1970 Plymouth Superbird

For the 1969 NASCAR season, Dodge had the bullet–like winged Charger Daytona, and Ford had sleek fastback Torino Talladega and Mercury Spoiler models, while Plymouth was saddled with the brick–like Road Runner. Plymouth’s star driver, Richard Petty, had enough and switched to Ford that year. To win Petty back Plymouth created the Superbird for 1970. It worked: “King Richard” was on his way to another NASCAR championship when a serious injury ended his season.

Contractor Creative Industries hastily completed these limited–production automobiles from a special batch of Road Runners built at Chrysler’s Lynch Road assembly plant in Detroit. These one-year wonder Superbirds were costly starting at $4,298, there were few options available, and just seven paint choices were offered.

Validation documents submitted to NASCAR show this Superbird, the 993rd of a believed 1,969 built, was sent to Creative Industries on November 28, 1969, and shipped December 1. Most were equipped with the standard U-Code 440 single four–barrel engine and three-speed TorqueFlite column-shift automatic transmission, as on this example. A reported 278 were originally ordered in Vitamin C paint.