My Grandma was a huge fan of the '62 Plymouths. She loved her Sport Fury hardtop and drove it for over 25 years, finally selling it when trim parts were proving impossible to find after she backed into something. Grandma had a lead foot, and her trips in that lightweight V8 were legendary... Grandma is long gone, but it is believed her old Fury was fully restored and survives today.
They were comparatively light and could be powerful--nobody's denying that. At least when you were driving one, you couldn't see how ugly they were. The interiors--seats, door cards and dashboard were fine.
Little old lady from Pasadena, go Granny go Granny go Granny go.. Has a pretty little flower bed of white gardenias. Go Granny Go Granny Go Granny go.. But parked in her rickety old garage ... Is a brand new Super Stock Dodge.
@3:35 the asymmetrical clay models were very common in the day, it allowed designers to present two, three or even four different design ideas in model saving both time and money. All the design studios [GM(s), Ford, Chrysler] did this.
To be kinder to the asymmetrical designs, they’d sometimes insert a mirror so the both the right and left would appear to be the same. Sometimes, but not always.
A guy I hung out with in high school had a clean, straight (but resprayed) '62 Sport Fury as a daily driver. It had the Magnum 5.2L and 5-speed manual transmission from a late '90s half-ton Ram, which was enough to make it reasonably peppy, and it had the HVAC system from the truck as well as cruise control and all that. His dad was a MoPar hot-rodder, and had done a GREAT job on the swap. The stereo and HVAC controls were hidden in what would've been the glovebox, so it looked factory with the dash being unmolested. I thought it was a good-enough looking car, certainly more interesting looking than most. Coolest car in the parking lot in the early '00s, although my '78 El Camino with a '68 327 350hp and a Tremec 5-speed was pretty cool itself.
I have an autographed album of his. He was from Boston and his accent really showed in the commercial. His singing voice on the album didn't impress me but it wasn't awful.
In 1972 I had a '62 Valiant (Slant 6, Pushbutton Trans) that some earlier owner had decorated with a decklid Continental kit. I bolted an old telephone to the front-seat transmission hump and enjoyed myself pretending to make calls, back when car telephones operated on a ship-to-shore radio basis and there were only 100 available car telephone lines in Detroit's 313 area code. This did not have the magical effect on girls that I had hoped for.
I remember in the early 90s that car parts stores like Western Auto sold fake plastic car phones, including a fake antenna to put on your rear window, we made fake phone calls all the time! (And made real calls on the CB radio lol)
All it needs is a hood scoop and its perfect! Possible outsider exhaust. Make the passenger seat into a full recliner and you are in like Flint. Shaggin wagon.
" '62 Valiant... some earlier owner had decorated with a decklid Continental kit." LOL that was the 1960-1961 factory design. If yours was a 1962 it probably had a trunk lid from earlier.
@@Jack_Stafford And back when ghetto Caddilacs all had a TV antenna and a small dead portable 120V home set mounted where it could be seen from outside because real 12V sets cost a bundle... "Diamond in the back, sunroof top, digging the scene with a gangster lean..."
I was 6 years old when the new '62 Mopars went on sale, and I remember being stunned by how awful they looked! At that age, I was still a connoisseur of tailfins and floating/tilted headlights, and thought someone must have lost their minds. My views have softened with age, and I can appreciate the nice design elements, especially the hardtops... An automotive unicorn, if unicorns were one-horned aardvarks 😊
I was just 9 in 1962, and a few years later my hockey player friend's dad drove us to games in one of those HUGE early 60s Chrycos with the tail fins! There was a business we passed often on south Victoria Dr., where they lived, called "Bill's Tool Works". His dad would say ..."John's tool also works pretty good!" lol His name was John Perry! He was like a father to me, bc my own dad was an abusive drunk!
I always thought that the asymmetrical cars were actually two different designs like you pointed out. Doesn’t mean that they are pretty! The designers were clearly trying new things.
Styling models were (are) indeed often built with different proposals on each side and then large mirrors, aligned just right, were used for photographs. However I remember reading that Chrysler specifically explored asymmetrical designs during this period.
I remember seeing a proposal from Ford that had two different designs side to side. The right side ended up being the Mustang and the left is what became the Mercury Cougar.
I can’t believe the design team at Plymouth looked at these designs and thought, these are beautiful. We’re going to finally out sale Chevrolet with these cars.
The ‘62 Plymouth DID NOT have curved side glass. However, in some of the proposals before downsizing, they did. No Chrysler product had curved side glass but the Imperial until the ‘65 C bodies got a major Engel makeover.
Hi Adam.Greetings from Australia. Fascinating episode on the "ugly ducklings" from Plymouth. Chrysler had been in Australia for quite some time prior to the sixties, but the name really went up in lights in I think 1962 with the release of the Chrysler Valiant. Compared to the then very dowdy cars from Ford (the Falcon) and the GM Australian arm (Holden) the Valiant at the time was sensational. The first two models were shipped in crates from the U.S, and assembled at the Chrysler factory in Adelaide, in South Australia. I know there was a Valiant in the U.S. but I don't know whether that was sent to Australia. The Valiant was the star of the show for Chrysler for many years in Australia, but the company in the end was bought by Mitsubishi and I think they discontinued the Valiant. Perhaps more knowledgable fans in Australia or the U.S. may know the exact details. Chrysler locally built a Valiant Charger which was a sales sensation in the seventies and beyond and they feature at the Chrysler Car Clubs meets around the country. I have a small collection of original newspaper advertisements of American cars in the fifties and sixties, one being a full page ad for the 62 Plymouth with the caption " The more you see the others the newer Plymouth looks" Love your show grant taylor Malmsbury Victoria Australia
I love the strange sheet metal on Chrysler's early sixties models. This odd mixture of motion-suggesting and platformed cove shapes in the rear third of the cars is highly nostalgic. While very odd, it was at least adventurous.
From what I’ve read, the new ‘57 Mopar designs were so much in demand that it caught Chrysler Corp. flat-footed. They had to drastically increase production to meet demand which had a (predictable) negative impact on quality. That certainly hurt their reputation… PLUS the ‘58 recession.
No. We had a '57 Dodge that was such a terrible piece of junk it ended my Dad's long time love affair with ChryCo and made him a Ford man until his death. By the way, happy 111th Birthday, Dad!
@BaoLe... Adam is *right. The misstep of fab new designs when demand couldn't be well met - PLUS Recession, PLUS poor '60-'62 styling - began Plymouth's demise.
The 59 Chevrolet proposal had stacked center mounted headlights as well In my opinion as weird as the Plymouth was the dodge was More weird the grill looked like one car stacked on another For you younger viewers that service man is frank fountain a k a crazy Guggenheim from the Jackie Gleason show
Moral of this-don’t pay attention to rumors when you’re designing cars. Just come up with something beautiful and stylish and go with it. To my eyes, Chrysler offerings from the late ‘50s through at least 1964 were the poster child for ugly, even hideous. From 1965 on, Chrysler car styling improved dramatically, thanks to Elwood Engel. But Chrysler just never seemed to get its act together till maybe the late 60s, only to struggle with losing additional market share in the 70s. We all know what happened by 1980. Calling Lee Iacocca.
