Plymouth Fury III 1967 images

This 1967 Plymouth Fury III carries the first-year LA-series 318 cubic-inch V8, which quietly replaced the outgoing polyspherical-head 318 after the 1966 model year — an engineering handoff most buyers never noticed at the time. Add in 1967’s sharper “fast top” restyle and you’ve got a full-size Mopar sitting right at a genuine turning point in Plymouth history.

1967 Plymouth Fury III 318 CID V8 3-Speed Automatic

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1967 was actually the first year you could order a Plymouth Fury III with Chrysler’s all-new LA-series 318 cubic-inch V8, a quiet running change most buyers browsing the showroom that year never even clocked under the hood of what was, on the surface, just a comfortable full-size hardtop. The old polyspherical-head 318 that had powered Furys since the mid-1950s was already retired after the 1966 model year, replaced by Chrysler’s lighter, thin-wall-cast LA-series small block — and this Fury III represents one of the very first examples to carry the new design rather than one of the last to carry the old one.

The Engine That Had Just Arrived

Under the hood, this 1967 Fury III’s 318 cubic-inch V8 produced 230 horsepower (SAE gross), typically paired with Chrysler’s smooth-shifting TorqueFlite automatic, though a 3-speed manual was technically available. The 1967 model year marked the debut of this particular 318 design — Chrysler’s new thin-wall-casting LA small block, a lighter, wedge-chamber engine that replaced the outgoing polyspherical-head 318 after the 1966 model year and made more power for less weight from a smaller, more efficient package. Buyers of this Fury never knew they’d bought one of the first examples of an engine family that would go on to power Mopars for the next three decades.

A Full-Size Hardtop With a New Face

1967 also brought a sharper, more angular restyle to the Fury lineup, including a new formal two-door hardtop with a distinctive back-slanted “C” pillar treatment — what Chrysler internally called the “fast top” — offered alongside the more traditional thin-pillar hardtop across the VIP and Sport Fury series. It is a car that does not scream muscle at first glance, but between the styling transition and the brand-new 318 under the hood, this Fury III sits right at an inflection point in Plymouth’s full-size lineup that is easy to overlook today.

Why Transitional-Year Mopars Like This Get Overlooked

A numbers-matching 1967 Fury III doesn’t carry the name recognition of a GTX or a Road Runner, and that’s exactly why cars like this one tend to fly under the radar of collectors chasing the more famous badges. But for anyone interested in Mopar engineering history rather than just quarter-mile bragging rights, a first-year LA-block Fury is a genuinely significant survivor — it’s running the same basic 318 architecture that would go on to power everything from Dusters to pickup trucks well into the 1990s, making this unassuming full-size hardtop an early chapter in one of Chrysler’s longest-running V8 stories.

Where the Fury III Sat in Plymouth’s Lineup

Plymouth’s full-size range for 1967 stretched from the stripped-down Fury I through Fury II, this mid-level Fury III, and up to the plush VIP and performance-oriented Sport Fury at the top. A Fury III like this one represented the sweet spot most buyers actually chose — comfortable and reasonably well-equipped without paying VIP prices, making it by far the most common full-size Plymouth on the road that year.

TorqueFlite: The Automatic Everyone Wanted

Chrysler’s TorqueFlite automatic had already built a reputation as one of the smoothest, most durable automatics in the industry by 1967, a transmission so well-regarded that it outlasted several generations of the engines it was paired with. Pairing the brand-new LA-series 318 with a proven TorqueFlite gave this Fury III a drivetrain combination buyers could trust completely, even while the engine itself was still brand new to the lineup.

One Style Generation Before Fuselage Changed Everything

This 1967 restyle would only last through the 1968 model year before Chrysler’s dramatic “fuselage” styling language arrived for 1969, replacing the more angular, formally creased look of cars like this Fury III with rounder, more aerodynamic-looking bodywork across the entire corporate lineup. That makes a 1967-68 full-size Plymouth a genuinely transitional design — modern for its moment, but representing a styling direction Chrysler would abandon within just a couple of years.

Full-Size Mopars Live in Their Muscle Cousins’ Shadow

A Fury III will never command the attention or the auction prices of a GTX or Road Runner from the same showroom floor, but full-size B-body Plymouths shared a remarkable amount of engineering with their more famous performance siblings — suspension components, drivetrain architecture, and even sheet metal stampings often crossed between the full-size and muscle car lines.

An Overlooked Entry Point Into Mopar History

That shared engineering is exactly why a well-preserved Fury III like this one appeals to a specific kind of Mopar enthusiast — someone who wants genuine period Chrysler engineering and styling without competing for the same money as the famous performance nameplates built on related architecture.

The 318’s Long Road Ahead

What makes this particular car worth a second look isn’t outright performance — it’s standing at the starting line of an engine family that would go on to power Dusters, Darts, pickup trucks, and countless other Mopars for the next three decades, making an early LA-series 318 like this one a genuinely significant, if unglamorous, piece of Chrysler engineering history.

What Set the Fury III Apart From the Fury II

Stepping up from a Fury II to this Fury III bought a buyer meaningfully more standard equipment — additional exterior brightwork, a nicer interior trim package, and generally a wider range of factory options available to check on the order form, without yet reaching into VIP-level luxury pricing. That middle-tier positioning is exactly why Fury III production numbers dwarfed the more basic Fury I and Fury II in any given year — most full-size Plymouth buyers wanted a bit more than the bare minimum, without paying for features they didn’t need. It’s the kind of practical mid-tier choice that rarely gets written about, even though it’s exactly what most real-world buyers actually chose. Decades later, that same mid-tier logic is exactly why so many surviving full-size Mopars on the road today wear the Fury III badge rather than anything fancier.

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