In the fight for sales supremacy back in the late 50’s, the Big Three (Ford, GM, and Chrysler) auto companies were running operations in a lean, mean and cagey fashion looking to out-do the competition. The automakers produced chiseled, low-profile cars that were tastefully decorated with a look and feel of luxury. If you are a fan of fins and chrome, the 59 Plymouth Sport Fury will certainly satisfy your desire. The tail fins rise elegantly to the rear and end in a canted forward angle that meets the chrome belt line trim. Added for the first time to the tail fin is a Tiffany style 5” chrome badge with a gold-plated ship that has been the icon for the Plymouth brand since inception. Considering the luxury aspect, the interior is eye catching and sporty. Driver vision was terrific all around, enhanced by the fact that the rear-view mirror is mounted to the top of the dash.
I have owned my 59 Plymouth Sport Fury for eight years now, and just love the car in everything from looks, style, handling and performance. The car has eye-candy appeal when driving it on area roads. I have had people follow me into gas stations wanting to have a closer look of my car. (The conversation usually goes “I haven’t seen one of those in years”.) More often than not while waiting for a stop light to change, people in the lane next to me will often start up a conversation about my car. One woman’s comment – “What a beautiful car – it looks like the Batmobile!” (I wanted to comment back that I would check with Gotham City and see if Batman needs me – but the street light changed to green before I could get it out.) My wife comments that such encounters are embarrassing, but I tell her not at all, I consider such encounters as compliments. So it goes, often encountered conversations while driving my Sport Fury but such conversation is not what I want to present in this writeup.
At one time full size classic cars were the big trend in vintage vehicles. Today it is either Muscle Cars or Hot Rods that have left full size classic cars closer to being a rarity at today’s car shows and cruise-ins. In this crazy world it seems almost normal to take a beautiful original classic car and jam a big engine between the front tires, cut a hole in the floor boards to accommodate a 4 speed transmission and either bypass the mufflers or utilize glass-paks in an effort to make the engine noticeably noisy to attract attention.
Being an old timer (age 76) and owning an all original full-size classic car, I have refused all these years to join the Muscle-wannabe trend and continue to drive my all-original 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury in the face of this trend. (I go for style and class and prefer my engine to run as quiet as possible.) The other day, I pulled up to a Cars & Coffee car show in Lexington, Kentucky and notice most vehicles were either muscle cars, Corvettes, Porsches and the like – and many were less than 15 years old. With a parking spot available in the middle of these cars, I pulled in and parked my 59 Plymouth. My 61 year old car didn’t have 18” low profile tires, hood scoops, a tachometer, disc brakes, turbo charger or nitrous oxide bottle in the trunk or even a manual shift stick – mine is a push-button automatic transmission. So it stood out like a sore thumb – wings, wraparound windshield, 5-pushbutton radio and all. No other car in the entire event had wings or whitewalls. Surprisingly, the car got quite a bit of attention and several nice comments. I think many of the people seemed to have an appreciation for “What-Used-To-Be”.
The previous owner of my 59 Sport Fury (Robert Hinds), told me he thought there were only 100 of the 59 Sport Fury’s left in existence, but did not tell me how he drew that conclusion. (Robert, now deceased, had been a Tech Advisor with the POC for many years and was well versed in his Sport Fury.) My being a member of several auto related car clubs ( P.O.C., Walter P. Chrysler Club, AACA and the 59 Sport Fury Website), have given me access to membership rosters from these organizations. I have reviewed these rosters and have come to the conclusion that Robert Hinds estimate of 100 Sport Fury’s in existence might be a pretty close estimate. I know from this study that my Sport Fury seems to be a lone-wolf here in Kentucky. Condensing this information even further, I find that there are 23 States that do not appear to have a single 59 Sport Fury, 13 States that have only one Plymouth Sport Fury and two states (Pennsylvania & Florida) that have the largest number with 5 Sport Furys each. I realize that not all Sport Fury owners are registered with any of the car clubs I have listed, but assuming the 53 identified owner’s make up approximately 50% of the total in existence, that would make Robert’s estimate of 100 Sport Fury’s in existence today believable.
I had a little bit of a shock the other day when two young men who had been doing some plumbing work at my house, took me up on my offer to show them my 59 Sport Fury and my 67 Plymouth Belvedere. Upon seeing my cars, they commented that they like my 67 Belvedere over my 59 Sport Fury. My 59 Sport Fury being a more valuable collector car, in their eyes did not make the cut. What a difference in opinion between the younger generation and the opinion of white-haired senior citizens that once owned and drove these cars. Why don’t the younger generation have the appreciation for these “time-machines” that I do? It is kinda scary to know that future buyers for vintage cars similar to mine, seem uninterested in older classics cars and made me think my beautiful Sport Fury might be going through diminishing values instead of continuing to increase as they have been since the car was produced. There is no sure answer for any of this, but after thinking about it, I plan to keep and enjoy these cars until I am gone. After that it won’t matter. I picture one of my three grandkids (two boys and a girl), will end up with the car and I only hope the one that ends up with it cares for it as I had and not modify it from it’s all original as from the factory car. Will they ever understand how a carbureted car works, what a trunion joint is, how a generator works, or what to do when there is a problem and no computer to trouble shoot from? There will be the manufacturing manuals that I have with each car, but the pages are well “greased” from my trouble shooting finger prints over the years, and pages are tattered and ready to fall out of their bindings. Yes, this car will require getting your hands dirty when working on it.
Fuel for these cars might also be a problem for future owners of vintage cars. I heard on the news that by 2040 Europe wants to abandoned gas usage with everything new being electric cars. Can the U.S. be far beyond Europe to abandon the use of gasoline? I am glad I won’t be here when that happens. Who knows, maybe the future value of my cars will be defined in dollars-per-pound for scrap steel. I can just imagine one youngster from the 2050’s saying to another youngster, “What were those ‘white rings’ (whitewalls) on the tires for, when the car was made? (Time to turn-over in my grave.) After giving all this some thought, maybe it might be better to just be buried in my Sport Fury. Then 500 years from now, someone will dig me and the car up and put us in the Smithsonian in Washington, next to a sample roman chariot. For extra measure I will be sure to have 20 or so copies of the Plymouth Bulletin in the trunk for the archaeologist from National Geographic to dwell upon. Okay, maybe I am fantasizing somewhat, but the possibilities are endless.
I have always said I am glad I am at the age I am at today as I would not want to start life over. Whatever happens to my Sport Fury, I will have lived and experienced life in the 50’s & 60’s when the economy was booming and cars were exciting to own and drive. Unlike cars today that all look pretty much alike, when these cars were produced, no one could accuse the “Big Three” of producing cookie cutter cars. A Chrysler car was totally different from a Ford, and Ford and Chrysler cars were noticeably different from a GM car. I still like my 59 Sport Fury for it makes a statement for itself when cruising down the road.
