Superbird at Barrett Jackson

[jacko241]

I have a back story on this car. I was born and raised in St. Augustine, FL and continue to live there. I saw this car in the local dealership when it was new, St. Johns Chrysler Plymouth, which was located at 201 San Marco Avenue. I used to visit it regularly. My shop is at 241 San Marco Avenue.
That dealership was sold to the local Dodge dealer around 2000, a personal friend of mine. He closed that location and moved it to his Dodge store. The previous owner of the Plymouth store bought the big building directly next to my shop and moved all his cars and other things he
had collected to it. His name was Ned McQuaig, a colorful guy. He had a fuel injected Hemi powered Fiat Topolino drag car called the "Road Runner", a Hemi powered Ramcharger 4x4 sand drag truck, a rear engined Fiat 124 powered dune buggy. and other cool stuff, as well as this Superbird.
Anyway, now about the 'Bird. The story goes it was sold to a guy who kept only for a short time and decided he didn't like it. He traded it back in for a 340 Duster. The car was for sale for a few years and then Ned just decided to keep it. After he moved it to the building next to me, I used to go next door
and get his caretaker to let me look at it. It had not run in decades. I recall the radiator cap was missing, and it was covered in dust. I do remember thinking that it had to be a rare combo, being a Hemi with column shift and bench seat. Ned died several years ago, and his family held an estate auction.
A childhood friend of mine bought it for about 80k, and I heard he got it running and flipped it a few months later for 145k. I dreamed of owning this car, but was never in the financial position to make a play for it.

 

[wahya]

Hi, I’ve been searching for what ever happened to St. John’s Chrysler, Plymouth. We bought our 71 Satellite there back in the day and came across your post. We met the son of the old owner of the dealership several years ago, but never asked him about that. My wife was born in St. Augustine and I thought we would go by there on one of our trips back there, but everything seems to have changed.

 

[TF360]

Oh man! That should be your Bird.

 

[cojohnso]

Except for the TF trans. That beauty checks alot of boxes.

Our local Dodge/Plymouth dealership had a F5 blue one their for years when I was a boy. Asking $4500.

Where are all the jokes now I heard about the car way back then? Car would be at least 100x the original asking price?

 

[Unconventional]

At BJ close to $1M wouldn't; s'prise me

 

[JDMopar]

You guys from FL....what ever happened to the two Superbirds that sat in the yard over behind Daytona Speedway? They were a Mopar tourist attraction for decades! I heard he finally sold them and they were still in FL.

 

[jacko241]

Hi, I’ve been searching for what ever happened to St. John’s Chrysler, Plymouth. We bought our 71 Satellite there back in the day and came across your post. We met the son of the old owner of the dealership several years ago, but never asked him about that. My wife was born in St. Augustine and I thought we would go by there on one of our trips back there, but everything seems to have changed.

Ned Mcquaig owned the dealership on San Marco Avenue until the mid 1980's then sold it to Phil Lowe who owned the Dodge and Jeep dealership here. He moved it to his Dodge location on US1. The building became a carpet store for some time until the Flordia School for the Deaf and Blind bought the property, tore the building down and add on to their campus.

 

[mbaird]

Great story ! My 70 Charger SE 383 mag was sold new at Massey Brooks Dodge in I believe Sarasota FL and cost $ 5003.00 out the door after 2% sales tax. Amazing that Hemi Bird only cost a few hundred more . But my car is pretty loaded .

 

[jacko241]

At BJ close to $1M wouldn't; s'prise me

Sold for over a million

 

[wahya]

Ned Mcquaig owned the dealership on San Marco Avenue until the mid 1980's then sold it to Phil Lowe who owned the Dodge and Jeep dealership here. He moved it to his Dodge location on US1. The building became a carpet store for some time until the Flordia School for the Deaf and Blind bought the property, tore the building down and add on to their campus.

I read your reply to my wife and she said “that’s it, Mcquaig”. Her dad knew him. She said that they had a car there named the Saint. She said they let her drive it some at Daytona when she was a teenager. (Once around the speedway)

 

[jacko241]

I read your reply to my wife and she said “that’s it, Mcquaig”. Her dad knew him. She said that they had a car there named the Saint. She said they let her drive it some at Daytona when she was a teenager. (Once around the speedway)

They did have a car called "The Saint", but I thought it was a drag car. Funny enough, Ned owned a Pontiac that LeRoy Yarbrough finished 13th in at the 1963 Daytona 500.

 

[wahya]

It was a drag car. She said they followed it to different places around the state. Barberville, Spruce creek, West Palm (Morroso). She doesn’t remember why they were at Daytona.

 

[1WildRT]

As James Burke use to say... Connections....... Awesome...

 

[jacko241]

You guys from FL....what ever happened to the two Superbirds that sat in the yard over behind Daytona Speedway? They were a Mopar tourist attraction for decades! I heard he finally sold them and they were still in FL.

I never remember hearing that story.

 

[JDMopar]

I never remember hearing that story.

I went by to look after I heard about them in the mid 90's. Wife & I were at The Turkey Run. If I remember right, they were on a road on the back side of the airport behind the speedway. In a fenced in yard with big dogs. One was lime green and I think the other one was white. An old guy walked out to the fence and talked a few minutes and was pretty nice, despite me upsetting his dogs and them raising hell. I told him about the lime green bird I owned in the mid 80's and we shot the bull about wing cars for a few minutes. I never asked about buying them, as I knew the answer already. The green car was crashed and in pretty decent shape other than the mild damage. The other car was back near his garage and looked to be in better shape. He had titles for both cars and was gonna restore them, but I guess time outran him. They sold about 10 or a few more years ago and supposedly went to the Tampa area.

 

[jos51700]

There was a guy outside Kansas City that had a Superbird and LRE in his yard, along 50 highway. I used to watch for those cars every time we drove by. I stopped a few times but they were never home.

I also used to look for the wing cars in the car museum in Hays, KS that was visible from the interstate. This was in the early '80s.

There was a guy in Holden, MO that had two Superbirds, and a Daytona. I was driving by one day when he was unloading a green wing car. I dropped anchor in that S10 and turned around. He said it was green because it had been purchased by a John Deere dealer when new. IIRC, it had a yellow tail stripe. I remember the Superbird in the garage had AMC door handles grafted in.

Funny how that stuff sticks with you. Makes me wonder what the video game generation will remember from their youth.

 

[wahya]

At a museum in Melbourne Fl.