Yes, the minute I saw that sign for the proprietor of the repair shop I knew I was going to see the guy from the old Jackie Gleason Show, who my dad liked to point out would appear as that Crazy Guggenheim character who ultimately would break into song with an un-"character"-istic classy baritone. I just looked up Fontaine and now I know why he sounded like he was from Boston - and another reason my dad admired him (it was admirable in my family if a "star" had a large family of their own and remained married to their spouse for life!)
A buddy that was a Mopar salesman in the early 60’s said that some years they parked the cars on the lot with the front end against the building and some years the back was against the building depending on how bad the styling of the front end was.
Exner actually did design the 63 Furys with little assistance from newcomer Engle Elmwood. The stern heavy handed encouragement from execs made Exner to come up with a 63 design that adorned a sleeker look with cleaner lines with very little tweaking from Engle. It was reported after the final 63 product was successfully completed Exner had said something like " Here's is the cleaner look that you want "
Yet, it was ahead of it's time...the grill/front end treatment on the '61 Plymouth reminds me of what they are using on a lot of these "crossovers" today...those Lexus crossover front end/grills come to mind....
Great episode, please do the same thing for 62 Dodge. I bought a nine year old, 62 Dodge Dart. While it may not have been pretty, it was hale for stout! You just couldn't kill the 225 slant six or the push button Torqueflite.
The problem with those 62-63 MoPar designs is they have no continuity. They look like different styling elements cobbled together. It’s all over the place. The worst are the Chrysler Newport and such.
I owned several early 60's Plymouths. I loved those cars. They were smaller, lighter and very pleasant to drive. They handled very well and I'm one of those strange people who liked the styling. The biggest negative in my recollection was that they were very rust prone (I lived in the northeast) and would rust out long before they were worn out. Many good memories.
pretty sure 1962 MoPars did not have curved side glass (8.47m mark on video), except Imperial. I believe curved side glass was planned for '62, but scrapped due to cost. I read this on Curbside Classic. You are my favorite youtube channel. Keep up the great work!
Just like General Motors, Chrysler just couldn’t seem to get it together. The 1960, 1961 & 1962 Plymouth’s were some of the strangest looking cars they ever built. I had a friend years ago who was a general manager at a Plymouth dealer in the early 60’s. He told me that they had several leftover 1961 models when the 1963’s came out. Nothing like a brand new 2 year old car!
So you're saying general motors just couldn't get it together? Aside from the Ford Mustang, General Motors OWNED the 1960s. They were by far the dominant player on the American automotive scene, designing the most beautiful car designs ever seen by anyone in America if not the entire world.
I didn't find the 1960 Plymouth ugly and I never really hated these, probably because they were different (and I was just a kid), but I don't know if I agree that Chrysler never recovered. The models from 1965 through about 1973 were very nice, especially the 1964 Imperial and 1967 Plymouth VIP.
I thought the 1960 Plymouth was ugly, until I saw the car Coldwar Motors restored/recreated/rebuilt..it is a beautiful work of art, changed my whole perspective on the year/model...
The 1962 Plymouth and Dodge didn’t have curved side glass. They had planned to have it, but the accountants decided it was unnecessary. Which was too bad, because the curved glass would have blended with the curved body sides.
"1:37 "Also homely 1960 Plymouth" I thought the 1960 Plymouth full sizes were beautiful -- a nice update to the 1959. It was 1961 that the Plymouth fell past homeliness, into the World of the Bizarre. Then in 1962 plunged straight through the floor into abrasively off-putting territory. 8:43 "Plymouths in 1962 also had curved side [door] glass" If those are curved, they sure don't look it. I'm pretty sure Plymouths didn't have curved side glass until 1965 10:34 "Chrysler never really recovered" I would argue Chrysler strongly rebounded by 1965, and fully recovered in 1969 with the beautiful fuselage designs. Almost a repeat of the 1957 Chryslers in being ahead of GM and Ford. Though Chrysler then fell apart again starting with the 1974 copycat GM full sizes. 11:31 apparent Plymouth long-form commercial. Geez this looks like it were shot for a children's show. Irritating, childlike music mixed too loud, exaggerated gestures, slow speaking and a clown-like character."
Ugly...in my eays they one of the best car designs ever. Virgil Exner was THE genius. This is almost 70 years old design and still it looks some how futuristic and weird like somtching form different reality. Those cars are automotive surrealism, too bad we never got the asymmetrical ones. I would pay money just to see them in person.
8:21- " What did you do to my mama, Russell?" ( Dick Shawn in , " its a mad, mad, world driving a very similar red convertible in the movie) 10:43, spencer Tracy's black detective car! Peter falk and rochester both had 59 Plymouth taxis.😂😂😂 ps: jane hathaway also had one in the early black and white beverly hillbillies seasons.)
In the early 80's, my sister was in college and drove a '62 Plymouth Belvedere. This had been a one-owner car with 17K original miles and was very reliable. It's light blue metallic paint, however, was faded to a nice patina and there were a couple of minor dents in it. During this time she would babysit for a family in prestigious Lake Forest, Illinois. Her car was so ugly that the neighbors complained to the parents about the eyesore in their driveway.
They unfairly moved Exner sideways after '62, so the '63 cars were designed by ex-Ford guy Engel. The '63 Plymouth was a fine looking car. '62's were lighter than before, had the aluminum TorqueFlite, and many clever engineering changes.
Not to pile on, but the early styling clays were frequently set with as many different design cues as possible. The execs would come into the studio and look at one proposal on the left, then compare that to another proposal on the right, discuss them with the design manager, make choices, and then leave. The studio staff would use the notes from that visit to refine the clay model, and the refined version would be shown to the execs again. This cycle would repeat again and again until the design was finalized. There are even surviving examples of fully functional show cars that have variations from side to side to work out the final position of things like badges, chrome trim, and multi-tone paint patterns.
The '62 Plymouth was my first car. It was a homely car, but I got it cheap. It had a 225 ci slant 6 engine with a push button automatic transmission. I drove it across the US twice and ran around Virginia and Oregon endlessly. The thing just kept going, I couldn't kill it. However, when I got another car I gave my Plymouth to my little brother, who wrecked it. And there were a lot of these around. Now however one never sees them. Homely as it was, I still remember it fondly.
Even as a Mopar fan I found the downsized Plymouths odd looking. But a lot of the ‘62 Plymouth design cues found themselves in the better executed ‘63-‘64 Chryslers. A couple years ago, didn’t our host interview a designer specifically about the individual design innovations on this Plymouth? I thought he made some interesting points. I wonder if a lot of the design missteps of Chrysler were a result of its market position. If it just followed GM, it really wouldn’t give the public a reason to switch. So it experimented a lot, such as with non-symmetry. Sometimes non symmetrical designs work because they defy expectations and thus look fresh. Such as moving logos from the center of a grill to the upper right quadrant (‘61-‘62 Chryslers). But it can go too far as with those clay models.
