Plymouth Fury 1960

by

Model number: 5422

Review of the model:

The top of the line from Plymouth in 1960 was also the Fury. The model of this year is maybe lesser known than the previous years. Sometimes it’s with cars as with women – Some have it all, and some are Okay, but here is a car that have many design features, and yet missing a sense of harmony. This is a subjective judgment in both cases. I think this model year is not as well designed as it could. Don’t get me wrong – The car is a true Classic.

No wonder why, Sun Star had chosen to give us this model car, from its Platinum Collection. Let’s see what they have managed to produce for less 100 Euros or USD!

 This example of the Hardtop Fury is given to us in Caramel metallic and Oyster White. A color combination really gives the model a touch of class. Take a look inside the cabin, the chocolate and beige pattern seats suits well the brown carpet. The first you notice when you’re in the driver seat is; the magnificent steering wheel in oval shape in acryl – you’re not in doubt anymore – We are in the Space age!  How well had Sun Star made this model will one ask? …The short answer to this is fantastic!  

This model car is just flawless in all aspects. The level of details is fantastic. Look at the gramophone player under the instrument panel, ashtrays, door handles etc. The paint work is perfect in every way. A model car in scale 1:18 can contain a lot of individual parts. Surely this model parts can be counted in hundreds. And all are well mounted and cared for. Take a look at the front of the car. Please notice the richness of details in the grill, headlights lenses and all the shiny chrome parts. One can wonder how they can produce this model, for a price like that! This Plymouth Fury Coupe 1960, is also available in a two Convertibles (open and closed ragtops)  I will strongly recommend this model from Sun Star.

I will give this model 6 out of 6 stars  ******

Below here are pictures of the model, historical description, old brochures, technical data and a little movie clip for the real car. So please enjoy!

From a time when cars looks different

At ones we notice how well made this model is 

History:

Suddenly, it was 1960. Plymouth’s model year 1957 had brought its 1960 cars to the public. Now what would the real 1960 bring?

Three years earlier, Plymouth, under its advertising slogan "Suddenly it’s 1960," had rocked the automotive world with a daring new style of car. With its lines low and wide and its fins high, Plymouth joined its corporate siblings in wresting automotive styling leadership from General Motors, which had assumed the "styling leadership" mantle as if by divine decree. In the process, the designers of the now much vaunted ’57 Chevy nearly got fired for fielding such a “poor” competitor!

But it wasn’t all show for that ’57 Plymouth. Under the sleek body was a new chassis bearing a revolutionary suspension design featuring torsion bars at the front. The car was no slouch in the engine department either and its new Torqueflite transmission would become legendary.

It is, in many ways, the very picture of 1950s opulence and splendor: With big fins, jukebox and instrument panel. White tires and Tri-tone interior. Sport Deck, an optional trunk lid with a faux spare tire molded in. Skirts: They clearly speak more to the previous decade than the one coming. Size, proportion, the evolution of the "Forward Look," everything you can readily see on this 1960 Plymouth Fury convertible fairly screams of the decade of Eisenhower.

Yet if you look deeper, this 1960 Fury is a car at a crossroads. There are some significant leaps forward here. First up is unit-body construction. Mopar tried to popularize it as early as the mid-1930s, in its controversial Airflow--all of Rambler's chest-beating over how it pioneered this innovation was a little disingenuous--but every new Ply-mouth (including, of course, the compact Valiant) sold in the 1960 model year had unit-body construction. Plymouth claimed it took 5,400 welds to put together a full-size unit-body (Savoy, Belvedere or Fury, no matter), and as a result offered 100 percent greater body rigidity and 40 percent greater beam strength than its contemporary competition from GM and Ford, despite elements that were up to 75 percent heavier than competitors'. Rust proofing was comprehensive. Additional soundproofing was provided by larger rear-spring bushings, a new driveshaft designed to reduce hum, special liquid sealant and fibrous matting throughout. The result is a lighter car and a smoother in-cabin experience. (Today, there's only one body-on-frame car still built in the U.S. today--and it was designed during the Carter administration.) The engine was held in its own separate sub frame, isolated from the rest of the car.

With the Hemi's passing in 1959, Chrysler decided to let Plymouth into the power game. Enter SonoRamic, Plymouth's name for a radical-looking ram-induction setup that produced a mild supercharging effect at 2,800 RPM. Two separate aluminum intake manifolds, each topped with a Carter four-barrel, stretched across the engine's valley pan to feed the opposite cylinder bank. Each intake measured 30 inches from the carburetor venturi to the intake valve; it force-fed fuel-air mixture toward the cylinder, even when the intake valve was closed, and so a denser air-fuel charge was built up and forced into the combustion chamber once it opened. The length of the manifold affects the rev range where optimum boost occurs; short runners are fine for high-revving engines but for high-torque monsters like a 361, with peak torque at 2,800 RPM, the runners need to be two and a half feet long.

Atop a 361-cube B-series Chrysler engine, this combination was good for 310 horsepower and a glorious, tire-shredding 435-lbs/ft. of torque. As it turns out, while the SonoRamic V-8 was excellent for the street, they didn't quite do the trick at the high revs that most racers needed, and so fell out of favor; there were no more SonoRamic Furys past 1961, although lessons learned here were put to work on other Mopars, including the fearsome Max Wedge racers that dominated the early-to-mid-'60s racing scene.

By the time the 1960’s successor was introduced late in the year, there would be no disappointment about lack of change. Although basically the same car, the ’61, except for roof lines and rear wheel cutouts, had changed completely from the previous year - even the silhouette was different. Plymouth’s prime distinguishing characteristic for the past six years was gone. For Plymouth, as 1960 drew to a close, it was FINS FINIS.

By Lanny Knutson and Jeff Koch

Technical specification:

Old brochures of the Plymouth 1960

Video of the real car from Youtube

If you have any question or comment your are free to contact me at: aeronautic@stofanet.dk

Dealers are welcome to get their models reviewed too.

Aeronautic Sep. 2017

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