(first posted 9/12/2011) Had it been October of 1960, and I was standing at a Plymouth dealership, the title of this post would have been the first words out of my mouth. Sometime between 1958 and 1960, Chrysler’s design studio must have been captured by aliens. Whatever the aliens did had a profound impact on what appeared in Mopar showrooms in 1961. And the 1961 Plymouth full sized line was one of the most mutant of them all.
When Chrysler switched everything but the Imperial to unit body construction in 1960, apparently it wanted to prove that what it showed customers in the fall of 1956 was really what 1960 would look like. So the full line of Mopar offerings minus the all new Valiant showcased an evolution of the Forward Look.
Given that contemporaries from General Motors weren’t all that much more forward thinking in design, it didn’t seem like a bad move.
Only the Ford 4 door hardtops made any design leaps into the present with rather clean side details and the blind C-pillar borrowed from the 1958 Thunderbird. All of the design excesses of full sized cars began to seem obsolete for 1960. With the runaway success of more stoic compacts such as the Falcon, Ford and Chevrolet shed the frills of the 1950s with haste to introduce rather clean 1961 designs.
Virgil Exner just took a pair of scissors to the rear end, hammered on some concave rear fenders and put a heavy dose of eyebrow pencil over the headlights of the 1961 full sized Plymouth cars and called it a wrap. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce you to the 1961 Plymouth Mothra…. err… Fury…”
Pretty much all Mopars were, in some form or other, fashion freaks this year: from the reverse fin Dodges, the cock-eyed Chryslers and the neo-classical free-standing headlamp Imperial. The Plymouth doesn’t initially seem all that out of the ordinary. Then you realize that the Dodges were pretty clean in general. And the Chrysler wasn’t too ugly if you didn’t look it in the eye.
Something is remarkably out of proportion with the Plymouth. For one thing, there’s a healthy dose of the “crab legs” tread stance that make many a 1950s General Motors car seem like a sumo wrestler with small feet. In an era in which Pontiac was leading the way of showing off your shoes by pushing them to “wide track” dimensions and offering 8 lug exposed aluminum drums to dress the whole thing up, the Plymouth seems decidedly retrograde.
And then there’s that Science Fiction face. The 1959 Buick opened the door to many an aggressive face, and the 1961 Plymouth wasn’t the only furrowed brow scowling out of showrooms across the United States in 1961. But it was the one that possibly caused the most nightmares.
As we pull back from those furrowed eyebrows, I can’t help but notice how inharmonious the whole front end is. The grille has a “pinched waist.” The hood starts to flow down and then abruptly stops. Then there’s the cheese grater grille pattern with that gold emblem. I’m surprised I got this close to take a picture. At any moment it looks like this face could come alive and devour me in a torturous death. I don’t think a 361 Wedge V8 slumbers behind that hood. I think seventeen rows of sharp teeth lie behind there. Tell my mother I love her and I died doing what I loved: Photographing strange beasts in the wilds of South Berkeley.
As we flee, umm, move on to a examination of the disconnect between the front and rear, we notice the lantern jaw of a front bumper that dangles like a shelf off of the front end. Also questionable is the choice for convex curves that end with…
…Concave rear fenders. Concave rear fenders that seem to attempt to mimic the much more expensive Imperial by tacking on the tail lamp clusters to the rear fenders. Not exactly the “free standing” units from a Crown Southampton, and a far less an elegant solution to boot.
But like most alien races, the 1961 Plymouth was working with superior technology. The base Slant 6 was the most advanced 6 cylinder available in the big 3 cars that year, still in the infancy of developing its reputation of being an indestructible source of power and economy. There was a wide variety of well regarded V8 engines, from the work-a-day 318 V8 all the way to the SonoRamic Commando 383 V8 that could launch the relatively light Fury to 60 in the mid 7 second range, with all day longevity to cruise well over 100. The Torqueflite was already the standard of Torque Converter based automatics.
Like a true menace to polite society, the angry Plymouth could handle circles around any Impala or Galaxie and had a tighter structure less prone to squeaks and rattles as it aged, thanks to Uni-Body construction. And there was that oddball high back drivers side bench seat and square steering wheel. What’s harder to believe is this isn’t as bad as it would get for full sized Plymouths in the 1960s.
We’ve all heard the details of how the 1962 Plymouth and Dodges went from these 119 inch wheelbase proposals to the actual 116 inch “Plucked Chickens.”
