Curtis Redgap's Inside History of Plymouth - Part 7b

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 DaimlerChrysler that PLYMOUTH should be allowed to survive, and finally stand on its own! This is designed for the reading pleasure of folks that love MoPars. Any resemblance to persons, places, things or dates is purely coincidental. If you like what you are reading, please leave me an email message "PlymouthRIP62801@aol.com." Thanks for your many kind comments.

Installment VII, Section 2

I would like to take this opportunity to sort of the myriad of activities that were occurring at ChryCo in the late 1950s. It is important because the 1960 model year was a definative one for Plymouth in its sibling rivalry with Dodge, as well as the entire rest of the car line.

Summer of 1959 was an important milestone for Plymouth. After hesitant manuvearing, Plymouth finally committed to the Petty Organization. Chrysler was keeping one eye on the AMA and their racing activity ban, while keeping the other on Ford Motor Company as its back door to the NASCAR community never closed. [Just as an aside, it was rumored that Ford engineered the AMA ban to keep General Motors out of racing. Henry Ford II was the President of the AMA. To his credit, however, he also announced in 1960 that he was going to ignore the AMA ban and openly go NASCAR racing. He was good to his word.]

In any event, at least three, and possibly four stock 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury models were shipped to Level Cross North Carolina. Ostensibily, sponsorship came from local dealers. In actuality, Ronnie Householder, who headed the racing division at Chrysler, picked out names of the local dealers so that true factory support would not be shown outright! Two hardtops and one possibly two convertibles were sent in "white."

Lee Petty put his new 59 hardtop Plymouth into service on June 14, 1959 at a dirt race track near Atlanta Gerogia. Also entered in the race was his son Richard, driving a two year 1957 Oldsmobile convertible, which was sort of a Lee Petty cast off. After 150 trips around the one mile track, young Richard crossed the finish line ahead of his father. A few minutes after the checkered flag flew a protest was filed. Lee protested against his own son! As it turned out, he was right. Lee knew that a series of pit stops had put Richard at least one lap down to him, so there was no way he could have crossed the finish line first. Plymouth had their first win in over 2 and 1/2 years! [I knew a lot of State Troopers that suddenly sat up a lot straighter in their patrol cars, and a lot of lead footed kids that decided that whenever a Plymouth squad car was around they would adhere to the law.]

Lee went on to garner his third NASCAR championship with Plymouth Power. Sadly, it turned out to be his final award. All the 1959 Plymouth cars were the "big" block 361 cubic inch V-8, with a single four barrel carbaurator producing a factory advertised 305 horsepower. It was pretty widely accepted that by the time Lee, and his engine building son Maurice got done, the engine was kicking out about 350 horses.

Richard's 59 Plymouth was finished just in time to enter it in the Firecracker 250 (not 400 yet) at Daytona. He put the number "43" on it, only because it was one below his father's number 42. Undoubtedly that number has become the most famous race car in all of stock car history. It was on a Plymouth first. He lasted 78 laps before a faulty fuel pump put him out. Lee had expired one lap earlier with unspecified engine failure. However, a week later, Richard scored his first career victory. While this was a NASCAR sanctioned event, it was NOT a Grand National race. There is always some confusion as to when his "first" victory occured. It was in July 1959 at a 1/2 mile 200 lap event at Columbia, South Carolina. Richard was driving the convertible version of the 59 Sport Fury. The first Grand National Victory came in February 1960 driving a 59 Fury Hardtop at the 1/2 mile dirt track in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Lee earned a total of $49,219 for his 1959 efforts. Richard, quickly turning into a star in his own right, was named NASCAR Rookie Driver of The Year. He earned $250 for that......

Why am I bothering to go into NASCAR history you might ask. Because Plymouth didn't! And they should have. Marketing missed a sure bet, especially when Lee won his third, and consecutive, NASCAR championship.

