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Ontario man spending $300,000 on iconic sports car axed by Chrysler
The Globe and Mail ^ | August 3, 2015 | Dan Proudfoot

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 ...


TOPICS: Hobbies
KEYWORDS: automakers; lynchroad; michigan; ontario
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To: CivilWarBrewing
Grabber orange ain't so bad.

That is Plymouth Tor-Red, which is actually Orange, not to be confused with Plymouth "Vitamin C" which was also a shade of Orange.

Pontiac started this trend with "Carousel Red" on the GTO which is also Orange.

Dodge called Plymouth Tor-red "Hemi Orange".

21 posted on 08/03/2015 11:08:26 AM PDT by UNGN (I've been here since '98 but had nothing to say until now)
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To: rickmichaels

So who does the hatchet work for Chrysler?

Do they use their own people or do they contract the work out to a Tong?


22 posted on 08/03/2015 11:27:21 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: nascarnation

dear nas,

If i’m going down a track with ‘more horses’, it will be in a rail dragster. I saw Tommy Ivo’s and Daddy Don Garlits’ machines up close, personal, and running.


23 posted on 08/03/2015 11:30:53 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: central_va

Lee Petty had a blue one that he would drive around Greensboro.


24 posted on 08/03/2015 11:33:08 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: CivilWarBrewing

Could be the Pontiac Aztec’s maternal grandfather.


25 posted on 08/03/2015 11:34:21 AM PDT by Moltke
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To: CivilWarBrewing

The nose piece never looked like it fit properly. Looked like someone’s backyard special.


26 posted on 08/03/2015 11:40:10 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Falcon 105)
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To: nascarnation

I wonder how many Hellcat’s have been wrecked already?


27 posted on 08/03/2015 11:43:24 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Falcon 105)
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To: Moltke

LOL! The Aztec was indeed a clusterf*ck. Makes the AMC Pacer look elegant.


28 posted on 08/03/2015 11:46:54 AM PDT by CivilWarBrewing
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To: Stanwood_Dave

I’m sitting on my originally purchased,1970 Challenger 440 RT/SE, in storage since(Divorce) in 1974. Due to error in purchase/build documents it has AT on wheel, not console. Great for dating!
Unless I win(Ha) the lottery it goes to my eldest. If I should win the lottery it goes to Harbor Restoration, Rockledge, Fl..


29 posted on 08/03/2015 11:53:14 AM PDT by GOYAKLA
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To: Moltke

“Could be the Pontiac Aztec’s maternal grandfather.”

LOL. Is there an uglier car ?


30 posted on 08/03/2015 12:02:30 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
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To: Terry L Smith

I had a friend, Slim, in Applelton Wisconsin. He raced the Pro Funny Car Circuit. He had me sit in his car one day as he was showing off the engine to a potential buyer. I had to press both hands on my knee to keep my leg straight, and the clutch disengaged! Very exciting for me, and very amusing for Slim, who was a huge guy!


31 posted on 08/03/2015 12:04:23 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra (Don't touch that thing Don't let anybody touch that thing!I'm a Doctor and I won't touch that thing!)
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To: CivilWarBrewing
This is what mine will look like when I'm done (still a ways to go, but I'm done with the vroooom vroooom part).


32 posted on 08/03/2015 12:31:42 PM PDT by DaxtonBrown (http://www.futurnamics.com/reid.php)
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To: rickmichaels
Since when is a huge sedan with a monster engine a "sports car"? Fast in a straight line, perhaps, but a MGB would eat it up on a tight road.

I think the author needs some learning about cars.

33 posted on 08/03/2015 12:33:09 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: DaxtonBrown

68 camaro/firebird were very clean designs.


34 posted on 08/03/2015 12:33:16 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: doorgunner69

And the Daytona would be lapping the MG at...Daytona.


35 posted on 08/03/2015 12:38:11 PM PDT by Crim (Palin / West '16)
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To: rickmichaels
"Iconic sports car"? Iconic car, certainly - but it was a NASCAR homologation special, sold only because the pentastar guys needed a certain number of them on the street in order for NASCAR to recognize it as an oval-track racer. Only a pickup truck could be further from a "sports car".

Must be a real nightmare to park one of those winged Mopars in a compact-car space.

36 posted on 08/03/2015 12:42:49 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
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To: Crim

What I said:fast in a straight line, which is all most “super speedways” effectively are.


37 posted on 08/03/2015 12:58:15 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: Rodamala

I saw real versions of that car run at Darlington back in the early 70s.

Petty wasn’t driving his when he did his triple flip on the front straight. I saw parts of a car I never thought I would see that day.


38 posted on 08/03/2015 3:54:48 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: rickmichaels

Superbirds were one of the stupidest looking cars to ever hit the road. (and I used to be a Mopar fan)


39 posted on 08/03/2015 3:59:39 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: CivilWarBrewing
Pontiac was once run by people who liked cars and we got the 66 GTO. Then the financial guys took over and we got the Aztek. The n the unions took over and Pontiac is no more.

There's a lesson in there somewhere

40 posted on 08/03/2015 4:06:11 PM PDT by Cowman (As Jerry Williams used to say --- When comes the revolution....)
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