Max Wedge 426-Powered Plymouth Sport Fury Convertible Now on Hemmings Auctions

This 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury Convertible has been documented as just of one 35 to come from the factory with the dual-quad, Super Stock 426-cu.in. V8.

Chrysler Corporation produced some powerful V8 engines before there was a 426 Hemi. No, I’m not talking about the 331/354/392 first-gen Hemis, which were legendary in their own right, but the 426 Max Wedge that immediately preceded the second-gen Hemi. Built to tackle the quarter-mile on the street and strip, along with providing a base for its stock car teams, the 426 Max Wedge was a heavy-duty, high-performance engine that put Plymouth and Dodge back on the radar for drivers who wanted to go fast.

This 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury Convertible, offered out of the desert southwest in Arizona, is noted by its seller as having been documented by Mopar authority Galen Govier as one of just 35 Sport Fury Convertibles equipped with the 426 Max Wedge engine in 1963. Homing in even more on its rarity, that same research indicates it’s one of just 15 such cars equipped with a manual transmission. Since a rotisserie restoration, this fast Mopar had been driven just 169 miles at the time of submission.

Origins of the Max Wedge V8 Engine

Mopar drivers were getting their taillights handed to them at dragstrips across the country in the early 1960s until a team of Chrysler engineers was tasked with delivering a potent engine to take on Ford, Chevy, and Pontiac. Led by Tom Hoover, a young engineer who would ultimately be known as the “godfather of the Hemi” for his work with the 426 Hemi engine in subsequent years, the team created the Maximum Performance Wedge 413 engine in 1962, named for the wedge-shaped combustion chambers of the B and RB engine family. The shortened name “Max Wedge” stuck pretty quickly.

The twin-four-barrel 413-cu.in. Max Wedge was built with a bevy of beefed-up parts: a shot-peened, hardened-journal crankshaft, grooved tri-metal bearings, Magnafluxed connecting rods, forged aluminum pistons and heavy-duty pushrods and valvetrain, all to handle the massive power output of an engine designed to compete full-tilt on dragstrips. A pair of Carter AFB carburetors atop a short-ram dual-plenum intake provided the car’s needed fuel. The short-ram plenum was considered more effective at producing big power than the dramatic-looking long cross-ram manifolds used in previous high-performance 413s. With 11.0:1 compression, the Max Wedge 413 was rated at 410 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque.

Displacement Increased to 426-cu.In.

To keep up with the rest of Detroit, bore was increased 1/16th of an inch for 1963, resulting in even more oversquare dimensions than the 413. With a bore of 4.25 inches against a stroke of 3.75 inches, the big RB V8 in this 1963 Sport Fury displaces 426-cubic inches. Officially known as the Super Stock 426 at Plymouth and the 426 Ramcharger (or “Ram-Charger” in some literature) at Dodge, the big engine continued its winning ways in competition even with the development of the 426 Hemi well under way. For 1963, the Super Stock 426, with 11.0:1 compression, was rated at 415 horsepower and 470 lb-ft of torque. A race-spec version with 13.5:1 was rated at 425 hp and 480 lb-ft of torque, but required race-grade, high-octane fuel.

As Chrysler did not yet have a four-speed that was strong enough to handle the massive torque of the Max Wedge, the choice for a manual transmission fell to the rugged Warner T-85 three-speed. (The New Process-built A-833 four-speed debuted with the 1964 model year Mopars.) This 1963 Plymouth is equipped with that heavy-duty gearbox which was used for the better part of two decades by nearly every American manufacturer in both cars and trucks.

Beyond its potent drivetrain, Plymouth promised “a gold mine of standard equipment” in 1963. What Plymouth touted as this “gold mine” were Chrysler innovations such as an alternator rather than a generator, which some cars still had in 1963. The brochure also touted the torsion-bar suspension, which was not unique but rarely used by other American automakers. They also touted the “aluminized steel” of the exhaust system as being more corrosion resistant than the competition’s setup.

Plymouth boasted of offering 26 different models in 1963, with fully 14 of them based on the B-body platform in the guise of the Fury, Belvedere and Savoy. The literature declared the Sport Fury as “the finest Plymouth you can own.” And the Sport Fury Convertible was at the top of the Plymouth heap for 1963.

The 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury on Hemmings Auctions

Finished in Arctic White over red vinyl, this 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury has been featured in magazines in the past and is listed with no known needs.  The seller notes that it starts and runs well, with no smoke, and idles well after a “brief warm-up.” The photos shared by the seller show the thoroughness of the restoration, particularly with the undercar images, which show absolutely no rust, save for a small bit on a couple of exhaust hangers.

Likewise, the Arctic White finish looks to remain in great shape, as does the red vinyl covering the seats and some other interior panels, with the perfectly contrasting white stripes echoing the exterior. The engine bay, too, looks tidy, and appears factory correct, with the exception of a modern battery under the hood.

Plymouth made only a tiny handful of these Super Stock 426-equipped muscle cars. Head on over to Hemmings Auctions to take a closer look at this 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury Convertible, even if just to scroll through the photos. If you’re a Mopar fan, you won’t regret it.

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