Curtis Redgap's Inside History of Plymouth - Part 4b

I am by no means an expert, and I cannot make any claim to accuracy for the materials that I have used to make these articles. In some cases, the journals go back 50 years, and I nearly cringe each time I open them as they appear so fragile. I could choose to copyright, but I do not, as I feel that this material should be sent far and wide as to show that PLYMOUTH should be allowed to survive, and finally stand on its own!

This is solely for entertainment purposes only and is in no way an account of actual events, living persons, places or times. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. If you like what you are reading, please make sure to contact Dr. David Zatz, or leave me an email message at PlymouthRIP62801@aol.com. Thanks for your many kind comments.

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Installment 4

Plymouth people are tough. A small light began to shine through the dark haze created by NASCAR. As someone pointed out, the Fury had come from an "experimental" project, so why not run it at Daytona as a Factory Experimental. That way we can twist the tail of this thing and see what it could really do!

People began to brighten, and even Corporate seemed to accept the new determination in the Plymouth Division. There was some serious competition in the class; however, with a pure stock speed of 124 miles an hour tucked away, it seemed a sure thing that the Fury could whip all comers. A suitable unit was secured, and its make over began quickly.

There had been no real idea about cam timing, lift or duration. My Dad knew that his nephew James had a wicked cam set up for a MoPar engine, but would it work for the Fury? Telephone calls were made, and the special cam was placed in the hands of Greyhound Bus Lines for delivery to Highland Park. In the meantime, the heads were milled to bring the compression ratio up to 10 to 1. There wasn't any time to test the ports for flow. Had there been, as much later polysphere engines were, there might have been a substantial increase in available horsepower. Perhaps as much as a 20% improvement! That is a lot!

A special Chrysler intake manifold was fitted with two huge four barrel carbs. New exhaust manifolds were fitted to match 180 degree firings of the engine. It was like an extractor system without the blower. The camshaft arrived from North Carolina. Its dimensions were carefully checked. It was a huge disappointment. It would not fit the 303 profile. However, using the lobe pattern from cousin James' efforts, a new camshaft was ground that would fit. He is still proud of that to this day!

Ten days before the February Speed Weeks in Daytona, a revamped Plymouth Fury rolled out into the Michigan Sunshine. The Chelsea Proving Grounds nor any part of the world, had ever heard a Plymouth the likes of this one. It boomed, as it went through some break in miles and full throttle run ups. The standard three speed stick transmission never faltered or showed any signs of being stressed. The engineers were all agreed though. No top speed runs until it hit the sand at Daytona. They knew it was a winner, and they were positive enough to leave Michigan feeling just that way. The one-model-only Factory Experimental Fury was loaded inside the cargo bay of a specially chartered DC-7 and flown directly to Daytona Beach.

I too, was excited. Once again, Dad brought me to Daytona to witness the speed trials in February 1956. All the drama about the Fury made it as anticipatory as Christmas! As expected the big 1956 Chrysler 300 "B" blew everything else off the beach, including the vaunted stock models of the Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Thunderbird. It set a two way record of 139.373 miles an hour.

DeSoto and its Adventurer nearly committed the ultimate heresy by going faster than the "B." It had a one way run of 144 miles an hour. However, it was noticeably slower going back the other way. It went through the timer at 120 miles an hour. That set an average speed of 132. Suitable for Chrysler's marketing arm and I am sure all that the conservative management at DeSoto wanted. The big pride for DeSoto was that it had been chosen to pace the Indianapolis 500 race on Memorial Day. A couple replica representative models of the "Indy 500" convertible pace car were at Daytona.

The stock Dodge with the D-500 engine boomed out a two way average of 128 miles an hour. Then the moment that we all had really been waiting for. It seemed like it was forever, but suddenly, glistening beautifully in the Florida Sun was the Fury. It seemed to just shine a little bit brighter than anything else on the beach that day.

The Plymouth engineers fussed over the car a few moments. Then the driver, Mr. Phil Walters, took the Fury slowly down to the start of the timing lane. It was just a speck on the long white sandy beach. With its white exterior color, the Fury seemed to disappear into the sand. However, the bellow of its engine didn't hide anything. And then, there it was! It was screaming over the sand so fast, that to look at it was almost like a distorted picture. You couldn't quite focus fully on it. It was moving like the wind! The big engine roaring like a low passing DC-7. With a resounding boom and a flash of gold, it was gone, the engine defiantly pounding out its deep belly staccato tune with bass notes better than any musical orchestra. The timers acted like they were in slow motion. Finally ... the numbers rolled over. A gasp went through the small crowd. Then it went into a loud cheer. One way... 143.596 miles an hour! The fastest Plymouth ever built in history. And even faster than the 300 "B."

Reporters and writers broke into the Chrysler engineer group and handshakes and congratulations were going all around. Among the well wishers was a Florida resident, and the all time premier car tester, as far as I am concerned. Mr. Tom McCaHill of Mechanix Illustrated. He was a true gentleman, and the purest type of honest tribute to his profession as ever will be. He lived in Ormond Beach although not near my Uncle. They were passing acquaintances, and he always had a word for you, no matter who you were. He also had a great memory and could recall who you were. I thought he was the greatest because, although no one talked of it, he had one leg shorter than the other. It was compensated for shoes of different heights. Mr. McCaHill was a class act, and all the better for over coming a handicap that would have side lined others. Yes, it did cause him a great deal of pain in later life. But he lived it to the fullest. By the way, his personal mount was a Chrysler 300, of which, he owned several over the years.

