Gran Fury Brougham by the numbers.
Legnth: 575 cm
Width: 203 cm
Height: 139 cm (*)
Wheelbase: 308 cm
Weight: 2240 kilo
Fuel tank capacity :100 liters
Engine: V8 att 6,6 liters (400")
Horsepower: 210bhp @ 3600rpm
Torque: 428nm @ 3200rpm
(') This car is delivered with 1" higher shocks for some reason.
Base price as new was $4948, which in a comparison to General Motors line for 1977 put it between the Impala and the Caprice.
Whlie Chevrolets line up came for 1977 with a all new fresh downsized design, which were also considerable lighter than its predecessor, Chrysler lingered on with its true fullsize this year through. Even though the Chevroletswere all new in appearance, the mechanics were pretty much as before with separate frame, coil springs all around and carrying the same V8 engine family since it had since 1955, with the standard six cylinder engien that actually had its roots back in 1929!
The Chrysler cars however did came with unit body, torsion front suspension, and a newer develloped range of engines.
The Gran Fury did come with 318" as standard (360" in the broughams) with 400" and the 440" as optional.
This gives these cars first of all excellent handling, and also very good performance, most likely among the fastest cars of its time and type.
So, why did I buy a Gran Fury? Actually when I first heard of this car, I had a pretty faint idea of what that model looked like. After having Chevrolet Caprice, Buick Electra and others before on top of that also driven a great number of different american cars over the years, I spent the previous winter in a 1965 Chrysler 300, which proved to be the absolutey best car in handling difficult road conditions I've tried so far
AS a funny coincidence , both of the '77 Gran Furys known here were for sale at the same time, the other car however did require som work, and didn't really meet my standards of a car, with some ugly jeep wheels and other mods, this silver metallic car however I decided to go for before I had even checked it out. Price was very affordable, and the car also proved to be in a much better shape than the seller had described it which is somewhat unusual indeed.
Car had been imported 2002, and the previous owner had done some fixups with brakes, starter, and some other parts, after that only driven it for a season and put it in storage late 2003.
He was most interested in a quck deal since he was in need of the garage place for his project car, a '69 Dodge Coronet convertible. So, after speking abou the car on friday, I went to check it out on sunday, paid it and drove it out of there on monday.