With its sky-high wing and massive engine, the 1970 Plymouth Superbird is the ultimate muscle car, and refuses to be ignored. Sure, there were more popular muscle cars sold in the 1970s and many others that are more sought after today, but the Superbird is an unmistakable marriage between a racecar and streetcar. A perfect example of one of these aggressive Plymouth muscle cars happens to be owned by puppeteer comedian, Jeff Dunham, and he recently stopped by Jay Leno’s Garage to give him the story behind the car.
Jeff Dunham is such a cool car guy that he owns a 1970 Plymouth Superbird with a screamingly loud Vitamin C paint job. If you follow Jay Leno’s Garage, you already know that he has quite the respectable collection and has been on the show before, but his knowledge about this particular car is really impressive.
Dunham spent a lot of time searching for this car in order to find the right one. This winged beast came out of Ohio, where it had been sitting in a barn for several years. The second owner, a dentist, had been sitting on an incredibly rare car. Less than thirty were made with the huge 426ci Hemi engine, manual transmission, and orange paint job, so this is a pretty significant barn find. Jeff was all too happy to swoop it up and get it back on the road. Once he got his hands on it, Jeff had the car restored to flawless condition.
Plymouth developed the Superbird to lure Richard Petty back to the car company back in 1969 when The King was driving a Ford. Capable of reaching 200 mph, the car killed it during the 1970 NASCAR season. Behind the wheel of a Superbird, Petty would go on to win 18 races, and Bobby Isaac would use his car to take home 11 wins and the championship at Daytona.
Even though dealers had a hard time selling these muscle cars back when they were new, they are worth six-figures when one in good condition comes up for sale today. Check out Jeff and Jay as they walk us through the muscle car, and then hit the roads of Los Angeles to give us a taste of the car in action.
Shawn Henry is a Texas native who has spent the majority of his career building and selling F-Bodies and Corvettes. Now studying journalism, he is taking a new direction with his love of performance vehicles.