My first car was a 1961 Dodge Lancer (a design twin to the same year Plymouth Valiant). This video shows incremental design changes for these cars in 1962. In hindsight these 1961 production designs and 1962 concepts may look wacky and strange through contemporary lens aesthetics but that wasn't the case in that bygone era. My Lancer was a fun car and I can't recall any criticisms of the styling at the time. Now that 1962 Chevy II shown in the video was and remains a gorgeous and classic machine and I was envious of my sister when who bought one (and sadly totalled it out a couple years later). Would love to have a retro- mod of one of those today with upgraded suspension, brakes, wheels and power train.
Would like to have that '62 Chevy II also...beautiful car...but WITHOUT any retro-mod, "upgraded" suspension, brakes, wheels and power train...they look best stock, and if maintained in good condition drive and run well that way, too...nothing like a lowering and a set of big-diameter wheels to ruin the looks of a classic car(or truck)...
I’d like to say thanks for showing this, but it brings back sad memories. Since they were new I ( a Mopar guy) have thought both the 1962 Plymouth and Dodge Dart were bizarre / ugly. I could not imagine how the company management would approve them. I saw these pictures of the styling study vehicles quite a few years ago. My conclusion was that after these were made, there was probably not enough time left to start over so they made the decision to remove the really crazy stuff and go with it. On the other hand the engineering of these vehicles was excellent. This was the first year for the super successful B body platform that was used for many, many years. Also the 727 aluminum housing Torqueflite transmission, probably the best performing, most durable and reliable rear wheel drive automatic ever produced .
It astounds me how designer Virgil Exner could come up with spectacularly beautiful 1955-58 designs--the 1955 DeSoto, the 1956 Chrysler New Yorker, the 1956 Imperial, to name a few--and a few years later completely lose his sense of grace and beauty in his later designs.
He knew exactly what he was doing. Around 1960 car design shifted heavily. Find were gone, chrome was reduced, two tone paint was seen as too garish, cars became boxier. And Virgil's designs became outdated. To keep up with the competition Chrysler demanded Virgil to modernize his designs, but he absolutely hated the new trend and felt betrayed by Chrysler and the market. So he designed the 62-64 models as a means of retaliation. Getting fired in the process
I have not seen any documentation by eminent writers, Richard Langworth or others, to document "retaliation." Exner and his son have both been interviewed. If you have documentation of that, it would be interesting.
Thank Adam as this was interesting to see what they were thinking at the time. You were right about Chrysler and the changes they went through. Ward Cleaver seem to be happy with his Plymouth.
As a kid 30 some years ago, I used to read a magazine called V8-Magazine (in Finland) and I always looked for articles about those weird concept clay models just like in this video. And now I do the same but on TH-cam 😂
My dad bought a new '62 Dodge Lancer in white. By the time I was old enough to remember, we'd moved on to a '66 Polara 500 but a coworker of my dad's bought the Lancer. Even as a little kid I thought it looked odd but but in an individualistic, not weird way. My German dad, a talented TV-stereo repairman, installed Motorola AM/FM stereos to replace the factory AMs in the Lancer and Polara, and the Lancer sported a giant whip antenna mounted to the rear bumper that arced over the top of the car, clipped to the front end. Thanks BTW for your many enjoyable videos about so many cars I saw growing up as a '70s kid, all those wretched-excess boats ruining their classic '60s legacies, many I'd see daily riding my bike on my paper route. I don't think younger generations have any idea of the absolute dominance of U.S. automakers up until 30 years ago, to the point we used to call the marginal segment of imports, which seemed to be 90% Beetles, "foreign cars." p.s. After the Polara the next family car was a '71 Delta 88 built during the GM strike in late 1970. I was only 8 and still remember my dad cursing the squeaks even as we drove away from the Olds dealer!
Interesting…in the front 3/4 view of one of the clay mock ups it appears that the designer essentially borrowed the concave scallop from the rear quarter panel of the ‘62 Chrysler 300 in somewhat of a mirror image approach
The advertisement you showed was mostly overbearing--especially the goofy background music. BUT... the brief look at the mechanic's Plymouth station wagon was worth waiting for. Google shows several fine-looking examples, and somehow the '62 Plymouth's controversial protruding fenders look pretty graceful on the wagon, particularly from the rear-quarter view. This has been a fun series of videos. Thanks!
When I was 2 my mom and pop returned from Germany he had called multiple times from Germany trying to get a F85 Oldsmobile at his next duty station in Suffolk County NY. On the day of arrival at LaGurdia we took a taxi with me my pregnant mom and our suitcases to some dealer in the Bronx. Long story short no F85 so he got a brand new Plymouth Lancer. He hated that car and in 1965 he traded it for a 1965 Formula S Barracuda which in 1976 I got after mowing lawns for 3 summers to buy from him. He said he always hated that Lancer even though it ran well and was reliable, because he was forced to take it. I kinda like the looks of the Lancer.
The "Lube for Life" was a bean counter's way to save money by not drilling / tapping and then installing a zerk fitting on the various components of the car. "LOL" but true.
The original 1962 full sized Chrysler products are shown in a photo on the Web and the proposed 1962 Plymouth 3 door hardtop is actually fairly elegant. Apparently, one of the constraining features of the downsized Dodge and Plymouth was the added requirement to use the Valiant firewall which was from a narrower car. (I only recently read this so I don't the know the veracity of this 'fact').
They called it the lean look, 1963 was a little better. 1964 hit the sweet spot with, I owned 3 of them at various times and wish I still had one. The 383 powered Sport Fury was a tad faster than GTO in the quarter mile which made it somewhat of a sleeper. All three of those model years were a huge improvement over the 1960 to 1961 behemoths. Note: I worked for a Plymouth dealer during those years.
QC wise, my parents owned a 1958 Plymouth station wagon. The steering wheel would come off. Next would be a 1964 Belvedere wagon till a brother kept wrecking it, then my mom was seduced by a friend's LTD ride, so 1970 LTD after that. My parents went with Ford and GM from then on, but my oldest brother stuck it out with Mopar (68 Barracuda, 74 Duster, several [sigh] Aspens).
Exner seemed to have been obsessed with assymetrical design during the late 1950's. Even the XNR that he had built for himself was assymetrical. This particular period of automotive styling was strange - particularly with Lincoln and Buick playing with the canted headlamps.
Exner got the axe unfairly I think, between miss information not his fault just followed what he was told, and his failing health having a heart attack made him a target and its no secret that Chrysler needed a scapegoat, just really unfair, this man gave us the awesome Belvedere forward look, he really was a trail blazer and made a huge difference in the design in the automotive industry.❤
Sadly, Plymouth owner's lack of service forced Frankie's station to close. Unemployed, disheveled and rambling, Fontaine became known as “Crazy Guggenheim” and started hanging out at “Joe the bartender’s” place….. weekly….. on the Jackie Gleason show c. 1963
That commercial with Frank Fontaine . . . Whenever I was on travel to San Diego in the early 2000s, his son owned the Best Western Seven Seas and that's where the Navy would lodge us. The younger Fontaine was pretty funny and he also tended the bar. Some epic nights there.
