Clint Eastwood might be best known for his Dirty Harry movies, or when he was a High Plains Drifter, but in 1974 he did a movie with a young Jeff Bridges called Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. In the movie, Lightfoot (Bridges) does an assumed good deed by saving Thunderbolt (Eastwood) and they begin a journey together to Montana to find hidden loot in a one-room schoolhouse.

Not the typical 1973 Plymouth Fury III

Along the way, they find themselves stranded and thumbing for a ride somewhere along the Midwest and along comes a crazy old coot in a Plymouth Fury III. Originally, the two door Fury was a bit of a middle class car that you might see middle-aged businessmen driving. But this particular Plymouth had been given the hot rod treatment of the 70’s with big fat tires and the ass end all jacked up sky high thanks to some extra long leaf spring shackles.

These days, people are all about tire fitment and getting the fender lips rolled to get a “hellaflush” look about their car, but that was not the case in the 70’s. Muscle cars back then typically had pizza-cutter front tires and fat, 50-series tires in back and the cars always seemed to be aimed downhill because of the raised back end. This style came from the look of funny cars and drag racers back then.

Of course, now it’s all about aerodynamics and the low, sleek look, which was saved for European sports cars a few decades back. Eventually, the ass end was brought back to earth on hot rods and you rarely see cars with extended lift shackles anymore. But you gotta love the old coot in the video and and stupid-cool of the Fury. Enjoy the video… and for those old enough think back to the times of silly looking jacked up hot rods and the leisure suit, we’re curious about something. Why is it that both were so popular in the 70’s, but now nobody ever wants to admit to owning either of them?