Curtis Redgap's Inside History of Plymouth - Part 8b

I am by no means an expert, and I cannot make any claim to accuracy for the materials that I have used to make these articles. In some cases, the journals go back 50 years, and I nearly cringe each time I open them as they appear so fragile. I could choose to copyright, but I do not, as I feel that this material should be sent far and wide as to show DaimlerChrysler that PLYMOUTH should be allowed to survive, and finally stand on its own! This is designed for the reading pleasure of folks that love MoPars. Any resemblance to persons, places, things or dates is purely coincidental. If you like what you are reading, please make sure to contact Dr. David Zatz, or leave me an email message "PlymouthRIP62801@aol.com." Thanks for your many kind comments.

Installment VIII, Section 2: With a View to a Kill

The first advertising materials about Valiant were strongly worded, almost challenging. "Nobody's kid brother.... this stands on its own four wheels."

Chrysler intended to market Valiant on its own. That would mean having Valiant stores all by themselves. Marketing must have been holding its collective breath to see how sales of the new car were going to go. For the initial introduction, however, the Valiant was sent only to those dealers selling Plymouth. Which, of course, meant that the newly freed Dodge dealers did NOT get any of the small cars. It didn't take more than a couple of days before some of the Dodge boys were whining about the lack of the Valiant. They should not have been.

On the opening night of October 9, 1959, we sold 7 new cars. This was a very good sign for the health of the dealership. It did not bode too well for Plymouth though. No one bought a new 1960 Plymouth.

The Dodge Dart accounted for three sales that first nigh, sales that ordinarily would have been a Plymouth. Valiant made two sales, one of which was a big surprise. Even with a new hefty price tag of over $4,000, two fairly loaded Chryslers left the lot.

We had a good crowd of people. As usual, most were comparison shoppers. Ford's new offering had turned away a lot of regular Ford people. The new style "just don't look like a Ford." To be honest, I sorta liked the fastback Starliner.

Chevrolet had toned down the "batmobile" design of its big cars. As for the small cars, the Chevrolet Corvair was not an instant hit. The rear engine design confused traditional buyers. It was also underpowered. The flat six felt sluggish with a full load of people and luggage.

Ford introduced the Falcon. It was conventional in design, and very Ford-like in style. It sat on a 109.5 inch wheelbase, which was 3 inches longer than the Valiant, although the Valiant appeared larger. About the only real drawback was the engine, designed especially for the Falcon, a straight 6 cylinder of 144 cubic inches. It developed 90 horsepower, and there were no options. It was a "coffee grinder" mill that always seemed busy. Equipped with a Ford automatic transmission, it took a long time to get up to speed.

Valiant kicked butt on both Corvair and Falcon in any area you wanted to compare it too... except perhaps styling. It was different. It still had all the right Chrysler stuff though. Torsion bar suspension, Torqueflite transmission, good power, good new Bendix brakes (an item that ONLY Valiant had and would keep to itself for the next three years. Certainly the big car lines desperately needed this brake system, yet Chrysler, for whatever reasons, withheld it from the big cars lines until 1963!), a smart looking dashboard that was "big car" in appearance, a station wagon that Corvair didn't have, and a host of options. At least the buyer could feel like they could participate in the process of acquiring their own "unique" car that suited their tastes. If a buyer compared all three, hands down, the Valiant was far superior. But, it presented two problems. One: it was a Chrysler product, and that old gremlin of poor quality was still attached. Two: no one knew what kind of car it was! Was it a Plymouth? A Dodge? A Chrysler? Once again, they didn't know how to market a car. Corvair was a Chevrolet. Falcon was a Ford. What was Valiant? Valiant sales did take off pretty well though. Sales were over 194,000 in the first model year. Falcon took off better, however, making 435,000 units.

Of the two Valiant sales we had the first night, one went to my Mom. Talk about being shocked! Up until now, she never had her own car. Not that she couldn't have had one, she just never felt the need. She always drove Dad's cars. It was amusing in a way to watch her. She was in her usual circulation mode, talking to customers, making sure they were comfortable, keeping them fed and coffeed up. Yet, every time she would pass the Valiant on the show room floor, she would stop, look, touch, and yes, smell the new interior. About the 10th time by, she put all pretense aside, and started to sit in the car. Each sit in grew a little bit longer. Finally, she made up her mind. She went outside and looked at the Valiants on the lot. She choose a nice one. Blue 4 door sedan, automatic, power steering, brakes, radio, heater/defroster, cloth seats, and upgraded trim package. I don't think I will divulge the cost that Dad paid for it, however, the sticker price was $2,203. My Dad was proud as punch, somewhat confused, and I believe, a little stunned that his wife of all these years had gotten her own car, on her own!

