For some reason the other day I was thinking about my life in Dayton, Ohio from 1992-1997.

At one point, a guy told me about a street parked Superbird and where it was. I figured he was probably mistaken, or meant a Super Bee, or something.

I went and checked it out, and sure enough he was dead on with what he said. It was parked right where he said it was (which I am pretty sure was near/in the city, not in the suburbs), I believe it had plates, and I think it was red if I remember correctly.

At that point the car had to be between 22 and 27 years old, so it's status as something valuable should have been well established.

Is there anybody who happens to know the car I am talking about, and what it's "deal" was, who owned it, what happened to it, etc.? I wonder how unique a street parked Superbird was at that point in time. Very unique, or did every city maybe even have multiple ones back then?

No real point or purpose to this post, just kind of wondering out loud.

Greg

I don't know about that one but where I lived in the late 80's to early 90's had a wing car that was a daily driver. I'd see it sometimes in traffic or at the movie theater. A guy I worked with back in the late 80's had a daily driver Hemi Road Runner. It looked like a 20 year old used car. Door rash, fast food bags in the interior, etc. It ran kind of ratty too. I think it was a four speed car but I'm not positive. I never rode it in but it was parked out in the parking lot at work most of the time. I think it was his only car.

When I was a kid in Newark Ohio there was always 2 or 3 wing cars sitting in Doc Smith's driveway on 30th Street. This would be late '70's-maybe mid '80's. One of the cars was sold to the ventriloquist/ comedy guy Jeff Dunham a couple years ago.

There were two parked in Wheeling, IL on a driveway and part way onto a sidewalk when I moved to Prospect Heights, IL in 1986, I remember one was white, the other might have been yellow. Never saw them move, but after I bought a house up in the northern burbs I never saw them again...

I can only recall seeing one parked on the street; it was a middle-class SoCal residential neighborhood in the early '70s.
Red Daytona, white stripe, always clean.

Interesting! I was stationed at Wright-Pat from 1992 to 1996 and lived inside the city of Dayton! Just a short distance from the Rooster's, east of Main St. (Rt 48). Never saw a Superbird, parked or otherwise. The modest house I bought (cheaper than renting an apartment!) was a couple of blocks up from a low-rise apartment building or two. I'd see a Porsche Turbo parked out there, sometimes a new big Mercedes. Both of those should have been probable-cause in that neighborhood. But no Mopars.

Back in the early 70's, there was a really nice (because it was basically new) Yellow one parked at a house near my old high school. Around 1975, one day it was gone & I never saw it again. I have no idea what engine or other options - I was just a kid. I would occasionally see winged cars around back in the pre-1980 era, but none parked at anyone's house. Jim Harlow of Harlow Tire in Westland, MI. had a Daytona that he used as advertising primarily - there was always a pic of the car in his yellow pages ad with "HARLOW TIRE" on it. I hadn't seen the car in years, so I stopped in to see him one day in the early 80's. He still had the car - it was parked in the service garage & it had been painted black. It was a little rusty & I remember it had 18,000 miles on it - he wanted to sell it & was asking 10k. That was a LOT for a Daytona 440 car needing restoration - it was probably more accurately worth $5,500.00. Then there was a guy (Wayne Beel) in Bensen, AZ. in the mid-late 80's that had a couple 440-4-speed 'Birds. He always wanted a few grand more than they were worth. He was a pretty nice guy to us. One day, they were gone - his whole mini wrecking yard was cleared-out. Last I heard he had moved to Sierra Vista, AZ.

See photos.

Back in 1979 I worked for a small town auto parts supplier. I used to drive past a '69 Daytona everyday. Was missing one front fender but the guy drove it like that for a long time. I found out where the guy lived and stopped over there multiple times when I had my '74 Challenger. He was a real odd guy. Also had an AMC Machine sitting in his yard, in about equivalent shape. Tried talking him out of the Daytona back then and he would have nothing to do with it. Always wondered what happened to that car.