The Summer of 1959 turned out to be a hot one. It was also an awful sales year. There was also no real sense of leadership at Chrysler Corporation either. Each Division sailed along more or less like it was a Captain of its own ship. Things promised had gone awry, and things that didn't need to happen were about to explode. Dealers were getting nervous. They could see that the hand writing was getting pretty big on the wall, and Chrysler needed to do something, and something in a big way. The quality control monster had been tagged onto anything that Chrysler built. It would take many years to shake it off. Although a lot of that could be blamed directly on marketing.

To this day, I am convinced that Chrysler still doesn't know how to market its cars. As Dr. Zatz of "allpar.com" indicated, "Chrysler must build some good cars because with all their shooting themselves in the foot, they are still in business." From 1960 on, Chrysler's build quality was just as good as anything Ford or GM was putting out. Think not? O.K., just how many 1960 Fords or Chevrolets do you see running around? Please remember that between them, they produced at Chevrolet, 1,393,833 of those modified bat wing marvels, and Ford contributed 910,871 sleepy faced wonders to the years production. Plymouth in 1960 only built 253,330 full sized cars. That amounted to about 18.5% of the total for Chevrolet and 27.75% of the total for Ford.

The promise that Plymouth would be set free after it had established itself back in 3rd place was sorta mumbled along for a couple years. In the background, Dodge dealers, some pretty big ones, were playing hard, heavy and fast with politics in the smokey back rooms. They cried that they needed Plymouth... OR... a car like it to "lead" customers in. They also argued that it was their dealerships that "made" Plymouth. Of course, we all know that is just pure bolonga. Most of the Dodge dealers would never have survived the 1930s depression if they hadn't had Plymouth to sell. Members of the dealers association that leaned towards putting Plymouth out on its own argued vehemently that Pontiac never cried about Chevrolet being a separate make. It just went on selling cars. They also pointed at Mercury, which was actually a Ford anyway,... however, their marketing team made it a model in its own right, and Mercury never cried for Fords in their showrooms!

It has never been said just how the Dodge Dart of 1960 reached production, but the decision to produce it had to have been made in 1957. For a fact, it took three years of design and development to get a car to the production line. Of course, 1957 was the year that Plymouth had come charging back, hard! How Dodge got it accomplished has never been revealed or admitted to in any history that I know of. I do know that Dad picked up on the rumors way back in 1958. Whenever he started to get close to the source, it always seemed to turn back around that it was a brokered deal made by ChryCo's board to Dodge in exchange for letting Plymouth compete on its own. It was also pointed out that the new small car, Valiant, was going to be sold by Plymouth dealers, while Dodge wouldn't have any car in that market. There was a contingent of Dodge Dealers that were of a vociverious, contentious, reputation. Yes, horrors of horrors, car dealers that openly flaunted themselves. But, the public accepted it, they made money, and sold a whole lot of Dodges. When they spoke, it seemed like everyone listened. It is believed that this group is what lead the ChryCo board down the primrose path. Based upon the rumor mill, since the ChryCo board was not forth coming in its intentions, most dealers were convinced that with the acquisition of this Plymouth sized car for Dodge, along with the introduction of a small Plymouth, for the independent Plymouth stores to sell, that everything was going along, especially the reorgainzation to put Plymouth into its own stores.

We also can not forget the basic philosophy, still bred into the corporation, by its founder, Walter P. Chrysler. Certainly, Mr. Chrysler was a talented mechanic and natural engineer in his own right. He would have never been able to get started without the help of his three engineering partners, that called themselves "The Three Musketeers". Right from the first car that Chrysler introduced, engineering was "king." Styling was something to do with color and interior cloth.

An excellent example is the 1934 introduction of the "AirFlow" Models for Chrysler, DeSoto and Imperial. That was not a designer's car. That was an engineer's car. The design came out of an engineer's concept, not the other way around. That is certainly not bad, however, many designers told them that the look was too advanced for a regular production car.

Chrysler didn't listen. He wanted the AirFlow on the street. Production was rushed, assembly line foul ups created numerous delays, and orders evaporated. General Motors contributed mightily to the poor reputation of the AirFlow by engaging in the most malicious rumor generation ever experienced by Detroit. After a year of contentious sales, by 1935, Walter P. Chrysler turned his company over to K.T. Keller.

