1962 Plymouth Fury
In 1962, the Fury gained yet another body style, with a cleaner, less styled front end, accentuated lines, and a limited edition turbo. According to Plymouth, it could "fly to 60 mph in 8.5 secs. with the optional 305-hp Golden Commando" engine. The Sport Fury returned with a special interior featuring bucket seats and console, a partially blacked-out grille, and two extra taillights. Later, all Furys received a belt moulding spear that ran unbroken from the front of the car to the rear. The flush C-pillar and slab side drew the eye to the vertical plane, not the horizontal, thus making an already smaller car look stubby. The spear visually lenthened the car.
Perhaps most important, it gained Plymouth's first fully unitized body/chassis. The bolted-on subframe introduced on the 1960 unitized car was eliminated. The change helped the new Plymouth shed 200 pounds in weight and maintain as much interior room as the '61 even though exterior demensions were reduced.
Aiding the increase of interior space was a new Torqueflite transmission. With an aluminum case, it was 60 pounds lighter than its cast iron predecessor. And it was smaller, making possible a lower transmission hump. The old two-speed Powerflite was now history. For the manual transmission there was a new tubular linkage, concentric with the steering column. Engines were the slant six, two and four barrel 318s, and a four-barrel 361; the 383 was dropped but a short-ram 413 was added midyear. Canada received only the slant-six and 313.
Other unique features included self-adjusting brakes, foot pedal operated rear drum parking brakes, lube-sealed 32,000 mile suspension fittings, printed circuit dash wiring, and the "Hamtramck Hummingbird," a new reduction gear starting motor that would come to signal by sound alone the starting of any Chrysler product on any parking lot anywhere.
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