Not all the attendees were elated, however. The Corporate types from ChryCo's board were very visibly upset over the high speed being better than the 300. All the divisions had been warned early on about this. DeSoto had nearly got its ears pinned, however, the attending DeSoto management made sure that its second run was slow enough to keep the speed below its brother Chrysler

Then the big Fury started back. The Plymouth boys took note of the displeasure from the Board, and went right ahead anyway. Surely this would be the run to beat all other runs. And by the Sun, Moon, and planets above, Plymouth people deserved this chance. Again, it seemed fate allowed it not to be. About 1/2 way through the run up, approaching the timing lane, the engine started to die. Phil tried every trick he knew to get the engine to pick back up. Wasn't to be. It broke the timer at 129.119 miles an hour. Fearing the worst, Plymouth engineers hurried to examine the car when it came back to the pits. What they discovered sorta hurt. A defective fuel cap had caused a vacuum in the fuel tank and starved the engine for gas. The next day, with a new cap, and of course without NASCAR sanctioning, the big Fury roared through the timer on a third run at 147.236 miles an hour. On the return trip, it broke the lights at 149.124 miles an hour! It was an unofficial average of 148.180. It would have been good enough to hold the record. [However, officially Bill Stroppe in a Mercury set the new 1956 FX record at 147.260.]

Plymouth's performance achievement was not advertised. The ChryCo board came down with a vengeance. Talk about vindictive. Advertising money for the Fury dried right up! Instead the division was continued to be characterized as the value leader and family transportation car. Several dealers including Dad were set to put out their own advertising, however, a good friend from Highland Park warned them off. It was being said that anyone stepping up to show Plymouth in a performance light would begin to suffer delivery and parts shortages. Imagine! Dad was frustrated as hell, but, he couldn't risk hurting any of fellow dealers or his friends at Highland Park. Even at that, 4,485 beautiful 1956 Fury models were sold. That was quite an achievement when held up against a 9 month run (Jan to Sep) for the model. It outsold the 300 B, which only managed to move 1,103 units and easily out stepped DeSoto which managed an output of only 996 Adventurer models. {Why DeSoto didn't just build 4 more for an even 1,000 is a corporate mystery} It was enough to get the "striped pants boys" on ChryCo's board attention. No further sanctions or temper tantrums were taken out against the upcoming 1957 model.

Official or not, notice had been served. Chevrolet and Ford would never view Plymouth in the same light again. It had styling looks, and plenty of performance. Little did they know what Virgil Exner had in store for GM and Ford in 1957!

There were some notable achievements that went Corporate wide in 1956 besides all the seeming emphasis on performance. All the lines got center plane brakes with the duo-servo set up. A larger vacuum booster for the power brake system made brake lockups a matter of fact on all lines. All the cars got 12 volt electric systems.

Push buttons replaced the dash lever for control of the Powerflite transmission. They were a constant source of controversy, which frustrated my father and anyone that understood how the device worked. The lever through the dash was simply replaced by a series of push buttons set in a small box at the left side of the dash. They had absolutely NOTHING to do with the reliability of the Powerflite. All they did was work a cable that directed the oil flow in the transmission. They were absolutely simple and positively trouble free in operation. Yet you just couldn't seem to convince some people that in truth, the push buttons gave them more direct control over the operation of the automatic transmission than the convoluted contraptions put on by some divisions of GM and Ford. Levers and ball jointed bell cranks that got full of dirt and bound up to the point you couldn't move the stick on the column!

Dodge got into the Police Car business with its Pursuit model. Plymouth went after an even bigger taxi market, using its long standing rugged image on fleet buyers.

Christmas time finally arrived. Dad assumed his favorite role and passed out the bonus checks. They weren't quite as good as 1955 had been. Yet, they still weren't bad. Plymouth division had suffered a loss of production, putting out a total run of 571,634 units. A far cry from the 705,000 of 1955. It represented about a 20% loss. However, fleet sales were up at our store, so overall, the downturn didn't hurt. Dad sold on a retail basis 338 1956 Plymouths. That did not include the 11 Fury models that went through him. Imperial sales were up slightly, 73 finding new homes from our store. Chrysler sales were down by nearly 30 per cent, and the store reflected that. Only 88 went out the door. DeSoto however, seemed not to be affected by the national downturn in sales. Grandpa proudly counted 98 sales. Dodge, although down, still managed a creditable showing with 154 new units. Adventurer sold only 3 units, one of which Grandpa bought, and my Dad's Cousin. The 300 "B" only moved two units through our store. Three more were still there when the 1957 models started to arrive. Dad shipped them back for distribution to other dealers. All together, in 1956, the store sold 767 cars. But, it represented a 23.5% down turn from 1955.

However, as Christmas was going on, there was no time to feel sorry or even digress much about 1955. The 1957 models had been introduced on October 30, 1956. Chrysler was flying high! And Plymouth was leading the way. As Dad said, it was better than 1955, all over again.

I hope you enjoyed this installment. I know it was a long one, however, 1956 was a defining year. Even better will be the 1957 models. You cannot imagine the excitement they generated when they were unveiled. Until next time, thanks for reading and please, send me your comments.

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