One of Plymouth’s slogans used to promote their cars in the late 1950s was, “Suddenly, It’s 1960!” That was when the “Forward Look” spaceships of 1957-59 set the industry on fire from a styling perspective. Then 1960 finally arrived, and the fins were still around, and perhaps to new highs. Maybe the public was tired of them, as sales declined, beginning a difficult decade for the Chrysler marque. The seller has a beautiful, award-winning ’60 Fury convertible that’s an older restoration. Located in Barrington, Illinois, this symbol of our automotive heritage is available here on craigslist for $39,000. “Zappenduster”, thanks for the tip!
The 1960 Plymouths were all-new and switched from body-on-frame construction to unibody for the new decade. The Fury was the top-of-the-line model in the full-size range, and Plymouth also had a compact to sell for the first time, the Valiant. This would be the swan song for fins at Plymouth as they lopped them over for the 1961 models, which were strange to look at in their own right, and saw another sales decline. Designer Virgil Exner had to be sweating his future at Chrysler.
Have we seen this car before here on Barn Finds? Maybe. About 2 ½ years ago, we featured one that looked just like this that was coming out of an estate. The colors and equipment are the same, as is the stuff under the hood. But the geography was off by several hundred miles (Maryland vs. Illinois). And we don’t know how the odometers compare. Perhaps it is the same car, and the seller bought it from the estate and had it shipped to the Midwest. Or it’s a duplicate.
Details in 2026 are few. This Fury has 105,000 miles, a 318 cubic inch V8, and a push-button TorqueFlite automatic. It’s said to be a Western car, so if it’s the same, it’s crisscrossed the continent. The restoration is confirmed to be older (1980s, 1990s?), but things appear to have held up well. The seller says rust has never been an issue, which wasn’t always the case with these early 1960s Mopars. It looks like a nice vehicle to cruise around in and maybe collect a couple of more plaques.
The “Suddenly it’s 1960” tagline inspired a few unofficial, derogatory imitations: “Suddenly, it’s 1949,” for 1957 Oldsmobiles and Buicks with 3-piece rear windows, and “Suddenly, it’s 1957” for the overfinned 1960 Plymouths.
‘Designer Virgil Exner had to be sweating his future at Chrysler’
In reality, by the time any 1960 models were hitting dealers, Exner had already suffered a bad heart attack & was replaced. The fouled up downsizing rumor heard at a `59 auto Executive party that Chrysler misinterpreted led to crushed sales in 1962 of it’s Plymouth/Dodge lines that couldn’t be corrected in time.
We had this exact car, minus the square steering wheel.
That is a rectangle steering wheel. Some of them also had an oval steering wheel.
A rectangle wheel and the oval wheel cost more they were marketed as a safety feature for some reason
it’s neat but ugly i guess because you never see them in the wild.
I know the styling was pretty controversial but I thought they were really nice looking cars, even though I’m not a convertible guy at all. I’d say it’s definitely the same car from 2024. Little things like the same exact radiator cap, overflow house, cut off neg. battery cable end and ripped off sticker residue on the upper radiator hose pretty much nails it.