Float Like a Butterfly Sting Like A Superbee

Dodge’s Super Bee ran a full four-year spread of engine options, from a stout 383 all the way up to the legendary 426 Hemi, but the rarest combination of them all was the mid-1969 A12 Six-Pack. Only 1,907 of those 440 Six-Pack cars were built, and the Hemi option was even scarcer at just 125 units. It’s a lineup that proves not every muscle car icon needed a household name to earn its reputation.

I found some of my old factory posters for the Super Bee which pretty much says it all about these rare Muscle Cars.
The Muscle car versions were from 1968-71 and included engines from the rock solid 383 with 440 Magnum heads and 335 hp to the unbeatable 426 Hemi motor with 425 hp. The 69-70 year added the 390 hp 440 motor.
The 71 added the 340, 275Â hp,383 with 300 hp,the 440 with 370 hp & 385 hp and the 426 Hemi at 425 hp.
The Dodge Super Bee Hemi package added 33% to the price of the car and as a result only 125 Hemi versions were sold.
A â€œ6-Pack version (three two-barrel carburetors) sitting on top of the 440 engine was added mid-year 1969, with only1,907 being sold. This version included the 6-pack, Dana 60 axle with a 4:10 gear ratio, heavy duty automatic or 4-speed transmission and a â€˜lift offâ€™ flat black scooped hood.
The package was the A12 M-code and also included heavy duty internal parts, black steel rim’s and high performance G-15â€tires with 11â€ drum brakes.
The only one I owned was a white 68 without a drivetrain that I paid $100 for.Traded it for a Mustang that ran.
Tell us what you had or your experience with this fine machine from the Muscle Car Days.If you have pics send them to info@musclecarfan.com

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Somewhere between 1968 and 1971, Dodge built a bee that could genuinely sting, and the engine lineup behind that badge tells the whole story. Digging through old factory posters is how this story starts, a reminder of just how many different ways Dodge let buyers configure their Super Bee over four model years. From a rock-solid 383 wearing 440 Magnum heads all the way up to the unbeatable 426 Hemi, the options sheet reads like a menu built for people who took their muscle seriously. But it’s the rarest combination on that list that actually explains why so few original Super Bees survive with their original drivetrain intact.

An Engine Lineup That Kept Growing

The base 383 came stout from the factory, wearing 440 Magnum heads and putting out 335 horsepower, already enough to embarrass plenty of cars that cost twice as much. Buyers who wanted more could step up to a 440 that grew from 390 horsepower in 1969-70 to a broader spread of outputs by 1971, when Dodge finally offered a full slate of engines across the board: a 275-horse 340 small-block, a detuned 300-horse 383, 440s rated at both 370 and 385 horsepower, and the 426 Hemi still sitting at the top rated at 425. That kind of range meant a Super Bee buyer could build anything from a sensible daily driver to a genuine strip weapon, all under the same badge.

The Six-Pack Nobody Could Find

The real unicorn of the lineup arrived mid-year in 1969: the A12 M-code, a 440 wearing three two-barrel carburetors in what everyone just calls the Six-Pack. It came bundled with a Dana 60 rear axle geared at 4:10, a heavy-duty transmission, and a distinctive lift-off flat black scooped hood that announced exactly what was under it.

The Production Numbers That Turn a Purchase Into a Hunt

Only 1,907 of these Six-Pack Super Bees were built, and the Hemi option was rarer still, adding roughly a third to the car’s price and holding 1968 Hemi Super Bee production to a scarcely believable 125 cars. Numbers like that explain why finding a numbers-matching original today feels less like a purchase and more like a genuine hunt.

Where the Super Bee Fit in Dodge’s Lineup

Dodge introduced the Super Bee for 1968 as a direct answer to the Plymouth Road Runner, building it on the same mid-size Coronet platform Dodge already had in showrooms rather than developing something new from scratch. The idea was simple: give budget-minded buyers a genuine big-engine muscle car without forcing them to pay for the trim and comfort features loaded onto pricier models like the Coronet R/T. That stripped-down approach kept the base price low enough to compete directly with Plymouth’s own no-frills muscle car, even though the two shared a corporate parent.

The Scat Pack Bee That Tied It All Together

Dodge folded the Super Bee into its broader “Scat Pack” marketing push, a lineup that also included the Coronet R/T and Charger R/T, all identified by a cartoon bumblebee badge meant to signal serious performance underneath ordinary sheet metal. The bee theme carried through advertising, dealer promotions, and even factory literature, giving Dodge’s performance cars a unified identity at a time when nearly every domestic manufacturer was racing to brand its own muscle car sub-lineup.

A Short Run That Still Shaped Dodge’s Reputation

The Super Bee only lasted through the 1971 model year, and even then it spent its final season built on the redesigned Charger platform rather than the Coronet, marking a real shift in what the nameplate actually was underneath the badge. Tightening insurance rates on big-engine cars and the industry-wide move toward lower compression for emissions reasons both worked against the kind of high-output engine lineup that had defined the Super Bee’s short life, and Dodge folded the name away rather than watering it down further.

Why Six-Pack and Hemi Survivors Command So Much Attention Today

Because the rarest engine options — the A12 Six-Pack and the 426 Hemi — were built in such small numbers to begin with, and because plenty of Super Bees were driven hard, raced, or simply used up over the decades since, a genuine numbers-matching example with either engine still installed has become one of the more sought-after finds in the whole Mopar muscle car hobby. Even base 383 cars, unglamorous as they were compared to their rarer siblings, have found a growing following among collectors who appreciate what an honest, no-frills muscle car from this era actually drove like.

Old factory posters and dealership handouts like the ones pictured here are part of why the Super Bee’s identity has held up so well decades later — they captured a marketing push built entirely around performance and value, with none of the softer lifestyle branding that crept into muscle car advertising later in the 1970s.

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