(Submitted to the CC Cohort by Tim Finn)
Look at that face. If ever a car possessed a look of clenched jaw and gritted teeth determination, this is it. This particular example is all business, too, with no fancy wheel covers, no vinyl roof, and minimal chrome.
It doesn’t have time for any stupid stuff as it’s focused on what needs to be done while doing it as effectively as possible. No wonder I like this car.
As one who was born in the early 1970s, it’s refreshing to see a Fury of this vintage. Once upon a time these were a frequent sighting in movies and television, generally wearing a light bar on the roof and somehow always meeting its demise is some spectacular fashion.
While funny at the time it no doubt took its toll on the general population. Well, those in California at least. This Fury lives in Oregon.
While there has never been an award for a car that looks good when airborne, these would be contenders if there were such a contest. Seeing any car airborne gives one opportunity to see it from angles otherwise not generally possible. This Fury looks great from any angle, an admittedly biased statement.
We all know what landings do, so let’s not dwell on unpleasantries. What is pleasant is seeing this green Fury, a Plymouth that is a visual update of the new B-body that was introduced in 1971. Some would argue the updates weren’t successful. I would argue they were; few are the cars that look bad with stacked headlights, another admittedly biased statement.
The B-bodies were also unique at Chrysler in 1977 and 1978; they were the only cars in which one could order an example with each rear-drive intended engine Chrysler had available. These came with a 225 slant six, a 318 (5.2 liter), a 360 (5.9 liter), a 400 (6.6 liter), and the cops could get a 440 (7.2 liter). While similar had happened a few times earlier in the 1970s, these and the twin Dodge Monaco were the last practitioners of this smorgasbord of Chrysler engine options.
Seeing this Fury has been a joy. Now, to channel its determination and find one in the metal…
Related reading:
1978 Fury by PN
1971 Satellite by JS
1978 Monaco by PN
1974 Coronet by JS
1974 Satellite by JPC
Cool find. I haven’t seen one that wasn’t decked out like Rosco’s car in a long time. Nor have I seen any car with spring shackles in a long time either.
I remember those shackles. Would you say they were strictly to compensate for weak springs, or to just jack up the back end for looks? Or some combination of the two?
I think both. I put a set on my 71 Scamp. I think the middle set of holes put the rear at the right height and I sawed the rest off with a hacksaw because I hated the look of the stupid shackle hanging down below the mounting bolts.
I knew a hot-rodder back in the day whose biggest pet-peeves were shackles and slapper bars. OTOH, if you’re going to use shackles, hacksawing off the unused lower portion helps make them look not quite as ignorant.
Funny thing is one of these was in the project car section at the pick-n-pull a couple of weeks ago when I was there, it too had extended shackles. I think on these it was done to fix the sag as I remember seeing these with stock wheels and tires more frequently than any other 4drs.
On the other hand most of the other cars you saw with the extended shackles were 2drs and it was usually done to clear bigger rear tires.
Hope this one has the slant six in it. If so, it has a lot of time left on this fine planet.
“few are the cars that look bad with stacked headlights”
Agree to disagree, especially when the designers jam those stacked headlights into a space designed for single sealed beams.
I will concede the Fury pulls this off as well any model out there, but that’s damning with faint praise.
Were there any cars with stacked rectangular headlights that were designed to use them from the start? Off the top of my head every example that comes to mind were facelifts placing them into the old round openings.
Not a “car,” but the ’84 Jeep Wagoneer Limited qualifies.
…and they work OK, but I still prefer the single headlight variations
This is the same front end as on the 1965 Ambassador, so perhaps AMC was being thrifty and repurposing an old design for a new model?
Specifically cars, I’m inclined to say trucks vans and SUVs pull them off fine. On the subject of those though, the other one that comes to mind is the original Minivans
’84 Wagoneer doesn’t quality; the stacked rectangulars weren’t used until 1986. The ’84 had the same single lights as the Cherokee with a different grille between them.