I wonder if I’m the only person who thinks the end result was far better than one could expect after the matinee horror movie the 1961 models had been. Too bad the public didn’t feel the same way at the time. Although the 1962 models share some of the same elements of the 1961, they are far more tidy than one could hope for from the previous year.
It’s amazing what a design misstep the 1961 Plymouth was compared to just about everything else for sale that year. It is also one of those designs that could only happen in the era of mindless movies fascinated by aliens and giant lizards and insects destroying small towns. Maybe Virgil Exner was a big fan of Godzilla and in between sketches he popped into a local matinee and thought what he saw on the big screen was a good face for a car? I’m stretching here. But I thank him, and those loyal Plymouth buyers that looked beyond the face of these bizarre aliens of Highland Park.
We’ve yet to really understand aliens. More often than not they come in peace and offer us solutions to our problems. The Plymouth offered us zippy performance, tight handling and uni-body construction as the way of the future. These were values we wouldn’t embrace in our mainstream family sedans until the 1980s. We should understand and thank Mothra… err… Fury for all that it did to move us forward.
I love the french add , probably destined to our province of Québec , don’t think those monster was sold in France . The french add said about the suspension : ” Torsion – air ” if you pronounce that in french , torsionnaire litterally mean : ” Executioner, person who tortures ” The torture began before you ride just looking to the body , it’s a real discomfort for the eyes .
The first glimpse of the ’61 Plymouth was in the opening credits of Car 54 where a Plymouth police car is prominently featured. This would have been when I was around 15 or 16. I fell in love with the car and I still love them to this day. Most of the kids I went to school with lusted after Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, and jacked up pickup trucks. I liked odd cars from the ’50s and the ’60s. I drove a ’62 Ford two door hardtop (which I still have) to high school. I wasn’t like the other kids at all.
I’m sure this car wasn’t the inspiration for the Lexus spindle grille, but now that I see the resemblance, I can’t I see it!
There were certainly some pretty strange Mopars in the early 60s. The Dodge Dart always reminded me of a kid who never read the instructions in a construction kit and glued the fins on backwards. I saw a few Furies around from the USAF base as a kid in the early 60s and always assumed they were from the previous decade.
The 59 Dodge Coronet had an angry pissed off “face” to rival the Buick
Thanx Lawrence ! as always stunning photography on an unusual car , I remember these new and wondering ‘ ?! WTH ?! ‘ but as mentioned , MoPars of this era tended to easily out run and out handle GM & Ford products .
Tim , no worries , just remember to keep it full of fresh oil (HOT oil & filter changes including the tranny !) , grease the Zerks (does it have any ?) and drive / enjoy it as is , keep clean (retards rust) , in time you can make it as pretty as you desire , no one who’s not footing the bill nor driving it , really has any opinion that matters .
I’m seriously loving the Red Chrysler hardtop Coupe .
-Nate
When I was young, we used to watch a show called Car 54, Where Are You? Toody and Muldoon drove a 1961 Plymouth Savoy which was just a cheaper version of this. To a newly minted teenager, this didn’t look too bad considering all of the other car designs going at the time. I can see how those you that are too younger to remember when these were new can see that they really looked out of place.
In the mid-’70s, a friend in college had a rough-looking pale blue ’61 Savoy sedan. That is, until his mom sold it to a beautician for ten free perms. By the way, as mentioned above, Buick was not the only angry face seen on the road in 1959…
Who was actually buying this ugly POS in 1961 when Ford had a clean-sheet design without a wrapped windshield that was entering its second model year, and even GM had clean new designs with just a hint of a wrapped windshield? Would be interested in knowing what the sales figures were since they must have been abysmal.
A little over 207,000 big Plymouths were made for 1961.
And 1960 and 1961 was the years when Rambler went ahead of Plymouth. Plymouth was lucky then the Valiant was a Plymouth in 1961 instead of a separate marque (althought it stay as a stand-alone division in Canada to 1966).
A guy around here has a red and white one, you can’t miss it.
Hmmm…the Lexus of yesteryear. Weird lines and shape in the sheetmetal and a pinched grille.
I never paid too much attention to the ’60-61 and its design, but now that this post described the “pinched waist” grille and the overall strangeness of the car, I immediately thought of contemporary Lexus.
The ’65-68 C-body, the ’75-78 B-body and the ’80-81 R-body are my favorites of the Fury.
