The Plymouth Belmont is a Roadster from Plymouth, built from 1953, at the height of the post-war boom. Under the bonnet: 241 ci (3.9L) Red Ram V8, 150 hp.
The background
The Plymouth Belmont was a 1954 concept sports car built by Plymouth. It (and the 1954 DeSoto Adventurer concept car) were the first plastic-bodied cars by the Chrysler Corporation. The Belmont seated two and used a V8 engine, that produced up to 150 hp (112 kW). It was originally painted in a light blue metallic, it was painted red later. It was 191.5" long. Had it ever become a production model, its main competitors would have been the Chevrolet Corvette and the Ford Thunderbird. There has been some disagreement as to who designed the Plymouth Belmont. Virgil Exner was originally identified as the designer. However, in Exner’s 2007 biography, he attributed the design to William “Bill” Robinson.
Exner wrote that Chrysler, “was not in a financial position where it could afford to create a car to match the Corvette or the up-and-coming Thunderbird.” Therefore, a “major stipulation was that Robinson had to use stock parts wherever possible, including bumpers and light bezels." "Robinson said that Chrysler's K.T. Keller did indeed want a Corvette competitor and that he instructed Al Prance at Briggs Manufacturing Company to begin work on one. Prance turned to Robinson, who had been with Briggs as a designer for about five years at that time. 'At first, I was thinking they wanted a real concept car, so I had drawings with fins and that nature,' Robinson said. 'But as the project progressed, I figured that they were looking more for a true sports car than a concept car, so I grew more conservative in my designs.'" Robinson remembers that shortly after its release, "Ex walked in
The engineering
Power comes from 241 ci (3.9L) Red Ram V8, 150 hp. It shifts through a 3-speed Hy-Drive semi-automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 114 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Chevrolet Corvette, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class — show what else the money bought that year. Its Plymouth stablemates include the Plymouth XNR and the Plymouth Laser.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Plymouth Belmont — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.