A Plymouth engineered to win NASCAR races before it ever had to satisfy a single customer, this 1970 Road Runner Superbird hides a nineteen-inch nose cone and a factory explanation that wasn’t the real one. At the Volo Auto Museum, director Brian Grams walks through the Alpine White, 440-powered example on camera, tracing the aero-war engineering Plymouth built in genuinely limited numbers before NASCAR changed the rules for good. The scoops, the wing, and the vinyl top all had a job to do.
Some secrets get built right into the sheet metal, and this car has been keeping one for over fifty years. Finished in stark Alpine White with a 440 under the hood, it looks like a factory oddity — a nineteen-inch nose cone and a wing that towers above the trunk lid, engineering choices Plymouth publicly explained away as simple fixes for tire clearance. That explanation was never the real one. At the Volo Auto Museum in Illinois, director Brian Grams has spent years around cars built for a very different purpose than street cruising, and this particular Road Runner sits near the top of that list. So why did an entire manufacturer feel the need to lie to its own customers about a set of fender scoops?
Cameras Rolling Inside a Museum Built for Outliers
Lou Costabile’s “My Car Story” series filmed this walkaround on February 7, 2017, inside the Volo Auto Museum at 27582 Volo Village Road in Volo, Illinois — a collection built around Hollywood movie cars, military hardware, and a deep bench of American muscle. Costabile isn’t narrating from a script here; he’s walking the car alongside Brian Grams, the museum’s director, who fields questions the way someone does when he’s answered them a thousand times and still means every word. The two circle the Superbird slowly, camera catching the Alpine White paint against the fluorescent showroom lighting, pausing at the nose cone, the wing, the vinyl top. Grams doesn’t just recite spec-sheet numbers; he explains what each panel was actually for, layering in the kind of institutional knowledge that comes from running a museum where visitors ask the same “why does it look like that?” question every single day. It’s less a review than a guided tour through a piece of NASCAR-era engineering hiding inside a road car most owners never took past 55 miles per hour.
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A Wing That Wasn’t Built to Turn Heads
The Superbird existed because Plymouth was losing on Sunday, and in 1970 that meant losing on the balance sheet by Monday. NASCAR’s aero war had escalated through 1969 with Ford’s Torino Talladega and Mercury’s Cyclone Spoiler II slipping through the air far better than anything Chrysler had on track, so Plymouth engineers grafted the previous year’s Dodge Daytona aerodynamics onto the Road Runner platform, stretched the nose, dropped in a flush rear window, and bolted on a wing tall enough to clear the trunk-mounted spoiler airflow. NASCAR’s homologation rule required one street car built for every two dealerships in a manufacturer’s network, which meant Plymouth had to build and sell roughly 1,900 Superbirds to the public just to legally race the car on Sundays. Most dealers had no idea how to move them; the styling was polarizing, the price was steep, and buyers who wanted a Road Runner for cruising had gentler-looking options. The car nobody wanted in 1970 is the car everybody wants now.
1970 Only — Then Plymouth Walked Away
The Superbird’s production window lasted exactly one model year. Plymouth built it for 1970, homologated it, watched Richard Petty pilot one back to Victory Lane after briefly racing for Ford the year before, and then discontinued the entire aero-car concept when NASCAR changed the rules for 1971 — restricting wing cars to a 305-cubic-inch engine, a limit that made them uncompetitive and effectively legislated them out of existence. That short window is a huge part of why the car sitting in Volo carries the weight it does; there was no 1971 Superbird, no running refresh, no chance for Plymouth to iterate. What rolled off the line in 1970 is the whole story, start to finish. Petty’s return to Plymouth specifically to drive a winged car is often cited by historians as proof of how seriously manufacturers took the aero war — teams and drivers were being courted with a car built around a rulebook loophole, and the strategy worked long enough to matter before NASCAR closed it for good.
Under the Nose Cone: 440 Power and Alpine White Paint
This particular car pairs Alpine White paint with a 440-cubic-inch V8, one of two engine paths Superbird buyers could choose alongside the rarer 426 Hemi. The 440 came in both four-barrel and Six Pack (three two-barrel carburetor) configurations, delivering big-block torque without the Hemi’s price premium or tuning fussiness, which made it the far more common choice among the roughly 1,935 Superbirds built. The nose cone itself extends the car’s front end by nineteen inches over a standard Road Runner, made of fiberglass and hand-fitted at the factory, while the rear wing sits on struts tall enough to clear the trunk lid when it’s opened — a height Chrysler engineers determined through wind-tunnel testing rather than styling preference. Vinyl tops were used on every Superbird partly to hide the welding seams where the standard Road Runner’s rear window opening was filled in for the new flush glass, a detail Brian Grams points out on camera as one of the more overlooked engineering compromises on the car.
