Carspotting: Lookin’ For Trouble In All The Right Places

By Dave Wallace

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January 10, 2026
Lacking the huge advertising budgets of GM and Ford, Chrysler’s brands relied instead on clever, inexpensive promotions to help sell new cars and trucks. Newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets worldwide covered the annual Plymouth Troubleshooting Contest National Finals, which challenged two-person teams of top auto-shop students to diagnose and correct “bugs” planted by factory engineers and dealership mechanics.
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Moving the 1968 edition from Detroit to this internationally recognized venue was another master stroke for Chrysler’s spunky PR department. During three days in Indianapolis, high school and tech school students from all fifty states were treated to extracurricular activities ranging from Hemi Under Glass wheelstands across the parking lot of the host Stouffer’s Inn to a Sox & Martin Performance Clinic inside.

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One unadvertised surprise for the top-finishing teams was a mandatory “invitation” to stick around this evening to get all cars running properly and returned to area dealerships. (Whether future “new”-Plymouth buyers were informed of this weekend field trip is unknown.)
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Photographer: Unknown Plymouth photographer

Dates: June 18-20, 1968

Location: Plymouth Troubleshooting National Finals; Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway, Indiana

Source: Wallace Family Archive