Agreed. Stacked headlights aren’t the problem; it’s when they’re rectangular and stacked bolt upright. For some reason, stacked round headlights, particularly when they’re canted forward, look good. Even if anyone had the foresight to stack rectangulars with a forward cant, I doubt even that would help. Stacked rectangulars just…suck. On a side note, that front end shot of the Fury sure makes it look like a Cordoba.
1978 was an incredibly depressing year for domestic intermediate sedans. From Chrysler, you get these warmed-over, antique B-bodies. Ford had new sheetmetal for the LTD II but it was on the same, equally aged Torino.
And then there’s GM with the downsized Malibu. In a supreme irony, this is what then-Chrysler president William Newberg feared GM was planning for 1962 and disasterously did a crash downsizing program for Chrysler’s intermediates. GM might have pulled it off in 1978 except some marketing genius decided to eliminate roll-down rear windows on the sedans.
And of course GM had the downsized B bodies for anyone who wanted a car of pre-downsized intermediate.
And Ford got the new Fairmont, who was a compact of the same size as GM new intermediates spanned the 1981-82 Fox-body Granada as a intermediate and got reskinned as a intermediate in 1983 as the “small” LTD.
“…this is what then-Chrysler president William Newberg feared GM was planning for 1962 and disasterously did a crash downsizing program for Chrysler’s intermediates….”
In fact, it was Chrysler’s full-size line. The “plucked chicken” 1962 Polara/Fury/Belvedere morphed into intermediates Coronet/Belvedere for 1965 when a new full-size C-body Polara/Newport/New Yorker/Fury arrived.
During that model year, Chrysler beginned to offer the FWD Omni/Horizon and a F-body spin-off with the M-body Diplomat/Le Baron rechristened later as Fifth Avenue and added later a Gran Fury. Both was made until the late 1980s.
Stacked lamps seem to be like light beer and diet soda – they aren’t for everyone and it seems few are indifferent.
The ‘77 Buick Regal is where our opinions definitely overlap.
My dear Mr Shafer, if light beer and diet soda is a beverage you enjoy, it would be hard to be indifferent if you kindly offered me one, but I would be polite in my refusal. (To myself, I might think “Good god, explains why the guy thinks square stacked lights are cool”, but I’d leave it with myself). Personally, I wouldn’t drink either.
I mean, which one of them eyes is looking at me? Gives me the heeebie-jeebs.
I love the rest of the fusey-large, though, and kind-of agree the granite jawed front looks tough, but that might because as a non-American, I associate these with tough cops sliding about in pursuit of crooks on our (then) b&w television in the ’70’s.
The light beer and diet soda analogy was strictly for illustration purposes….I am firmly in the “not that swill” camp.
I thought as much! It was just the fleeting vision of both combined that tickled me. Shudder!
It does so much better than the stacked headlight Cordoba
Don’t know that our resident lighting expert has ever touched on this, but does stacking those lights have any effect on the beam pattern compared with a side-by-side mounting?
I love the B-body Chryslers. They’re honestly one of the best sedans I’ve seen and worked on, and if they had the right engine they could go forever.
There’s a red 1978 in my neighborhood. Maybe I should get a picture.
And by the way, since I was born in ’70 these were a big part of my upbringing. My mother had three of these from the time I was 4-16. A bit refreshing.
One of the best cars I’ve owned. Sure, it wasn’t the kind of car to use for a date, but it was very comfortable and reliable. I miss it, but the rust monster – and other issues – were getting too far ahead of me.
A long time ago (1987). I doubt you could park like this here now.
Just drove through there last week, and no, there’s no empty lots left by the Vegas sign.
I tried in vain to find this spot in 2013, but Las Vegas has grown significantly since 1987.
This one is on Vegas Boulevard just south of the Mandalay Bay (there’s also one on the North side of the strip, and maybe others I haven’t seen).
As this picture shows, the selfie era has made the sign “a thing.” Pretty much always a line from 10 AM to 10 PM….
Nice Fury. Chrysler appeared trying to give Ford some competition in the late 70s, offering some of the widest factory body side molding at the time. The Ford Elite and Thunderbird appearing to outsize the Fury.
