Last Updated: June 3, 2026 | Read Time: 9 minutes
In 1970, a new Dodge Super Bee with the standard 383 cubic inch Magnum V8 cost $3,012. The 440 Six Pack option — three Holley two-barrel carburetors on a single crossram intake, a flat black fiberglass hood with a functional air scoop, and 390 horsepower — added approximately $463 to that base price. The 426 Hemi cost more. The cars that rolled out of the Chrysler assembly plant in that final year of the Coronet body were painted in colors called Plum Crazy, Go Mango, Hemi Orange, and Sublime Green — colors whose names told you exactly what the decade they were built in wanted to communicate.
Numbers-matching Hemi Super Bee from that model year sells for $150,000 to $300,000. The 440 Six Pack in a desirable High Impact Color commands $80,000 to $150,000. This is the complete story of how a $3,012 budget muscle car became one of the most collectible American cars in history.
Contents
Quick Facts – 1970 Dodge Super Bee
— Production Year: 1970 model year
— Body: Dodge Coronet B-body platform — final year of the Coronet-based Super Bee body
— Body Style: Two-door hardtop coupe and pillared coupe
— Platform: Chrysler B-body
— Assembly: Hamtramck Assembly Plant, Michigan; other Chrysler facilities
— Base Price 1970: Approximately $3,012 (hardtop coupe)
— Standard Engine: 383 cubic inch Magnum V8 — 335 HP / 425 lb-ft torque
— Optional Engine 1: 440 cubic inch Magnum four-barrel — 375 HP / 480 lb-ft torque
— Optional Engine 2: 440 cubic inch Six Pack (three 2-bbl Holley carbs) — 390 HP / 490 lb-ft torque
— Optional Engine 3: 426 cubic inch Hemi — 425 HP (conservatively rated) / 490 lb-ft torque
— Transmissions: Heavy-duty 3-speed manual (standard), 4-speed manual (Hurst), TorqueFlite 727 automatic
— Front Suspension: Torsion bars with heavy-duty front sway bar
— Rear Suspension: Leaf springs, 8.75-inch rear axle (Dana 60 with Hemi)
— Wheelbase: 116 inches
— Overall Length: 207.7 inches
— Curb Weight: Approximately 3,400–3,600 lbs depending on engine
— Standard Quarter Mile: 383 version — approximately 14.5–15.0 seconds
— 440 Magnum Quarter Mile: Approximately 13.5–14.0 seconds
— 440 Six Pack Quarter Mile: High 13-second range
— Hemi Quarter Mile: Low 13-second range — approximately 13.0–13.3 seconds at 106+ mph
— High Impact Colors: Go Mango, Plum Crazy, Sublime, Hemi Orange, Vitamin C, In-Violet
— Total Production: Approximately 36,000–37,000 units
— Hemi Production: Approximately 400–500 units
— 440 Six Pack Production: Approximately 3,000–4,000 units
— Value Range — 383: $30,000–$70,000
— Value Range — 440: $60,000–$100,000+
— Value Range — 440 Six Pack: $80,000–$150,000+
— Value Range — Hemi: $150,000–$300,000+
— Key Standard Equipment: Heavy-duty battery, heavy-duty brakes, heavy-duty suspension, Sure-Grip differential available, bumblebee stripe
Sources: Allpar.com, MoparMuscle, Hagerty Media, MoparWiki, Hemmings Motor News
Overview – The Budget Muscle Car That Was Anything But Ordinary
Chrysler Corporation created the Super Bee in 1968 as a direct response to the Plymouth Road Runner — which itself had been created as a response to a market that wanted accessible muscle car performance without the luxury pricing of the Dodge Charger R/T or the Plymouth GTX. The formula was deliberate and specific: take the most powerful engines Chrysler offered, put them in the lightest available body, strip out as much unnecessary content as possible to keep the price down, and sell the result to buyers who wanted maximum performance per dollar rather than maximum comfort per dollar.
