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Posts Tagged: Richard Petty

A vintage Plymouth car covered in dust inside a rustic wooden garage.

Epic Barn Find In The Midwest!

by Wes

The Auto Archaeologist uncovers a genuine Mopar aero-warrior lineup hiding in a Midwest barn: a Plymouth Superbird, a Dodge Charger 500, and a Talladega, sitting together and largely forgotten. These are three of the rarest, most historically significant muscle cars Chrysler ever built, all found in the same place at the same time. The condition ranges from rough to seriously deteriorated, and the video doesn’t shy away from showing exactly how much work — and money — it would take to save them. Watch to see what years of barn storage did to some of Mopar’s most legendary aero cars.

A blue Plymouth Superbird drives down a suburban road.

Richard Petty’s 200mph Plymouth Superbird On The Road

by Wes

Richard Petty’s own 1970 Plymouth Superbird hadn’t turned a wheel on the road in over forty years — until Goodwood convinced him to drive it again. The winged, 200-mph NASCAR homologation special that helped make Petty’s name (and inspired Pixar’s The King in Cars) gets a rare public outing, engine roaring for the first time in a generation. Fans in Petty’s hometown of Randleman, North Carolina still stop him for photos to this day. Watch to hear what a real Hemi sounds like waking up after forty years.

Vintage blue race car and airplane at an outdoor event.

Sox & Martin Vs. Richard Petty – Superbird Match Race!

by Wes

Two tribute Superbirds recreating NASCAR’s most famous 1970 rivalry meet again in 1991, this time on a Columbus, Ohio drag strip neither aero car was ever built to run. The Sox and Martin and Richard Petty liveries square off in an exhibition match race that still splits fans down the middle decades later. Watch to see how a car engineered for 200-mph ovals handles a quarter mile instead.

Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird 1970

by Ross Mills

Plymouth built the 1970 Superbird for exactly one model year, in exactly one body style, to accomplish exactly one thing: win at NASCAR and bring Richard Petty back from Ford. It did both. Then dealers could not give the leftovers away, and buyers had the wings removed to make them sellable. Today those same cars are six-figure collector pieces. Read on for how that reversal happened.

Classic blue 1970 Plymouth Superbird race car number 43 in a garage.

1970 Plymouth Superbird actual car Richard Petty Raced in

by Wes

A 1970 Plymouth Superbird carrying the number 43 turned up at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Illinois — and it wasn’t a tribute build. This is one of the actual NASCAR racers Richard Petty piloted during Plymouth’s aero-war campaign, left largely untouched since its racing days. From the nose cone engineered to chase 200 mph to the cartoon character it inspired decades later, there’s more to this car than its paint job lets on.

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