American Car - November 2015

ovie cars are great, aren't

they? We all love 'em, but

sometimes it can blind us to

the fact that there are many, many

other ways of doing things. For a start,

I think there are now quite enough

dark green '67 and '68 Mustang

fastbacks in the UK. Likewise General

Lee replicas – they look superb, but

you could paint a Lincoln Continental

orange with a Confederate flag on the

roof and that'd be good enough for

most of the general public. Sometimes,

you've got to look around the edges.

Like this handsome '57 Plymouth,

for instance. The new '57 Plymouths

were a real departure for the brand,

bang up to date and very stylish, a

leap forward in design. However, they

were still a bargain-basement brand,

and in their haste to look futuristic,

development and quality control

suffered. This Savoy hardtop may

have been spectacular in 1957, but a

few years later they were forgotten

cars. Forgotten, that is, until 1983

when Stephen King published the

novel Christine, rapidly followed by

John Carpenter's movie adaptation.

Christine herself was a '58 Fury, a

rather rare model, but suddenly any

Exner Plymouth was fair game and

they began to be saved. The book was

okay, and the movie was watchable

(notwithstanding the number of

classic Plymouths wrecked during

production), but the movie car replica

game was afoot. There have been

30 ACM

Red with a white

roof is great ... but

this version is

totally unique

(above). With a

pillarless coupe

roofline and

handsome Exner

fins, it's perfect for

a cool kustom

without any

reference to any

Stephen King

novels. Peep

mirrors (right) look

cool but are

probably pretty

useless. Note the

heavy tint on the

windows -

important in

Arizona when you

have no air

conditioning.

M

1957 Plymouth Savoy

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