I'm convinced that if you loiter on the patio at Twenty Tap or Fat Dan's long enough, eventually one of everything will roll past.
From the outside tables at Fat Dan's, the little two-tops with umbrellas on the sidewalk outside the patio railing, you can get a good view north or south down College Avenue, depending which way you're facing. After a while, even when traffic is fairly heavy, you get attuned to the shapes that stand out, that line that's a little too square or has a bit much chrome for a recent car, or the fender line that's a little too low to the ground to be yet another commuter pod.
One August day in 2021, for instance, this caught my eye from most of a block away...
Is that a...?
Yes it is.
It's a 1967 Plymouth GTX, an upscale performance variant on the midsize Belvedere. The GTX, which debuted that year, came pretty loaded even in its most basic variant and the base motor was the 375bhp 440 Super Commando. For another five bills and change, you could upgrade to a 426 Hemi, which was a spendy option on a car that cost a little over three grand in its base 440 & three-speed Torqueflite form. Add a Hemi and a 4-speed and you were talking Corvette money, or almost two base Mustang coupes.
From the outside tables at Fat Dan's, the little two-tops with umbrellas on the sidewalk outside the patio railing, you can get a good view north or south down College Avenue, depending which way you're facing. After a while, even when traffic is fairly heavy, you get attuned to the shapes that stand out, that line that's a little too square or has a bit much chrome for a recent car, or the fender line that's a little too low to the ground to be yet another commuter pod.
One August day in 2021, for instance, this caught my eye from most of a block away...
Is that a...?
Yes it is.
It's a 1967 Plymouth GTX, an upscale performance variant on the midsize Belvedere. The GTX, which debuted that year, came pretty loaded even in its most basic variant and the base motor was the 375bhp 440 Super Commando. For another five bills and change, you could upgrade to a 426 Hemi, which was a spendy option on a car that cost a little over three grand in its base 440 & three-speed Torqueflite form. Add a Hemi and a 4-speed and you were talking Corvette money, or almost two base Mustang coupes.
Car and Driver tested a '67 GTX with the 440 Super Commando, three-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission, and a 3.23:1 rear end and managed a 0-60 time of six seconds flat and a 14.4 quarter at 98mph. The car would pull all the way to the 5,000 rpm redline in top gear, topping out at 118 miles per hour, and returned 11-15 miles per gallon during their testing.
It's no wonder that for 1968 the GTX was kept on as Plymouth's luxury muscle car, while a new stripped-down vinyl bench seat and rubber floormat performance-oriented Plymouth B-body model was sold with a 383 V8 as the base motor and a horn that went "BEEP BEEP" like a well-known cartoon character...
It's no wonder that for 1968 the GTX was kept on as Plymouth's luxury muscle car, while a new stripped-down vinyl bench seat and rubber floormat performance-oriented Plymouth B-body model was sold with a 383 V8 as the base motor and a horn that went "BEEP BEEP" like a well-known cartoon character...
The photos were taken with a Nikon D200 & 35-105mm f/3.5-5.6D zoom lens.
Awesome! I'd love to get my hands on a late '60s Belvedere variant, but I sadly do not possess Mopar Money.
ReplyDeleteA GTX or Road Runner sure would be cool.
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