The older the car is, the harder it is to make it a believable sleeper…once you don’t see them on the roads that often, the questions start to pop up: How did this one avoid the crusher? Why is this particular car loved? And usually, the car itself will give a clue…the exhaust note might be several stages past “warmed-over”, the stance is wrong, the tires are big on wheels that are trying their best to hide what’s going on, or something like that. Which is why this 1970 Plymouth Fury is intriguing…it does have one tell going on, but it’s subtle. There’s no massive tires on steel wheels here, those are the stock-style hubcaps on factory-appropriate tires. The overall appearance says family heirloom car, one that was owned by a caring individual who passed it along. The AAA stickers on the bumper help that as well, and we doubt they are on there as a ruse…they look like they were installed purposefully.
And it’s not like the color combination is going to give anything away. Chrysler’s take at making buttercream a color is about as bland as the colors got for 1970s, and the printed vinyl roof on this Gran Coupe is something else, a harbinger of what was to come later in the decade. This isn’t a Fury GT that was a full-size fire-breather…it had big-block power available, but the likelihood of a Gran Coupe being a stomper was fairly minimal. They were meant to be comfortable cruisers, regardless of what line of car the trim was applied to.
And we mean comfortable, too. It’s not perfect…there’s a tear in the seat and a couple of cracks in the dash, so you know it’s not restored, but at the same time it’s so nice and tidy inside that you’d expect the original owner or the original owner’s kid to remind out of the care that was taken over the decades. But go ahead, put the key in and give it a crank…
Yes, folks, that is a dual-quad 383ci V8, and with improved cooling to go with it. According to the seller, the 290 factory horsepower just wasn’t enough, so the engine was built to meet or exceed the 343 horsepower rating of the 1962 383 setup. The intake is a 1969 cast iron unit, the ubitiquous Purple cam is in the engine, the exhaust manifolds were switched out for a design with better flow, dual exhaust was added, the heads were worked, the ignition was converted to Mopar electronic, and the oil pump and fuel pump were upgraded to handle it all. A 727 automatic with a 2,200 stall converter and a 8.75 rear with 3.50 gears should get the car up and rocking in reasonable order.
Oh, and that one tell? Check out the louvered hood. It’s to keep the heat down on the carburetors during the summer months.
eBay Link: 1970 Plymouth Fury Gran Coupe
My weakness…Land yachts…..id rock it…id rock it so hard….
“The exhaust manifolds were switched out for a design with a better flow”
So if those lumps of cast iron at the ports aren’t a heat shield masking some neat tubular headers I’d hate to think what prehistoric means of breathing out this motor had before. But with a new gloss black coat of paint and a Hemi (with REAL headers) this beauty would be even better – because that’s a lot of body for even a warm 383 to haul around!
My neighbor had the same one in dark brown. Cool car.