A Plymouth Gran Fury sedan immediately conjures images of police chases in cheesy 1980s movies, often left in a smoldering pile on the side of the highway. That’s why it’s truly eye-catching to see one in as nice of condition as this example, which has been modestly restored to incorporate some desirable performance upgrades without distorting the acres of comfort found inside. It’s not listed as being a police package car, but it appears to wear the wheel and tire combo typically associated with the public safety set. Find it here on eBay where bidding is at $3,500 with no reserve.
The seller doesn’t specifically address the Fury’s cosmetics, but I don’t believe he has to; it appears to be in respectable condition from all corners. The car is located in Georgia, which typically indicates sound cosmetic condition without a lot of rust to worry about (unlike all of those sedans that got left in the Illinois highway median in Blues Brothers.) The chrome still looks decent and the shutlines up and down the sides look nice and tight. The taillights are somewhat cloudy, but that’s an easy cosmetic fix. The one thing that’s missing? A giant CB antenna mounted in the center of the trunk lid.
The engine bay is where the most amount of work seems to have happened, and that’s a very good thing. The 318 has been upgraded thoughtfully, with the horrible “Lean Burn” system removed and a 4 bbl Edelbrock 650 carburetor installed. The seller notes the head has been rebuilt and was ported at the same time; a high-performance 340 camshaft was also installed. The 318 is paired to a 727 HD automatic transmission, and lest you think the seller forgot about the need for good handling, front and rear sway bars, and recent tires and brakes have also been added to beef up the Fury’s chassis.
The interior looks downright plush, and this is one area where the police-spec examples were sorely lacking. The seller has chosen to leave well enough alone, with the plush seating arrangements in place and in outstanding condition. The A/C still blows cold and heat works as well, so this Gran Fury truly seems like a four-season driver that you can enjoy whether cruising on the highway or giving an unsuspecting import a run for their money at the stoplight drags. I like cars that are entertaining without sacrificing daily driver-levels of livability, and this Gran Fury seems to check those boxes.
Looks nice! I drove these in my LEO days. Carb was a nightmare in humid/wet weather as I recall. Great city car but couldn’t pass itself on the highway and chasing down fast movers was a crap shoot. Comfortable seats though, even with the police package. Brings back good memories. Anyone have any thoughts on the trunk and hood alignment? This would be a great daily driver!
Yeah great daily if you’re retired in Florida and don’t drive anywhere daily.
I mean no anti locks breaks sucks in Chicago/New Jersy winter traffic (or even after it rained) and the lack of any crumple zones air bags means you’re have a chance to be handicapped after a fender bender with a toyota tundra or any modern car/pickup
I think you’re on the wrong site. You should be on ModernAppliancesonWheels.com. By the standards you just defined, why look at any vehicle on this site? Wonder how I, and all of my partners, managed to drive rear wheel drive V8 Police package sedans through 20 years of Minnesota winters. Weird.
Hmm, I can see you’ve never driven one of these.
A tractor trailer drove over the rear bumper and up the quarter panel broke the taillight lens and ripped the side mirror of, drive it home. Car ran a stop sign but me in the right front at about 35 damaged the header type the trim of the bumper. Guy tried to run, Chased him down and cornered him. Car was stoudt. Awful mileage but a plush tank. I got the car from an octogenarian who drove into his basement from his garage, thought he was in reverse. Broke the windshield, dents on the hood a scratches. Cinderblock wall. Do not disparage these cars as unsafe…
Jeez, i like clasics for being classics, have a c3 vette and a datsun280 (both same vintage, can you guess?)
. I WOULD HATE TO COMMUTE IN THEM DAILY IN CHICAGO. If you think the opposite you must be suicidal or plain old silly.
And i dont care what you drove 50 years ago on your step dads farm, when the sea of traffic stops on a dime any seazon you should to or eventually youd be out of luck.
This car should be somebodys weekend toy, vintage squad/movie prop. To daily drive this anywhere beyond rural warm climate areas is a bad choice
Poppapork if you drive at a safe distance behind the guy in front of you and stay off your $”&@king phone and pay attention you’ll be fine in any traffic. I ride a 1977 gold wing with a sidecar in city traffic every summer. Have been for 12 years now. It’s called defensive driving.
Obviously you are not familiar with these cars, or maybe you read Consumer Reports magazine and believed the garbage they said about eighties Mopars. I have had several seventies and eighties Diplomats and Fifth Avenues and I never had any problem stopping them, as they do have disc brakes. The speedometers only went to 85 but all of mine would go beyond that. I do agree with one thing you said, to me it would suck to even be in Chicago or New Jersey.