A true barometer of the fate of Plymouth showed when 3 Darts were sold the first night. One of the customers that chose the Dart outrightly shocked everyone that knew her.

Mrs. Beacheum was a high school English teacher. Her reputation was formidable. She was all about business, and didn't stand for any funny stuff, either in her class room or outside it. Her husband died a hero on Utah Beach, June 6, 1944, which was the D-Day invasion of France in World War II. He was awarded the Medal of Honor. Mrs. Beacheum dedicated it to the school system. Consequently, the medal was on permanent display in the High School. Prior to the war, Mr. Beacheum owned a food processing company that made apple and fruit products. It had been absorbed by an industrial giant that is still in business today. The original plant Mr. Beacheum had built was incorporated into several huge expansions at the site, and is part of the high running operation to this day. His wise investment in stocks gave Mrs. Beacheum annuities that were to die for. I sneaked a look at her financial statement when she bought her last car. She didn't have to work, several times over!

The point is that from 1932 onward, Mr. and Mrs. Beacheum's sole outward indulgence appeared to be the purchase of a new Plymouth car, each and every year. They either got it on introduction night or somewhere within a week after. Always the same. Black, 2 door, stick shift, 6 cylinder, radio deleted, heater/defroster, carpeting, and cloth seats. Their trade in car always had people standing in line to get. Low mileage, garage kept, meticulously maintained, non smoked up, and complete with all records. The only change came in 1955 when Mrs. Beacheum asked my Dad if he thought her husband, if he were alive, would object to her getting her new Plymouth with air conditioning. Dad didn't know what to say. In her usual no nonsense manner, she was blunt. "You were always a good student, but how you came to selling cars is beyond me since you never had the ability to lie to someone." "Now, if your wife asked you about air conditioning in your car, what would you do?" Of course, my Dad didn't hesitate. "If she wanted air, she would get air, no questions from me." I think that is the first time I ever saw that lady smile, truthfully. "You make a fine couple, worthy of respect. I would like the air conditioning then, from now on." Everything else was the same. Black, 2 door, stick shift, 6 cylinder, radio delete, heater/defroster, carpeting, cloth seats and air conditioning. Opening night, she was there. Her 1959 Plymouth 2 door was outside. Probably 20 of her "neighbors" were there just to buy her trade in.

What she did was a harbinger of the future for Plymouth. She looked at the Plymouth models. But, that was all she did. She marched resolutely over to a Dodge Dart sitting on the show room floor. There was no doubt in my mind at that moment, that Plymouth might as well go away right then! She was going to take the Dart! It was a 2 door hardtop, not a sedan. It was also pretty well loaded. 318 V-8, automatic (!) power steering, power brakes, air conditioning, carpeting, cloth seats, and other upgrades. It was white over red. She made no explanation. The sticker price was close to $3,800 with the air on it. Dad gave her $1,550 for her 59 trade. She paid the $2,300 difference with a check. Dad said that he would deliver her new car the next morning because he had to wait until the store closed to get the car off the show room floor. She stiffened and told him "that won't do. It is my car now, I paid for it, and I don't want anyone else in it, or touching it." Within 10 minutes, the car was outside. It caused a stir of curiosity, but she drove away in her new Dodge that night. People talked about that deal for months afterwards. She had become an instant legend. We sold her 1959 Plymouth within 5 minutes of it becoming a trade. We got $2,000 for it. See why I loved the business? Purportedly, she told someone that the reason she took the Dodge is that after thinking about it, long and hard, she just couldn't take those "stupid, ugly tail fins any longer." Mrs. Beacheum, wherever you are, "May God Bless You." I couldn't have agreed with her more. And by the way, I always got As in English. She was a darn good teacher. Need a few thousand more like her in this world. If you are reading this, you can thank her as a teacher!

