Plymouth Called the 1967 GTX a “Gentleman’s Muscle Car” — Its Standard Engine Still Made 375 Horsepower

The 1967 Plymouth GTX swapped stripped-down race-car bravado for bucket seats, a console tach, and chrome trim — then backed it up with a 440 big-block as the standard engine and the 426 Hemi on the option sheet. Here’s the story behind the Mopar built to out-class the GTO without looking like it was trying.

Plymouth had a problem in 1967: everyone wanted a muscle car, but not everyone wanted to drive one that rattled on cheap springs, skipped the carpet, and looked like a drag-strip reject in the office parking lot. So instead of stripping a car down the way the Road Runner would two years later, Plymouth did the opposite. It dressed its new GTX in bucket seats, a console-mounted tachometer, and blacked-out trim, then quietly made a 440 cubic-inch V8 rated at 375 horsepower the standard engine. Order the 426 Hemi instead, and you walked away with 425 horsepower and a car nobody at the country club would ever suspect could run deep into the 15s at the strip. Plymouth didn’t apologize for the contradiction — it was the entire sales pitch. This was Mopar’s own “gentleman’s muscle car,” built to run with anything Pontiac was selling without ever looking like it was trying.

The Suit-and-Tie Muscle Car Nobody Saw Coming

That’s the car YouTube’s Muscle Car Campy digs into in this feature, walking through a well-kept 1967 GTX and asking the question that’s followed this car for nearly 60 years: was it actually cooler than the GTO its name was clearly needling? The video spends real time on the small details that separated a GTX from a garden-variety Belvedere — the factory build sheet taped inside, the options a first owner actually checked off, and the wild factory color combination this particular car wears. Commenters on the video, several of whom say they owned GTXs new or know someone who did, back up just how serious these cars were taken on the street in period, with more than one story of a GTX quietly embarrassing GTOs and Chevys that looked faster on paper.

It’s a car-of-the-week style walkaround rather than a wrench-turning build video, and that’s exactly the right format for a GTX. There’s no engine swap to show off, no barn-find grime to wipe away — just a genuinely well-preserved example of a car Plymouth built to be driven comfortably at 75 and then embarrass someone at a stoplight. The video’s closing argument is really a question for the comment section, and judging by the replies, longtime Mopar owners have strong opinions about where the GTX ranks.

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What the GTX’s Name Was Really Mocking

The GTX launched in 1967 as a trim package on the Belvedere, Plymouth’s mid-size platform, and it’s widely believed around Mopar circles that the name itself was a jab at Pontiac — GTO stood for Gran Turismo Omologato, borrowed from Ferrari homologation racing, so Plymouth’s GTX read like a one-letter punchline aimed squarely at it. Rather than the stripped-down “cheap insurance, big engine” formula Plymouth would perfect with the Road Runner in 1968, the GTX went the other direction entirely. It came standard with a 440 cubic-inch “Super Commando” V8 making 375 horsepower and 480 lb-ft of torque — numbers that undercut the Hemi’s output on paper but delivered nearly as much real-world punch with none of the Hemi’s finicky carburetion or insurance headaches. Buyers who wanted the ultimate version could still check the box for the 426 Hemi at 425 horsepower.

What actually made a GTX a GTX, beyond the engine, was the trim: a blacked-out grille and distinct rear fascia, fiberglass simulated hood scoops with optional racing stripes, a chrome pop-open fuel filler cap, and that console-mounted tachometer that told everyone inside the car this wasn’t a basic Belvedere. Heavy-duty suspension came standard, not as an option buried on the order form. Buyers chose between a three-speed TorqueFlite automatic or a four-speed manual with a floor shifter, and Plymouth built 12,109 of them for 1967 — 11,429 hardtops and just 680 convertibles, which is part of why a clean drop-top GTX commands serious money from collectors today.

The Numbers That Made the Gentleman’s Car a Threat

On paper, the standard 440 GTX wasn’t chasing records — but it didn’t need to. Period testing put the 440-powered GTX at roughly 6.5 seconds to 60 mph and a 15.2-second quarter mile at 97 mph, numbers that held their own against plenty of cars that looked far more aggressive in a parking lot. Add the optional Hemi and a GTX could hang with Mopar’s fastest factory offerings of the era, all while still carrying bucket seats, carpet, and trim most “real” muscle cars of 1967 simply didn’t bother with.

That split personality is exactly why the GTX still draws a crowd at Mopar shows decades later. It wasn’t trying to be the cheapest way into a big engine, and it wasn’t trying to be the rawest car on the lot. It was Plymouth betting that buyers wanted both the luxury trim and the big-block, and for one model year before the Road Runner arrived to grab the budget-muscle crowd, the GTX had that particular lane almost entirely to itself.

Watch the full video above and let us know your thoughts in the comments.