Chrysler was trying to be ahead of Ford and GM, but was a setback for them when the ‘62 lineup didn’t sell very well. While Ford’s styling was a bit bland, they didn’t try to be something from the future but rather be something of the time period. Ford simply didn’t see over the top styling being the future and in 1960 and 1961, they were right when the new Galaxie and Continental were introduced, probably explains why Ford did well in the 1960’s and early 1970’s.
4:00 on: Keep in mind, those front end treatments may or may not have been suggesting an asymmetrical final product. They are simply design studies tacked onto the same car. You'll notice each side is also different. For our purposes, split the car down the middle.
4:00 I really like the scalloped rear quarters on this one. The look really sharp and they are complemented by that little upward swoop in the rear of the window line. They kept the window line swoop in the final design, but it didn't match anything anymore, so it looks like they just tried to hide it behind some chrome. It looks janky in the production design. 4:25 The front end design on this one actually looks really sharp and classy - if only it was symmetrical. If they'd've had two headlights on either side and the divider in the middle, it would've been a really nice split grille, that kind of reminds me of some other car. Takes the rear quarters and sides from the first, the front end of the second, the taillights and read end from the production - make it all symmetrical - and they would have had a very nice looking car. There is just something about an asymmetrical design that subconsciously strikes one as being ugly. It's like some uncanny valley thing.
I don’t think I have ever seen an early clay model that looked good. It is as if the designers say “Lets’s get the stupid ideas out of our system before we get to work.”
Our mom's first car was a '58 Savoy. Her first new car was a '63 sport fury convertible (red) …not the commando. started to rust (New York State and salty winters) and by '68 she traded it in for a new Dodge sport model car.
At first I thought that Edward Bernays (he drastically changed advertising, you can find out how I know) would say that the commercial was all wrong but 2/3 in, I remembered the cozy relationship that car makers had with the companies that sold you consumables once you owned a car. That's when I realized that the advertisement was a not too subtle message to _'stay away from fuel economy and other cost saving features'._
Some of those clays look like someone ran up the back of the car. Re the two different rear ends it is worth mentioning the studio would place a large mirror half way along so you could see each design for the full width
The designers get points for their free-association/brainstorming regarding the 1962 designs. However, it is interesting that they got beyond the drawing board, literally. They look like sci-fi outer space monster faces of that era. The Frankie Fontaine commercial is great! It sounds like there were a lot of great cost and maintenance saving features.
I think they were going for an avant-garde modernist abstract art look. Most humans prefer symmetry. I find some of the ideas interesting but collectively ugly.
Because of the assimetry, especialy on the tail of these clay models, I don't believe they were meant to be produced like tah, once the seams between the different sides, in the middle of the tails, were practically inpossible to do due to manufacturing processes at the time. I really do believe these models were made from two different ideas, split in half, put side by side to camparison.
I would like to remind everybody that the extremely-stylized "eagle" grill-badge on the 1961 Imperial was asymmetrically-placed in front of the driver. Exner's "XNR" show car really started the ball rolling, but nicely. It's still around somewhere.
very interesting to see "economy" as a focus in the 60's so many "current" issues being talked about.. this is a great time capsule... thanks for sharing... They were BIZARRE looking for sure...
People did'nt have money to blow on gas. And they wer'nt as narcissistic as now. Nobody gives a rats ass what you drive or where you live. Facts people.
My Grandma was a huge fan of the '62 Plymouths. She loved her Sport Fury hardtop and drove it for over 25 years, finally selling it when trim parts were proving impossible to find after she backed into something. Grandma had a lead foot, and her trips in that lightweight V8 were legendary... Grandma is long gone, but it is believed her old Fury was fully restored and survives today.
Did her sister drive a 64 Dodge and live in Pasadena?
@@michaelwhite2823I hope so for both, regardless, amazing story.
@@michaelwhite2823😅
They were comparatively light and could be powerful--nobody's denying that. At least when you were driving one, you couldn't see how ugly they were. The interiors--seats, door cards and dashboard were fine.
Little old lady from Pasadena, go Granny go Granny go Granny go.. Has a pretty little flower bed of white gardenias. Go Granny Go Granny Go Granny go.. But parked in her rickety old garage ... Is a brand new Super Stock Dodge.
@3:35 the asymmetrical clay models were very common in the day, it allowed designers to present two, three or even four different design ideas in model saving both time and money. All the design studios [GM(s), Ford, Chrysler] did this.
Yes.....
You beat us to it.
Their clay budget must have been enormous.
To be kinder to the asymmetrical designs, they’d sometimes insert a mirror so the both the right and left would appear to be the same. Sometimes, but not always.
@@davidbrownell1129 Exactly -that's how every manufacturer saved cost and time.
A guy I hung out with in high school had a clean, straight (but resprayed) '62 Sport Fury as a daily driver. It had the Magnum 5.2L and 5-speed manual transmission from a late '90s half-ton Ram, which was enough to make it reasonably peppy, and it had the HVAC system from the truck as well as cruise control and all that. His dad was a MoPar hot-rodder, and had done a GREAT job on the swap. The stereo and HVAC controls were hidden in what would've been the glovebox, so it looked factory with the dash being unmolested. I thought it was a good-enough looking car, certainly more interesting looking than most. Coolest car in the parking lot in the early '00s, although my '78 El Camino with a '68 327 350hp and a Tremec 5-speed was pretty cool itself.
Funny to see Frank Fontaine in the film. He was on the Jackie Gleason variety show for years as Crazy Guggenheim. Also had a decent singing voice!
I have an autographed album of his. He was from Boston and his accent really showed in the commercial. His singing voice on the album didn't impress me but it wasn't awful.
I liked Frankie as Mr. Guggenheim and was wonderful on the Gleason show
"Red Roses for a Blue Lady."
and a total drunk
In 1972 I had a '62 Valiant (Slant 6, Pushbutton Trans) that some earlier owner had decorated with a decklid Continental kit. I bolted an old telephone to the front-seat transmission hump and enjoyed myself pretending to make calls, back when car telephones operated on a ship-to-shore radio basis and there were only 100 available car telephone lines in Detroit's 313 area code. This did not have the magical effect on girls that I had hoped for.
I remember in the early 90s that car parts stores like Western Auto sold fake plastic car phones, including a fake antenna to put on your rear window, we made fake phone calls all the time!
(And made real calls on the CB radio lol)
All it needs is a hood scoop and its perfect! Possible outsider exhaust. Make the passenger seat into a full recliner and you are in like Flint. Shaggin wagon.
" '62 Valiant... some earlier owner had decorated with a decklid Continental kit."
LOL that was the 1960-1961 factory design. If yours was a 1962 it probably had a trunk lid from earlier.
You must have had High Hopes!
