PB 311 new page 13.indd - Plymouth Club

SOURCES:• Langworth, Richard M. and Norbye, Jan P.The Complete History of ChryslerCorporation: 1924-1985, New York,Fleet and Valiant sales saved the day for Plymouth in ‘61. Beekman House, 1985.• Chrysler Corporation / Plymouth Division –Tony Randall, a Robin’s Egg Blue ‘61 Fury convertible servesService Department, 1960 Plymouth Service Manual andas Doris Day’s transportation of choice. The bejeweled Ms.1961 Plymouth Service Manual Supplement, Detroit, 1959Day looks breathtakingly elegant sitting behind that rectangular,sparkly steering wheel just before she speeds off on anand 1960.• LaChance, David, “Furious Flamboyance,” Hemmingsempty beach, leaving behind Rock Hudson, dazed and nakedMotor News, June 1, 2006.as a jaybird.But 50 years later, as with the Edsel, the elements whichmade the 1961 Plymouth an albatross in its day are the verythings that make the car desirable to certain collectors.Because the car didn’t suddenly become “pretty” as tasteschanged through the decade, the full-size Plymouths disappearedquickly. In the case of this writer, other than the fourdoor‘61 Belvedere he actually owns, he has only seen andtouched one other similar model: a white ‘61 Fury coupe inDes Moines, Iowa. These cars are rare, and any car foundwith the potential for restoration is well worth the effort.Unlike other automotive “flops,” beneath its strange-lookingskin the 1961 Plymouth is a QUALITY machine… the productof innovative, forward-thinking engineering. And in thiswriter’s view, no car personifies, in its very APPEARANCE,the social and political changes the United States experiencedbetween the optimistic but socially suppressive 1950s to thecynical, war-tainted but liberating days of the 1960s. PBThe author and 1961 Tech Adviser John Wiggins with his ‘61Belvedere.-22-