Only 392 Charger 500s were made, and one Hemi ‘Cuda convertible sold for $3.5 million. Count down four of the rarest American muscle cars ever built.
One of these sold for $3.5 million, and another needed a back door order code just to exist. Production numbers this small turn muscle cars into legends. Here is our countdown of four of the rarest American muscle cars ever built, from No.4 down to No.1.
No.4: 1969 Dodge Charger 500
Dodge built the Charger 500 for one reason: to win at NASCAR. The regular Charger had a recessed grille and a tunnel-back rear window that made drag worse, so Dodge fitted a flush grille and a flat rear window to slip through the wind.
The standard engine was the 440 Magnum, although factory literature listed the 426 Hemi. Only 392 Charger 500s were ever made, and just 67 of them had the Hemi. Of those, 27 came with a four-speed and 40 with an automatic.
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Dodge still was not satisfied with the results on the track. It introduced the winged Charger Daytona on April 13, 1969, and that car pulled in over 1,000 orders. The Charger 500 was a very rare stepping stone on the way to one of the wildest cars in muscle car history.
No.3: 1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Chevrolet built the most extreme Camaro ever through a back door order code called COPO 9560. The package was conceived by drag racer Dick Harrell and ordered through Fred Gibb Chevrolet in La Harpe, Illinois, so the cars could enter NHRA Super Stock racing.
Under the hood sat the ZL1, an all-aluminum big block designed for drag racing, where every pound counted. It was rated at 430 horsepower, but with exhaust changes and tuning it could make over 500. Each engine took 16 hours to assemble by hand, in a room Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov described as surgically clean.
The engine alone cost over $4,000, which was more than an entire base V8 Camaro. Only 69 ZL1 Camaros were produced, which is why a clean one is the stuff of collector dreams today.
No.2: 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda
The Hemi ‘Cuda is what happens when Plymouth stops holding back. The third-generation Barracuda finally got the wider E-body platform, with an engine bay big enough for Chrysler’s 426 cubic inch Hemi. It made 425 horsepower and 490 lb-ft of torque.
Cars with the Hemi received upgraded suspension and structural reinforcements to help put that power on the road, plus the heavy-duty Dana 60 rear axle on manual cars. The shaker hood was available for 1970 and 1971 only, and it put the engine’s breathing on full display.
Chrysler even went racing with it. Four 1970 Hemi ‘Cudas were successfully raced by Chrysler France from 1970 until 1973. Few muscle cars of any era have looked and sounded as intimidating as this one.
No.1: 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda Convertible
Only thirteen. That is how many Hemi ‘Cuda convertibles Plymouth built for 1971, the final year for the 426 Hemi, and just seven of them were sold in the United States. Chrysler had detuned most engines that year to run on regular gasoline, but not the 426, which made this the last gasp of the street Hemi.
Today the 1971 Hemi ‘Cuda convertible is considered one of the most valuable collectible muscle cars in the world. At the June 2014 Mecum auction in Seattle, a blue-on-blue four-speed example sold for $3.5 million, before the buyer’s premium.
Thirteen built, seven sold in America. That is rare.
Which one would you take home?
From a NASCAR homologation special to a drag-strip weapon and the last of the street Hemis, these four prove that scarcity makes legends. Tell us your pick in the comments, and watch the full countdown video above. For more classic muscle car countdowns, keep exploring MuscleCarFan.com.
Facts sourced from Wikipedia. Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons): 1969 Dodge Charger 500 by Greg Gjerdingen (CC BY 2.0); 1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 by Mustang Joe (CC0); 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda by Greg Gjerdingen (CC BY 2.0); 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda convertible by zenity79 (CC BY-SA 2.0).
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