Here in the greater chicagoland (or any major city) keeping distance doesnt work in the morning traffic cause its bumper to bumper, any time you make an opening someone will get in it.
I drive a squad for living so im on my computer if anything (your cell phone comment was uncold for, i am not your child and if we ever meet in person I’ll be the one giving driving advice to you)
I’m 60 years old now I started with my motorcycle license at 14 and my drivers license at 16 I’m also licensed to drive up to 84 passenger air brake vehicles, so I seriously doubt you can instruct me on driving. I’ve been a mechanic since I was 25 and have worked on many of these cars and there’s nothing wrong with the brake systems on these cars. Poppapork you need to get a grip.
I agree with the cell phone remark, and being on a computer while driving is just as bad, if not worse!
That’s the trouble with law enforcement, those with badges believe in “do as I say, not as I do”.
I was run down about a year ago on my motorcycle by some cheerleader fluff who was texting and driving. Totaled my beautiful Harley, almost totaled me! Stay off your phones AND COMPUTERS while you drive! Period!
In Illinois, it is illegal to be on any device while driving, unless hands free. That should apply to law enforcement too.
I drive in Chicago frequently (Lou Malnati’s has the BEST pizza) and I don’t feel any better about it knowing local law enforcement is playing on their computers while I am on the road there. Remind me to not ride my new Harley down in that cess-pool of a city lol.
That’s a great one! How did it escape rust being in Virginia and Maryland until recently? It failed emissions more times than I failed personal grooming, maybe that’s why they changed out the Lean Burn system? Nice find, Jeff!
Over 25 years old, antique registration, no emission test required.
Poppapork, I respectfully disagree with your assumption that they are completely terrible I actually drive mine daily in New York City year-round and I’ve never had any issues you may call me crazy for it and that’s fine I also respect that you drive a squad car and you have obviously a different Outlook than I do
I wonder if all the chrome stripped off in the last repaint is included. Fender and trunk emblems at a minimum, and I think the Salon trim level at least came with chrome rocker panel and wheelarch moldings and vinyl rub strips, and even the cop versions weren’t as decontented as more recent ones. Not to mention full wheel covers – for brake cooling reasons I’d want some well-vented and oh-so-80s wire spoke ones. That, untint the windows and source some whitewalls…
Can someone explain to me whats wrong with the (open?) Trunk and why is the driver side rear quarterpanel drooping? Wtf. .
Ps. I wasn’t around at these times, how would this stacked next to a caprice and crown vic?
Caprice and Ford Crown Victoria were full-sized 6-passenger cars. These are intermediate-sized cars compared to those. Chrysler deleted its full-sized cars after 1981 and these were their largest sedans after that, but they aren’t really 6-passenger cars–okay, maybe six small passengers. As such, they weigh less and should get better fuel mileage than the Caprice and Crown Vic.
As someone noted earlier, this one has the fancy “Salon” level interior, and the seats are extremely comfortable. I had a very nice one about 10 years ago, civilian use since new, elderly owner, low miles, beautiful condition. Was a great car until the Lean Burn started acting up at 65,000 miles. Got rid of it after that. Thankfully, this one has had the Lean Burn eliminated, but why did they paint that engine orange?
Whoa, this is stirring up some ghosts for me. Wisconsin State Patrol used these extensively during my heyday of trucking. More than once I had that image of that front end, red and blue lights in the grill, in my mirrors. Stupid stuff, mostly, “you have a short in your tail light, it went on and off when you went around that corner”, or “that right mud flap looks a bit shorter than the left one”, just a ploy to check you out. A lot of people liked these cars, because LEO’s used them, they were stout units. I believe it was the last passenger car made in Kenosha. Me in an old police car, even one that looks like one? No thanks.
These M bodies were the only police cars that ever scared the crap outta me. To me there was no other police car that looked as official as the M body. When you saw that face with those fast wig wag headlights in your rear view, you knew what’s up. Here is my retired 87 Gran Fury detectives car, retired from Ford Apache, the bronx.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODMhpQ1bNeQ
Cool car. Love the shape. Good thing it’s on the old side or people would call you a Whacker LOL. To those that don’t know that term, In the last run of Crown Vic law enforcement vehicles, P71 being the most common one. I have an 04 myself. Anyway, the ones that dress theirs back up in ‘Cop mode’ (as much as legally possible) are called Whackers. No idea where the term came from but that’s what they’re called when they do that. Yours is old enough to just be cool with those items on it.
