LIME WITH ENVY: A GTX 440 to make the Joneses jealous
June 1, 2018
Posted by Barrett-Jackson
Written by independent automotive journalist Tom Jensen
This Lime Light Green 1970 Plymouth GTX 440 Six-Barrel Hardtop (Lot #654) will be heading across the block at the 2018 Northeast Auction.
One of the key elements that makes any collector car highly desirable is its rarity. Yes, other factors like condition and originality matter, too, but rarity is one of the most important considerations behind what makes a given car attractive. There’s no question that rarity makes a car more desirable to buyers.
With that thought in mind, one particularly interesting vintage Mopar muscle car set to cross the auction block at the 3rd Annual Barrett-Jackson Northeast Auction, June 20-23 at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, is this 1970 Plymouth GTX (Lot #654). This gorgeous Mopar muscle car will sell at No Reserve, meaning the high bid will deliver it to a new owner, regardless of the final hammer price.
Overall, Plymouth didn’t make a lot of GTXs in 1970. In fact, the automaker built just 7,748 GTX models in the entire 1970 model year production run. Considering that as a division, Plymouth manufactured 723,747 cars that year, only about one Plymouth in every 100 built was a GTX.
The GTX was Plymouth’s full-sized, luxurious muscle car, a high-end alternative to the bare-bones – and much more common – Road Runner it shared a B-body shell with. Also, the GTX was available with a range of high-performance Mopar V8 engines that put a ton of horsepower to the ground. One of those was Mopar’s fabled 440ci Six-Barrel engine, which produced a ground-pounding 390 horsepower.
While this engine option was highly desirable, it was very, very rare: Just 350 of the 7,748 1970 Plymouth GTXs built came with this engine and a 4-speed transmission, which is the configuration of the car selling at the Northeast Auction. That means this engine was ordered on less than 5 percent of all the 1970s GTX models built.
But that’s just the start: What really makes this car rare is that it truly is one of one, the only 1970 Plymouth GTX ordered in Lime Light Green over white interior with nearly every available factory option one could order on this car.
This GTX came from the factory with that 440ci Six-Barrel engine and the A833 4-speed manual transmission linked to a Hurst pistol-grip shifter.
On top of that, it was ordered with the Air Grabber cold-air induction system, a pop-up hood scoop that fed fresh air to the powerful Plymouth big-block motor, as well as the Super Track Pack option that included a 4.10-gear ratio in the Dana 60 rear end. This car was meant to go fast from the beginning, and go fast it did – and still does today.
The Lime Light paint, one of eight hues the GTX could be ordered with in 1970, is set off beautifully by white side stripes and the elegant white vinyl interior. Unlike the bare-bones Road Runner, the GTX was Plymouth’s idea of a gentleman’s muscle car, so it came loaded with features, including heavy-duty suspension and cooling systems, dual exhaust, wider tires, a 150-mph speedometer and power brakes with discs in the front.
This car has had a single owner for the past 40 years and has had a complete restoration. It shows well, drives well and is a true head-turner, a rare example of Plymouth muscle car from the first great era of Big Three horsepower wars.
It will sell at No Reserve at the Barrett-Jackson Northeast Auction, meaning the high bidder when the gavel falls will go home with a 1970 Plymouth GTX unlike any other on the road. And that’s going to that new owner very proud and happy.
For up-to-date information about this vehicle, click HERE.
