1970 Plymouth Superbird at the 2015 Concours of America at St John’s

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Feast your eyes on the king of Plymouth stock cars. Back in 1970, Plymouth was racing in NASCAR, and the Dodge Charger Daytona was winning big the previous season. Of course, they wanted in on all the fun, and the top brass was only more than happy to oblige, gifting them the Superbird. The nose cone, massive rear wing, and flush rear window all contributed to a massive aerodynamic advantage at the time–allowing these cars to break to nearly 200 MPH on the oval tracks of the day when equipped with the 426 Hemi. They were so dominant that NASCAR got sick of seeing Mother Mopar basically destroy everybody every Sunday afternoon, so 1971 brought in a rule change that forced Plymouth and Dodge to either ditch the aero body or ditch the Hemi–effectively dumping cold water on the party.

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As a result of the rule change and the dominance of this car on the track, the Superbird is a treasure today, just like the Daytona that arrived the previous year. 1,920 left the factory in 1970 in accordance with NASCAR’s homologation procedure, changed so that it was more difficult to race specialty products like the wing cars. This one packed a 440-4BBL V8, the most common option in the Superbird. Set up in an alluring lime green, this Superbird looked fantastic out on the field at the Concours of America–and despite it not packing the Hemi, it’s still quite an example of just how amazing 1970 was for Mother Mopar. Enjoy the photos.

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