When the steel ball fell on Sgt. Carter’s prized 61 Dodge and smashed it to smithereens,
it looked a lot better!
I think I remember our rural mail carrier in the mid-60’s driving a beige-white 2-door one of these. He would sit in the middle of the bench, driving off the road, reaching through the right window to load the mailboxes. I’m guessing a 318 and pushbutton Torque-flite (I don’t know how he could have done it with a column shift manual). I thought they were strange-looking when I was 5 or 6, still do, but I’m glad there’s still one around.
55 years from now, people on the Curbside Classic website will be talking about how weird the Nissan Juke and Cube were and “what were they thinking?”
Funny, I’ve been calling my 63 Valiant Signet “Mothra” for the past 36 years.
Seems from the pictures, the 61 front end was a facelifted version of the 60.
This thing is so outrageous how could one not love it. The tail lights are my favorite element.
With 58-60 Lincolns around, the 62 Ambassador, Edsels and 57-58 Mercuries, 58 Chevies, Buicks and Oldsmobiles on the streets during approximately the same period, this Plymouth would appear quite at home.
Mopar was not alone in creating crimes against sheetmetal.
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Nice looking site Laurence. Congrats!
The front design was years ahead, isn’t it just like the new corporate front design for Lexus??
One of my favourite CC’s of all time – it captures well the true weirdness of Chrysler Corp design in the early 60’s.
The puzzlement I remember as a child at the time over this and other models (like the 1962 Dodge) still sits unresolved in my mind 55 years later, and is probably best expressed as….wtf? 🙂 Especially from a company that produced such stunning looking designs as the 1956 New Yorker and the 57 DeSoto Fireflite.
It would be great to see an expanded post on this era, with examples from across the Chrysler line-up from 1959 to 1963.
For some reason I really love these. I can see how it would have been a colossal misstep when new…but now? Fantastic, especially in beater but not broken-down condition. Just like this one.
I’m actually a big fan of 3/4 of the ’61 lineup. I also like the slant-eyed Chryslers with the last stand of big fins, and the equally weird though slightly less alien reverse-fin Dodges. The Imperial, on the other hand…I’ve never loved the freestanding headlamps. I like the rest of the design, but those are just a neoclassical bridge too far.
Great write up Laurence! Every once in a while I drive my ’55 Studebaker Champion or ’60 Land-Rover to my place of employment ( A major parcel delivery company ) near the Oakland airport. If I had this wonderful machine, it would be my daily driver and commute car. I envy the owner and commend him for his good taste in cars. Well done sir, well done!
Well, to be fair on Exner, he did suffer a major stroke in 1956 and was subsequently unable to have full-time input on the car designs until the 1962 models, which of course famously fell victim to corporate meddling to the extent that the buying public hated them (particularly the Dodges and Plymouths).
Not to mention, Ex fell right in the middle of a power struggle with his sick-leave replacement Bill Schmidt, who wanted Exner’s post, the latter counteracting several of Exner’s ideas during his absence and splitting the design team in two camps. So, looking at it, the design department at Chrysler was a bit of a mess in the late-50s early-60s due to no single-minded leadership, partially explaining the disconnect and bizarreness of the cars coming out from them. Incidentally, Exner and Schmidt apparently both disliked the resultant 1961 models as well as the public.
Ironically, he could have had a major return to form for 1963 if the dealers didn’t force him to be fired before that since, while he was offically canned by 1963, the ’63 designs were pretty much all his as Elwood Engel didn’t really see any need to make any changes to them, and which subsequently proved to be rather successful.
The ’61 Plymouth was primarily designed by Cliff Voss, and that front end was originally designed as a car’s rear end before being flipped around to the front with a grille! Personally, I kinda like it for its oddball appearance, though I can see how it would be controversial to say the least. But I still think there’s enough that works to make it at least interesting if not a perfect design.
When I was in grade 3, a teacher at my grade school got one of those Plymouth things. It was a pale green, and looked like a unhappy toad, or some kind of turtle. I remember thinking, even at 8 or 9 years old, “Damn that’s ugly”. I tried to see some good in its curves and chrome but couldn’t. I still see a green toad. I am glad and gratified, I am not alone in my opinion of it.
