Whether in 1970 or today, 200 miles per hour is always impressive.

Hey everyone out there on the ol’ interweb, it’s Vinny, coming at you with the first episode of “Vinny’s Finds,” the segment where I will be featuring different cars, parts, swap meet treasures, experiences, tricks and tips, and general cool car stuff that I come across.

For our first foray into “cool-guy” car stuff, I have something big, yellow, and really slick. No, I’m not talking about a banana peel. Instead, I’ll refer you to a few weeks back when I stopped by the L.A. Roadster Show and spied a very clean 1970 Plymouth Superbird. I don’t have to tell all of you how rare of a gem this is, but I actually got to stop and chat with the owner, Tom Watts, and he broke it down for us.

Plymouth livery and wild aero make the Superbird a sight to behold on the street.

It was a beautiful day in Pomona, California, when I ran into Tom, and his amazing Plymouth. While the LA Roadster Show is typically more of a show for, well . . . roadsters, we were lucky enough to happen upon this gorgeous Lemon Twist Superbird. For those of you who don’t know about Mopars and their quirky color codes, Lemon Twist yellow, is the color code for this particular Plymouth.

In fact, any of you who don’t know the history of this beloved – and hated – NASCAR legend are in for a treat. Pull up a seat around  the campfire and let me bend your ear about this fabled bird. It was 1969, and Dodge was having their butt handed to them on the racetrack. Ford and Chevy were taking all the checkered flags, and Dodge was fed up. The powers that be at Chrysler said no more, and put a stop to it.

Pulling their chief engineer off of their missile-manufacturing side business, Chrysler chose to focus on more important things than the Cold War, and shifted their attention to racing. Thus, the Dodge Daytona was born. This would probably explain why the Daytona was the first car in NASCAR to exceed the 200 mph mark. When you’re used to building rockets, and they tell you to design a car . . . you end up with the Dodge Daytona. Oh, and this was all under the watchful eye of the competition who was literally spying on them with airplanes. Yes, spy planes. Never let them say Americans aren’t serious about racing.

Reach for the sky! The wing on this Superbird is actually shorter than the one on it’s Dodge counterpart, if you can believe that.

How this relates to the Plymouth Superbird is purely aesthetic. While the Dodge Daytona turned things around on the track for the Pentastar company, they had already lost their best driver, Richard Petty. What’s more, the production Daytona’s sales were doing poorly. In order to spur interest and win Petty back from Ford, Plymouth branded their own version of the winged warrior with revised styling of the nose cone and rear wing. Although, it was at the cost of a few miles per hour on the top end, most people weren’t complaining, and felt it looked much better.

While Tom’s car never saw action at the track, it is an extremely well-preserved example of the consumer version. Not only is his ’70 Plymouth Superbird a very rare car, it is a very well-optioned car as well. This one happens to feature the original build sheet, along with the Pistol Grip shifter, and 440 Six-Barrel. The legendary name comes from the three two-barrel carburetors sitting atop the 440’s intake manifold. Of the 1,920 Superbirds produced in 1970, only 308 left the factory with both the 440 Six-Barrel and a four speed.

Bang Bang! The pistol grip shifter in Tom’s Superbird makes it all the more rare and desirable.

Tom hunted for this bird-of-prey for more than two years, and he was pleased to add it to his collection. In fact, he parks it alongside his other Tor-Red aero warrior. That’s right, Tom owns another Superbird in Plymouth’s Tor-Red color.

While many people have criticized the looks of the Superbird since its inception, the benefits of the aerodynamic nose and rear wing are well worth the criticism. Richard Petty won enough races while piloting one of these bad boys to attest to that. However you feel about the looks of this thing, you have to respect its rarity and the engineering that allowed this car to win so many races.

Coming like a freight train…The Plymouth Superbird.

So, what are your thoughts on the Superbird? Is it too much, or the perfect amount visual appeal? Think that one over and check back in with us for the next edition of Vinny’s finds. I promise, I will be bringing you something cool, whether it’s a rare swap meet find or another set of wild wheels, so stay tuned.