Personal reminiscing

1963 Plymouth Sport Fury

It is March 1965, just out of the Army, a new job secured in Walterboro, S.C., 100 miles from home in Columbia, S.C. and no transportation....

Scanning the classifieds my uncle Norman locates a 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury, 383 Golden Commando with 4 speed transmission and gives me a call. He knows that I am very partial to these Hot cars. Needless to say I was very interested so he came by and picked me up and off the the car lot we went.

On arriving, I recognized the car almost instantly. It had been a star at the local Blaney Drag Strip on many occasions! Even after many wars at the strip this car was in surprisingly good shape and still would run with the best of them. Why anyone would trade this Hot Rod for a 1965 Ford Fairlane with at 289 is still a mystery to me! But that is what the guy did: good fortune for me!

I fell in love with the Sport Fury and after some haggling with the Ford salesman I was able to buy this jewel for $1900.00. I drove my ride for 18 trouble free months and a dated my Girfriend who is now my wounderful Wife of 33 years in that great little car.

I was perfectly happy with the Sport Fury until the fall of 1966 when the 1967 Belvedere GTX was introduced. I just had to have one of those new Hi - Performance GTXs, so I traded and was happy for awhile. I married the Girlfried (Joanne) in June 1968 and for some reason the GTX took the back seat, it was no longer the apple of my eye.

In Sept 1969 my daughter (Tabitha) was born, so the GTX fell further down the pecking order. I sold the GTX in 1972 and that was the end of Hot Performance cars for me, but I still had a yearning to have my old 1963 Sport Fury back. My wife has known this for many years. I have been searching for one that was affordable for quite some time but have been unable to locate one with the 383 4 speed combo, in fact they are hard to find with any eng transmission combo.

Well to make a long story shorter, Joanne and Tabitha presented me with a pristine 1963 Sport Fury on June 26, 2001!



This is a super fine 66,000 mile original with outstanding Black and Copper interior. It is the same color (white) and my first car with identical interior. It is powered by the sweetest litte 318 you will ever hear with the pushbutton automatic (I always wanted one of those). How these girls pulled off this surprise is another story.



I am due to retire hopefully by the end of the year and this is their retirement gift and something to keep me busy in my retirement. I want to put in a good word for the folks at Fast Lane Classic Cars in St. Charles, Mo. they were great working with my wife on the purchase of the car. My wife bought this car by looking at pictures and on the word of Laura Williams who told her she would not be disappointed, and believe me we're not.

I just had to share this story with others, truly God has blessed me over the years with Joanne and my family