@@Jack_Stafford And back when ghetto Caddilacs all had a TV antenna and a small dead portable 120V home set mounted where it could be seen from outside because real 12V sets cost a bundle...
"Diamond in the back, sunroof top, digging the scene with a gangster lean..."
I was 6 years old when the new '62 Mopars went on sale, and I remember being stunned by how awful they looked! At that age, I was still a connoisseur of tailfins and floating/tilted headlights, and thought someone must have lost their minds. My views have softened with age, and I can appreciate the nice design elements, especially the hardtops... An automotive unicorn, if unicorns were one-horned aardvarks 😊
Same! Thought they were hideous. 😬😭
Only one I liked was the 63 Dodge 330
I was just 9 in 1962, and a few years later my hockey player friend's dad drove us to games in one of those HUGE early 60s Chrycos with the tail fins! There was a business we passed often on south Victoria Dr., where they lived, called "Bill's Tool Works". His dad would say ..."John's tool also works pretty good!" lol His name was John Perry! He was like a father to me, bc my own dad was an abusive drunk!
@@mr.blackhawk142 🤣🤣🤣 love that story.
I always thought that the asymmetrical cars were actually two different designs like you pointed out.
Doesn’t mean that they are pretty! The designers were clearly trying new things.
Styling models were (are) indeed often built with different proposals on each side and then large mirrors, aligned just right, were used for photographs. However I remember reading that Chrysler specifically explored asymmetrical designs during this period.
I remember seeing a proposal from Ford that had two different designs side to side. The right side ended up being the Mustang and the left is what became the Mercury Cougar.
"The designers were clearly trying new things", yeah like psilocybin and mescaline.
@@jeremymtc I guess they were early adopters of the psychedelics that became mainstream later on in the 60's.
Yes... If two designs at rear, why not at the front, instead of saying it's an odd asymmetrical design?
I can’t believe the design team at Plymouth looked at these designs and thought, these are beautiful. We’re going to finally out sale Chevrolet with these cars.
The ‘62 Plymouth DID NOT have curved side glass. However, in some of the proposals before downsizing, they did. No Chrysler product had curved side glass but the Imperial until the ‘65 C bodies got a major Engel makeover.
So true, and neither did '62 Dart. Same windows on both.
If you haven’t noticed, this guy really doesn’t know a lot about cars.
@@TheCrazyMoparDude68 He knows plenty, and he's not Joe Average muscle car goon, which is a nice change.
Right. I'm surprised he said that.
Hi Adam.Greetings from Australia. Fascinating episode on the "ugly ducklings" from Plymouth.
Chrysler had been in Australia for quite some time prior to the sixties, but the name really went up in lights in I think 1962 with the release of the Chrysler Valiant. Compared to the then very dowdy cars from Ford (the Falcon) and the GM Australian arm (Holden) the Valiant at the time was sensational.
The first two models were shipped in crates from the U.S, and assembled at the Chrysler factory in Adelaide, in South Australia. I know there was a Valiant in the U.S. but I don't know whether that was sent to Australia. The Valiant was the star of the show for Chrysler for many years in Australia, but the company in the end was bought by Mitsubishi and I think they discontinued the Valiant.
Perhaps more knowledgable fans in Australia or the U.S. may know the exact details.
Chrysler locally built a Valiant Charger which was a sales sensation in the seventies and beyond and they feature at the Chrysler Car Clubs meets around the country. I have a small collection of original newspaper advertisements of American cars in the fifties and sixties, one being a full page ad for the 62 Plymouth with the caption " The more you see the others the newer Plymouth looks"
Love your show
grant taylor Malmsbury Victoria Australia
‘Lube for life simply means the lifetime is shorter’. Nice!
Like electric cars; "the battery lasts the life of the car" means the car only lasts as long as the battery.
I had a 1962 Dodge Dart 440 convertible with a 383 or a 413 with a four-barrel carb. Boy I wish I never sold it. Great watch........
I love the strange sheet metal on Chrysler's early sixties models. This odd mixture of motion-suggesting and platformed cove shapes in the rear third of the cars is highly nostalgic. While very odd, it was at least adventurous.
Adventurous for sure! Some elements of certain years & models were odd, but the '62s were svelte imo.
Probably the real reason sales were down in 1958 was due to a recession and not because of quality.
Both!
From what I’ve read, the new ‘57 Mopar designs were so much in demand that it caught Chrysler Corp. flat-footed. They had to drastically increase production to meet demand which had a (predictable) negative impact on quality. That certainly hurt their reputation… PLUS the ‘58 recession.
Among the reasons that the Edsel failed, it looked great on paper but by the time it came to market a big chunk of the market was buying compacts.
No. We had a '57 Dodge that was such a terrible piece of junk it ended my Dad's long time love affair with ChryCo and made him a Ford man until his death. By the way, happy 111th Birthday, Dad!
@BaoLe... Adam is *right. The misstep of fab new designs when demand couldn't be well met - PLUS Recession, PLUS poor '60-'62 styling - began Plymouth's demise.
I have had my 62 Plymouth Belvedere police enforcer car for decades. I love it's psycho styling and light bodied performance! What a powerful car!
I think the 1960 Plymouth is gorgeous.
The 59 Chevrolet proposal had stacked center mounted headlights as well
In my opinion as weird as the Plymouth was the dodge was More weird the grill looked like one car stacked on another
For you younger viewers that service man is frank fountain a k a crazy Guggenheim from the Jackie Gleason show
Hello Mr. Donohue.
I thought so, a quick search confirmed that. Frank Fontaine was a non drinker in real life.
I too remember Frank Fountain.
Moral of this-don’t pay attention to rumors when you’re designing cars. Just come up with something beautiful and stylish and go with it. To my eyes, Chrysler offerings from the late ‘50s through at least 1964 were the poster child for ugly, even hideous. From 1965 on, Chrysler car styling improved dramatically, thanks to Elwood Engel. But Chrysler just never seemed to get its act together till maybe the late 60s, only to struggle with losing additional market share in the 70s. We all know what happened by 1980. Calling Lee Iacocca.
Yes, the minute I saw that sign for the proprietor of the repair shop I knew I was going to see the guy from the old Jackie Gleason Show, who my dad liked to point out would appear as that Crazy Guggenheim character who ultimately would break into song with an un-"character"-istic classy baritone. I just looked up Fontaine and now I know why he sounded like he was from Boston - and another reason my dad admired him (it was admirable in my family if a "star" had a large family of their own and remained married to their spouse for life!)
I miss Plymouth. Along with Mercury, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile.
A buddy that was a Mopar salesman in the early 60’s said that some years they parked the cars on the lot with the front end against the building and some years the back was against the building depending on how bad the styling of the front end was.
Congratulations on 100k subscribers!
Exner actually did design the 63 Furys with little assistance from newcomer Engle Elmwood. The stern heavy handed encouragement from execs made Exner to come up with a 63 design that adorned a sleeker look with cleaner lines with very little tweaking from Engle. It was reported after the final 63 product was successfully completed Exner had said something like " Here's is the cleaner look that you want "
Elwood Engel
@@Romiman1 thanks
I remember someone commenting (maybe I read it in Car & Driver) that the 1957s fell apart in two years, and the 1958s fell apart in one year.