The Man Who Answers the Same Question Every Day
Brian Grams didn’t just happen into the Volo Auto Museum — he’s the director of a facility his family built into one of the Midwest’s largest collections of Hollywood, military, and muscle-era vehicles, and cars like this Superbird are exactly why enthusiasts drive in from out of state. On camera with Costabile, Grams speaks about the car with the specificity of someone who has fielded the same visitor questions for years: why the nose is so long, why the wing sits so high, why anyone would style a car this way in 1970. He doesn’t just answer with spec numbers; he walks through the NASCAR politics that produced the car, treating it less like inventory and more like an artifact with a documented past. That framing is part of what makes the Volo museum’s approach different from a typical dealer walkaround — Grams is preserving context, not just chrome, and the Superbird benefits from a caretaker who clearly understands exactly what he’s standing next to.
Why This Nose Cone Commands Six Figures Today
Superbirds have become one of the most heavily counterfeited nameplates in the muscle car world specifically because genuine, numbers-matching examples routinely sell in the mid-six-figure range at major auctions, with Hemi-powered cars pushing well past that. The 440-powered cars, like the Alpine White example at Volo, sit a tier below the Hemi cars in raw dollar value but remain far more attainable while still carrying full Superbird provenance, aero-war history, and the one-year-only production story. Because Plymouth built the car in genuinely low numbers and NASCAR’s 1971 rule change ended the whole wing-car era outright, Superbirds never got diluted by later model years the way some muscle cars did. Collectors also chase these specifically for the nose cone and wing, which are the parts most often damaged, discarded, or swapped by previous owners chasing a more conventional look decades ago — meaning a car that still wears its original factory aero pieces, like this one, carries a real premium over a Superbird that’s had those parts reproduced or replaced.
The Aero War: Daytona, Talladega, and Cyclone Spoiler II
The Superbird didn’t appear in a vacuum — it was Plymouth’s answer to a very specific arms race. Dodge had already fielded the Charger Daytona in 1969, the car that would go on to become the first to break 200 miles per hour on a closed course when Buddy Baker clocked 200.447 mph during a March 1970 test session at Talladega, using nearly identical nose-cone-and-wing aerodynamics that Plymouth then adapted for its own Road Runner-based entry a year later. Ford countered with the Torino Talladega and Mercury’s Cyclone Spoiler II, both of which used a smoother, elongated front end rather than a bolt-on nose cone to cut drag, favoring subtlety over Chrysler’s brute-force approach. All four cars existed for the same narrow purpose — satisfying NASCAR’s homologation minimums so their aerodynamic advantages could legally hit the superspeedways at Daytona and Talladega — and all four were essentially obsolete the moment NASCAR rewrote the rulebook for 1971. Today, that shared, short-lived history is exactly what makes any of these aero cars, this Superbird included, valuable as a matched set of engineering artifacts from a single, narrow moment in racing.
What to Check Before Trusting a Superbird’s Nose
Because reproduction nose cones, wings, and vinyl tops have been available for decades, verifying an original Superbird comes down to matching the VIN against Chrysler’s broadcast sheet or fender tag data, checking that the nose cone’s fiberglass matches factory production techniques, and confirming the trunk-mounted wing struts haven’t been re-drilled for aftermarket mounting. Reproduction fiberglass nose cones exist specifically because so many originals were damaged or discarded once the cars stopped being NASCAR-relevant and started depreciating through the 1970s and ’80s, so a numbers-matching, date-coded nose cone adds real value beyond the engine and body. Restorers also watch for over-restoration — repainting Alpine White in a modern basecoat/clearcoat finish instead of period-correct lacquer, or replacing the vinyl top with a non-factory pattern — since judged shows and serious collectors both penalize deviations from how the car left the factory in 1970. A well-documented Superbird with its original paperwork, broadcast sheet, and factory-correct aero parts is worth substantially more than a visually similar clone.
