Edwards
Motor Cars. Later to be University Dodge when the Edwards Family, then headed by
son-in-law Tom Rogers, decided to get out of the Business. When Tom wanted to
retire there just was no one left in the family to take over.
One
of the original dealers for Dodge brothers, they were at 3601 W. Wisconsin Ave
for over fifty years. They also acquired a Chrysler-Plymouth franchise which had
their showfloor in the building next door. The showfloors were connected and
never let it be said that some Plymouths and a few Chryslers didn’t end up on
the Dodge side. In fact, they had a turntable in the corner of the Dodge
building and most of the cars that made it onto the table were Chryslers or
Imperials. The turntable, being on the well traveled corner of Wisconsin Ave and
36th St was very visible from the street. One of the cars on display
there was one of the extremely rare, short-long ram equipped 400 horse 300F’s
with a Pont-a-Munson 4 speed trans that were built expressly competing in the
flying mile at Daytona in 1960. IIRC, all six (of seven) of the 300F’s that
competed all ran at speeds from 147 + to 142 or 143. Imagine those beautiful,
two and a half ton beasts running down the beach at 147 mph in basically street
trim! In 1960! Mopar rules and others drool. I still remember seeing that
beautiful, red 300F on the turntable and, looking inside, the shift lever for
the French-built 4 speed transmission.
Edwards
covered a full city block and a half. They had a separate, large service
department, big body shop and Tri-State Motor Parts, a Mopar parts distributor
with business in WI, IL, and I think MN (could have been in the U.P., hard to
remember after all these years). At one point they also had a truck only service
facility that filled another half block fronting on 35th St. After
the truck shop was closed the building was purchased for a Ford dealership and
later became Quinlevan Buick. When Edwards shut down in ’66 or ’67 IIRC, Dodge
took over the Dodge building and the used car lot and kept it open as University
Dodge, a part of their Dealer Enterprise program, until then end of
1970.
John
Hagen
From:
John Bartell [mailto:59fins@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012
6:01 PM
To: John Hagen
Subject: Re: [FWDLK] pretty nice 58
fury
Hi John,
When you speak of Hagen motors
in Milwaukee... Is that Wisconsin or?? I grew up in Milwaukee Wi and
surrounding area, never heard of them there. Hub Chrysler Plymouth,
Doering Dodge, Ernie Von Schledorn etc... I am partial to the 59
Plymouths, but like all years and models of Mopar!
John in Neillsville
WI 10 above zero and windy as hell... 15 - 25 below wind chill
tonight
On 2/10/2012 5:30 PM, John Hagen wrote:
Jim,
I was referring to
Fury’s with the Christine remark. I someone want to do a Christine with a
Belvedere, it’s ok by me. I am sorta PO’ed about the sheer numbers of General
Lees around, many of them made from some really nice ’69 Chargers. 1969 was the
high water mark for Chargers in my humble opinion. It was the second year with
new body and there several improvements made over the ‘68’s, as there usually
was with the second year back in those years. I do prefer the ‘68’s taillights
but other than that…… And the ‘70’s were cheapened in content and the new
front end never looked quite right, unless one screwed the torsion bars down to
lower the front. Plus that was the beginning of depowering the engines. Although
the ads didn’t say anything about depowering, most of the 1970 engines were
lower in hp.
And I’d heartily
agree with your plans for the ’61 Chrysler. I love those Sonoramic long rams.
Bunches of torque and the sound they made! One of dad’s last field cars was a
’61 Dart Phoenix 4 drht with that the 383 version. I managed to crash it one
night with a car load of girls after a dance. Not my fault got broadsided by a
drunk in a ’53 rat Chevy doing 50 + in a 25 over a bridge. I also got to drive a
’61 Dart convertible with one of those mills and a 3 speed! It had been traded
in to Edwards Motor Car and they let me take it out one time. Talk about tire
smokin’ ability! I also really liked the 300J’s short-long ram motor. It was
like a streetable version of a Max Wedge with more torque at lower engine speeds
(albeit with more higher rpm power than the Sonoramics), solid lifter cam and
exhaust heat for warm up (along with the manual chokes). And the 340’s, the 330
horse 383 4 barrel engine (my ’63 440 had that motor) and….. Hell, there ain’t
many Mopar motors I don’t like.
Yeah, when I get to
keying (used to be called typing) I get diarrhea of the fingers
too.