Mopars paid pimp Tom McCahill loved them all
I wish you could have shown more of the ‘61 Plymouth. THAT had to be the most bizarre of all.
Yes, it is Ugly.
Yet, it was ahead of it's time...the grill/front end treatment on the '61 Plymouth reminds me of what they are using on a lot of these "crossovers" today...those Lexus crossover front end/grills come to mind....
Have always thought the ‘61 Plymouths were some of the ugliest cars ever made.
So ugly it's beautiful. {4 dr "insect that ate Tokyo" in my driveway.}
I think the 61 Plymouths looked cool. They look more futuristic than todays plastic bubble cars.
That black 62 Plymouth is gorgeous!
It’s incredible to me whenever a redesign makes a beauty queen look like her face caught fire and somebody beat it out with a barbed wire fence.
lol
I always enjoy reading the comments on this channel. They are usually so interesting and informative. A big thank you to everyone that made one.
Great episode, please do the same thing for 62 Dodge.
I bought a nine year old, 62 Dodge Dart. While it may not have been pretty, it was hale for stout! You just couldn't kill the 225 slant six or the push button Torqueflite.
The problem with those 62-63 MoPar designs is they have no continuity. They look like different styling elements cobbled together. It’s all over the place.
The worst are the Chrysler Newport and such.
And then you realize that the Plymouths in 1962 were quite restrained style-wise compared to the Dodges....
I owned several early 60's Plymouths. I loved those cars. They were smaller, lighter and very pleasant to drive. They handled very well and I'm one of those strange people who liked the styling. The biggest negative in my recollection was that they were very rust prone (I lived in the northeast) and would rust out long before they were worn out. Many good memories.
pretty sure 1962 MoPars did not have curved side glass (8.47m mark on video), except Imperial. I believe curved side glass was planned for '62, but scrapped due to cost. I read this on Curbside Classic. You are my favorite youtube channel. Keep up the great work!
Just like General Motors, Chrysler just couldn’t seem to get it together. The 1960, 1961 & 1962 Plymouth’s were some of the strangest looking cars they ever built. I had a friend years ago who was a general manager at a Plymouth dealer in the early 60’s. He told me that they had several leftover 1961 models when the 1963’s came out. Nothing like a brand new 2 year old car!
So you're saying general motors just couldn't get it together?
Aside from the Ford Mustang, General Motors OWNED the 1960s. They were by far the dominant player on the American automotive scene, designing the most beautiful car designs ever seen by anyone in America if not the entire world.
@@zephead4835 FO with that bs !!!!
I didn't find the 1960 Plymouth ugly and I never really hated these, probably because they were different (and I was just a kid), but I don't know if I agree that Chrysler never recovered. The models from 1965 through about 1973 were very nice, especially the 1964 Imperial and 1967 Plymouth VIP.
I thought the 1960 Plymouth was ugly, until I saw the car Coldwar Motors restored/recreated/rebuilt..it is a beautiful work of art, changed my whole perspective on the year/model...
I recall an ad in an old magazine, early 70s for an AMC model, showing an optional single foglight off-center in the grill between two headlights.
The 1962 Plymouth and Dodge didn’t have curved side glass. They had planned to have it, but the accountants decided it was unnecessary. Which was too bad, because the curved glass would have blended with the curved body sides.
There was also a significant recession in 58/59 that drove car sales down for all makes. One reason the smaller cars did better.
"1:37 "Also homely 1960 Plymouth"
I thought the 1960 Plymouth full sizes were beautiful -- a nice update to the 1959. It was 1961 that the Plymouth fell past homeliness, into the World of the Bizarre. Then in 1962 plunged straight through the floor into abrasively off-putting territory.
8:43 "Plymouths in 1962 also had curved side [door] glass"
If those are curved, they sure don't look it. I'm pretty sure Plymouths didn't have curved side glass until 1965
10:34 "Chrysler never really recovered"
I would argue Chrysler strongly rebounded by 1965, and fully recovered in 1969 with the beautiful fuselage designs. Almost a repeat of the 1957 Chryslers in being ahead of GM and Ford. Though Chrysler then fell apart again starting with the 1974 copycat GM full sizes.
11:31 apparent Plymouth long-form commercial. Geez this looks like it were shot for a children's show. Irritating, childlike music mixed too loud, exaggerated gestures, slow speaking and a clown-like character."
The longer-winded version of the Maytag Repairman...even their clothes/cap look similar...
Ugly...in my eays they one of the best car designs ever. Virgil Exner was THE genius. This is almost 70 years old design and still it looks some how futuristic and weird like somtching form different reality. Those cars are automotive surrealism, too bad we never got the asymmetrical ones. I would pay money just to see them in person.
Very polarizing style. Personally, i like their looks, seems radical even now. Would love a sport Fury '62.
He consulted with Picaso.
One of my favorite cars of all time the 1964 Plymouth Fury..... Beautiful!
8:21- " What did you do to my mama, Russell?" ( Dick Shawn in , " its a mad, mad, world driving a very similar red convertible in the movie) 10:43, spencer Tracy's black detective car! Peter falk and rochester both had 59 Plymouth taxis.😂😂😂 ps: jane hathaway also had one in the early black and white beverly hillbillies seasons.)
In the early 80's, my sister was in college and drove a '62 Plymouth Belvedere. This had been a one-owner car with 17K original miles and was very reliable. It's light blue metallic paint, however, was faded to a nice patina and there were a couple of minor dents in it. During this time she would babysit for a family in prestigious Lake Forest, Illinois. Her car was so ugly that the neighbors complained to the parents about the eyesore in their driveway.
The 1962 dodge / Plymouth's are AWESOME , AND THEY KICKED THE SH-T OUT OF THE COMP, ON THE DRAG STRIP .
Chevy II with 454 enters the chat.
You know the 454 didn't come out until 1970. @@rogersmith7396
and ate shit everywhere else
They unfairly moved Exner sideways after '62, so the '63 cars were designed by ex-Ford guy Engel. The '63 Plymouth was a fine looking car. '62's were lighter than before, had the aluminum TorqueFlite, and many clever engineering changes.
Not to pile on, but the early styling clays were frequently set with as many different design cues as possible. The execs would come into the studio and look at one proposal on the left, then compare that to another proposal on the right, discuss them with the design manager, make choices, and then leave. The studio staff would use the notes from that visit to refine the clay model, and the refined version would be shown to the execs again. This cycle would repeat again and again until the design was finalized. There are even surviving examples of fully functional show cars that have variations from side to side to work out the final position of things like badges, chrome trim, and multi-tone paint patterns.
I know that I'm an oddball but I love the Googie styling of the 1962 Fury.
