![]() In most cases that would have shown in the order number, but it does not." It could have been a test pilot build for a Executive or photo shoot. The last title should have shown the current owner and the name of the state of the owner before that. ![]() I asked a well known person in the hobby about it, and he had stated that yes it could have been and he had seen others early. When I found this bee for sale in June of 2015, I too questioned the numbers also being a LA build that early. I've emailed the person who runs the Super Bee registry and this was his reply. Needless to say, the revelations of the past week have been disheartening as I have quite a bit of money tied up in the car, and I had no idea there was even the prospect of something being out of whack. I knew the original engine and trans had been replaced, but to my knowledge everything else was pretty normal for its age. When I decoded it, everything came up, and the fender tag matched the body numbers so I just assumed all was fine. I purchased it from the previous owner who inquired on another thread about rather it was "the first Super Bee." I purchased the car a few years ago not knowing there had ever been any controversy regarding the numbers. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.Hi guys, I'm the owner of the car in question here. Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. Maybe that is why his ’68 Bee was a rock star at a June show earlier this year. MyStarCollectorCar will leave the final comment on this 1968 Dodge Super Bee to Thomas, “I’ve been to a million car shows and you never see a ’68 Dodge-let alone a Super Bee”. It also has a rear window defogger, likely because it is a Canadian car that was used in winter during its early years, in Thomas’s opinion. His ’68 Super Bee has a short list of creature comforts, but power steering is on that list. The car’s front seat needed a lot of work, so Thomas replaced it with a bench seat from another B-Body (mid-sized Mopar), but he intends to keep the originality of the Bee’s exterior because he likes the way the car wears its long history on its outer skin. He wants to use his Bee as a daily driver during the summer months, so safety is a big priority for Thomas. Thomas also paid attention to the Bee’s massive drum brake system because he wanted to be able to slow his muscle car down when the situation warrants it. The car’s rear end was also swapped out for a 3:55 Sure Grip differential that will help launch the Bee upon request. ![]() The ’68 Super Bee now sports a free-breathing header system with 3-inch dual exhausts on the car’s back end. Thomas also decided the car needed cooler performance from its radiator and fan system, so he replaced the original rad with a larger rad cooled by dual electric fans. He also went under the hood and replaced the intake manifold on the car’s 383 engine, while adding a hotter ignition system to enhance its performance. ![]() Fortunately, Thomas is a licensed heavy-duty mechanic who was able to tackle the mechanical issues before the Super Bee was ready for the road.įor starters, the ‘68 Bee had a blown tranny, so Thomas remedied that issue and also threw a shift kit addition into the mix. The basic problem with the Bee was a long period when it was off the road, a condition that is death by a thousand cuts for older vehicles. The car’s original owner had passed away and the Bee was bought by a guy who “never touched it”, in Thomas’s words. Thomas found a survivor 1968 Dodge Super Bee and became only its third owner. Thomas told MyStarCollectorCar that his Mopar interests were his own, since his dad is a Ford guy, but he has always like the Chrysler brand. Thomas Miko was born many years after the last ’68 Dodge Super Bee left the dealership, but that chronological fact did not stand in the way of his fascination with these Mopar muscle cars ever since he was a 10-year-old kid. The introduction of the Super Bee cemented Dodge’s place in the world of Sixties era road rockets, a reputation that extends to this very day in the vintage car hobby. Mopar stablemate Plymouth had already debuted its legendary Road Runner model earlier in the same year and was riding a huge sales wave in the affordable muscle car market. The 1968 Super Bee was Dodge’s answer to the affordable muscle car question when it debuted 54 years ago in their lineup. ![]()
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