Grew up with a father that worked for GM his entire life. Always a Chevy guy, I'm sorry Dad, but at 62 I've been a GTO guy since I saw the first one as a kindergartner in the '60's. Shames me to admit, but my favorite muscle car is the 1970 Dodge SuperBee. Attended HS '74-'78 with a friend that had a GoManGo orange/black bench interior '70SB. The cammed/Torker/850 double pumper 440 we put in perfectly worked with the B&M built A727 autotrans and Mopar 3.23 SureGrip axle (and we all worked at the same gas station. To build this now would be over $50k, we did it on $2.15/hr). It was loud, ugly as the day is long (that little nose piece dropping from the hood left scars on all our heads), and with N50-15 Kelly Supercharger biasplys took a real 426 Hemi '65 Belvedere on the Raymond Street Expressway, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1976. The late 20's Belvedere owner was suckered by the 383 Magnum badges and stoned highschool kids. Our driver never drove high, and the 10"B&M converter gave the heavy and unaerodynamic Stupid Bee a real advantage. Mopar got the 3.23s right- the Stupid Bee rarely got a hole shot, but the midrange and top end pull just couldn't be better. We often saw a two+ car length start line deficit turn into "running away". The Belvedere had a 4.10 axle, sounded all the business. We gladly took his money. He was, ah, pissed.
But. You are correct. The body wanted to rust at every weld, the body gaps were, well, huge. The doors sagged, so needed lifting to close properly. We reinforced the unibody and all the rear suspension points, as the Gabriel HiJackers on the factory staggered leafs seemed as if they would wreck the body. The noise made by closing the doors, hood, trunk said "cheap". The interior vinyl was already splitting in a 6 year old car, and the black vinyl top seemed designed to promote rust. Remember that 3D curved B-body back window? The rear seat vinyl and deck cover were cooked when my bud bought the car. It didn't interfere with the straight line performance, so we let it rot. It did.
But. It was designed for young people to go very fast in a straight line. It was designed to catch the eye, and piss off the "squares". It did these things admirably. I've heard a lot of hipo street cars, but the Stupid Bee bellowing through the Cyclone spiral glasspaks with the factory side tank turndowns? None better. And you have to have guts to sell a car that looks like that, no matter how quick.