The '62 Plymouth was my first car. It was a homely car, but I got it cheap. It had a 225 ci slant 6 engine with a push button automatic transmission. I drove it across the US twice and ran around Virginia and Oregon endlessly. The thing just kept going, I couldn't kill it. However, when I got another car I gave my Plymouth to my little brother, who wrecked it. And there were a lot of these around. Now however one never sees them. Homely as it was, I still remember it fondly.
Valiant?
@@brianwilson6403 While there was no model designation on the body, I believe it was a 4 door Savoy. The tail lights were just one on each side.
@LairdKenneth Thought from your description it might've been a Valiant.
My brother had '64 Sad Valiant for his first car.
Even as a Mopar fan I found the downsized Plymouths odd looking. But a lot of the ‘62 Plymouth design cues found themselves in the better executed ‘63-‘64 Chryslers. A couple years ago, didn’t our host interview a designer specifically about the individual design innovations on this Plymouth? I thought he made some interesting points.
I wonder if a lot of the design missteps of Chrysler were a result of its market position. If it just followed GM, it really wouldn’t give the public a reason to switch. So it experimented a lot, such as with non-symmetry. Sometimes non symmetrical designs work because they defy expectations and thus look fresh. Such as moving logos from the center of a grill to the upper right quadrant (‘61-‘62 Chryslers). But it can go too far as with those clay models.
My first car was a 1961 Dodge Lancer (a design twin to the same year Plymouth Valiant). This video shows incremental design changes for these cars in 1962. In hindsight these 1961 production designs and 1962 concepts may look wacky and strange through contemporary lens aesthetics but that wasn't the case in that bygone era. My Lancer was a fun car and I can't recall any criticisms of the styling at the time. Now that 1962 Chevy II shown in the video was and remains a gorgeous and classic machine and I was envious of my sister when who bought one (and sadly totalled it out a couple years later). Would love to have a retro- mod of one of those today with upgraded suspension, brakes, wheels and power train.
Would like to have that '62 Chevy II also...beautiful car...but WITHOUT any retro-mod, "upgraded" suspension, brakes, wheels and power train...they look best stock, and if maintained in good condition drive and run well that way, too...nothing like a lowering and a set of big-diameter wheels to ruin the looks of a classic car(or truck)...
I drove a Lancer when I was younger with the push button transmission. Loved that car
I’d like to say thanks for showing this, but it brings back sad memories. Since they were new I ( a Mopar guy) have thought both the 1962 Plymouth and Dodge Dart were bizarre / ugly. I could not imagine how the company management would approve them. I saw these pictures of the styling study vehicles quite a few years ago. My conclusion was that after these were made, there was probably not enough time left to start over so they made the decision to remove the really crazy stuff and go with it. On the other hand the engineering of these vehicles was excellent. This was the first year for the super successful B body platform that was used for many, many years. Also the 727 aluminum housing Torqueflite transmission, probably the best performing, most durable and reliable rear wheel drive automatic ever produced .
It astounds me how designer Virgil Exner could come up with spectacularly beautiful 1955-58 designs--the 1955 DeSoto, the 1956 Chrysler New Yorker, the 1956 Imperial, to name a few--and a few years later completely lose his sense of grace and beauty in his later designs.
He knew exactly what he was doing. Around 1960 car design shifted heavily. Find were gone, chrome was reduced, two tone paint was seen as too garish, cars became boxier. And Virgil's designs became outdated. To keep up with the competition Chrysler demanded Virgil to modernize his designs, but he absolutely hated the new trend and felt betrayed by Chrysler and the market. So he designed the 62-64 models as a means of retaliation. Getting fired in the process
I have not seen any documentation by eminent writers, Richard Langworth or others, to document "retaliation." Exner and his son have both been interviewed. If you have documentation of that, it would be interesting.
I owned a 58 Fury for thirty years. I’ve got a big block 63 Dodge 2 Door Sedan now. And, a collection of 59 GM products.
Thank Adam as this was interesting to see what they were thinking at the time. You were right about Chrysler and the changes they went through. Ward Cleaver seem to be happy with his Plymouth.
As a kid 30 some years ago, I used to read a magazine called V8-Magazine (in Finland) and I always looked for articles about those weird concept clay models just like in this video. And now I do the same but on TH-cam 😂
My dad bought a new '62 Dodge Lancer in white. By the time I was old enough to remember, we'd moved on to a '66 Polara 500 but a coworker of my dad's bought the Lancer. Even as a little kid I thought it looked odd but but in an individualistic, not weird way. My German dad, a talented TV-stereo repairman, installed Motorola AM/FM stereos to replace the factory AMs in the Lancer and Polara, and the Lancer sported a giant whip antenna mounted to the rear bumper that arced over the top of the car, clipped to the front end.
Thanks BTW for your many enjoyable videos about so many cars I saw growing up as a '70s kid, all those wretched-excess boats ruining their classic '60s legacies, many I'd see daily riding my bike on my paper route. I don't think younger generations have any idea of the absolute dominance of U.S. automakers up until 30 years ago, to the point we used to call the marginal segment of imports, which seemed to be 90% Beetles, "foreign cars."
p.s. After the Polara the next family car was a '71 Delta 88 built during the GM strike in late 1970. I was only 8 and still remember my dad cursing the squeaks even as we drove away from the Olds dealer!
My Father owned a 1960 plymouth and I loved that car, I was also a fan of the downsized plymouths especially the 62's. Thanks for sharing!
I learned a ton about these cars from this segment, but I'm pretty sure the Imperial was the company's only car with curved side glass for 1962.
Interesting…in the front 3/4 view of one of the clay mock ups it appears that the designer essentially borrowed the concave scallop from the rear quarter panel of the ‘62 Chrysler 300 in somewhat of a mirror image approach
That commercial feels like we intercepted it from another planet far, far away.
The advertisement you showed was mostly overbearing--especially the goofy background music. BUT... the brief look at the mechanic's Plymouth station wagon was worth waiting for. Google shows several fine-looking examples, and somehow the '62 Plymouth's controversial protruding fenders look pretty graceful on the wagon, particularly from the rear-quarter view. This has been a fun series of videos. Thanks!
I’ve got to say that in my opinion.. that blacked out Plymouth Sport Fury is one mean looking car Adam
Very 😎 video.I enjoy all your videos Adam,but I wish they were longer.
When I was 2 my mom and pop returned from Germany he had called multiple times from Germany trying to get a F85 Oldsmobile at his next duty station in Suffolk County NY. On the day of arrival at LaGurdia we took a taxi with me my pregnant mom and our suitcases to some dealer in the Bronx. Long story short no F85 so he got a brand new Plymouth Lancer. He hated that car and in 1965 he traded it for a 1965 Formula S Barracuda which in 1976 I got after mowing lawns for 3 summers to buy from him. He said he always hated that Lancer even though it ran well and was reliable, because he was forced to take it. I kinda like the looks of the Lancer.
The "Lube for Life" was a bean counter's way to save money by not drilling / tapping and then installing a zerk fitting on the various components of the car.
"LOL" but true.
