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The year 1970 was a historical year for the muscle car. All major American car builders were going all out to produce the most radial and powerful cars the world had ever seen.
General Motors had its Camaro's and Chevelle's. Ford had the Mustangs and limited edition cars such as the Cougar Eliminator.

Not to be outdone the Chrysler Corporation launched it's newest and most improved line of Yankee muscle as well, which included the Charger, Challenger, Roadrunner, GTX, and of course the Dodge Superbee.

The 1970 Dodge Hemi Superbee was a beautiful automobile. The Superbees' were originally built due to a slight internal competition that had developed between Dodge and Plymouth. The Plymouth division had built the wildly popular Roadrunner with the famous logo borrowed from the "Looney Tunes" cartoon, The Roadrunner and Wylie Coyote.

The Superbees' although gorgeously designed and based upon the Coronet were always chasing the Roadrunner for popularity, but just like in the cartoons they always seemed to fall a little short.

The Bee was never produced in mass quantities, but in fact was a limited edition muscle car produced between 1968-1971. They offered it such wildly wonderful colors such as, Plum Crazy, Sublime, and Go-Mango. All models came with the fabulous bumble-bee stripes wrapped around the tail and a bee logo on the fenders.

The Superbee was a 2-door model only and was designed to be a "Poor Man's" hotrod, and was priced at just slightly over $3000 dollars. Three powerful engine options were presented, including the 383, 440 or the powerhouse 426 Hemi that was rated at 425 hp at a higher price.

Many options were offered such as a A-833 manual four-speed transmission or automatic transmission, six-pack (three-two barrel carburetors), high performance tires, and Ram-charger hood with cold-air intake. The Bee came standard with heavy-duty suspension to accommodate speed and performance.

Thirty-eight years later the 1970 Dodge Hemi Super Bee is among the rarest and most sought after collector muscle cars in North America. If you intend to be the proud owner of this rare automobile be prepared to pay over ten times its original sticker price, if you can find an original, cherry specimen that hasn't been butchered, wrecked or modified.

It seems ironic that the Bee was somewhat of a hard sell over thirty years ago and is today such a sought after and widely popular car with a new generation of Mopar lovers and muscle car fanatics. The 1970 Hemi Superbee will always be a consummate classic due to its spectacular styling that was years ahead of its time.

Learn more about this author, Jim Osborn.
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