Fifty Years Later, the Wing Still Wins
What started as a rulebook workaround has aged into one of the most instantly recognizable silhouettes in American car culture — the Superbird’s nose cone and wing show up on merchandise, in movies, and at every major muscle car auction as a kind of shorthand for the entire aero-war era. Cars like this Alpine White 440 example, on display at a museum built specifically to preserve pieces of automotive and pop-culture history, function as living reminders that the ugliest ducklings of a given era often become the most sought-after survivors decades later. Plymouth built the Superbird because it had to, sold it reluctantly because dealers couldn’t move it, and watched NASCAR legislate it out of relevance within a single year — yet none of that mattered once collectors started chasing what was left. Brian Grams and the team at Volo aren’t just storing a car; they’re keeping a working explanation of why Detroit briefly built cars that looked like nothing else on the road, and why that brief window still fascinates fans more than fifty years on.
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Ugly but $$$$
Not in my book!!! I’d love to have one!!!
They should of left them in cartoons where they belong.
Take some Preparation H to stop your hemorrhoid from raging, you sound like a asshole in pain.
You’d know… smelly down there??
Yeah I’ve had a hemorrhoid before,
Saying stupid shit moronic shit like you just did when my asshole hurts.
With your head so far up it, I can understand the hurt…
But I’m not the triggered by a car designed in 1970 that ran 200mph.
I guess your pissed your Prius has a hard time getting up to 40mph.
Jealousy and raging hemorrhoids make you look like a fucking dipshit.
Nahhh I only drive one ton Fords. You just blew your cover. Roid boy…
Nahhh I only drive one ton Fords. You just blew your cover. Roid boy…
Love these cars; )
The Roadrunner 68-70 maybe one of the best musclecars from that era. This car is a track car, NASCAR.
This is a 1970s only model. Plymouth only made the Roadrunner Superbirds in 1970.
i’m talking bout the roadrunner in general. But yep this car was made in 1970 only
My Favorite Mopar of ALL TIME is the ’69 Dodge Charger Daytona.
My fav.Mopar !!!
Ok
Beautiful Car.. i love them all.. To bad only the rich and famous can afford the now.. The average hard working American can only dream of owning one.
We could of had one back in 1970….or I could have !….my loss. .who would have thought back then!
My favorite molar also
If you love Muscle Cars, you have to love these Superbirds, and the Dodge Daytonas. A very hard to find car to find when new, and now worth Big dollars. These were one of the better cars Mopar made.
They set on lots unsold when new….I seen them!
Love the wing cars
Never like them,think about it ,they look ridiculous….. My opinion
Is that why NASCAR outlawed them Garry Smith? Think about it…
That’s why they didn’t sell back then.. .who knew?
Richard petty made 25 brand new hellcat challengers out of petty s garage..he put the super bird wings on them and the dip coned nose on them. The wing on them is over me and I’m 6 ft 1
True fact: the wing is that high on the original cars only for truck lid clearance.
Awesome
There wasn’t many of these jewels, but they were FINE.
Would like to own it
I know its functional, but it looks bad
It my dream car
My favorite car
Awesome car
29 wins 69-70 Ford Talladega (wingless)
8 wins Plymouth Superbird
6 wins Dodge Daytona
I go for a true aggressive look, this car does not have it at all.
Only car out loud by NASCAR because nobody could beat them
Owned two of them at the same time.
They may have been great, and now very expensive but I never had any attraction to them and would not want one today.
My Cuz has 1 but is beat to hell. She bought it 11 years ago for 14K with a bunch of xtra parts. She has been working on it on and off and should have it done in 2022. She’s slow but meticulous. I get a pic every year or so. She wants to paint it metallic green!
Paint it how it came if she wants the most from it
They were slow, ugly as all hell, and the biggest joke on the road!
I don’t think your car can hit 180+ Mph buddy. It is big. In your opinion it is ugly. But this is not slow.
These cars are the reason NASCAR started using limits on displacement. Mopar was dominating.
Very few of those cars had the hemi option in them. The ones with the 440 were a joke on the street I know I raced a few of them in my time and I even got to see a few on the drag strip and like I said a joke.
Representative Performance
0-60 mph, sec: 5.7
1/4 mile, sec. @ mph: 13.92 @ 104.5
I love the winged MOPARS I’ve had my SUPERBIRD 25 years 440/4spd….love em….
NASCAR Aero Cars. Also known as the Winged Warriors.
That’s still my dream car……
Love it
The Daytona is the coolest car ever made.
Nice rides
Neighbor bought one brand new, was nothing on the road like it back in the day. A very unique car.
rode in one once wow!!!!
Amazing
Don’t follow one in the rain, they kick up more water than a semi!
PLYMOUTH MAKES IT ONLY IN AMERICA.
I drove One very fast kind of scary but it was fun! It was the 1970
My dream car, wishing I had money to buy a couple , or one makes me happy!!!
Crazy fast car!
Junk as they are then and now