I owned a 1961 black Fury with all the chrome and anodized aluminum that encircled the headlights along with the full chrome wheel discs. It was a two door hardtop with a 318 engine which would smoke the rear tires without tromping on the brakes. It had the square steering wheel with red and white interior. I keep looking for one for sale, but being 73 plus years old, I doubt I will find one. It was purchase new in Jan of 1961 and I owned it until 1968 when I traded it in on a 68 barracuda. The fury had 105,000 miles on it and it was still running and LOOKING like new. It was a great car to drive and I still miss it and the memories that were associated with it.
I hope you get that ’61 Fury. I love them. I remember back in 1966 a neighbor owned a black ’61 Fury two-door hardtop with a 383. What a car! It made my dad’s ’61 Chevrolet look like a 98 pound weakling. My dad was a Chrysler guy but didn’t care for the Mopar styling and bought a Chevy. In 1968, he replaced the Chev with a shiny new Fury sedan. I was 8 year’s old and been a Mopar fan from that day in ’68.
By the way, my older brother owned two ’67 Barracuda notchback’s. Wonderful car’s. I have alway’s wanted an A-Body Barracuda. Someday I hope to find the right one.
This comment section has to be one of the longest ongoing testiments to the 61 Plymouth!! I have always admired them and I just might have to own one after reading all these!!!
I love the Plymouth so much for its outlandish styling that I had to buy one.
I just bought a 61 4 door in the ugliest of colors: Metallic Lavender. To me, this car is so ugly that it has become beautiful in hindsight. I look at today’s cars and can’t seem to tell them apart.
The 61 Fury stands out. People laugh, stare, jeer and retch. I look forward to putting miles on the old girl.
My kindergarten teacher had a white 1961 Plymouth in 1963. I remember the tail end with those hung on tail lights
The ugliest Plymouth is history is now being perpetuated by Lexus with its ugly, look-alike front end styling, which (surprisingly) they have kept now for several years!
The Plymouth may look spaced-out but it at least doesn’t have the Dodge’s mopey face.
If my assumption is correct that it can move under its own power, that’s something to be said for it and it’s owner.
The red and silver car, whatever it is, often graced the pages of Mad Magazine in some weird rendition.
Some Panhard influence?
Put me down as a fan of these. Unlike the most polarizing styling efforts from Ford and GM (Edsel and Aztek), the ’61 Plymouth has a certain bizarre charm about it.
While there were plenty of bad fifties science fiction movies, there were a few that were quite good (at least visually). I’d put the ’61 Plymouth in that latter category.
Here’s the one I’ve seen around here.
Beautiful in that color combination–the creamy white with red accented roof. Looks like it’s poised for flight–unlike the boxy, plain Plymouths that came later.
Even more dramatic from the rear. I found this image on Flickr; I wonder if it’s the same car. Only the Furys had that central fin!
Bought a 61 for $300 in 1970. It was all we could afford and the dealer was eager to get it off his lot. It was the only one on his back lot of losers that sat on it’s springs like it had some life left. All the GM cars looked like they were melting. Drove it for 3 trouble free years. Doomed by rusty headlight buckets, all the junkyard buckets were in the same condition. Like many homely cars that served well I’d jump at the chance to own one today. Moved up to a 63 Fury 383. I’ve always liked the 62-64 Plymouth and Dodges long hood short deck styling. It just looks right.
How did Plymouth go from possibly one of the most beautiful cars in 1957 and 1958 to the overdone 59’s, to the giant fins and weird shape of the 60, to the positively bizarre 61’s. What happened???
That 60 Chevy is cluttered while the 59 was better. That 60 Ford doesn’t look like the most common style. The roof looks heavy and the fender skirts don’t work on that car. All these cars changed so drastically from 55 to 62. Probably the most change of any other period of time.
Does anyone agree with me?
My father was attempting to procure a graduation car for me in 1968. His first attempt was a really nice ’59 Dodge 2-door hardtop that I loved but it had engine issues. Returned it for a beige ’59 Dodge 2-door sedan that also had engine issues. My father’s last attempt was a 1961 Plymouth 4 door sedan (lowest model sold) that was white with a black roof and black wheels with small hubcaps. Thank god that one had problems also. Ended up with a crappy ’55 Chevy 210 4 door sedan. Not a good start to my automotive history. Swore off Chrysler products with my new ’77 Dodge Aspen. Yipes!!!!!
Growing up in one of the saltier areas of the continent, I always had an image in my head of one of those tail lights just falling off on some potholed highway, one grim/grimy February afternoon. Or alternatively being dispatched by a young vandal with a sledgehammer.