The wide molding on the Fury Salon was right up there.
That was a sweet car!
Any car with a bench seat is good to use for a date…..
One of my favorite cars from my youth was a ’77 Ex RCMP city car. A 318 car, but one that for some odd reason had the most gumption of any 318 car I ever owned. This thing positively flew. With the second gear lockout tab, SureGrip, the “special handling vehicle” noted vin tag and the black bucket seat and rubber floor mat interior, this was the bomb. Bought for less than a thou, and drove for a number of years before a “friend” decided to customize it as per the only photo I have of it. It was a sad end to an amazing car. It went, it stopped, and would handle well, at least as long as the steering could keep up, which caused me to take a trip thru the rhubarb and require a lower control arm replacement. To see it in its former glory, with its oxidized silver paint, its big tires and dog dishes, and looking all business like, it had a real presence that no other vehicle I’ve seen in years possessed.
The featured car has “fancy wheel covers” compared to what my 1978 Dodge Monaco came with. It was a California Highway Patrol car that had dog dishes. The CHP had put El Cheapo wheel covers on it for sale but the dog dishes were still in the trunk and the El Cheapos got sold at a garage sale!
I still miss that car and the police 440 Magnum that was tuned hotter than any 440 that Chrysler put into a civilian B-body (except when thinking of how I had to change the far rearmost left spark plug). I drove its sibling, a 1976 Plymouth Fury with the same engine, at work for two years.
I drove the NYC police car version. With the slant 6! No power, but once you got up to speed it moved OK. Those cars were big!The body and bumper were solid. A friend had a 2 door Monaco version. Stiff ride and uncomfortable seats.
The moment I saw the lead photo, I knew it had to be an article by Jason. 🙂
A couple hours with some rubbing compound and wax, and the finish on this Plymouth would be transformed.
B-Body Plymouths and Dodges were a fixture of the provincial police for a number of years. Our local OPP Detachment had a couple wagons as well, they’d use to bring their German Shepherds to our public school for dog training demonstrations.
They were popular as well with the Canadian Armed Forces as staff cars.
Those leaf spring shackle lift kits used to sell well in the 70s.
Besides the wagons, our local station had a few Dodge vans as well.
Hmm, I must work to be less predictable! 🙂
As the senior writers each appear to have their areas of expertise, it is generally not that hard to guess the writer based upon the lead pic. Without checking the byline.
Cars popularized as police cars in pop culture (movies and TV), is well known to most readers here, as one of your specialties. 🙂
Well, going by that very sound logic, there is something tomorrow that is true to form.
One day I’ll write up a Borgward just to be different.
LOL. Looking forward. Even just the way a title is written, Identifies writers. Everyone has their own style that often comes through.
You could just rerun the piece on the Tatra in Memphis. 🙂
Not that I’m opposed to more Borgward articles, those have grown on me.
“it is generally not that hard to guess the writer based upon the lead pic”
So did I throw you when I wrote up the 1970 Camaro? 🙂
Admittedly, yes. Looking at the black customized Camaro, I was thinking a guest writer, perhaps LT Dan or MoparRocker wrote this piece. Or the late Kevin Martin. As they are/were big muscle car fans. But the subtitle, ‘A fresh Look’ had me thinking it was possibly either Jim, Jason or JP. It definitely had me thinking an author who was maybe adverse to overexposed muscle cars, but with an open mind, willing to reconsider their merits.
I sincerely apologize for not commenting on a great article and find, with excellent pics. I love original cars. For me, few cars have been as bastardized by owners, as early 70s Camaros. Camaros are perhaps the most owner edited cars of all time. I usually quickly bypass Camaros at shows, and in writing. I thought your followup: Find a Camaro with original wheelcovers, was the perfect question to pose. Did an original Camaro of this era still exist!
The photo didn’t, but the title gave a hint it was JP’s work.
Haha, no need to apologize for not commenting on something. I have kind of surprised myself on how certain cars have grown on me over the years.
I don’t think I’d want to pulled over by the “thing” on the passenger side. Yikes!