Keller was a Chrysler protege. He was also an engineer. He was also the first Chrysler appointed President of Dodge when Chrysler bought the Dodge company, along with its huge forge operation, in 1928. Keller's natural sympathies were always aligned with Dodge.

K.T. Keller assumed the Company Chairmanship in 1950. A powerful position that held sway over the entire Corporation. He managed to avoid the trappings of any scandal, however, the roots that held that rot had began under his watch.

Keller was a great delegator, assigning many of his duties to his subordinates. There is nothing wrong with that concept. In Keller's case, though, it was like the mice playing while the cat was away. If he knew what was going on as far as the sweetheart deals with suppliers, he did not let on. In any event there was nothing done on his watch to stop it.

Skeptics claimed that because Keller was Walter Chrysler's hand picked man, people with knowledge of the kickbacks, poor quality control, and deals for coverups between management and labor, kept quiet out of a reverence to W. P. Chrysler, choosing not to attack K.T. Keller lest the image of Walter P. Chrysler be damaged. I know that the stuff that my Dad had learned kept him awake on more than one occasion. He even contemplated selling out to his General Manager a couple of times. However, some of the things he saw that were going to happen convinced him that Chrysler was moving to correct things, and that quality was the top priority.

Without much doubt, Keller was a decent man who probably was never aware of the things happening underneath in his administration. He trusted the word of his subordinates, treating it like a bond. He, like most human beings, believe that people feel and act the same way they themselves would feel and act. Dishonesty was not something he would consider, so he never looked for that in his people.

Which begs the question, who made the decision in 1957 to give Dodge the Plymouth size car? No one seems to know, or no one will step forward to answer. Was it a conspiracy to begin to put Plymouth on a back burner, eventually eliminating the model? It could have been. Some of the Dodge people never cared for the Plymouth car at all. Keller always seemed to view it as a "kid brother" type of thing. Certainly, not the one you wanted to tag along with you when you went places with your friends.

There were Dodge dealers that were adamantly opposed to letting Plymouth go. Most Dodge dealers hoped that they only had to sell a customer one Plymouth. The markups were not that good on the Plymouth. So, when that customer came back in a couple years for a new car, they moved him right into a Dodge, which paid them better. I am sure K.T. Keller would have gone along if it had become an outright game plan. More likely, it was a smooth move by certain elements to keep the price niche for Dodge, while putting Plymouth slowly into retirement. It would seem to explain why one would authorize thousands of dollars in design, production, and tooling for a totally new car, as opposed to cutting Plymouth loose to have their own outlets. Once again the mentality had set in that Plymouth would go on forever, like some sort of self fulfilling entity.

However, in all fairness, there is another level of thought. Some smart people had taken a good look at where the penetration levels were occurring in the price niches. Some very big names. To them, it was blatantly obvious that Chrysler's marketing, so focused some three years ago, had fallen flat on its face. The obvious death throes of DeSoto had been heard far and wide, yet Chrysler went on insisting that nothing was out of the oridinary. A critical wound for Plymouth was being wrought in the back rooms, and no one said anything.

There was another level of chaos happening at ChryCo too. Chrysler was always considered the "engineering company." However, since 1955, engineering had taken a back seat to Virgil Exner and his design group. Remember, this is the company that brought out the Airflow, an ENGINEER's car. Styling was a result of the engineering. Of course, the lackluster appeal of the Airflow dampened the entire corporation, resulting in the styling disaster of 1950 through 1954. Virgil Exner's genius turned that all upside down. The public looked for styling, not engineering.

However, for the 1960 model year, engineering had some stupendous "firsts."

• First: AC Alternator instead of a DC generator that kept electrical current flowing, even at idle.
• First: Ram tuned regular production engines that got a "supercharged" effect without having the mechanical components of an engine driven blower.
• First: A pair of overhead valve six cylinder engines that were canted 30 degrees to lower the hood lines, which were dubbed the "slant six."
• First: Mass produced unit bodies that were designed by use of computers.
• First: Outside sheet metal didn't have to be part of the overall structure for strength of the unit body.
• First: A seven step series of body structure rust proofing bathes that employed the use of electrostatic charge to insure sealant bonding to the structure metal. About the only component of the body that wasn't dipped was the top of the roofs!

