Jalopnik
We've seen 61 of Alameda's street-parked cars so far in this series, but only seven have been from the 1950s. Since I have a fair number of Alameda cars from that decade already photographed, it's time to break one out. This '55 Plymouth lives in the East End, a block or so from the '72 El Camino we saw earlier in the month, and I'd been meaning to shoot some photos of it for quite some time.
Most Americans think of the shoebox Chevy, or maybe the Thunderbird, when they think of cars from 1955. But Chrysler was making some interesting cars that year, too, though you don't see quite so many of them around these days.
The Savoy was Plymouth's mid-priced car for '55; the name was put on several different types of Plymouth until finally being discontinued after 1965.
Other than some seriously bent-up rear sheetmetal, this Savoy is in pretty solid condition.
It's not clear to me what this hood ornament is supposed to represent. A boat? Any ideas, Mopar fans?
The standard engine for the '55 Savoy was a 230-cube flathead six, which is most likely what's in this no-frills example. If you wanted eight cylinders and heads-full-o-valves, you could opt for the (non-Hemi) 241 or 260 V8s, which produced 157 and 177 horsepower, respectively.
A car with fins like this really needs a 392, preferably with a really lumpy cam and multiple carburetors.
Of course, you'd want to retrofit the in-dash phonograph option from 1956 into this car, so you could play scratchy 45s while driving.
The unadorned lines on this car look pretty good, though maybe some color other than Swimming Pool Blue might improve the appearance. Hey, no rust!
Sad to think that Plymouth has joined Oldsmobile in the Recently Defunct Marque Graveyard.
Comments
Pound out the dents add some flat black, about 300hp and you have a runner
At Virgil Exner's styling studio, the work-up for this Savoy's hood ornament was called the "flying f**k at the moon" design.
I'm pretty sure the hood ornament is a very stylised ship. There were periods in Plymouth's history where it used the Mayflower, or other ships, as a logo. One of those periods started right before Plymouth's Recent Demise, when the individual ChryCo marques dropped the Pentastar and developed their own badges. Chysler got the blue ribbon, Dodge used the ram from the trucks, and Plymouth used a ship in full sail. But, you know, they sold like eight Plymouths during that period, so nobody remembers.
The I'm-gonna-cut-you-sucka hood ornament looks an awful lot like a stylized motor yacht.
Too bad about the trunklid, but I'll bet there's more than enough steel in there to beat it back into shape. Nice find.
Aroound here, most older cars are rust-colored, except a few which are indistinct under their protective coating of kudzu.
@Bauhaus: Clearly its a Zumwalt class destroyer.
This one's from a happy time in Plymouth land, when they sold like 50,000 of each model line a year. The ones built before 1957 were known for good quality too.
They did worse than swimming pool blue...like green with yellow interiors and bizarre two-tones.
My Dad bought my mother a brand new hardtop '55 Belevedere V8 that same color blue. I'm surprised they didn't opt for the underdash 45 player but it turns out that it would only play Lawrence Welk records in the Dodge and Elvis records in the Plymouth.
@Bauhaus: They only sold eight Plymouths during any period.
Did I see blood on that hood ornament?
As mentioned above, the hood ornament is a stylized sailing ship, evoking an image of pilgrims sailing to Plymouth Rock.
However, The car was NOT named after the famous Mass. stone.
When Walter Chrysler was launching his new low priced Chevy fighter, he brainstormed for a name. Someone suggested that Plymouth would be instantly recognized, as that was the name of the # 1 brand of baling wire. At that time, most Americns worked on farms.They were all familiar with Plymouth wire. Strong, dependable, and low priced.
The ship idea came much later.
My father had a '55 Plymouth. All I can remember is that it was battleship gray.
Ugly grille, but a pretty profile.
[phoenix.craigslist.org]
My '55 Dodge came from the factory yellow with a black roof/hood and green interior. THAT was a fucked-up color combo.
I really like this one, it's a coupe too, which is much more rare than the four door sedan.
BTW, the Hiway HiFi record players from 1956 played a 16rpm record which was a format you could only buy from your Chrysler dealer. There was only a short list of music that could be purchased which is why it didn't go over very well. Later 50's Plymouths got a 45rpm record player as a Mopar-approved accessory.
That would make a great moonshine running car.
"A car with fins like this really needs a 392, preferably with a really lumpy cam and multiple carburetors."
Yes!
"The unadorned lines on this car look pretty good, though maybe some color other than Swimming Pool Blue might improve the appearance. Hey, no rust!"
Noooooooooooo! That color is so perfect, so Fifties. Fix the damage, and add a V8, but by all means leave the color.
I would probably do one more mod since, according to the trunk lid, this car has the not-so-famed PowerGlide automatic, granddaddy of the TorqueFlite. But in this day and age, a two speed tranny seems positively troglodyte.
Savoy. Plaza. Cranbrook. Now those were names for cars.....
Comment on this post
Reply by EmailLogin with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?