The last time I was stopped in Ontario was 1986 in Fort Francis, and they pulled the good-cop bad-cop routine on me, then, too.
She does looks rather stern in this pic. 🙂 I imagine they used genuine cops for these photo shoots back then, rather than models as they might today.
That Euro-style amber rear turn indicator looks out of place on this car
The deep inboard location is equally unusual, with the backup lights oddly placed farther outboard than the turn lights.
I never realized it before but they probably could comply with export-market regulations calling for the turn signals to be outboard just by switching sides. Then, the taillights would be much farther inboard than would be effective to define the width of the car.
“That Euro-style amber rear turn indicator looks out of place on this car”
You mean . . . you didn’t assume that it was European?!?!? 🙂
I will always think “cop car” when I see this generation of Satellite/Fury. They were as ubiquitous in that role as the Crown Victoria was a decade ago.
And used as cop cars in TV shows and movies almost a decade after the last ones of both were made.
Kind of like how Checker cabs were still used TV and films decades after the last ones rolled off the line in 1980 because that’s what most people recognised New York City taxicabs. Until recently, streets full of yellow Checkers were often used as “establishing scenes” in movies to indicate you were in NYC, the same way the Golden Gate Bridge shows you’re in San Francisco or the Eiffel Tower shows you’re in Paris.
Ah, interesting, la673, as I said above somewhere, I thought the cop car perception was likely only to be for those outside the US.
Had a 77 fury two door coupe. 5.9 v8, lt blue with plaid interior. Shared body with the Cordoba. Ran it to over 300,000 miles. When I traded it in the dealership wanted to know what happened to the wire wheels I gave to a friend for it was 1/2 the trade value on the car. It had a vinyl 1/4 roof which over the years rusted the body almost in half.
Some would argue the updates weren’t successful. I would argue they were
I kind of agree with almost all of the updates, even the stacked headlights to a degree(I think they ruin most every other car they were added on to), but the one point these fail over their 71-74 predecessors are the round wheel openings. Plymouth’s used square ones with subtle flaring and looked significantly more cohesive with the design than the Dodge bodied round ones. It’s clear to me they purposefully used the round ones on the sedans to look more dowdy than the coupes in the showroom.
CC-in-scale can’t quite match this, but here’s a dressed up Dodge. 🙂
Very nicely done Pete. I’ve done calligraphy and illustration in the past, and the skill you demonstrate in detailing your models, is to be admired.
I remember one of the most painstaking detailing experiences for me as a kid, was applying the ‘wet transfer’ decals to the MPC 1977 IMSA Chevrolet Monza ‘Street Spyder’ I made. It was a late at night, I was probably high on glue and fitting the transfers onto all four fender flares, hoping to not tear the decals with dried glue residue all over my fingertips. Easily, one of my most stressed modelling memories.
Thanks Daniel. My mother was a photo retoucher and hand colorist back in the day when there were such things, and she taught me a lot about colour and the fine touch needed for her work. I just use those skills on a 3D surface. Usually I strive for realism, but now and then I’m happy to improve on things if I feel I can – that’s why the side molding on the Dodge isn’t factory correct – looks better that way IMHO. 🙂
BTW, here’s my take on that Monza. I agree with you about those decals. There’s a skill in applying tham, and plenty of arcane setting solutions you can use, but some decals just don’t want to play nice. Sometimes I find it easier to hand-paint the decal’s design.
Very cool Pete, I noticed the molding tweak. It looks authentic. Your Monza looks great. The spoilers and IMSA flare kit really transformed their look.
I used to use a lithographer’s magnifying loop with a fine tipped brush for applying chrome to lettering and badges. Your workmanship is much better.
Stacked headlights?
I guess 1965-1966-1967 Pontiac GTOs don’t count. They were muscle cars. . .
SELL ME THAT DODGE??!!
Here’s mine. SW Washington. I haven’t seen another on the road in many years. I get looks everywhere I go.
