1965 Fury pace cars!

[John Hatchard]

Happy Christmas everyone in the C-bod World!

I had the sad pleasure of selling my 65 Sport Fury due to 'problems'...

But now I have the HOTS for a 65 pace car convert!

After reading TWENTY pages of TerryM's resto, I am totally 'blown away'!

From where he started and now has ended up in the 'land of OZ' is truly amazing...

So after many years of research I have seen a lot of RESTO Fury's, in all shapes and sizes lol.

Here are some strange 'FLAG cars' that have risen from the ashes.

My biggest concern with these is the 'LETTERING'...(too low)?

 

[John Hatchard]

This is an 'official' B&W picture with higher lettering...

Shame it isn't colour as those seats look dark, like red?

 

[John Hatchard]

Did anyone save this beauty yet???

You got to start with something and this is/was $4900!
Maybe $3900 would get a good start on a resto...

 

[John Hatchard]

According to this literature?

NDT 977 (low lettering)

35 (actual real) cars from the track day and the 'pace car' with a 426!

1500 models produced at the dealers...WOW...

 

[Badvert65]

Only year Plymouth paced the Indy 500. I wish they made a die cast of it. I have had my 65 (non Pace car) Sport Fury vert since 1980 and I really love that car. It's hibernating now, waiting for its engine upgrade.
Keep the pictures coming, I could never see too many 65 Furys.

 

[CBODY67]

When the Pace Car convertibles were shipped to the dealers, the decals were in a package with the car. It was the owner's option to get them installed or not. I know that as one of them was sold by the local, smaller town C-P dealership. I questioned the service manager or salesman and that's what they told me. I did see the car, unadorned, but still a "Pace Car" convertible. Remember, too, that this was in 1965 when adding decals was generally not in the realm of what body/trim shops usually did, so installation quality could vary.

Certainly, the decal package had instructions and placement templates to do things correctly. Not unlike the paper templates for installing outside mirrors sold in accessosry packages and such.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67

 

[CBODY67]

www.mecum.com Kissimmee event. ONE 1965 Plymouth Sport Fury Comvertible Pace Car (with lettering) on page 42 or 120.

 

[John Hatchard]

I did see this lovely example on one of my 'road trips' to California!

There again (I had to catch a plane first) to start my trip lol...

Or maybe this fine example?

If this hellcat was a 'pace car' then the Indy cars would NOT be able to 'keep up' lol

 

[John Hatchard]

Think it could be this one?

The blue stripes are a bit of a clue...
but she doesn't have the proper 'dash plate'...

 

[CBODY67]

It MIGHT be like chasing a nanoparticle in the galaxy, but might there be a list of VINs which had the Indy Pace Car option on them? Or even a list of contents of the particular decal/ornamentation packages, with the installation instruction templates?

Perhaps some operatives at the Indy Racetrack Museum might have some possible information on these things? Or even one of the actual pace cars in their collection (or pictures thereof)?

As for the posted black and white picture above, back then, a b&w picture reproduced much better due to the sharper divisions between the color tones in the pictures (in newspapers, due to the grayscale dot matrix of pictures in newspapers) rather than repreoducing with a slight blur between the tones in a printed situation. So the "press kits" would usually be in b&w rather than color, back then. Still, though, decal placement could be accurate.

Bad thing, if there might be one, is that when the cars were produiced, things like VIN lists and such were unheard of in the general public. Although there had to be something like that at the factory level of things, I suspect. The main thing was how many were produced and where they went. TWO cars were usually sent to Indy for race use, as I recall, as a matter of course. I don't remember seeing anything about what mods the actual pace cars might have had done to them, to make them better for that use.

When the local car was delivered, I took notice of it soon thereafter. I knew what it was, even without the decals on it. Then, too, ANY C-body convertible was a special car in this region of TX. That it had the particular white and medium blue interior, with a 383 4bbl did elevate it a bit over a normal SF convertible, though, but still a somewhat unremarkable car, other than that. Nothing which would "trip my trigger", so to speak, of a junior high school-aged "car freak". IF it might have had a 426 Street HEMI, that might have done it.

Just some thoughts and observations,
CBODY67

 

[John Hatchard]

Nice reply C67!

Happy Christmas to you all in Moparland.
I know these cars are fairly ordinary and everyday in the mighty land, of USA.

But to us Limeys, whenever we see a 60's American Automobile, you stop and look!
They are a thing of wonderment and take us all back to a time of adventure...

My first Mopar was a RHD 1969 Plymouth Barracuda in white.
That was the mid 80's and I miss that car a hell of a lot!

It had a tired 318ci and I lucked into a late 60's 383ci Jensen Interceptor.
It was a 'rust-bucket' as most UK cars are even at twenty years old.

