No car better represents the automotive excess of the American muscle car era than the Plymouth Superbird and its Dodge cousin, the Charger Daytona. These two cars were endowed with gaudy-but-advanced aerodynamics that allowed them to outpace the competition on the oval track and top speeds of 200 mph. They were, in many ways, the ultimate muscle car. The ultimate American car. So how did a Superbird end up in Australia?
You can thank/blame Murray Markwell, the owner of Southern Customs, and American car restoration shop. Jalopnik came across this video interview from Bandit Films about this self-admitted “revhead.”
Murray is the offspring of an Australian auto worker from GM, who made numerous visits to the U.S. during his employment, often bringing young Murray along for the trip. The boy brought back a lot of memorabilia and built up a big love for American muscle cars (he’s got good taste!) Eventually he even went on to open up his classic American car restoration shop, and from a few of the shots we can see there’s a lot more than just this Mopar hanging out down under. That could be a Shelby GT-350, and there were plenty of big block engines taking up space in the background that we’re wondering about too (there’s another video for that!)
Murray never actually explains how this particular car came to the Land Down Under. And perhaps its better if we never know for sure. That’s part of the mystique of muscle cars. Many of the real collectibles have been spread out across the world in private collections or as forever-restorations. And we guess Australia deserves at least one Superbird. At least it’s in the hands of a man who isn’t afraid to stomp the gas and burn some rubber on this expensive piece of history.