This week’s find A 1965 Plymouth Sport Fury is on display at the Pavilions Rock ‘n Roll Car Show. This car has several stories to tell, the biggest of which dates back to 1970. But first, let’s start with the platform on which the Mopar is based.
Plymouth introduced the Sport Fury midway through the model year as the brand’s full-size bucket-and-console sports car. However, due to the goofy design and the fact that it was slightly smaller than the full-size offerings from Chevrolet and Ford, sales fell off drastically. For 1965, Plymouth would finally have a “proper” full-size car. The platform was called “C-Body” and included Fury I, Fury II, Fury III and Sport Fury. The latter model came with the following equipment standard.
(Image courtesy of Hamtramck Historical)
(Image courtesy of Hamtramck Historical)
The standard 318 was nothing special, and neither was the twin-barreled 383. It got interesting with the 330 hp 383 four-cylinder.
The top engine, however, was the Commando 426, a 365-horse job that had been introduced the year before. A powerful camshaft, valve springs and pistons set this ‘RB’ big block apart from smaller engines in the lineup and fulfilled a nice role as a street engine – in fact this 426 was often referred to as the ‘Street Wedge’ to distinguish it from the Max Wedge -Racing engine that appeared from 1962-64.
Note the Commando V8 badge.
This 1965 Plymouth Sport Fury owned by Dennis and Laura Kerry is one of the rare ones fitted with the Commando 426. If you take a closer look at the paint job, you’ll see that this car has a story to tell: Dennis’ father bought the mighty Mopar new from Johnny Motors in Hamtramck, Michigan. Father and son added American Racing Torq-Thrust wheels, cams, wheelhouse headers and 4.56 gears which helped the Sport Fury run 12.84 in D/Stock Automatic. In 1970, Dad had the Plymouth repainted in a contemporary custom scheme of metal flake and spikes. What you see here is the car as it was in 1970.
When Dennis came of age he bought his first new car, a 1967 Plymouth GTX. This car featured a Super Commando 440, which was basically a larger version of the 426 you see here. Although no longer in the Kerrys’ stable, there are two other 1967 GTXs currently sitting in their garage.
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