The Super Bee was Dodge’s execution of that formula on the Coronet B-body platform. It was never the most glamorous car in the Dodge lineup — the Charger wore that crown with its fastback styling, hideaway headlights, and tunnel-back greenhouse that defined the muscle car’s visual ideal in the late 1960s. The Super Bee was the Charger’s less expensive, less beautiful, more focused sibling. It had the same engines. It had less body to carry them. It cost less to buy and less to insure in the era when insurance companies rated premiums by the car’s styling cues as much as its actual performance specifications.
The 1970 model year is the one that collectors most consistently identify as the peak of the Super Bee’s production history. The body was in its final year on the Coronet platform — 1971 would move the Super Bee nameplate to the Charger body, where it would exist for two final years before the combination of insurance rate increases, emissions regulations, and declining performance-car demand ended the muscle car era. The 1970 Coronet-based Super Bee is therefore the last version of the original formula: purpose-built, no-frills, maximum available power in an accessible package.
It was also produced in the most memorable color palette in American automotive history. Chrysler’s High Impact Color program — introduced for 1969 and expanded for 1970 — put these cars on the road in shades that had never appeared on American production vehicles and have never entirely gone away from the collective cultural memory. Plum Crazy, Go Mango, Sublime Green, Hemi Orange — these are not automotive paint names, they are cultural artifacts of a specific moment in American history when the idea of a $3,000 car with 390 horsepower in purple paint was not only possible but commercially sensible.
Section 1 – The History
From The Road Runner’s Shadow To Its Own Identity
To understand the 1970 Super Bee, you need to understand the competitive environment that created it. In 1968, Plymouth launched the Road Runner — a no-frills muscle car built on the B-body platform that undercut the GTX by thousands of dollars while offering the same engine options including the 426 Hemi. The Road Runner was an immediate and dramatic commercial success. It sold 44,599 units in its first model year against all expectations, and the automotive press celebrated it as the most important muscle car of the decade.
Dodge responded within the same model year with the Super Bee — a car using the Coronet B-body rather than the Satellite/Belvedere body of the Road Runner, offering the same engine range at a comparable price point with its own specific identity. The car’s name came from a combination of Dodge’s Scat Pack performance branding — established in 1968 to group Dodge’s performance models under a unified marketing identity — and a cartoon bumblebee mascot wearing a helmet and carrying a gear shift. The bee communicated speed and performance without the licensed character cost that Plymouth paid for the Road Runner’s Warner Bros Road Runner cartoon connection.
The first-generation Super Bee used the Coronet’s B-body in a specific configuration: a pillared coupe for 1968, adding the hardtop coupe option in subsequent years. The body was deliberately less visually elaborate than the Charger — the Coronet had a simpler greenhouse, a more conventional body line, and the visual restraint that made it the performance car for buyers who cared more about what was under the hood than what the car looked like from across a parking lot.
For 1970, the Coronet received a significant restyling that gave the Super Bee the most aggressive and most memorable appearance in its production history. The front end featured a prominent loop bumper — a design element that distinguished the 1970 Coronet from every other B-body Mopar in the model range. The body sides were cleaner than the previous year. The rear end was restyled with a more pronounced tail treatment. The overall result was a car that looked more purposeful than its predecessors without losing the fundamental restraint that had defined the Coronet’s character from the beginning.
The bumblebee stripe — the graphic element most associated with the Super Bee identity — changed for 1970. Earlier generations had used a wide stripe that wrapped completely around the tail section of the car. For 1970, Dodge offered both the traditional tail stripe and a dual body side stripe option that allowed buyers to express the performance identity in a different visual language. The High Impact Colors made either stripe option relevant — a Plum Crazy Super Bee with the tail stripe needed no additional explanation of what it was or what it intended.