Wow. It’s nice to see so many comments on my photos. I know I’m lucky to live in a part of the country where cars seem to survive much longer than many other places. Thanks for writing the article, I enjoyed it.
Thank you. It’s proving to be quite popular among readers today when looking at the number of hits. You do well in spotting and capturing subject matter!
If this were white, it would be identical to the cars we had for driver’s ed in high school. 2 Furys with blue vinyl interiors and a Dodge Monaco with a green vinyl interior that must have been possessed by the soul of Christine, because every time we pulled that car, I had a lesson from hell. Including getting cut off by a tank truck on an otherwise deserted Clearview Expressway in Queens.
Did you go to Saint Francis Prep? (I thank God I learned to drive upstate, in big GM B-bodies on sedate country roads in the Borscht Belt, and adapted to city driving as a shocked adult.)
No, Archbishop Molloy, one of Prep’s rivals. We’d head up Main St past Union Turnpike and go in and out of the apartment blocks, meeting and greeting the cars from Prep, Holy Cross, and if we were lucky, Dominican or Mary Louis.
For the uninitiated, Molloy and Cross were all boys Catholic high schools, and Dominican Commercial and The Mary Louis Academy (yeah, like The Ohio State University) were all girls schools. Prep was at least coed, after moving from Brooklyn into the former Bishop Reilly HS building.
This shows how bad of condition Chrysler was in by 1973-74 – they didn’t have money to spend on the bread and butter sedans. The 75 Cordoba and the Plymouth/Dodge coupes got virtually all new sheet metal, but the sedans and wagons (in what was fast becoming the leading segment of the market) were left with minor cheap changes.
I have always believed that if these cars could have been squared up past the B pillars in a way that mimicked the coupes these could have been decent sellers. They would have been the only newly styled cars in the segment in 1975-76 and Chrysler was really getting better at interior trim by then.
60% of these seemed to go to police departments. 35% seemed to sell to other fleets and tightwads in low spec trims. 5% were the full-out brougham packages, invariably driven by old men wearing fedoras. As long as older Mopars were plentiful I never gave these a second look. I would drive one now, though.
I put the last iterations of the B-body sedan down as another casualty of the 1970 E-body fiasco. Chrysler dumped a ton of money into the development of the E-body and I’d wager they lost most of that in disappointing sales which they could ill afford. If the E-body had turned out to be even a modest success, they might have had more money to spread around on models that sorely needed updating. It’s something of a minor miracle they even got the successful Cordoba and Omnirizon to market when they did.
I don’t know why the E-body gets a pass on not being a Deadly Sin. Sales predictions were so far off they’re close to how badly GM overestimated Aztek sales. The E-body wasn’t a good car and the money Chrysler lost on it went a long way to exacerbating their woes in the seventies. I suppose it’s because they’re so good-looking that even mangled ones get serious money these days.
The 1970-74 E-bodies get a pass because they are far more popular as collector cars than they ever were as new cars.
While the failure of the E-bodies to gain traction didn’t help Chrysler, I’d rank the lackluster sales figures of the 1969 C-bodies, and 1971 B-bodies, as far more serious to the corporation’s long-term health.
Chrysler was counting on both to make serious headway against the GM and Ford offerings in those segments, but they failed to do so.
The B-bodies, in particular, were out of step with buyer preferences from the day they debuted. The 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix, 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme formal-roof coupe were what buyers wanted, not sleeker muscle cars.
The intermediate muscle-car market collapsed between 1970 and 1972, and Chrysler was left holding the bag.
I recall reading that one reason why the F-bodies were as thoroughly redesigned as they were, and offered a wagon from Day 1, was they were intended all along to take the place of both the A- and B-bodies since Chrysler’s market research showed they had the exact same buyer profile, which probably depressed B sedan sales to those tightwads and would’ve explained the reluctance to spend money on the sedans’ refresh (along with the general popularity of coupes in the ’70s).
WRT to Roscoe: It’s clear where the Dukes of Hazzard studio sourced those cars.
