Discovering a Rare 1971 Plymouth Super Bee Legend
Ask any Mopar enthusiast if they have a favorite Mopar, and they’ll tell you right away. Personally, while I love all types of Mopars, B-body Dodge Chargers have always held a special place in my heart. Growing up with my 1969 Dodge Charger that I’ve owned since the age of six, those big, muscular body lines had me hooked from the get-go. For the longest time, I only focused strictly on 1968-1970 examples when it came to Chargers. It wasn’t until about ten years ago that I started to truly appreciate the 1971-1974 models, especially the 1971s. There was just something about the styling and body lines of the 1971 Charger that captivated me. The desire to own one grew more and more with every passing year, becoming an itch I desperately needed to scratch. In 2016, I finally scratched that itch and purchased my GY3 Citron Yella 1971 Charger R/T project car, fueling my passion for the 1971 Plymouth Super Bee and its brethren.
The Hunt for a Unique Mopar
Over the next few years, my obsession for 1971 Chargers intensified, particularly for those painted GY3 Citron Yella. It quickly became my favorite Hi-Impact Mopar color. Fast forward to July 2019, I was buying parts for my ’71 Charger R/T from a local Mopar guy. He asked me about my car, and I mentioned it was a GY3 Citron Yella car and how it was my favorite ’71 Mopar color. He then told me that his friend in the Interior of British Columbia owned a collection of ’71 Chargers, including a GY3 ’71 Super Bee. He described it as pretty rough but noted it was a factory U-Code 440 car with the A833 Pistol Grip 4-Speed manual transmission, which was a very rare combination.
He explained that his friend wasn’t actively working on it, as he had factory 426 Hemi and V-Code 440 Six Pack cars demanding his time, so he might be willing to sell it. He gave me his friend’s number, and I quickly reached out to arrange a visit. It was a hot August day when I arrived to check out the car. The owner led me to the back of his property where the Super Bee sat in waist-high grass and weeds amidst a slew of parts cars. The moment I laid eyes on it, I instantly fell in love. I remember opening the door and being hit by a wave of heat from the interior baking in the sun, but the sight of that original weathered Pistol Grip shifter made my heart pound a million miles a minute.
Obstacles and the Path to Ownership
I knew I had to have the car, but I didn’t have much extra money available. We agreed on a price, and he was understanding, allowing me time to gather the funds. I started working on putting the money together when, unfortunately, bad luck struck hard. A month after seeing the car, I lost my job and remained unemployed for the better part of three months. Consequently, the dream of buying the 1971 Plymouth Super Bee was put on hold. By Christmas of that year, I was back at work and getting back on my feet. All Plymouth muscle cars hold a certain allure, and the thought of this rare Mopar kept the dream alive.
Throughout that difficult period, the Super Bee remained at the back of my mind. As spring of 2020 arrived, I was finally back in the swing of things and once again made buying the Super Bee a priority. To raise the bulk of the money for it, I decided to sell my 1971 Road Runner 383 4-Speed project, which I had acquired a few years prior. Despite being a Hi-Impact EV2 Tor Red (Hemi Orange) car with the rare Halloween orange and black interior, it was very rough, so I made the difficult decision to let it go. I recalled that my friend Mike Hall from the TV show “Rust Valley Restorers” had expressed interest in buying my Road Runner a year or so earlier, so I called him up, and the Road Runner went to him. With cash in hand from the Road Runner sale, I continued to gather the remaining funds until I was finally able to complete the deal on the 1971 Plymouth Super Bee in October 2020.
Unveiling the Rare U-Code 440 History
Over the time I was arranging the funds, the owner of the Super Bee began sharing the car’s history with me. He explained that he had purchased the Super Bee in 1996 while living in northern British Columbia. A friend of his had bought the car strictly for the desirable 15×7-inch Rallye wheels. After taking the wheels off, his friend offered the car to him at a good price, so he bought it. He brought the Super Bee home and parked it with his other cars but never did anything with it. When he moved down to the southern Interior a few years later, he crushed most of the rougher Chargers he owned as he couldn’t transport them all. He told me that despite its rough condition, the 1971 Super Bee was “just too cool and rare to squash,” so it made the long trip down to his new house with his other “keepers.”
What makes this particular Super Bee very rare is its U-code in the VIN number, which designates the 370 horsepower 440 Magnum four-barrel engine. In 1971, the Super Bee came standard with the 383 Magnum. Optional engines included the 340 Magnum, 440 Six Pack, and 426 Hemi. Many people did not realize that you could technically get the 440 Magnum four-barrel in the Super Bee that year. In fact, the 1971 dealership ordering and data books show the 440 Magnum four-barrel as being unavailable in the Super Bee. Despite this, a total of just twenty-six U-Code Super Bees managed to make it out of the production plants in 1971 for the U.S. market. This production number included both automatic and manual transmissions. According to Chrysler Canada records, this particular Super Bee is the only U-Code example produced for Canadian sale. While I haven’t personally seen these records, the information comes from a reputable source. Regardless, this is one very rare 1971 Plymouth Super Bee! Discussing plymouth muscle naturally leads to these rare Mopar variants.
Original Order Details and Dealership Story
As the history goes, the car was ordered by Don Butts, the sales manager at Columbia Dodge in New Westminster, British Columbia. Don was fond of Super Bees and generally preferred to order 340 Magnum powered examples, as he wasn’t a fan of the standard 383 Magnum in those cars. In fact, he personally ordered twenty-six of the thirty-two total 340 Magnum powered Super Bees built for Canadian sale in 1971. For some reason, however, he decided to order one 440 Magnum car – this one. 71 muscle cars offered a wide range of configurations, but this one was unique.