The original 1962 full sized Chrysler products are shown in a photo on the Web and the proposed 1962 Plymouth 3 door hardtop is actually fairly elegant. Apparently, one of the constraining features of the downsized Dodge and Plymouth was the added requirement to use the Valiant firewall which was from a narrower car. (I only recently read this so I don't the know the veracity of this 'fact').
They called it the lean look, 1963 was a little better. 1964 hit the sweet spot with, I owned 3 of them at various times and wish I still had one. The 383 powered Sport Fury was a tad faster than GTO in the quarter mile which made it somewhat of a sleeper. All three of those model years were a huge improvement over the 1960 to 1961 behemoths. Note: I worked for a Plymouth dealer during those years.
QC wise, my parents owned a 1958 Plymouth station wagon. The steering wheel would come off. Next would be a 1964 Belvedere wagon till a brother kept wrecking it, then my mom was seduced by a friend's LTD ride, so 1970 LTD after that. My parents went with Ford and GM from then on, but my oldest brother stuck it out with Mopar (68 Barracuda, 74 Duster, several [sigh] Aspens).
You got to wonder how many martinis the Plymouth designers were having at lunch.
Exner seemed to have been obsessed with assymetrical design during the late 1950's. Even the XNR that he had built for himself was assymetrical. This particular period of automotive styling was strange - particularly with Lincoln and Buick playing with the canted headlamps.
Exner got the axe unfairly I think, between miss information not his fault just followed what he was told, and his failing health having a heart attack made him a target and its no secret that Chrysler needed a scapegoat, just really unfair, this man gave us the awesome Belvedere forward look, he really was a trail blazer and made a huge difference in the design in the automotive industry.❤
Sadly, Plymouth owner's lack of service forced Frankie's station to close. Unemployed, disheveled and rambling, Fontaine became known as “Crazy Guggenheim” and started hanging out at “Joe the bartender’s” place….. weekly….. on the Jackie Gleason show c. 1963
They could be standardized Uber cars. You used to have to grease cars like every 10,000 miles. People used to drive fewer miles before Interstates.
This ad is a gem!
Your knowledge and delivery make for very entertaining automotive videos. Thank you!
That commercial with Frank Fontaine . . . Whenever I was on travel to San Diego in the early 2000s, his son owned the Best Western Seven Seas and that's where the Navy would lodge us. The younger Fontaine was pretty funny and he also tended the bar. Some epic nights there.
The _"space age"_ inspired tailfins on cars... I guess they thought the _"nuclear age"_ would inspire deformed and mutated cars.
Given the number of great styling examples of the time from gm and ford it really bows my mind that they could miss the mark so bad.
Chrysler was trying to be ahead of Ford and GM, but was a setback for them when the ‘62 lineup didn’t sell very well. While Ford’s styling was a bit bland, they didn’t try to be something from the future but rather be something of the time period. Ford simply didn’t see over the top styling being the future and in 1960 and 1961, they were right when the new Galaxie and Continental were introduced, probably explains why Ford did well in the 1960’s and early 1970’s.
10:28 That black sport fury on steelies - i'd kill to drive that! gorgeous car.
4:00 on: Keep in mind, those front end treatments may or may not have been suggesting an asymmetrical final product. They are simply design studies tacked onto the same car. You'll notice each side is also different. For our purposes, split the car down the middle.
Even downsized I think the 62 ,s are much more interesting looking than ford or chevy .
This '62 Plymouth was beyond ugly to begin with!
Hard to believe the same company would go on to create the gorgeous Hemi Cuda and Roadrunner!
The “razor” front end wouldn’t have looked so bad if it were symmetrical.
I honestly really love all these designs with the asymmetrical headlights.
I love these mid 60's Mopars. Me and my dad had a Dodge 330 max wedge car that we turned into a race car. I loved the look of that car.
4:00 I really like the scalloped rear quarters on this one. The look really sharp and they are complemented by that little upward swoop in the rear of the window line. They kept the window line swoop in the final design, but it didn't match anything anymore, so it looks like they just tried to hide it behind some chrome. It looks janky in the production design.
4:25 The front end design on this one actually looks really sharp and classy - if only it was symmetrical. If they'd've had two headlights on either side and the divider in the middle, it would've been a really nice split grille, that kind of reminds me of some other car.
Takes the rear quarters and sides from the first, the front end of the second, the taillights and read end from the production - make it all symmetrical - and they would have had a very nice looking car. There is just something about an asymmetrical design that subconsciously strikes one as being ugly. It's like some uncanny valley thing.
I don’t think I have ever seen an early clay model that looked good. It is as if the designers say “Lets’s get the stupid ideas out of our system before we get to work.”
15:39 I once drove a late 70’s Plymouth from the dealership. That “convenient” under dash fuse box fell on my foot. 😅
Say, can developing design mock-ups be found for '60 & 61 Plymouth?
Chrysler may have goofed in 1962, but however, kept this unit around by 1965, when they did some serious regrouping!
My understanding is two treatments on one clay model is design study.
Our mom's first car was a '58 Savoy. Her first new car was a '63 sport fury convertible (red) …not the commando. started to rust (New York State and salty winters) and by '68 she traded it in for a new Dodge sport model car.
At first I thought that Edward Bernays (he drastically changed advertising, you can find out how I know) would say that the commercial was all wrong but 2/3 in, I remembered the cozy relationship that car makers had with the companies that sold you consumables once you owned a car. That's when I realized that the advertisement was a not too subtle message to _'stay away from fuel economy and other cost saving features'._
1957 Plymouth - Suddenly it's 1960. 1960 Plymouth - Suddenly it's 1957!
Some of those clays look like someone ran up the back of the car. Re the two different rear ends it is worth mentioning the studio would place a large mirror half way along so you could see each design for the full width
The designers get points for their free-association/brainstorming regarding the 1962 designs. However, it is interesting that they got beyond the drawing board, literally. They look like sci-fi outer space monster faces of that era. The Frankie Fontaine commercial is great! It sounds like there were a lot of great cost and maintenance saving features.
I think they were going for an avant-garde modernist abstract art look.
Most humans prefer symmetry.
I find some of the ideas interesting but collectively ugly.
Great vid, really enjoyed!!!!
Because of the assimetry, especialy on the tail of these clay models, I don't believe they were meant to be produced like tah, once the seams between the different sides, in the middle of the tails, were practically inpossible to do due to manufacturing processes at the time. I really do believe these models were made from two different ideas, split in half, put side by side to camparison.
The "Plymouth Unfairman's Shop" was great 😂
I would like to remind everybody that the extremely-stylized "eagle" grill-badge on the 1961 Imperial was asymmetrically-placed in front of the driver.
Exner's "XNR" show car really started the ball rolling, but nicely. It's still around somewhere.
very interesting to see "economy" as a focus in the 60's so many "current" issues being talked about.. this is a great time capsule... thanks for sharing... They were BIZARRE looking for sure...
People did'nt have money to blow on gas. And they wer'nt as narcissistic as now. Nobody gives a rats ass what you drive or where you live. Facts people.