December 15, 1969 – The last Plymouth Superbird

The story of the Plymouth Superbird and its development is fairly well-known, so we won’t get into heavy details. In brief, it had one job, to dominate NASCAR along with its older sibling, the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona. While Dodge only had to build 500 Daytonas to be eligible for the 1969 NASCAR season, the sanctioning body changed the rules for 1970 to combat purpose built race cars. For Plymouth, that meant at least 1,920 Superbirds needed to end up on dealer lots to qualify for the track. With a target set, the assembly line churned. Before long workers hit their mark and the last Plymouth Superbird rolled off the assembly line on this day in 1969. Check out the green car below.

When all’s said and done, somewhere between 1,969 and 1,982 Superbirds left Lynch Road Assembly in Detroit. Approximately 34 to 47 of those became Canadian citizens and the rest remained stateside. When it came time to hit the oval, the Hemi powered ‘Birds really flew. NASCAR Superbird drivers took home 8 checkered flags in 1970, including five wins by Richard Petty, who returned to Plymouth from Ford specifically to drive a ‘Bird. Pete Hamilton scored the first NASCAR win in a Superbird at that year’s Daytona 500.

The production run for the car was short, with the first one leaving the line on October 17, 1969 and the last on December 15, 1969. Pictured above is what’s claimed to be the last Superbird built. It’s a four-speed, 440 Limelight green car. While the top of the line 426 Hemi ‘Birds tend to command the most dough, this one sold for $165,000 in 2015. Check out this article to learn about the first Plymouth Superbird and its detailed assembly process.

The date of the last production Superbird comes from stats on Aerowarriors.com.