The Super Bee did not emerge from a vacuum — it was part of the same competitive muscle car market that produced the 1969 Camaro SS, the Chevrolet product that most directly challenged the Dodge performance lineup for the buyer who wanted maximum V8 performance at the most accessible price. Our complete 1969 Camaro SS guide covers Chevrolet’s parallel performance strategy in the same model year, showing how the two manufacturers approached the same market from different engineering philosophies.
Section 2 – The Engines
From The 383 Magnum Through The Hemi — Every Option Explained
The 1970 Dodge Super Bee’s engine lineup is one of the most significant aspects of its historical and collector significance. Four distinct powerplants were available, ranging from a genuinely capable standard engine through one of the most legendary powerplants in American automotive history. Each engine represented a specific performance and cost calibration, and the choice of engine is the single most important variable in determining any 1970 Super Bee’s collectible value.
The 383 Magnum — The Standard Engine
The standard engine in the 1970 Dodge Super Bee was the 383 cubic inch Magnum V8 — a big-block V8 that produced 335 horsepower and 425 lb-ft of torque in the Super Bee’s specific high-performance tune. The 383 Magnum differed from the base 383 used in other Chrysler applications through specific cylinder heads, a more aggressive camshaft profile, a dual-plane intake manifold, and a Carter AVS four-barrel carburetor. The result was an engine that delivered genuine performance — not the neutered, fuel-economy-oriented tune of the 383 in the Dodge Monaco or Chrysler New Yorker, but a specific performance calibration developed specifically for the Scat Pack performance lineup.
Period road tests by Car and Driver and Motor Trend consistently recorded 383 Magnum Super Bees in the 14.5 to 15.0 second quarter mile range with 0-to-60 times in the 6.0 to 6.5 second range — numbers that placed the standard Super Bee in genuinely competitive territory against many of the era’s most recognized performance cars. The 383 Magnum was also the engine that made the Super Bee’s price point possible: at $3,012 base, it undercut the Charger R/T by over $1,200 while offering essentially identical straight-line performance.
The 383-powered Super Bee is the most commonly available version on the collector market and commands the lowest values in the lineup — not because it is an inferior car, but because it was the highest-volume production configuration and does not carry the specific rarity premium of the 440 Six Pack or the Hemi. Driver-quality 383 examples sell for $30,000 to $50,000. Excellent examples in desirable colors reach $60,000 to $70,000.
The 440 Magnum — The Performance Middle Ground
The 440 cubic inch Magnum four-barrel was the first optional engine upgrade and the choice that most buyers who wanted more than the standard 383 but less expense than the Six Pack or Hemi selected. The 440 Magnum produced 375 horsepower and 480 lb-ft of torque — a meaningful step above the 383 in both peak output and, more importantly, the low-end torque that defined the driving experience in a large-displacement muscle car era before high-revving small-blocks became fashionable.
The 440 Magnum used a cast-iron four-barrel intake manifold with a Carter Thermoquad carburetor and the specific 440 Magnum heads with larger exhaust ports than the standard 440 found in less performance-oriented Chrysler applications. The combination produced a car that ran the quarter mile in the 13.5 to 14.0 second range — a full second quicker than the 383 — and delivered the kind of rolling throttle response that made freeway on-ramp acceleration one of the defining experiences of the 440 Magnum’s character.
The 440 Magnum Super Bee represents the performance sweet spot in the 1970 lineup — significantly more capability than the standard car at a price premium that, in period terms, most serious performance buyers considered worthwhile. Collector terms, 440 Magnum examples command $60,000 to $100,000 for good condition examples.
The 440 Six Pack — Three Carburetors And A Fiberglass Hood
The 440 Six Pack is the option that separates the Super Bee from being merely a capable muscle car to being a genuinely legendary one. Three Holley two-barrel carburetors mounted on a single aluminum crossram intake manifold — the specific configuration that gave this option its name — produced 390 horsepower and 490 lb-ft of torque at a production-line reliability level that other manufacturers’ multi-carburetor setups could not match.
