A few inches here and a few inches there can make a big difference in a car’s looks and the impression it leaves.
“The public wasn’t ready for a full-size Plymouth’s being smaller than a Chevy and a Ford,” observed Dave Noblit, the Quakertown, Pa., owner of the 1962 Plymouth Sport Fury shown here.
His car measures 202 inches overall and rides on a 116-inch wheelbase, making it noticeably smaller that the 209.6-inch Chevrolet and the 209.9-inch Ford on their identical 119-inch wheelbases. Big cars have always had loyalists, just as the not-quite-as-big cars have been able to count on their advocates, but there weren’t enough of the latter in 1962; only 172,134 full-size Plymouths were built in 1962 compared to 198,444 examples in 1961, when Plymouths had measured 209.5 inches overall on their 118-inch
