Major Screwup On My Part

Okay, Okay…..I admit it.  I dropped the ball.  My personal dream car for all these Muscle Cars that I promote and follow and rant and rave about is the 1971 Plymouth GTX.  Not with a 440 six-pack or with a hemi 426 but just a reliable 440 with a four barrel.  I want to actually be able to drive the thing and keep it running.  The four barrel carb is best suited for such things and provides massive amounts of power.  Add the fact that the 1971 is the first year of a rounded contour body style and WAS the ultimate Plymouth Muscle Car, and you see why I am a fan of it.  Save the B.S. because I know a Hemi Cuda is worth tons more.  And God save the second mortgage if it has a convertible top on it, but those cars would make me a nervous wreck just parking it in a shopping center lot for a local car show.  And despite what people tell you a Cuda cannot “hook” up like a long wheelbase car can when you really want to get serious about racing.

Anyway, the screw up on my part was in my assuming the car being auctioned at the Mecum Indy Auction would go for around $40,000 since they are usually sold for figures well North of that.

Instead, the powers that be made someone a very happy individual who purchased this particular vehicle for $19,500.

That would put it on par for cost with the “normal” price point of a 1967 or 1968 Mustang.  Granted a Mustang in pretty good shape but they made hundreds of thousands of Mustangs those years. 

And no Mustang had the street cred of the GTX unless you start talking Boss or the name Shelby.

There are some thing that may have contributed to the fact that this particular vehicle went for such a “low” price.  Obviously the main reason would be the right buyer was not in attendance.

Then there’s the fact that whomever was selling this car made it a “NO RESERVE” sale which means that it was being sold no matter what the final bid was.

And obviously it was not the only Mopar being sold.  There were many Hemi and 440 6-Pack vehicles being sold at the auction.  These tend to draw the attention.

And finally there was the interior that the GTX had in it.

While it is a very clean looking and newer interior, I am not sure it would be the correct “original” interior.  And while cool to look at, it might tend to get a little bit “gaudy” for the owners personal tastes after a while.  Still, the vehicle had the fender tag so finding the correct color and texture interior would not have been an issue for a collector other than maybe the time involved.  After all the interior vinyl would run maybe $1,200-1600 and at a price of under $20,000 someone could easily justify putting a couple grand into the vehicle to make it original.

So, anyway, I screwed up and will continue on my quest to look at Muscle Cars and work towards my goal of building an “Empire” one day. And the missed opportunity here will just be motivational fuel to be used with future encounters of other missed opportunities.  These combined will keep the fire alive within me.

Davey Boy

Tags: 1969, 1970, 440, 442, 454, 6-pack, Automobiles, cars, Chevrolet, Chicago, Cuda, Cutlass, detailing, Gaudy, GTX, high return, Holley, investments, making money, money, Muscle Cars, NHRA, Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Pontiac, Racing, SS396, vehicle