The Six Pack’s three carburetors did not all operate simultaneously under normal driving conditions. The center carburetor provided fuel at idle and light cruise. The outer two carburetors opened progressively as throttle demand increased — under heavy acceleration or wide-open throttle, all three carburetors delivered fuel simultaneously, creating a distinctive intake sound and a surge of power that period road testers consistently described as one of the most dramatic performance sensations available in any production car of the era.
The functional flat black fiberglass hood was standard with the Six Pack option and is one of the most visually distinctive elements of the Six Pack Super Bee. The hood’s central scoop opened to feed ambient air directly to the air cleaner under wide-open throttle conditions — a genuinely functional cold-air intake system decades before the term was commonly used. The fiberglass construction rather than stamped steel reduced the hood’s weight and communicated the performance intent through the material choice alone.
The Six Pack Super Bee ran the quarter mile in the high 13-second range in factory configuration — genuine mid-13-second territory with minor tuning. Period documentation confirms that careful preparation within factory specification could push Six Pack times into the low 13s, territory previously reserved for the Hemi. The Six Pack’s combination of performance, visual drama, and mechanical character makes it the most beloved of the non-Hemi Super Bee configurations, with values of $80,000 to $150,000 for good condition examples.
The 426 Hemi — The One That Changes Everything
The 426 cubic inch Hemi is the engine that transforms any car it occupies from a collectible into a landmark. In the 1970 Dodge Super Bee, it is the option that — in a numbers-matching, documented example — represents one of the most significant muscle car collectibles available at any price, in any condition.
The Hemi’s name derives from its hemispherical combustion chambers — a design that maximizes the volume-to-surface-area ratio for optimal combustion efficiency and allows larger valves than conventional wedge-head designs. Two four-barrel Carter carburetors sat on an aluminum crossram intake manifold. The compression ratio was 10.25:1. The conservatively rated output of 425 horsepower was one of the most politely understated numbers in the history of American automotive marketing — contemporary engine dyno testing and period hot rodding community documentation consistently suggested actual output exceeded 500 horsepower in stock form.
The Hemi required specific supporting components throughout the drivetrain. The rear axle on Hemi-equipped Super Bees was the Dana 60 — a heavier and stronger unit than the 8.75-inch rear used with other engines — because the 8.75-inch could not reliably absorb the Hemi’s torque output in sustained performance driving. The front suspension received specific Hemi-rated components. The Hemi Super Bee also used specific Hemi-rated braking components to manage the performance the engine produced.
The 426 Hemi was not a mass-market engine. At approximately $648 over the base price — more than the standard 383-powered car — it was expensive. Its fuel consumption in performance driving was substantial. Its idle quality was rough by the standards of the era. And its insurance implications were severe — insurers correctly identified the Hemi as a performance option that would attract drivers who intended to use it, and priced premiums accordingly.
Approximately 400 to 500 1970 Super Bees were equipped with the Hemi. Documented numbers-matching examples in any condition carry values of $150,000 to $300,000, with exceptional examples — particularly those in High Impact Colors with documented provenance and matching-numbers drivetrain components — achieving values above that range at major auctions.
The 426 Hemi’s street application in the Super Bee was a direct outgrowth of the engine’s racing heritage — the same basic architecture that powered Chrysler’s NASCAR program and that appears in our complete guide to the best race cars in American history, where the Hemi-powered Chrysler entries of the 1960s represent one of the most significant chapters in American oval track racing.
Section 3 – The High Impact Colors
The Paint Palette That Defined A Generation
The High Impact Color program is the visual legacy of the 1970 Dodge Super Bee that separates it culturally from every previous generation of American muscle car. Chrysler introduced the program for 1969 and expanded it for 1970 — creating a palette of exterior colors that had no precedent in American production car history and that have never entirely left the cultural consciousness of anyone who encountered them.
