Back to back: Superbird or Pace car?

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The two cars above may seem to have nothing in common, but we may surprise you if we say they do. Both are hi-performance street cars with a twist. A sporty twist, heavily inspired by the Indianapolis 500 race of days gone. The brawny blue one is of course Plymouth’s wacky Superbird. A freshly restored 1970s example of the species, offered by Dragone Auctions in their Boston sale, this weekend. Plymouth built the Superbird to lure the great Richard Petty back to the make, which he did, too. Petty went on to win eight races in NASCAR that year, giving credit to the Superbird’s outrageous looks. Behind its sleek aerodynamic nose it uses heavy-duty brakes and suspension and a 440 cubic-inch high-performance V8. Oh – and the trademark ‘Beep, Beep’ horn of course.

But you may like American racing history, while finding this Fire Blue beast too young, too outrageous and with just under 2000 Superbirds built still too common for your tastes. Then this 1956 DeSoto Indianapolis 500 pace car may be just the one for you. It’s only mildly less loud, with its lettering all over the sides, gold anodized hub caps, gold upholstery and special hood ornament. A pace car needed to be a convertible, and so DeSoto assembled a Fireflite with Adventurer drivetrain and suspension. 186 Replica Indy Pace cars were built and offered to the public, of which this is one. It has some extras too: a centre mounted and self-winding steering wheel clock plus ‘Highway-Hi-Fi’ record player. Not so racy perhaps, okay, but rather nice never the less.

Oh – there’s one more important similarity: the estimates on both cars are near the same - $135,000 - $175,000 for the Plymouth - $145,000 - $175,000 for the Pace car. For that sum – which one would you prefer to take home?

(Words Jeroen Booij, pictures courtesy Dragone Auctions)

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