"Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden in a fury."

Not a Plymouth I assume, but worth mentioning here. A lot of customers left Chrysler Corporation in a similar mood in the late 1950s. For 1957, Plymouth was doing well in third place for overall sales, and they decided to continue to torture Chrysler executives by releasing an even better looking version of the Fury model. The new finned beauty was another Virgil Exner knockout, long and sexy and of course, fast. Not a record setter, but fast for the street in its day. It wouldn't pin the 150 speedo, but it would make a valiant effort up to around 125, depending on which way the wind was blowing. 

The new Plymouths debuted on October 30, 1956, and sported torsion bar suspension, Torqueflite transmissions, hotter new engines, and  interminable water leaks and rust problems. The leaks  were deftly hidden by dealers who knew how to apply undercoating, sound deadener, chewing gum, and caulk. The rust problems surfaced within months, however, and nearly killed Chrysler's market share. 

The quality control problems were endemic to all Chrysler products, not just Plymouth. The 1957 models started to rust within several months of being built. They leaked water on both sides of the windshield posts on all models. Torsion bars broke, upholstery split, seams tore, seat springs popped through, paint flaked off in huge chunks, hubcaps wouldn't stay on, rear view mirrors vibrated, door handles broke with ease, locks froze easily, and interior appliances fell off. Other than that, they were great cars.

These production problems were a result of the corporate decision to rush the new Exner designs into production before all the bugs were worked out in order to save the company's sagging sales. The problems continued for several years, although some attempts to tighten up quality control were made in 1958. The damage was done, though; it seemed that consumers didn't like taking a shower inside their car every time it rained. Hey, maybe that's where the idea for grab handles came from.....towel bars. Add a recession to the quality problems, and the picture for Chrysler was not encouraging.

The new Fury was so gorgeous, though, you wouldn't really care if it dissolved in the driveway in six months. The soon to be missing trunk floor was a problem though; Ma never liked the idea of throwing a bag of groceries in the trunk and having them go right through to the street. I often wondered why Chrysler even bothered putting trunk floors in their cars.....they never seemed to last very long. A luggage rack might have been a good option. I've disassembled enough MoPar rust buckets to see what the basic problems were, and they could have been avoided. Poorly fitted and welded seams, lots of bare metal, sound deadener that trapped moisture, and the rubber trunk mat that trapped water and prevented evaporation were major culprits. 

The Fury continued a theme that it seems Chrysler invented; one body style, one interior, one color, one engine, all high shelf. The 300 was the first to use this theme, although you had a staggering choice of three colors. Three? What was a consumer to do, faced with this array of choices? Fury owners had no such dilemma. Don't like Sand Dune White, which wasn't really white? Too bad. Take it to Earl Scheib. 

The 1957  Fury continued the 1956 monochromatic theme, being offered only in the aforementioned Sand Dune White. Ditzler's code is DQE 80624 DAL,

 and the paint chip  looks like this:      The interior was a cloth and vinyl combination in cocoa and beige with gold fleck.  The steering wheel was two tone brown and tan.

For their  $2925 the 7438 Fury buyers got a V800 Fury engine, a 318 cubic inch version of the poly head 301 used in 1956, equipped with dual four barrel Carter WCFB carburetors, 9.25:1 compression, solid lifters with adjustable rocker arms, 1.84 / 1.56 inch valves, and a  256 - 256 degree cam with .405 lift. The combination produced 290 HP at 5400 rpm and  325 foot pounds of torque at 4000 RPM. 14 x 6 wheels, 150 MPH speedometer, HD Torsion Bar front suspension, and six leaf rear springs completed the package. All Fury body numbers start with 404.  Engine numbers start with FP31. Watch out for fakes, check the engine boss stamping closely.

The Fury measured 204.6" front to back, 78.2" in width, and sat on a 118" wheelbase. It weighed in at 3595 lbs, and was available in two door coupe form only. Sorry, no ragtops, if you see one it's  probably owned by some dummy who had a Belvedere convertible and a set of those nice gold anodized trim spears that adorned the Fury's flanks, which are available in reproduction form. The grille was also gold, and the Fury had special wheel covers. There aren't many original ones left, and they bring nice money. I know I'd like to have one.....what MoPar lover wouldn't?

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