The 1970 High Impact Colors available on the Super Bee were: Go Mango (a vivid orange), Plum Crazy (a bright purple that became one of the most iconic production car colors in history), Sublime (a bright yellow-green), Hemi Orange (a specific vivid orange distinct from Go Mango in hue and saturation), Vitamin C (a bright orange distinct from both Go Mango and Hemi Orange), and In-Violet (a purple variant distinct from Plum Crazy). Each color was formulated to be visually arresting in a way that conventional automotive colors — the conservative blues, greens, and burgundies of the early 1960s — deliberately avoided.
The marketing language Chrysler used for the High Impact Colors was as deliberate as the colors themselves. The names communicated youth, performance, and a specific rejection of the automotive establishment’s color conventions. Plum Crazy was not Burgundy Metallic. Go Mango was not Burnt Orange. The names told buyers that these were not their father’s cars. The colors confirmed it.
The High Impact Colors command collector premiums that sometimes exceed the value contribution of the engine option itself on lower-output configurations. A 383-powered Plum Crazy Super Bee commands significantly more than a 383-powered conventional color example in equivalent mechanical condition. The premium reflects both the visual distinction and the lower production frequency of the High Impact Colors — buyers who wanted more conservative colors and who comprised the majority of production specified conventional paints. The buyers who chose Sublime or Go Mango were a specific subset of the performance car market, and their choices produced cars that are now significantly more desirable than the less visually dramatic majority.
The interaction between the High Impact Colors and the bumblebee stripe is one of the most important visual stories in American automotive design. A Plum Crazy Super Bee with the tail bumblebee stripe in black and white was a visual statement that communicated the muscle car era’s specific cultural energy more completely than any other combination. The stripe over the vibrant base color produced a graphic intensity that factory photography of the era struggled to capture accurately and that photographs taken of surviving examples still communicate decades after the cars were built.
Section 4 – The Driving Experience
What It Was Actually Like To Drive One In 1970
The 1970 Dodge Super Bee was not a comfortable car in the way that term is understood. The suspension was calibrated for the Rallye package’s performance priorities — firm, communicative, and occasionally unforgiving on American roads that were themselves less consistently maintained than modern infrastructure. The seats were functional rather than luxurious. The interior was deliberately Spartan — the budget muscle car’s identity was built on the proposition that money spent on interior appointments was money not spent on engine, and the Super Bee’s cabin reflected that philosophy honestly.
What the 1970 Super Bee offered instead of comfort was engagement. The torsion bar front suspension and leaf spring rear provided handling responses that were genuinely composed at the limits available on public roads — the B-body platform’s handling reputation in this era was far better than its size and weight suggested, and the Super Bee’s Rallye suspension package optimized the inherent characteristics of the platform for performance rather than ride comfort.
The manual transmission option — the Hurst-shifted four-speed — is the configuration that most engaged drivers of the period identified as the definitive Super Bee experience. The Hurst shifter’s short, precise throws between gears, combined with the deep V8 sound from a properly tuned exhaust and the physical feedback of a clutch pedal that communicated engine torque through every gear change, produced a driving experience that modern performance cars with dual-clutch automatics and electronic intervention systems do not replicate. The engagement was not effortless. It required participation. That participation was — and in surviving examples remains — the point.
The TorqueFlite 727 automatic was the choice of a significant percentage of Super Bee buyers and should not be dismissed as the inferior option. Chrysler’s 727 automatic is one of the most durable automatic transmissions ever installed in an American production vehicle — the same unit that served in police cars, ambulances, and commercial vehicles because of its robust construction and reliable performance. In the Super Bee’s performance context, the 727 provided the consistency of gearing that drag strip competition rewarded, and period racers frequently preferred it to the manual for quarter mile applications where optimal shift points required mechanical precision rather than driver skill.
