-As blue-chip muscle cars go, the Hemi-powered Plymouth 'Cuda lies at the top of the heap. In fact, it's the only muscle car we included on our list of 10 Cars to Drive Before You Die. In convertible form, it's the only muscle car besides the Shelby GT350 listed on Hagerty's index of postwar blue-chip collectible cars (Corvettes and Cobras aren't muscle cars, okay?), where it stands alongside vintage royalty such as the Aston Martin DB5, the Ferrari 250GT California Spyder, the Lamborghini Miura, the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing, and the Tucker 48. Solid company.
Hemi 'Cudas come up for sale quite infrequently at best, as they've long been prized collectibles and fewer than 800 were built in 1970 and '71. But if you think 800 is a low number, consider 81—that's how many miles are on the gem shown here. Mecum Auctions, which will offer the "Tor Red" coupe at its Indianapolis sale in mid-May, boasts that it's "the lowest-mileage 1970 Hemi 'Cuda known to exist."
-For as virginal as this car appears, it started life the same way as many big-block muscle cars—as a drag racer. The story goes that the original owner started modifying the Plymouth immediately after driving it home from the dealership in Clarksburg, West Virginia. He swapped in upgraded parts for the intake, carburetors, exhaust, suspension, rear end, and tires. The owner made about 30 passes at the strip (that's 7.5 racing miles), sometimes breaking into the 10s. For reference, Car and Driver didn't record a sub-11-second quarter-mile time from a street car until decades later, with the Saleen S7 Twin Turbo in 2006, although keep in mind that we don't test on sticky drag strips or with special tires. The quickest quarter-miler we'd tested when this 'Cuda was new was easily this Shelby Cobra 427, which did the deed in 12.2 seconds.
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-This unrestored Plymouth remains about as close to new—and stationary—as possible. The original owner died after just one season of attacking West Virginia drag strips. In 1977, his son sold the car to a man who reinstalled all of the factory-stock components when the odometer read 42 miles. That guy was so intimidated by this elephant, apparently, that he drove the car less than one mile over his 16 years of ownership.
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We typically have little interest in vintage cars that are unlikely to be properly exercised ever again. But there's no denying that this minty Plymouth is truly special. Mecum estimates that this car will sell for between $600,000 and $800,000; if it had a manual transmission, a top the lowered, and/or a 1971 VIN it'd definitely be higher (witness this lovely purple '71 four-speed droptop, which Mecum sold last year for $3.5 million). In 2007, at the height of the muscle-car market, Barrett-Jackson sold this very car—with 74 miles on the clock—for $550,000. If this car beats that price, has the once-burst bubble officially been reinflated?
-from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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