Richard Petty's Plymouth Superbird headed to auction

[Phase2]

I'm not much of a car or race guy, but even I recognize this car and it's driver/history as iconic. Should be interesting to see how much it goes for.

Older guys will recognize the original car which only ran for one year (1970), but younger people will also recognize it as the Dinoco car from the movie Cars.

Lots of other interesting vehicles being offered at the same auction.

 

[Bigtanker]

Cletus should buy it.

 

[femurphy77]

Well I hope whoever purchases manages to take it out for the occasional track session. It's a shame when they take something meant to be driven and turn them into museum pieces.

 

[churchmouse]

Look in the link. I would pass on the wing car and go for the 71 Road Runner myself.

 

[Super Bee]

Wow, there are some sweet cars in that auction.

If had the the funds I would buy the Bird, the Roadrunner and the 1987 Indy car and tell a few Ingoers to meet at the Speedway for an afternoon of fun.

 

[femurphy77]

I've been trying to find a 1:18 die cast of Petty's 'Bird but DAYUM $250 As much as I'd like the real thing I don't want to finance it!

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Daily driver!

 

[Super Bee]

I've been trying to find a 1:18 die cast of Petty's 'Bird but DAYUM $250 As much as I'd like the real thing I don't want to finance it!

I have the Franklin Mint version. My parents bought it for me probably 20 years ago.

 

[Leadeye]

Back when that car ran, you could buy one like it for a daily driver. NASCAR needs to get back to those days, run on Sunday and sell on Monday.

 

[Dead Duck]

Stock car days.

 

[churchmouse]

Back when that car ran, you could buy one like it for a daily driver. NASCAR needs to get back to those days, run on Sunday and sell on Monday.

Yeah but never gonna happen.

Manf. efforts have changed drastically as you well know. Front wheel drive cars will be the norm for this reason. Aero packages to meet the Bravo Sierra CAFE standards will keep this from happening as well.

 

[DRob]

Bid went to $3.5 million.......No sale.

 

[Butch627]

What an amazing collection of cars. Does one have to join the site to see the selling prices?

 

[churchmouse]

3.5 Mil and no sale...???

Man I loved the King and his cars were cool enough but come on people. Seriously.

 

[CHCRandy]

Look in the link. I would pass on the wing car and go for the 71 Road Runner myself.

The 1971 Road Runner sold I think for $412,500. I also think the Superbird is gonna sell, they just put it on "The bid goes on" list....because they had phone bidders. Pretty sure the reserve got lifted on it. The bid, last I seen was $3.75M. I was blown away with what some of them cars sold for....I seen a restored Cuda get $190,000. God, if only I could go back in time.....I would buy all them old muscle cars. I bet some of you guys get sick seeing cars you had as kids selling for $200,000!

 

[femurphy77]

Bid went to $3.5 million.......No sale.

3.5 Mil and no sale...???

Man I loved the King and his cars were cool enough but come on people. Seriously.

Yeah I dropped out at a Mill Five.

 

[Thor]

Back when that car ran, you could buy one like it for a daily driver. NASCAR needs to get back to those days, run on Sunday and sell on Monday.

Yeah, it would be nice if they raced actual cars again instead of plastic car representative covered ditto machines. I might even be interested in watching again.

I remember seeing a Superbird on the showroom floor that dad and stopped in to look at. That car was bigger than most station wagons now. They had to sell them to make it legal to race.

 

[Mongo59]

Growing up in central Florida (back in the day) the local Drips Oil Drops Grease Everywhere dealer had two superbirds on their lot. Didn't even rank a spot in the showroom. One was orange/red and the other was blue.

IIRC one was a 440 wedge and the other a 426 hemi. They sat there unsold for the longest time.

Even with those to look at we would spend our time in the the used car lot, it had two Shelby GT500's and a GT350. We would actually make fun of the 350 because it only had a Cleveland in it. When you raised the hood on the 500's there was an oval air filter the size of the kitchen table.

The first car I ever saw that declared the displacement in liters was a 1967 Pontiac GTO tripower. It had a badge on the door panel that said "6.6 liters", I thought to myself, "what does that mean?"

1970 was also when the Pantera showed up in Orlando, could you imaging driving one of those in Florida heat, a 351 Cleveland right behind your head and no air conditioning?

I could have bought a cherry limited edition '69 Camaro 302 4 speed with factory cowl induction for less than $1000...

I thought those would be the cars we would always be driving, who knew?

 

[Dead Duck]

Mongo make me sad...

 

[Mongo59]

The fit and finish on those were even worse than the other Plymouth/Dodge's of the era. That nose cap was wobbly and proud to the metal by a quarter of an inch in places.

Everyone in high school that bought a Cuda or Charger would do a tuck and roll on the door panels to hold down the rattles and keep you from seeing the cracks, because they all cracked over time.

Or you could just buy a Ford or GM and have nice interior and even A/C if you desired.

I don't know if you were ever in a Buick GSX 455 stage1 before but it had it all, class and dash...

(505 ft/lbs of torque!)