Pick of the Day: 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II

If you look at a sample of human beings, you’ll find that common behaviors likely fall within a Bell curve. Look at their car-buying habits and you’ll find the same. But there are those who find red Mustangs terribly boring, so the Pick of the Day is tailor-made for them: a 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II two-door hardtop. It is listed for sale on ClassicCars.com by a dealer in Clearwater, Florida. (Click the link to view the listing)

When looking at this 1966 Belvedere II, you have to go back to 1962 and look at Plymouth’s full-size series. Due to a misconstrued rumor that General Motors was downsizing its cars, the bosses at Chrysler shortened the cars Virgil Exner had planned. These vehicles, based on the new B-body platform, ended up being somewhat ungainly, turning off the public, but their 7/8^th-scale size was not in line with the public’s expectations for full-size transportation, even though Plymouths lost nothing in terms of interior space. Model hierarchy started with the Savoy and then went up to Belvedere, Fury, and Sport Fury.

Styling was mainstreamed through 1964, upon which Plymouth made a sleight-of-hand move and transitioned the B-body platform as a mid-size series while introducing the truly full-size C-body platform. The model names for the latter were Fury I, Fury II, Fury III, and Sport Fury. For the new mid-size offerings, it was Belvedere I, Belvedere II, and Satellite, a new name taken from a show car.

The mid-size Plymouth series was restyled for 1966, now featuring razor-straight styling with bodyside sculpting. Though the 365-horsepower 426-S was discontinued for the platform, an all-new 426 Street Hemi was available. The only other engine with any semblance to performance was the 325-horeepower 383. It would be another year until Plymouth would have a packaged performance model (GTX) with a nice happy medium between the two engines (440 Super Commando).

This 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II two-door hardtop features the 383 backed by a four-speed manual, which is somewhat unusual and rare. However, what makes this vehicle even more interesting is the special-order “Corporate Blue” paint, as evidenced by the “999” under PAINT on the fender tag, as well as the “y9” special-order code. This is the same color used for Richard Petty’s cars. The seller has left absolutely nothing in the description, but we can see this Belvedere II has the “H4X” black bench seat (buckets were reserved for the Satellite), “R1” AM radio, and not much else.

If you’re a Mopar guy or gal and the thought of driving a Plum Crazy Challenger makes you want to get into a Chevy, then this $49,990 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II is your antidote for boredom.

To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.