Detroit has long played name games of the case used on the 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury , and often to the peachy confusion of car buyers . Thus have the car maker clip out all - fresh models with one-time hold , to cash in on past glories , or created young deed to ensure-enough cars seem new .
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In the fifties , the industriousness attain upon a variation that ’s still in widespread use . Its call the " dribble - down secret plan . " A unexampled name seem on a top - end model or series , then filter to the bottom of the parentage via elimination of senior and/or lower - position names . History is full of examples : Bel Air and Impala at Chevrolet , Fairlane and Galaxie at Ford .
ChryslerCorporation is a retiring sea captain at the sport , and it added an interesting wrench with Plymouth ’s 1959 Sport Fury . The Fury began as a speedy , limited - edition 1956 hardtop , and continued as such for the next two years .
Though never a swelled vendor , it cast a performance image over the entire Plymouth telephone line with obvious sales implications , and division trafficker just could n’t resist trying to take advantage on it .
Accordingly , they put the Fury label on all top - of - the - line 1959 Plymouths except Suburban wagons , removed Plaza nameplates from scummy - end models , and press Belvedere and Savoy down a notch . The only problem this created was what to call the modified edition . Well , the 1956 - 1958 Fury had definitely been jazzy , so why not name its 1959 heir Sport Fury ? That they did .
And for the first time they offered their hottest cable car as aconvertibleas well as the wonted hardtop coupe . Curiously , though , the Modern standard Fury line did n’t lean a ragtop , just a pair of hardtop and a four - door sedan chair .
For all the name shuffling , the 1959 Furys , standard and Sport , were far less " limited " than the high - power stormers of 1956 - 1958 . Where the latter had seen only 4,500 - 7,500 copy a year , the Sport Fury ran close to 24,000 units all by itself , and standard Fury hand nearly 65,000 .
Of course , this was just what the sales department wanted , and it helped Plymouth hold onto third place in retrieval 1959 despite total volume that turn out by only 15,000 unit – whileChevroletgained more than 300,000 units , Ford nearly half a million .
To determine about styling and gaudy options for the 1959 Sport Fury , remain to the next Sir Frederick Handley Page .
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Continued
Plymouth had howl back into third place in sales on the strength of its bounteous 1957 models . Chrysler wanted to keep it there , so after contingent changes for 1958 , Plymouth receive a more substantial restyling for the last iteration of its three - year design bike , include the 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury .
As fount - lifts go , the 1959 was n’t bad , but it was n’t great either , just unlike . oddly , Sport Furys wear off no identifying script , just a big circular crest above a across-the-board belt of anodized aluminum on the rear flanks .
Chrysler excogitation chief Virgil Exner had been take with the melodic theme of translating classic - era motifs to modern cars , and his first attempt appeared this year in a raw Plymouth option : a trunklid appliqué that purportedly suggested an outside spare tire but look more like a chicken feed - can lid .
Chrysler place on a tidy sum of other gimmicks for 1959 , and even Plymouth buyers could regularize an electronic headlight dimmer , ego - dimming rearview mirror ( unpopular then , but destined for greater succeeder in its eighties reincarnation ) and , forconvertiblesand hardtop coupes , individual bucketful seats that pivot outward when a room access was give to help entrance / exit .
automatically , Plymouth mostly marked time for 1959 . The ancient " PowerFlow " lambert - head six was in its final class and basically unaltered , V-8s begin with the 318 first view in the 1957 Fury , now producing 230horsepowerin base V-800 trim back or 260 H.P. with optional " Superpak " four - bbl carb and two-fold exhausts .
A bore caper accept the top " Golden Commando " locomotive from 350 to 361 cubic inches , but H.P. stay 305 on the same 10.0:1 compression . Fuel injection , a abbreviated and troublesome 1958 toying , was no more .
Plymouth tardily bring together Detroit ’s short - lived fling with airsuspensionby offering an optional back end - only setup for 1959 . This used both strain suitcase and abstemious leaf bounce , plus modified front - torsion - streak geometry . installment are unknown , but could n’t have been significant .
And for about six year after 1959 , neither was Plymouth . With 1960 ’s all - new " Unibody " line began a sullen period of oddball styling , unsuccessful downsizing , sloughy workmanship , halting corrective beat , and dissatisfactory gross sales . Not until the 1970s would Plymouth regain third place , and it did n’t curb onto it for long .
The Sport Fury prove somewhat hardier : temporarily abandoned but reinstate for 1962 as the most youthful full - sizing Plymouth , which it remained through 1971 , when Chrysler started playing name games again .
Check out specifications for the 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury on the next Sir Frederick Handley Page .
1959 Plymouth Sport Fury Specifications
The 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury was created to help Plymouth reserve on to third blank space in the sales agreement ranking , but those try would give way in the 1960s .
Specifications
Engine : ohv V-8 , 318 cid ( 3.91 × 3.31 ) , 260 bhp ; 361 cid ( 4.12 × 3.38 ) , 305 bhp
Transmission:3 - speed manual of arms ; overdrive and 3 - speed TorqueFlite automatonlike optional
Suspension front : trailing arms , longitudinal torsion bar
Suspension nates : springy axle , semi - elliptic leaf spring
Brakes : front / rear drums
Wheelbase ( in.):118
system of weights ( lbs.):3,475 - 3,670
Top speed ( mph):90 - 110
0 - 60 mph ( sec):10.5 - 14
