1970 Plymouth Superbird

There are Superbirds and then there are Superbirds. Clayton King recently sent us some photos of a rather legendary ‘Bird in the hobby that we hadn’t seen in a while, but we were decently acquainted with many years ago. Behold, the magical 440+6 four-speed Superbird of Rick Edwards Sr., the car’s original owner, but it’s now co-owned with his son, Rick Jr. The pair of Ricks live in Northern Kentucky, and if this car could talk, it would put most winged cars to shame. This photo was taken at the 2024 Cavalcade of Customs in Cincinnati, Ohio, but the crazy cool thing about this car is that it’s been Rick Seniors near daily-driver ever since it was new. With 171,000 miles on the odometer now, the ‘Bird has been all over the country; California, Wisconsin, Chicago, it’s made many trips to Talladega, and it’s been a regular at winged car meets since the late 1970’s. Heck, Rick and Rick even drove it to the MCACN show in 2022 in the middle of a blinding snow storm!

Almost everything you’re looking at is original as well – this is a true survivor in every sense of the word. Yes, the tires have been changed several times, some hoses, belts, basic maintenance items, but Rick has taken immaculate care of the car since new. One of the coolest bits of proof as to how much this car was enjoyed is atop the driver’s door. There’s about a foot-and-a-half section on top of the door where the paint’s worn down to whitish-looking primer, because Rick always used to hang his arm out of the door on long distance road trips! Hey, it gets hot in these things when you’re going cross country!

We’re glad to see this famed survivor Superbird back out in circulation again, and even more pleased that it’s going to stay in the family probably forever, so, we don’t have to worry about anyone grabbing it and killing its history or personality by doing a ground-up restoration on a car that’s a reference piece of originality. Thanks to Clayton for the photos, and all we can say to the Edwards family is well done, and keep on rolling up those miles and having fun!