Yet, Virgil Exner again stole the thunder. For the third time, Virgil Exner had a clean sheet of paper that allowed him to redesign the entire corporate line of cars.

Was there jealousy, political chicanery, foul mutterings, and threats between departments, let alone the seperate divisions? Of course there was! Virgil Exner was not everyone's hero. Some felt he held far too much power. Certainly, he was much like an 800 pound gorilla... he could sit wherever he wanted!

If I was able to look at some of the "stills", for the new designs being sent out from Highland Park, there was certainly every reason to believe that a whole lot of other people had seen them as well. For a fact, if Exner had been able to stick to his "S" series designs, as he saw them, for the entire line in 1962, they may have just carried over with the public. They were certainly different looking. The first of the "S" series style was the 1960 Valiant. It didn't look like anything else that had ever come out of Detroit. However, the public seemed to accept the Valiant looks, putting some 194,292 first year models on the road!

I had seen the 1962 proposal for the Plymouth. Basically, it looked about the same as what was wrought, except it was based on a 119 inch wheelbase, and had some styling techniques that probably would have carried the car differently. Mr. Exner had one model called the Plymouth "Super Sport" (Chevrolet hadn't caught that one yet) that was a 2 door hard top coupe with a semi fast back style that probably would have been a real show room traffic generator, had it come to fruition. It was up to full scale clay, before things changed in the Spring of 1960. Things were fast coming to a head.

Certainly, it was clever politics. The movers and shakers at Dodge got the car they wanted while being able to hide behind "giving" Plymouth a new small car, the Valiant. However, when the announcements came out, they were not exactly the way everyone had envisioned.

There were a great many car dealers who had their income figured out to the dime. They were also very cognizant of the future in marketing the mid-sized cars. Dodge was left with nowhere to go.

• DeSoto had already moved down a notch with the Dodge sized Firesweep.
• Chrysler had moved down a notch into DeSoto territory with the Windsor.
• Edsel tried to part the waters, but had become what was an obvious failure.

Dodge dealers weren't sweating because they had their Plymouth sized car already in production in the Summer of 1959! It was a deliberate move on Plymouth, and the one that literally put a bullet in the gut of the Plymouth Division. After 1960, things could never be the same. Supposedly, Plymouth was moving down, but with a new car in a new market. It wasn't that way in August of 1959 though.

Dad went to the big dealer show at Detroit in August of 1959. All the models were unveiled and the marketing strategies were also rolled out. What happened stunned a great many dealers. In fact, over 300 franchises quit right on the spot.

Franchisees come and go, but this many at once, over the same argument, is unprecedented stuff.

The following announcements were made:

• The 3,230 Dodge dealers would be standing alone!
• Plymouth would form a group with Chrysler, and another with DeSoto. The Dodge dealer outlets would not longer be a Plymouth dealer. The new corporate car, named the "Valiant," would not be connected to any other car line. It was to be a standalone car with its own outlets in the future.
• Plymouth would not be getting any standalone outlets of its own.

Dad was so stunned that he left that very night and came home. All the things he had been arguing for the past two years were for nothing. They had bastardized his concepts, and let Dodge, again, run the show. Poor Plymouth had to struggle along with whatever Dodge handed it.

The marketing dolts even attempted to cut off their direct sales outlets from selling Plymouth and Dodge together! Dad was one of the first that was informed. Naturally, he knew that his agreement covered just such a contingency. Yet, he had to again get the family lawyer involved and initiate a lawsuit to stop the foolishness!

On October 9, 1959, the new models rolled out nationwide. I suppose it was a true shock for some people to head down to their local Dodge dealership, and find that there were no Plymouths there. However, it was just as well because a Plymouth sized car, called the "Dart" was there to take the Plymouth's place.... and you can damn well betcha that it was exactly what the politicos back behind the doors of smoke filled rooms had masterminded. It was a calculated, conniving, thrust to put Dodge into the low priced niche that it had to have to survive. After over 30 years at the helm, K.T. Keller was going to insure Dodge's survival.

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