This site explains the police car connection nicely.
https://giantclassiccars.com/plymouth/620791-1984-plymouth-gran-fury-police-car-tribute-318-ci-4-bbl-fr-rear-sway-bars.html
With a bit of work to find period era correct police equipment for the interior this would make a nice detective car or one to take to a radwood event.
These were not great cop cars. Departments bought them in quantity because they were cheapest. They were generally adequate for city use, but not for expressway or highway patrol. They were slow, with vague wandering steering, brakes would fade to mush after a few high-speed stops, and engines would often stall in sudden tight cornering or “emergency Bat-turns”.
Later, at police auctions, they were usually much cheaper than Fords or Chevys, so many ended up being uncomfortable taxis with worn-out seats and suspension.
For many years after, they were the disposable low-budget cop cars for the film industry. You will often see lengthly high speed chases involving relatively current Fords and Chevy cop cars. Until the crash scene. Then a Diplomat or Caravelle will appear from nowhere and get wrecked.
These are like many old cars. They look kinda cool, maybe evoke a few memories, but are not particularly pleasurable to drive.
You obviously haven’t spent much (or any) time in one. I have owned 3 and they were excellent drivers.
I was a police officer for 30 years from 1978 to 2008. We had about 6,000 officers, and I did mainly highway patrol on the busiest highway in North America.
I was on our Dept and police union Equipment Committees.
Our service had a mix of Fords, Chevys and Mopars. I drove them all. More than a few times the City Police had chases that ended up in our highway jurisdiction. We almost always caught the suspects quickly. Sometimes the suspects would just pull over when they saw us in a Chevy. We would then wait awhile for the city police to catch up.
It was govt policy to spread the business. Our Fleet Manager also felt it was a safer bet to mix the fleet in case there were major issues with a particular model or brand. This turned out to be wise as we had problems with all 3 at different times over the years.
As a side-business, for 20 years I was a partner in a large “picture vehicle” company, supplying film and TV industry. We typically had about 50 police vehicles in stock. I bought them, wrenched them, equipped them, and stripped them. Also drove them on film as a Special Skills Extra many times.
In my current job, I still get to drive new police vehicles for evaluation purposes,
Sorry, I don’t think so. State Patrols across the country used these, and for good reason. Before the Ford Crown Vic, there simply was nothing better. Remember, many of these replaced AMC Matadors.
I think you might be a little harsh there. M bodies that were used extensively for fleet use, especially NYPD and Taxi purposes, you know full well these departments beat the living daylights out of these cars,and even still they came out shining. NYC streets through the 70s and through the 80s, had absolutely the worse streets ever due to the massive corruption and other factors, and also, most M body Chryslers for sale on the net have in excess of 200K miles. (if you can find one for sale.)
Look, my point is, are they the best cars? No. Obviously. Tough as nails and a rock solid drive train. All three of my M bodies, 84 5th Avenue, 85 5th Avenue, and an 87 Gran Fury, ex NYPD have a very nice drivetrain 318, married to the three speed torqueflite tranny. The 85 has 90 thousand miles, no problems.
Hey, were police cruiser M bodies the fastest? heck no!! They didn’t have to be. The cops had a motorola. Have you ever seen a criminal beat a Motorola? : )
Awesome looking car. I remember the Plymouth Gran Fury and Dodge Diplomat. I was too young to drive at the time, and no one in my family drove either. But I used to see them a lot, sometimes as police pursuit vehicles (PPV) and as taxicabs.
video ? ! ! ! !
Yes, indeed, very stout cars, especially without the horror induction system it
came with in stock shape, I have no room otherwise………..
BARN FINDERS:
Please be intelligent about the coronavirus. Wash your hands. Stay out of crowded public places. If you are over 70 you are a hot prospect for the affliction and death. We’ll get through this but be smart. I don’t want to lose anybody on this site………….
Even with Cam W’s comments, I think this would be a lot of fun to own, drive, work on, and upgrade. I love the look of it. A manual swap would be fun.
Check out this video I found on YouTube a few years ago. Dabney Coleman drives one of those Mopars in a police chase.
https://youtu.be/CE2i08S3YeY
Thanks for the link. Definitely the best looking police car. ( before he creamed it. lol ) If I see a Crown Vic in my rear view..my attitude is.. ah well, I guess I’ll pull over. doe dee doe dee doe… LOL! With the Chrysler M body? Holy crap! I”m done for.
This one is not a Police package car, though it has some package car parts added on. Nice mods to engine, but all the emissions parts were left off. Limits the buyers to only those in areas where inspections are not done. Police package versions are great and durable cars.