'71 Plymouth Sport Fury, Sanborn, N.Y.

So this is a 1971 Plymouth Sport Fury formal two-door hardtop. Yes, there were two different rooflines for the hardtop coupe: formal and regular. How anything with a 120-inch wheelbase can be a sport anything is beyond me. There was even a Sport Fury station wagon on a 122-inch wheelbase to further dilute the once sporty nameplate. Sport Furys came standard with a 381 CID V-8; the new-for-1971 Sport Fury GT coupe had the 440 CID Super Commando which was listed at 350-hp. Plymouth called the GT an executive’s supercar. Apparently, when it came to executives, size mattered. This pictured ’71 can be seen out front of a Sanborn wrecking yard. When new it listed for $3,710 and just 3,957 of them were produced (45 more than the regular-roofed two-door); the GT is even rarer with a mere 375 of them rolling off the production line. There were a whopping 18 different color choices for the ’71s, and a choice of five different-colored vinyl tops; interiors also were offered in greens, blues, and other colors you rarely see today. The cars may have been, um, crap, but they sure were colorful back then!

brochure art, regular roof

GT brochure art

the cheapies: Fury I & Fury II

Look! In your rearview mirror!

—Jim Corbran, You Auto Know