Ontario man spending $300,000 on iconic sports car axed by Chrysler

The Globe and Mail ^ | August 3, 2015 | Dan Proudfoot

[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.

[editor-surveyor]

A friend had a new ‘68 Firebird 400, and I had a ‘65 Mustang 289 with a 4 bbl.

He had 111 cubic inches on me, but I still beat him every time, either out of the hole, or on the fly.

Those things were lead sleds. (not the 396 Camaros, though. They put up a good fight)

[Terry L Smith]

dear doc,

I, um, hope that you could finish out the day without having to return home posthaste, for a, um, ‘wardrobe repair’!!

Ahhhhhhhhhh, the sound of that size engine, feeling the yaw of the car as the engine revved, the steering wheel just throbbing, and that funny thrumming coming through the shift lever as you grasp the shift knob ....

(ahem) excuse me ....

(now, terry, calm down, take a deep breath, AND STOP SHAKING!!!)

THANKS, DOC! that was better than a 16 oz. cup of folger’s.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I was fearful of my knee giving out and had a vision of me plowing through Slim’s cornfield at about 180! I have no idea about the horsepower of that engine, but it was immense! Over a thousand, I’m sure! Got a good buzz from the Nitro too!

[Terry L Smith]

dear doc,

motor on, bro, motor on!