Iconic but grotesque
Posted on 08/03/2015 10:26:26 AM PDT by rickmichaels
Al Boughton paid $135,000 for his 1970 Plymouth Superbird seven years ago and what a kick it was, driving the most high-winged, cone-nosed, eye-popping, breath-stealing muscle car ever fashioned in Detroit, with its 450-horsepower V-8 and beep-beep Road Runner horn. In fact, last September, he realized it was so good, he had to make it perfect, and perfection meant returning it exactly to original form, just as it had left the Lynch Road, Mich., assembly line in 1969.
With the stripped chassis trussed to a rotisserie at Davies Autobody in Etobicoke, he pointed to the firewall as an example of measures taken over these last nine months. “Looking into the engine compartment, the firewall looked fine,” he said.
“As soon as you lay down on the floor, you could see where it had been patched where the air-conditioning had come into the car. If you’re a purist and you see a patch hacked like that, ‘Mmmm,’ you think, ‘what else has been hacked?’ We replaced the firewall.”
The Superbird’s 15th owner is a sleuth for details, which makes him confident that the 31,250 miles showing on the 45-year-old odometer is an accurate reading. Likewise, he knows it’s a true story, that the eighth owner of the car suffered from narcolepsy to the point he feared falling asleep at the wheel while running 150 miles an hour.
“This is probably the best-documented Superbird in the world,” he said, leafing through a six-inch-thick binder.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
A car like that is an investment.
YES! A pre-EPA muscle car, with ALL the horses going to the transmission and rear axle.
I have had a ride in one of those Superbirds, in those days. Go ahead and drool, Tim Taylor.
The rest of the horses going out the tailpipe.
At least you didn’t have to worry about the airbags going off when you slammed the door.
For that kind of money, the garage should look like a surgical suite, not Cooter’s Pull-a-part.
Iconic but grotesque
I’m restoring a 67 Camaro convertible. Verrry similar lines. Took a test drive last week after being on blocks 15 years. Definitely need positraction!
Grabber orange ain't so bad.
That wing was aircraft aluminum, right? I used to see folks sitting on it.
Freegards
6 Cyl, 4BBL, OHC, 4.1 Litre is a V8 eater!
I had one of those 400 4 spd
Those... *things* were fairly common around town when I was a kid. Our juvenile consensus opinion was they were dorky.
Of course none of us had the cash or connections to get anywhere near one for a ride. And driving one was out of the question, being as we had no license at that point. :-)
I wouldn’t turn it down if you gave it to me. But I’d rather have my next-door neighbor’s old man’s Ranchero with the 427 4-speed. Now THAT was cool!
As a kid I saw one once. It was all yellow.
The Firebird was a beautiful design.. I think the front bumper integrated into the front end design trumped the plain look of the Camaro. I had the Sprint OHC6 w/Hurst 3-speed on the floor. I could blow the doors of a V8 off the line for a few yards until the V8 roared by. I could chirp the tires at 55mph. Now THAT’S acceleration.
Iconic but Fu-ugly!
Fu = "Expletive Deleted." Yes, that expletive deleted.
Just an old retired Body & Fender (28 years plus in the business) opinion. :{)
True but not nearly as many horses as they have today.
I miss that car. It got rusty around the wheel wells so i sold it.
My ‘71 Cuda was Tor-Red. That is a great Muscle car color, so that will help the value.
It doesn’t say what motor this car has. If it’s a original Hemi, $300K in a quality restoration is a sound investment. If it is a 440-4, not so much. A 440-6 car is a toss-up for Spending $300K and the potential of getting that money back in the next 20 years.
I’ve owned about 20 muscle cars from the “muscle car Era -’64-72” and If I had $300K to spend on a restoration, I’d buy a used Hellcat, enjoy the hell out of it and invest the remaining $250K in something that will give me a return.
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