1956 Plymouth Fury

The car in the Contest 14, is a Sand dune white 1956 Plymouth Fury two-door hardtop with a gold spear running down both sides and a gold plated “airplane” hood ornament. It is one of 4,485 cars produced. Its price, brand new in 1956 was US$ 2,807.

Plymouth launched the Fury on January 10th, 1956 at Chicago and Daytona Beach. Designed by Virgil Exner, chief stylist at Chrysler, this car had some exciting design features, not least of which were, a low roofline. The relatively high floor level and bulky seats actually made it difficult for rear passengers to enter and exit the two-door models.

Through the ’50s and the early ’60s, Detroit dazzled the world with a procession of cars that were reliable, luxurious, powerful, low-priced, often beautiful, always interesting. Americans loved them and bought them in undreamed-of numbers.

1955 marked the introduction of Virgil Exner’s “100 Million Dollar Look,” the first major Chrysler restyling since 1949. Gone was the dowdy box-styling of the ’49-54 models, dictated by Chrysler chairman K.T. Keller, who put roominess before styling.

Car buyers must have liked the Virgil Exner’s attractive new styling, because sales increased dramatically. The quintessential icon of American styling of the fifties, the tailfin, was first applied at Chrysler to the 1956 model.

The Fury had the Plymouth “type A” (4.9 litre ) 303 cubic inch displacement V-8. With 4-barrel carburettor, this engine developed 240 bhp. (Bore = 3.81”, Stroke = 3.31”)

The 1956 Plymouth Savoy (and its badge-engineered corporate cousin: Dodge Kingsway Deluxe) were 4-door sedans that graced many an upper-class Indian home. These cars were sold in India by Seth Walchand’s Premier Automobiles/Bombay Cycle. Hindi movies of the period, such as “Chalti ka naam gaadi-period” are full of them: Sedans, Convertibles and Station Wagons.