Man Stung by Mexican Super Bee

A 1976 Dodge Aspen R/T doesn’t look like a factory Super Bee — because in the U.S., that car never existed. Chrysler kept the nameplate alive four extra years exclusively for Mexico, grafting a Dodge front end to a Plymouth’s tail and fitting an engine American buyers couldn’t get. One grandfather-grandson build project set out to recreate it from scratch, one badge and taillight at a time.

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MCF recently submitted story about a Grandfather and his Grandson making a Super Bee

Hi my story is a little off the wall
I had a 1985 Dodge D 350 1 ton that was in great shape and had a 440 built engine.
I only drove it a couple times a year and I decided to trade her for a car that I could build with my grandson.
I traded her for a 1976 Dodge Aspen R/T Superpak that needed some love.
The journey began and I joined a Mopar F body group. After I posted pictures of my project, one of the members, Matt asked if I knew what I had there. I answered yes a 76 Aspen R/T.He said, it looks like a Roadrunner by the taillights but it has an Aspen grille. I posted the fender tag to verify that is was an R/T. Matt suggested I do a clone to the 77 Mexican VALIANT Super Bee that was only made in Mexico .To make it like the Mexican Super Bee I would have to use the Volare taillights and Aspen front grille to make it a Valiant Super Bee . I started searching for the Valiant front hood badge and found one from a guy named Carlos in Mexico. He also gave me the rubbing’s of the Super Bee side stripes and the tail pan decal. I had the decals made and had her painted and rebuilt the interior.
After a year of working on the project my Grandson and I love our Valiant Super Bee named Elvira. We also are very grateful to Matt for the suggestions and inspirations he gave us to take this project on.
Thanks for the opportunity Ricky E.
Ft Lupton Colorado

Most Super Bees at a Mopar show today are clones — tributes to a car that was never sold new in the United States at all. When Ricky’s grandson helped him build their 1976 Dodge Aspen R/T into a stand-in for that lost model, they were chasing a nameplate Chrysler quietly kept alive south of the border for four more years after American buyers lost it entirely. The genuine article wore a Dodge front clip grafted to a Plymouth’s tail, ran a bigger engine than anything comparable sold stateside, and even worked a day job chasing speeders for the Mexican federal highway patrol. So how did a Detroit performance legend end up surviving only in Mexico, disguised as two different cars at once?

The Nameplate America Wasn’t Allowed to Keep

After Dodge Dart and Plymouth Valiant were dropped in the U.S. after 1976, Chrysler’s Mexican operation kept the compact nameplates alive on the new F-body platform, badged Dart and Valiant. The performance package — the Valiant Super Bee — combined the front sheetmetal of the U.S. Dodge Aspen R/T with the rear of the Plymouth Volare, since compact and mid-size lines in Mexico didn’t map perfectly onto the U.S. model split. It’s essentially the car Ricky and his grandson were replicating, taillights, grille badge, side stripes, and all.

Why Mexico Got the Bigger Engine

The Mexican Super Bee’s standout feature: a 360 cubic-inch V8 rated at 300 horsepower, kept in production through the car’s final year in 1980. U.S. emissions regulations had strangled big-block and even small-block muscle by the late ’70s, but Mexico’s looser pollution standards let Chrysler de Mexico keep the 360 running strong long after American buyers were stuck with detuned engines. That performance made the Super Bee a natural pick for the Mexican federal highway patrol, which used them as pursuit vehicles.

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