And so it went. Dart outselling the Plymouth at almost 3 to 2. Grandpa's fling with DeSoto wasn't quite over. He took a nice blue 4 door hardtop that was pretty well loaded out. It had the 383 ci V-8 with a four barrel and dual exhausts. He vowed that if Chrysler took DeSoto off the market that he would put his up on blocks and leave it for me to have as a museum piece. He didn't know then how prophetic he was.

Late in November, I'd say somewhere around Thanksgiving, Dad received a real bulky manila mailer from someone via the U.S. Mail. It contained some sizzling stuff! Some of the items confirmed what had become a recent rumor in that Virgil Exner had suffered a terrible heart attack and was hovering near death. Speculation was rampant about who would succeed him as design chief. In the usual Chrysler manner, things went along with no one in charge! That's right. No one was given authority to act in the stead of Mr. Exner! Chrysler had done its best to keep the news of Exner's total collapse a company secret. Viewed from their perspective, it would only lead to a feeling of instability. Man, if they only knew then what a lot of their own people thought! They probably should have acted to put someone in there right away. It might have prevented the "oddballs" as Dad described the 1961s from becoming even odder looking than they were. It might also have changed the course of the "S" cars, and the terrible carnage wrought by the 1962 Plymouth and Dodge styling.

Dad never really shared with me the things that were in that package. I had to formulate new ways of subterfuge to get to look at some of the stuff in there. There were quite a few photographs that had been taken of "clays" of the new car line. Frankly, they were not oddballs. They were just plain mud fence ugly! You had to wonder, first, had Virgil Exner taken leave of his senses, and second, where were the people that approved these things?

The real stuff though was the papers, memos, test results, and confidential interviews concerning the connections between company officers and the Chrysler Corporation suppliers. Names were named. Big names. Dealers were investigated, classified, and defined. Suppliers, their connections, along with their pricing were nailed, cold. Testing of products revealed phenomenal failure rates. The Chrysler Board, for once, had not acted like they had been shot full of Novocain. They conducted an investigation worthy of the FBI.

But, while the ChryCo board was out playing junior G-man, the design department was going to hell in a hand basket. Virgil Exner's last true total redesign was on the 1960 models. Looking for anything at all to make Chrysler car's truly different, he went far out. Too far out. The upcoming 1961 cars were a scandal all by themselves. Now when the final placements were to be made, Mr. Exner was in a bad way with his heart, and not able to work at all. As a result, most of the finalized work went from the clays to the metal "finals." No one was put in charge in his absence either! Can you believe that? No one! It left whoever was there, in the line of fire, to try to bring order to chaos. It didn't come off.

In perceptive, the designs for the 1961, 1962 models were already set. To try to redesign anything at this point would have been nearly impossible. Perhaps the 1963 models, which were into drawings and 3/4 size clay renderings would be able to be changed without much trouble. Dad was fit to be tied. Surely there could be something done about the 1961 models. But it was far too late.

Winter moved to near spring. In February 1960, the second big race was held at the nearly new Daytona Beach Speedway in Daytona Beach Florida. NASCAR was drawing some big attention. The convertible division had been eliminated, so that all the cars racing in NASCAR were now hardtops.

The Pettys took delivery of 4 1960 Plymouth Fury 2 door hardtops. These were representative of the cars of the times. They were supposed to be strictly stock, however, for safety's sake certain improvements could be made. Rudimentary roll bars were being installed. Larger brakes were allowed. Engines were supposed to be stock, that anyone could buy. The Plymouth in the first part of the model year had a 325 horsepower 383 cubic inch V-8. By the time Daytona came around, the Pettys had installed the larger 413 cubic inch engine. If you notice the photos of the cars, the engine size had been taken off the hood, and the horsepower figures were substituted. They claimed 325 horses for the 413 is a little understated. However, it was still no match for the special engines installed in the Pontiacs and Fords.

At the start of the 1960 Daytona 500, two Pontiacs sat on the front row. Lee qualified in the 14th spot, and Richard was in the 19th position. By the end of the 500 miles however, the Plymouths tended to equate themselves, propelling Lee to third place, and Richard close behind in fourth. Over the period of the 40 race Grand National NASCAR season, Richard Petty and Plymouth were always a force to be reckoned with. The ultimate tally at the end was that Rex White, a Chevrolet driver won the Championship for 1960. Second place? A young Richard Petty in his second year as a driver. Lee was the 6th place finisher, with a gentlemen named Ned Jarrett in 5th place. 1961 would be a bitter season as was the style of the Plymouth that year.

