Be patient. This page may take a minute to load, but these cars are hot.
(I didn't create this dragon picture. I don't know who did, but it's pretty cool anyway)
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| 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda - This was the Rapit Transit System Barracuda. It came with an optional 440 6-pack or a 426 Hemi among other heavy duty options. |  |
| This 1970 convertible Road Runner is painted "Plum Crazy Purple". It has the optional 440 6-pack and an air grabber hood. The speedometer in a car like this goes up to 150 mph which is certainly not unrealistic. |  |
| Plymouth aptly named this car the Road Runner. How many of you have driven three speed automatic that will patch out going from first to second? Mine does. The Road Runner won the Motor Trend car of the year award in 1969. This is another 440 6-pack car. The car also came with an optional 426 Hemi engine. The Hemi revolutionized the NASCAR world in the 1960s. A Hemi car is worth around $50,000 in good shape these days, unless you've got a Hemi Daytona or Superbird. Then you can tack another $100,000 to that last figure. This ad appeared in a 1969 Life magazine. |  |
| This is part of the 1970 Plymouth sales brochure. On the left is the GTX, the high class version of the Road Runner. It came with a 440 4-barrel standard. |  |
| The stripe on the back or this Dodge Charger is called a bumble bee stripe. This car is the Dodge counterpart to the Road Runner and GTX. |  |
| The Dodge Super Bee is also a screamer any way you look at it. 383 Magnum, 440-4, 440-6 or 426 Hemi. |  |
| Durning most of the 60's Mopars ruled NASCAR. In the late 60's however, Ford and Chevy were catching up. With cubic inches maxed out in the 426, 427 and 429 engines, the trend turned toward aerodynamics. This Dodge Daytona is the extreme result of that trend. By adding a nose and tail wing to the Charger, Dodge engineers added about 800 lbs of downthrust to the car keeping it extremely stable at high speeds. |  |
| Even with the Daytona in 1969, Mopars won only 44% of NASCAR events. The next year was destined for change. In 1970 the Plymouth Road Runner was transformed to make the Superbird (shown here). A Daytona was the first to break the 200 mph barrier, and currently holds the record for the fastest lap and fastest average speed. With the Daytona and Superbird working in harmony, Mopars won 80% of NASCAR events in 1970. Obviously Ford and Chevy weren't extremely happy about this. |  |
| This unrest was not due only to their lack of first place finishes. As shown here, Daytonas and Superbirds often filled up 5-8 spots in the top ten. Clearly Ford and Chevy were out classed. |  |
| The excitement over the Daytona and Superbird was short lived. Under some pressure, NASCAR regulated the big block Winged Warriors right out of racing with restrictions on engine size and carburators. Mopars still won 62% of the 1971 NASCAR races, but the end was eminent. Chrysler withdrew financial support from its NASCAR teams at the end of 1971. |
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