mmarshall

Why the 71?..........the '70 had the same colors ( including your Hemi Orange), a better-looking grille, and a full-power 425 HP Hemi. 1971 is when they started to de-tune the engines for low-lead gas, and mileage went down, HP / torque went down, engine operating temperatures went up, and cold-start / warm-up drivability started to suffer. This continued all throughout the 1970's.......it got worse and worse each year...... and was not really licked until electronic multiport fuel injection came along in the mid-to-late 1980's.

99GS300

The 70 or 71 would be ideal, as I really like the styling, and of course the 426 Hemi option. Did Plymouth produce more of the Hemi Cuda's in 1970? I found production info for 71 and it showed only 115 total Hemi coupes/convertibles were produced in 1971.

I saw a #'s matching 71 426 Hemi 'Cuda at a car show when I was 13 or 14, and absolutley fell in love with the lines of the car, the orange paint, the flat black accents, and just about everything else on the car.

I guess that memory is why I have a "soft spot" for the 71 model.

talgrl626

ok... muscle cars 101 needs some boost...

1. "..the new Charger drawing uses" so the new charger will have flat black side paiting as well?
2. what's bird graphics? like the one that's really big on fire bird's hood?


http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/f...155_0301_name/

mmarshall

The "Bird graphics" are the Road Runner cartoon bird decals from the Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny cartoons stuck on the steering wheel hub, side doors, and trunk lid......and on some cars, little dust swirls streaming behind them. This was combined with a specially-designed "Beep-Beep" horn from the cartoons. It was, in my opinion, a masterpiece of a marketing scheme and some of the most entertaining graphics ever put on a production car.

Now......the Firebird decal you're talking about....that had nothing to do with Road Runners. That was nicknamed the " Chicken on the Hood "........ a huge (about 4 or 5 feet square) FireBird decal that covered most of the hood....and smaller ones on the sides of the car. The best examples are from the black-and-gold " Smokey and the Bandit " Trans-Ams from the late 1970's....a close friend of mine owns a 4-speed '79.

talgrl626

it's very hard for me younging to imagine that marketing approach would work... i mean i'm all for it, i think it's great. but i thought america is more resistent to change than some other parts of the world...