Section 5 – The Super Bee vs The Road Runner
The Corporate Siblings That Were More Similar Than Different
The Dodge Super Bee and the Plymouth Road Runner were corporate siblings — built by the same company, on the same B-body platform, with the same engine options, sold through different dealership networks to buyers who were choosing between brands as much as between cars. Understanding the specific differences between them — and why each developed its own distinct collector identity — is essential context for any serious evaluation of the 1970 Super Bee.
The most commonly cited difference is the cartoon mascot. Plymouth paid Warner Bros for the license to use the Road Runner cartoon character and the accompanying Beep Beep horn. Dodge developed its own cartoon bee mascot — the Super Bee — without a licensed character, which reduced the merchandising appeal but also the licensing cost. Neither mascot distinction meaningfully affects the collector values of the specific cars.
The body differences were more significant. The Road Runner used the Plymouth Satellite/Belvedere body — a longer, slightly more formal body than the Coronet-based Super Bee. The Satellite body had a different wheelbase proportion, a different greenhouse, and specific styling elements that gave it a distinct visual identity from the Super Bee despite sharing the same fundamental B-body architecture. Neither body is universally considered more attractive — the choice was and remains a matter of personal preference.
The pricing relationship between the two cars was fluid across the model years but consistently placed the Road Runner at a slight base price advantage in most configurations. The performance was identical when identically equipped — the same 383, the same 440, the same Six Pack, the same Hemi. The specific handling characteristics varied marginally between the Satellite and Coronet bodies but not in ways that produced meaningfully different driving experiences.
Collector market, the Road Runner commands premium values over the equivalent Super Bee in many configurations — a reflection of the Road Runner’s higher recognition among general audiences who know the cartoon but may not know the corporate connection. The Super Bee’s collector community is equally devoted but smaller, which occasionally produces Super Bee values below equivalent Road Runner values for identical engine and color combinations. For the informed buyer, this represents an opportunity to acquire identical performance with identical engineering at a slight market discount.
Section 6 – The 1970 Super In The Collector Market
What These Cars Are Worth And Why
Collector market for the 1970 Dodge Super Bee is the product of several converging factors: the car’s final year on the most desirable Coronet body, the High Impact Color availability that gives the most collectible examples their visual character, the Hemi’s rarity and power legend, and the general appreciation of B-body Mopars as a collector category that has appreciated steadily over the past two decades without reaching the stratospheric and increasingly inaccessible values of pre-1970 first-generation muscle cars.
Hagerty’s valuation data for the 1970 Super Bee reflects the engine-driven hierarchy clearly. A 383-powered example in Good condition — a complete, mechanically functioning car with visible wear but no major deferred maintenance — carries a Hagerty value in the $30,000 to $45,000 range. The same car in Excellent condition carries $55,000 to $70,000. The High Impact Color premium adds $5,000 to $20,000 above these baselines depending on the specific color and how it interacts with the car’s other specifications.
Buyers considering a 1970 Super Bee purchase — particularly higher-mileage driver-quality examples in the $30,000 to $50,000 range — should understand the specific maintenance and mechanical concerns common to B-body Chrysler platforms of this era. Our complete guide to common issues that kill American cars covers the broader reliability landscape that informs what to inspect, what to budget for, and how deferred maintenance on classic American muscle engines compounds over decades.
The 440 Six Pack adds the most dramatic percentage premium of any option over the base car — the difference between a 383 example and a Six Pack example in equivalent condition can reach $50,000 to $80,000, reflecting both the genuine performance and the visual drama of the flat black fiberglass hood. A Six Pack Super Bee in Plum Crazy or Go Mango with documented matching-numbers credentials represents one of the strongest collector car value propositions in the B-body Mopar market — a car whose combination of rarity, visual impact, and performance credentials justifies prices that would have been unimaginable when the car was new.
The Hemi is a different conversation entirely. A documented, numbers-matching Hemi Super Bee is not simply a valuable car — it is one of the most significant muscle car collectibles in existence. The approximately 400 to 500 units produced represents a production run that, after sixty years of attrition from accidents, theft, and misidentification, means that the surviving population of genuine Hemi Super Bees is a fraction of the original production number. The cars that can be documented with matching-numbers Hemi engines, matching-numbers transmissions, and original documentation consistently achieve values at and above $300,000 at major auctions.