As the race ended, it was becoming clear that Plymouth would never be allowed to stand alone. The officials at Dodge were upset and jealous of the position and attention Plymouth was drawing with the Petty clan. Deliberately and by design, Dodge set off to the South with a determination to knock Plymouth out of that seat. They approached a very successful racer with offers of money, cars, wine, women and song, if only he would accept. He did. It was also a means to drive a deep wedge into the Plymouth and Petty alliance. The man they got was Cotton Owens. Mr. Owens' daughter just happened to be married to Richard Petty!

As it turned out, their ploy didn't work. Instead of creating a rift in the family, it strengthened the clan. It was at the urging of Richard Petty that Cotton Owens took the deal. He wasn't about to make a fool or a fight with his "daddy in law." The Pettys gladly shared preparation tips with Cotton. Since the cars were basically alike, even chassis were sent back and forth! Engines were regularly swapped! Last laugh went to Plymouth. In the South you might scratch one Plymouth owner, and you might find a Dodge man upset with you! Or vice-versa. ChryCo officials learned a powerful lesson about messing around with country folk in the South. God, Country, Mom and Pecan Pie! The difference is that they meant it, not mouthed it. My father found the situation delightful, and was annoying as hell to any Dodge man that didn't want to hear it.

L.L. "Tex" Colbert turned the Presidency of Chrysler over to William C. Newberg on April 28, 1960 Colbert assumed the Chairmanship of the Board. Some of the stuff that was in the manila mailer that Dad had received centered on Mr. Newberg. He was not the most thoughtful President Chrysler ever had. Nor was he to be remembered very fondly.

But, it was Newberg's absolute stupidity that almost drove Chrysler right into its grave. Somewhere on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, at a Detroit social function, Newberg overhead Chevrolet officials discussing the plans for the forthcoming 1962 Chevy II. Whether it was cheap champagne or lousy lobster, Newberg was convinced by what he had heard, that General Motors was about to downsize the big Chevrolet for 1962. Of course, it was not.

The very next day, Newberg assembled the engineers and designers. He had not one shred of evidence. He did not invest a penny in retention of a corporate spy to try to sustain what he had heard. There had been absolutely no rumors floating around. Without any preamble whatsoever, he decreed that Plymouth and Dodge had to downsize for the 1962 model year or look terrible next to Chevrolet. There were three things wrong. One, the ChryCo board members never batted an eye to ask him how he arrived at this conclusion as they dispensed thousands of dollars to reinvent the 1962 models. Two, he had the power of absolute chaos to insure that no one underneath him understood how he got where he got with what he had! Three, why didn't someone ask what Ford was doing?

The one person that had the power to raise a substantial challenge was Virgil Exner. But, he was ill, recuperating from a massive heart attack, and was not backed, not even by Colbert who was an Exner proponent. However, Colbert was battling raising charges about "sweetheart" deals, along with the now unraveling tale of insiders being bedded down with corporate suppliers. Newberg was a raising star, and no one rose up to challenge him. Not at that moment anyway. When the challenge did come, it was from a different quarter, and Newberg was gone.

For the 1962 Plymouth and Dodge Models however, Mr. Newberg's shot could not be undone by the time help arrived. Virgil Exner's designs were already set in metal. Certain machine tools had already been built. Engineers had hell to pay to get the 119 inch wheelbase designs squeezed into 116 inches! Newberg decreed that the Plymouth and Dodge had to share a common bodyshell with the Valiant and soon to be introduced Dodge companion to the Valiant, the Lancer! It was an almost impossible job of re-demensioning. And it had to be done on a crash basis!

This was May 1960 and the introduction of the "new" 1961 models was set for September 29, 1960! Work on the 1963 and 1964 models had already been to the clay models! There was no time to restyle the 1962s, only to downsize them! It didn't come off very well. Exner's designs were a bit bizarre anyway, and having to squeeze them down to fit a smaller size just made the cars look even worse!

That was the chaos in the Spring of 1960. With all the attention focused on the crash program for the 1962 models, the bizarre renderings of the 1961 models went right on. Exner wasn't there to oversee any of them due to his massive heart attack and long recuperation period.

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