John
Hagen
I admit, as a kid i
loved the car for 2 reasons: 1 for finding a 57 fury in town that this fella
would decorate for Christmas, I'd go there on street cleaning day just to watch
it move around.. it was in sorry shape [mind you this is around 1990 when i was
about 11] and of course the movie, once i was allowed to watch movies with
cursing..
that said my first
plymouth 2drht, in its second incarnation, is red and white... this was when
you'd see a 57 or 58 plymouth at about every 17th car show you went
to.
the real fact of the
matter is that a red and white "christine" conversion is actually statistically
worth about 3 times more to an enthusiast than a standard 57/8 in any color
combo/trim level Furys aside.
245+ cars later as a
hobby and with 4 houses at age 32.5, i can credit the love of Christine for a
decent part of those accomplishments considering the numerous incarnations of
the car I've sent around the globe, not to mention all the sets of inserts sold
worldwide and a very equitable cost for all those who convert to christine [and
simply belv or fury clones] worldwide...
In closing on the
matter- i tend to hate seeing red plymouths now- !!!!! i had the only 1 [or 2]
in any car scene in my state for many years- now there are 4 more in NJ alone-
and as much fun as it is, mopar meets yield Furys and Christine clones....
the sad part is i heard someone's wife at carlisle a few years back say "
don't these guys here have any imagination? they only make these cars tan or
red???" that was probably 3 yrs ago when we had a record showing of
christine clones, and the year after our record Golden Fin Society
attendance...
I just support
anything that is forwardlook- of all interests and genres from ratrods/kustoms
up to rotisserie senior-winning furys. and i go all ways from currently
owning a 57 fury, 3 57 savoy 2drhts, 2 57 belv 2drhts, a 58 Golden Commando
Savoy 2drht, 3 58 belv 2drhts [2 of which are christines] and a 57 2dr
suburban... not to mention 57 and 8 desoto hardtops, 2 59 dodge hardtops, 59
NYer 4drht soon to be Kustom, and a 61 newport 'vert with 34k actual miles-
which to some will be ruined when it gets a 440 with F sonorams and 62
727...
sorry for the
narrative! i don't get the opportunity to respond as much here as i used
to, so when i do- its long!
-----Original
Message-----
From: John Hagen
<sprinthag@xxxxxxxxx>
To: L-FORWARDLOOK
<L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, Feb
10, 2012 4:56 pm
Subject: Re:
[FWDLK] pretty nice 58 fury
A nice car and,
as stated, it has not been made into a Christine. Man I hate those cars almost
as I hate all the ’69 Chargers that have made General Lee clones. What is wrong
with people? To me that kind of crap lowers the value by at least
50%.
Actually, I like
the 57 taillights better but other than that I prefer the changes made for 58. I
do have a hard time believing it went for that kind of money. Well, 77 maybe but
I would not pay 99 for a 318. I like the early 318’s a lot, especially the
single and dual four barrel motors. But for 99 I want the Golden Commando.
My brother owned one he got in 58 as a demo with a couple of thousand
miles on it. It had the Golden Commando and it would just
fly.
I once ran across
a 58 w/the GC and a 3 three speed. Factory 3 speed as, although it had been
converted to a floor shift, it still had the 3 speed column with just the shift
lever removed. It was in for some mechanical work at Edwards Motor Company in
Milwaukee when I spied it about 1962 or 1963.
Mel has or had a
'57 just as nice for about half the 99 BIN.
I like the air
cleaners on the 57's better and the tail lights
too...
But do like this
58 even with some non correct flaws as I buy my cars to drive
anyway....
Ever as this
would be sacrilege to some I would add ac to this car if it were
mine......
Did it on my 57
Belvedere makes it much nicer to drive in our hot and humid
summers.....
----- Original
Message -----
Sent: Friday,
February 10, 2012 1:30 PM
Subject: Re: [FWDLK]
pretty nice 58 fury
They sure have
come a long ways since I paid $290.00 for mine in 1963. O. K. this one is in a
lot better shape. I remember the painted wheel cover centers from Carlisle but
can't remember whose car it was. Dick
Sent: Friday,
February 10, 2012 1:36 PM
Subject: [FWDLK] pretty
nice 58 fury
Nice to see a
'58 fury in not like Christine, this one looks better then
new.
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