On the order sheet, he chose the Hi-Impact GY3 Citron Yella paint with a black bench seat interior. The option boxes checked off included the D21 Pistol Grip 4-Speed manual transmission, A04 Radio Group, A33 Track Pak (which provided a 3.54 geared Dana 60 Sure Grip rear end, 11-inch HD rear drum brakes, and a 26-inch radiator), A54 Front and Rear Spoilers, B41 Power Front Disc Brakes, G11 Tinted Glass, H31 Rear Window Defogger, L37 Hideaway Headlights, J41 Pedal Dress-Up, J45 Hood Tie-Down Pins, N42 Machine Gun Exhaust Tips, N85 Tachometer, S77 Power Steering, S84 “Tuff” Steering Wheel, W21 15×7-inch Rallye Wheels, and U86 G60x15-inch Goodyear Polyglas tires.
Once the car arrived at Columbia and hit the sales lot, it proved to be a difficult car to sell. According to Don, “they had a heck of a time selling it.” Don figured the color had something to do with it, making this the last GY3 Citron Yella car he ever ordered. He quickly “loathed” the color. The Super Bee continued to sit on the sales lot for the next year or so without a sale. Don shared that it even reached a point where Columbia considered sending the car out to be painted black, hoping to make it an easier sale.
At some point during its time at Columbia, the original 440 engine disappeared and a 383 was put in its place. From what Don said, quite a few new cars were stolen from the dealership lot around that time and recovered with no engine or transmission. While he couldn’t remember if this Super Bee was among them, it’s very possible. He did state that the dealership lost a lot of money on the car when they finally sold it.
Tracing the Ownership Through the Decades
Based on transfer of ownership documents, the 1971 Plymouth Super Bee was finally purchased in September 1973 by Centennial Motors, a Dodge dealership in Fort St. John, B.C., before being sold to the official first owner named Dwayne the very next day. This suggests it was some type of dealer trade.
Dwayne shared with me that the car meant a lot to him, as he owned it when he got married and brought both of his children home from the hospital in it. He even took it on his honeymoon to Vancouver Island in April 1974, where he ended up blowing the clutch and had to replace it in his dad’s driveway. Eventually, he would sell it to his brother Darrell around 1979. Darrell drove the car for the next few years. At one point, someone backed into the driver side door. It was repaired, but the color match was off and still is to this day.
Upon talking to Darrell, he explained that his parents lived in Duncan, so the car frequently traveled between Fort St. John and Duncan. During Darrell’s ownership, the engine blew up while in Duncan, so he took it to “Top Gear Engineering,” a mechanic shop in Duncan, B.C., that specialized in British racing cars. Yellow oval decals for the shop are still visible on the quarter glass. From what I’ve been told by the fellow I bought it from, Top Gear had a wrecked 1971 383 4-Speed Super Bee. At some point, this Super Bee ended up at Top Gear, and the entire drivetrain, including the 4-Speed and Dana 60 rear end, was swapped out with a different 4-Speed and an 8 ¾ rear end from the wrecked 383 Super Bee.
In the early 1980s, Darrell sold the Super Bee to a truck driver named Rob. Rob drove the car hard and neglected it for the next couple of years before selling it to a fellow named Dean in 1984. While talking to Dean, he told me, “It had a Holley 750cfm double pumper carburetor and headers when I bought it. I was in high school when I owned it, and it wasn’t cheap to run for a high school kid, so I put it on propane. A friend of my dad did conversions. Even running on propane, it still had lots of jam. Too much, in fact, which is why my parents encouraged me to sell it if I wanted to stay living under their roof.”
In 1985, Dean traded the car to a fellow named Doug for a 1978 GMC Sprint (El Camino). Doug told me, “When I bought it, Dean took the propane conversion kit off of it, so I had to steal the two-barrel carburetor off my brother’s totaled Mustang to drive it home. That carburetor ended up staying on it the entire time I had it.” Over the years, it’s said to have hit three different moose. Back when Doug owned it, he was working as a park ranger up the Alaska Highway, so he would drive the Super Bee up and down the highway all the time. Around midnight one night on his way to work, he hit a cow moose, wiping out the driver side fender, windshield, and side mirror. It doesn’t get much more Canadian than that! Like the 1970 Plymouth Cuda 340, these classic Mopars often have incredible stories.
After a problem with lack of oil pressure in the engine, Doug would end up selling the car in 1988, and this would be the last time the Super Bee was on the road. The fellow he sold it to would be the one to pull the Rallye wheels off and sell it to the guy I eventually purchased it from.
The Future of This 1971 Plymouth Super Bee
Since bringing this unique 1971 Plymouth Super Bee home, I’ve started collecting parts for the eventual full restoration back to its original factory condition. This particular U-code 440 car with the Pistol Grip transmission is a significant piece of Mopar history, especially being the only one known to be built for the Canadian market. Its journey from a dealership struggle to hitting moose on the Alaska Highway makes its story truly exceptional among dodge daytona superbird and other performance legends. In the meantime, I’ve been working on getting the car running and driving in its current condition so I can drive it and enjoy it while gathering the necessary parts for a complete restoration!
In conclusion, the journey to acquire this rare 1971 Plymouth Super Bee was filled with unexpected twists and turns, mirroring the car’s own colorful past. From the initial discovery and financial hurdles to uncovering its unique factory specifications and tracing its various owners through decades of adventure and mishaps, this Super Bee embodies the spirit of classic Mopar muscle. Bringing it home is just the beginning of another chapter – the meticulous process of preservation and restoration, ensuring that this rare U-code 440, Pistol Grip example can once again showcase its power and history on the road.
