And These Are My Cars

The top picture is Baby, my '62 Plymouth that not only has an interesting and famous history in Detroit circles, but has quite a story with my having it in the first place. The lower picture is my '67 Chrysler Newport, or as we call it around here, Moneypit. And thanks Drew for enjoying the car show pics.

The history of the Plymouth is still, after all these years quite entertaining. Just before actual production was to begin a Plymouth executive overheard at a cocktail party that Chevy was producing a small more compact car. Misunderstanding the information, he then rushed to other execs on Monday morning claiming Chevy was downsizing for '62. Keep in mind all of the dyes had been cast, the long hours of designing a car has been 2 years in the making.

Well, when the president of Chrysler got wind of this he scrapped the previous design for Plymouth (and Dodge) and began to shorten the wheelbase. From what i understand, factories went around the clock for a couple of weeks re-engineering a small, shorter Plymouth.

This is the original version of the Plymouth before downsizing.

When the car was finished and the line was rolled out to dealerships, a collective shriek occurred at the short dumpy car. Many dealerships in fact quit Plymouth, and sales were one of the worst ever for the company. The Chrysler president claimed the car looked like a "plucked chicken".

And what about that Chevy rumor. The Chevy man was speaking not about downsizing all Chevys but rather introducing the Chevy II, a smaller more compact car.

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