I knew that the early Cuda's had 383's and some 440 cars too.
So I did the conversion and it was a BLAST!

But some nasty person smashed the side in and I had to sell her cheap.

Hopefully I can find a nice example of a rare and mostly unknown Plymouth 'pace car'...

The ROARING 65's with a 426ci...Tamed or UN-tamed horses...

65 Fury with a 426...hemi...

 

[Mr. Goodbuy]

Happy Christmas everyone in the C-bod World!

I had the sad pleasure of selling my 65 Sport Fury due to 'problems'...

But now I have the HOTS for a 65 pace car convert!

After reading TWENTY pages of TerryM's resto, I am totally 'blown away'!

From where he started and now has ended up in the 'land of OZ' is truly amazing...

So after many years of research I have seen a lot of RESTO Fury's, in all shapes and sizes lol.

Here are some strange 'FLAG cars' that have risen from the ashes.

My biggest concern with these is the 'LETTERING'...(too low)?

View attachment 504633

View attachment 504634

View attachment 504635

 

[Mr. Goodbuy]

Happy Christmas everyone in the C-bod World!

I had the sad pleasure of selling my 65 Sport Fury due to 'problems'...

But now I have the HOTS for a 65 pace car convert!

After reading TWENTY pages of TerryM's resto, I am totally 'blown away'!

From where he started and now has ended up in the 'land of OZ' is truly amazing...

So after many years of research I have seen a lot of RESTO Fury's, in all shapes and sizes lol.

Here are some strange 'FLAG cars' that have risen from the ashes.

My biggest concern with these is the 'LETTERING'...(too low)?

View attachment 504633

View attachment 504634

View attachment 504635

 

[Mr. Goodbuy]

I’m currently restoring a 65 Sport Fury Indy Pace Car. Here are some photos. It’s a work in progress.

 

[John Hatchard]

Happy Christmas Mr Goodbuy!

You sure have one fine Mopar there indeed...

Hopefully we will get to meet up at the Van Nuys Fling sometime in the near future.
I haven't been for ten loooong years, so I'm due a visit lol...

 

[Rustyrodknocker]

I cant see an owner adding the decals if they were not already on the car. I could see these as a dealer promo car that eventually got sold or a collector that had deep enough pockets to buy a new collector car. Those guys do exist for sure.
But man that is some loud paint especially for 65! They couldn't sell all the wing cars ! But I would drive a wing car anyday. But sign cars..
They give me a glitch. I can remember somebody had a 78 pace car vette in my little home town from the time I was 10-20 that thing bothered me.
I just couldn't understand. I have seen the vettes in use though. I have seen several 69 camaros and they were all original and near no use.

But if I was gonna be in the labor day parade and could justify the expense, the Fury would be far and away the winner.

 

[John Hatchard]

Nice reply Rod Knock!

How loud is LOUD!
Its a special car with a special history the 65 Plymouth Converts!
We have the beauty of magnetic decals these days so one can be 'all Labor day' one weekend and just plain old convert the 51 weekends lol.

The Wingcar guys had the same problems back in the early 70's and a fuel crisis!
They were seen as the antipathy of the Gas Guzzler culture, when ordinary folks couldn't buy Gas for work etc.
A rich persons 'play thing' and totally ridiculous for the likes everyday folks...

But now the Wingcars are the envy of the World, but NOT Fury converts lol...

 

[CBODY67]

In one respect, the GM-brand pace cars usually got the decals installed by the dealer, at the owner's request. EACH of them had a specific paint scheme to go along with the decals, plus some other pace-car-specific items on them too. In the case of the '78 Corvette pace cars, they had a specific wheel on them, a little difference in the sheen of the aluminum, with a particular-width red stripe on them. In order to get a replacement wheel for one of those cars, we had to supply the vehicle's VIN to Chevrolet to order it. THEY knew what the cars were worth and wanted to ensure there were NO clones of them. The seat style appeared on the normal '79 Corvettes. In general, getting the decals installed on the GM cars were desired. It was one way to prove the car was legit. Of course, the Indy 500 Pace Car Edition vehicles had a specific option code which was on the Service Parts ID label, too. As with the later versions of the Chevrolet vehicles used by the race track for all of their functions (pace car, suuport vehicles, vans, etc.), they all had specific graphics applied to the outer body. Easily identifiable.

In the case of the Plymouths, it was a normal convertible 383-4bbl car with decals, the way I saw it. It IS what it is and deserves appreciation, though. Additionally, ANY Chrysler product convertible is a low-production volume car.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67

 

[John Hatchard]

I just love the pace car stories and the 71 Challenger is the BEST!
Fortunately no one died but some folks got 'beat -up' real bad!

 

[John Hatchard]

How cool is this beauty from 1941?

hasn't even got a windshield lol...