I remember one ep of the DOH where Roscoe rolls it, and the CHP-specific exhaust system is clearly seen. Duals with Cat on each side and a unique-to-Cali “mini-converter” on the driver’s side pipe ahead of the main cat. Always struck me as odd, as it seemed to me the drivers side emitted cleaner exhaust than the passengers.
They must have thrown an extra one on, then saw it met the standard and called it a day.
As a closeted DOH fan, I’ve noticed they started Season 2 with the Monaco as you have observed. The later episodes had them in Furys like this one. More of the spectacular wrecks used the Monaco but the Furys from later on had single exhaust I believe. A person has to look to see the transition but it was there.
Did Chrysler sell any of these to regular retail customers? I remember when they were new here in California they invariably had ‘E’ (exempt) license plates on them.
As for the California mini-converter on the left side, I believe it was there to compensate for rich mixture when the engine was cold with the choke on. When cold, the heat riser in the right exhaust manifold would be closed, routing most of the exhaust from the right bank through the exhaust cross-over in the intake manifold to heat the carburetor and operate the well-type choke thermostat, then exit out the left exhaust manifold.. The small left cat would heat up quickly and ‘clean’ the overly rich exhaust until the engine reached operating temp., choke and heat riser opened up, and main cats warmed up enough to work.
They did sell them to regular people and most were sold at retail. The vast majority of the Furys/Monacos of this vintage I’ve seen over the years were retail cars given the higher trim levels.
When my small township in Ohio finally gained enough voter consent to fund and form a police department in the late 1970’s these were the police cars of choice. I made it a point to recognize these cars during the daylight and in the dark, always keeping an eye out for them during our “test and tune” runs in the further reaches of our semi-rural township.
Now, 40 years later, I still get a little chill in my spine when I see one of these in full police regalia. The featured car could have been an unmarked cruiser back in the day, but it would be a nice driver today…
Chrysler showrooms must have been mind crushingly depressing from 1973-1981, and the worst years must have been 1976-1978. At least by 1979 the Omnirizon was out and the Volare/Aspen had improved enough to be tolerable, but by 1976 the Dart/Valiant were gone. The money making cars, the mid and full size cars, were undisputed flops and Chrysler got a reputation for lousy quality (and in the ’70’s, that meant something!) that it still hasn’t shaken off.
The Royal Monaco may have come off as the Frooty Hoops generic version of the LeSabre, but what was this imitating? Why does it look So. Unremittingly. Cheap? The Colonnades were, with the exception of the Malibu, sleek, graceful, and expensive looking, the Fords were overstyled and bloated but had nicer interiors, but what redeeming value does this car have?
The lines don’t flow, they ooze. The bumpers and grille aren’t really styled, they’re gracelessly plopped out and slapped on. The bumpers don’t have any particular shape, nor do the taillights, nor does the grille. The rear windows are deeply inset from the body at the bottom for some reason.
A Dart/Valiant even in its cheapest trim didn’t look as cheap as this car does. Something about the unadorned slab sides, the lack of sculpting, the lack of detail and accents, make this a really cheap and unimpressive car, which, coupled with Chrysler’s disastrous ’70’s quality, meant they were flops.
Lee really had his work cut out for him, didn’t he? Aside from the Cordoba, Chrysler didn’t have any real hits in the 70s.
There was the B-van as well, it was the segment leader through the decade just in time for the van trend. That was probably a major load-bearing factor in their ability to get the L-bodies to market and the K-car project along far enough that Congress was willing to float them.
This body style looks really good as an early loop-bumper Coronet, and ok as an early Satellite but I have to agree with JPC’s comment about the sedans needing a butt-lift to go with the new front. Maybe if Chrysler had used it exclusively for a Cordoba sedan in ’75 before spreading it down to Dodge and Plymouth a year later they could’ve swung it.
IMO this car would look a lot less painfully cheap if it had a good polishing and a set of white-stripe tires, at that.
Wow–what an amazing sight! I thought the Dukes of Hazzard, the A-Team, and TJ Hooker managed to destroy every one these left in existence! So neat to see a nice example of what is an under-appreciated car, and also one with such potential for greatness.