending university. Mine didn’t have the handling pack, but aside from the light steering, it handled really well (for a yank tank), and the thing I remember most is just how lovely the interior was, if brown and beige are your thing. Plus, unlike the competition, Chrysler actually gave you a full set of gauges- including an ammeter. This was a heavy duty car.
And you’re right- it was one of the most comfortable road trip cars, with an excellent driving position, and centre armrest in just the perfect position for lounging. The build quality was quite good too, and it felt much more solid than the K-rap that Chrysler was putting out. Size wise, it was good too- nearly as roomy as a Panther inside, but much more maneuverable outside- and with visibility that was amazing- the dashboard was in line with my chest, so I could peer out over that bonnet to the star at the front guiding me forward.
It was quite economical, and not that slow once the pollution controls were removed. Any M body is a great car if you live in a state without emission testing, as it was really just the crap that they put on the engine that ruined the thing. If you drive a sorted M body, you realize just how sad the whole Volare/Aspen saga was. Had they gotten the build quality right from the start, things would have been different for Chrysler. But, then again, Chrysler wouldn’t be Chrysler if they didn’t expect the first buyers to do their beta testing.
I can still hear that Highland Park Hummingbird stirring it to life…
fwhaa whaa whaa whaa whaa whaa blummmmmmmmmm
You don’t have to be in a state without emissions testing to greatly improve the HP. In many of those states an engine swap as long as it uses an engine from a same or newer model year and same or better emissions classification it is all fine. Unfortunately that means no cheap Magnum upgrade for the Dippy but the Hemi from a LX car is fair game. Or you could go the belly button route and find yourself a 4th Gen Camaro and slide a SBC in there if you want to go the cheap route.
I’ve driven a later Diplomat slant six and they go just fine. The low end torque made it fine in the city but I wouldn’t want to take it up Roger’s Pass, either.
The 318 that was in most of the cars wasn’t a hot-rod by any means. My car had really long gears and it was kind of a slug around town compared to, say, a nice Chevy 305. The engines in these cars really were nothing to write home about. That said, I did have Dippy cop car with a 360 four barrel on LPG and it went really well since it had short gears and lots of torque. The I even had a 318 four barrel car one and it was way better than the two barrel but these were quite rare, mine was the only one I have ever seen.
All these cars got turned into cabs. The M bodies were darned good cars. They really stood up and the Torqueflite was bullet-proof. We never changed one and we had like a dozen M bodies over the years. The rest of the car, and especially the interior, held up much better than GM for Ford stuff.
Finally, these things were the orphans of the auto world circa 1990. Clean M’s could be had for less than $2000 and that would get you a really good one. Lots of working people used them as commuters and they were good at that, too.
I remember reading one time that the sheet-metal in these cars was of a thicker gauge than most of its contemporaries.
Can anyone confirm or deny that?
badass !
Those M-bodies or “Dippy” as a one fan referred; had some missed opportunities, just imagine what if Chrysler had put the Magnum version of the 5.2L V8 earlier as well as the 3.7L V6 who landed under the Dakota hood in 1992? Along with a little facelift like the Ford Panthers received in 1988.
Then, it’s interesting to note in Mexico, the M-body inherited briefly the Dart nameplate in 1981-82 and in Colombia, the Coronet moniker.
It speaks volumes that a beautiful swap for an old Dippy is a 5.2 Magnum, four speed auto, and rear axle from a Grand Cherokee. That is the way they should have come from the factory.
There is a rumor that Chrysler started playing with a “Magnum” style engine in Squad Cars near the end of the line.
The M bodies were still rooted in the F body chassis and would have needed a heck of a lot of money to update.
My mother worked for a Rochester, NY Dodge dealer from 1977 til the late 80’s. I remember my 16th birthday in sept of 78. Mom’s employer was making room on the lot for the about to arrive 1979 models. My first time behind the wheel was in that brand new 78 Diplomat. My dad traded in a perfectly good 69 Satelite on that car. My heart was broke over the Plymouth. That Diplomat had a habit of having it’s rear end wanting to be in front during hard braking. All three of us spun that car at least once. The second time dad spun it, it ended up totaled. That car was replaced with a much less optioned slant six version. I don’t know about the later versions, but, the early ones were seriously under sprung when they had V-8’s in them. As far as I know the 225 car never spun on them. By then I was driving my grandfathers 69 Catalina and hating it.
Being a vintage Mopar guy, it’s probably a sacrilege not to like the M body cars. But in all ways, I just don’t care for them. The brougham type Fifth Avenue version I’ve always thought of a bloated compact.
K cars, though, I’ve always kinda liked them. I have no idea why.
I totally agree Dave. These cars just never clicked for me, either. I had a girlfriend who drove a pristine, loaded, maroon Fifth Avenue, it was hideous; I insisted we ride in my beater ’95 Isuzu P’up. And I also very much liked the Reliant/Aries cars; good looking, practical small sedans AND wagons. But not the gussied-up Chrysler versions, or the gawd-awful convertible.
That mall was the abandoned Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Il.
They finally tore it down this year after leaving it to rot for 30+ years.
It stood as a disintegrating urban ruin for more than twice as long as it was open. The really sad thing is they built a police station in the parking lot and it wasn’t until that station was built that the serious vandalism and theft of anything left that was of value got into high gear.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2009/10/piston-slap-diplomatic-immunity/
Back in ’09 I bought an ’86 Diplomat SE becuase otherwise it was going to be turned in during the C4C program. I REALLY hated C4C.
The Dodge was a perfectly fine car, that really gave me very little trouble beyond a high fuel bill. However, I came to the conclusion that it was never going to be a beloved vehicle for me.
Two weeks ago I traded it straight up with someone for an ’89 Electra. The Buick is all set to get a FE3 suspension swap off a junked Olds 98 Touring Sedan when I get home tomorrow. I think I’ll enjoy the Buick more and right now don’t regret my choice.
I would have offered the Diplomat to principaldan, but I think we lived too far apart to make anything happen.
Still, the M-body was on my automotive bucket list, and now I can cross it off. Now to find myself a FWD Imperial or LH New Yorker.
Sigh…
I recall seeing several years ago an ’85 or so Diplomat that was an obvious ex-copcar. As I passed it on the freeway, I saw the following message stenciled onto the back window:
“Yes it was. No, I am not, nor do I care to be.”
I saw an ex-cop Crown Vic a few years ago, it was white and very dirty. Someone wrote in the dirt, “I’m riding in the front now!”
I wanted an ex-cop-car Diplomat…just the mechanical bits I like in a car. I was planning to put in seats and door panels out of a Fifth Avenue sedan. But instead a 1976 Dart Pursuit turned up, and by the time I was about done playing with that, there were hardly any Diplomats or Fifth Avenues left.