I bet the first association with the words Plymouth Fury is Christina. An evil creature that just tries to kill. Well, here’s a radically different Plymouth Fury for you, called the Gas Bubble. Like any gasser, he looks a little ambiguous, but, damn it, if something like this passes by, then of course I won’t tear my eyes off until it disappears over the horizon.
In general, the article describing this car consists almost entirely of describing the reactions of others, and I could hardly pick out the only technical detail: under the hood is a 383 wedge from Chrysler with a four-chamber carburetor. The video also does not reveal any technical details, except that the car is not charged, and it was never planned as a racing car.
In general, outwardly, it’s just a Plymouth Fury pulled up to such an extent that the driver is sitting in a pickup truck with cool wheels, insanely protruding pipes from the hood and a bubble instead of a roof. When Andy Wickenheisser received a 63-year-old Fury with a broken windshield and a non-working folding roof, he simply calculated the cost of the whole thing and realized that it would cost exactly the same to put a bubble. On the same day, he cut off the A-pillars, so that he would certainly not deviate from this idea.
It turned out to be very old-school: at the time of writing the original article, it was unbearably hot and stuffy under the bubble, and Andy was just starting to think about raising the air conditioning system to a modern level. I would also mention that Comrade Wickenheisser took care of possible damage to such a roof and ordered several bubbles at once just in case. Another interesting nuance: the roof of this car rises from the back, and the front is fixed. This is very unusual for such machines, and to implement this, Andy, being familiar with excavators and snow blowers, used an electric motor responsible for the vertical movement of the bucket on these units.
And in addition, two things can be noted separately: extremely good handling with all the nuances of such a car, such as narrow front wheels and suspension height, as well as amazing silence even at high speeds. The absence of a windshield and the streamlined bubble top reduce air resistance to a minimum and allow you to enjoy the clear sound of the engine without unnecessary noise.
This car is often compared to Hot Wheels cars, and every time this comparison makes Andy smile. Even on the attached video. “That’s the best compliment I’ve ever heard,” Wickenheisser admits. Well, my respect for those for whom such compliments are the best will always be boundless.
Source: https://www.hotrod.com/articles/hrdp-1305-the-gas-bubble-1963-plymouth-fury / (March 14th, 2013)
