Plymouth Superbird

PLYMOUTH SUPERBIRD GOES RACING
The Superbird was a one-year-only phenomenon built purely to win in the 1970 NASCAR racing season. The prior season, 1969, sister-division Dodge fielded the heavily modified Charger Daytona, with big aero nose and high wing. Plymouth took the best of what was learned in the prior season and applied it to their new Superbird. The nose and high wing were done to improve the horrible aerodynamics of the boxy Roadrunner body that it was based on. It got the best of everything, engines, transmissions, axles, suspension and brakes. It was good enough to entice Richard Petty to come back to Plymouth He won 8 times that season, and placed many more times.

PLYMOUTH SUPERBIRD PRODUCTION
To be able to race in “stock car” classes, the Superbird needed to be homologated, which means a certain number of similar cars had to be made available to the public. The old rules used to be a minimum of 500 units. But in 1970, the rules changes so that they needed one unit per every two dealers. For Plymouth that worked out to 1,920 cars. They were all 1970 models. No more were made after that. A true Superbird is not only rare but very valuable. And the ones with the premium engines, the Six-Pack and especially the Hemi, are commanding sky-high prices. Just make sure its a genuine Supebird, and that it has the correct engine.


1970 Plymouth Superbird INTERIORS

BUCKET SEATS w/CENTER CONSOLE & FLOOR SHIFT


BENCH SEAT & COLUMN SHIFT


1970 Plymouth Superbird ENGINES

PLYMOUTH SUPERBIRD ENGINES
There were 3 engine options with the Superbird. They came standard with the single 4-barrel 440 Super Commando V8 with 375hp. Next up was the 440 Six-Pack, or as it was referred to in this application, the 440 Super Commando 6-barrel. It came with three 2-barrel carburetors mounted on an aluminum Edelbrock intake manifold, and made 390hp. At the top of the heap was the “Elephant Motor”, the almighty 426 Hemi with 425hp (grossly underrated). The Hemi option was quite expensive for the day, and the 440+6 was almost as fast for much less money. So only 135 Superbirds were ordered from the factory with the 426 Hemi.

440 MAGNUM


426 HEMI