Documentation is the key word in any high-value 1970 Super Bee transaction. The Chrysler broadcast sheet — the internal production document that accompanied each car from the assembly line and specified every installed option — is the most important single document in the car’s provenance chain. A surviving broadcast sheet confirming the Hemi, the color, and every other factory specification transforms a highly modified or replaced-engine car into an uncertain collectible and converts a numbers-matching original into a documented landmark.
For buyers who want to participate in the 1970 Super Bee market without the documentation complexity of a Hemi transaction, the 440 Six Pack with a surviving broadcast sheet in a desirable High Impact Color represents the most satisfying combination of performance, visual character, documentation integrity, and accessible value in the entire Super Bee collector market.
The 1970 Super Bee’s performance philosophy — maximum V8 power in a minimal-frills body at the lowest possible price — lives on in the used car market in ways that the original cars, now worth $30,000 to $300,000, no longer represent. Our guide to the best sports cars under 10K covers the modern used car alternatives that carry the same philosophical DNA at prices the original Super Bee buyers would have recognized.
Section 7 – The End Of An Era
Why 1970 Was The Peak And What Came After
The 1970 model year was not only the Super Bee’s best year — it was the peak of the B-body Mopar performance era, and the forces that ended that era were already accumulating when the 1970 cars were being assembled in Hamtramck.
Insurance was the first pressure. By 1970, the insurance industry had begun rating muscle car premiums based on engine size, and the 440 and Hemi configurations were attracting insurance premiums that added hundreds of dollars annually to the cost of ownership — costs that fell hardest on the young buyers who were the primary market for these cars. Some insurance companies in specific markets refused coverage entirely on Hemi-equipped vehicles, effectively making them uninsurable for buyers under certain ages or in certain locations.
Federal emissions regulations were the second pressure. The Clean Air Act of 1970 established standards that would require increasingly elaborate emissions management systems in subsequent model years — systems that added cost, reduced power, and limited the engineering freedom that had produced engines like the 383 Magnum, the 440 Six Pack, and the Hemi. The 1971 model year Hemi, compressed to lower compression ratios to accommodate lower-octane unleaded fuel requirements, produced 425 horsepower on paper but delivered a different driving experience than the 1970 version.
The Super Bee continued for three more model years after 1970 — moving to the Charger body for 1971 and 1972, and appearing briefly as an option package in 1976 — but the Coronet-based car that ran from 1968 through 1970 is the version that collectors and historians identify as the authentic article. The 1971 and 1972 Super Bees are interesting cars with their own supporters, but they are Chargers with Super Bee badges — a different proposition from the purpose-built Coronet configuration that defined the original concept.
The discontinuation of the Coronet-based Super Bee at the end of the 1970 model year means that the car covered in this guide represents the final and most complete expression of what Dodge intended when the Super Bee concept was developed in 1968. Everything that followed was a modification of the original idea. Everything that preceded was development toward it. The 1970 Super Bee is the thing itself, complete and unrepeated.
The end of the Coronet-based Super Bee in 1970 was the beginning of a long pause in Dodge’s performance car story — a gap that was not credibly filled until 1992 when the Viper arrived with a V10 that carried the same philosophy of maximum available power in a minimal-frills body that the Super Bee had represented in 1970. Our complete Dodge Viper guide covers that performance return in full.
FAQ
Q: What engines were available in the 1970 Dodge Super Bee?
A: The 1970 Dodge Super Bee offered four engine options. The standard engine was the 383 cubic inch Magnum V8 producing 335 horsepower. Available upgrades included the 440 cubic inch Magnum four-barrel producing 375 horsepower, the 440 cubic inch Six Pack with three two-barrel Holley carburetors producing 390 horsepower, and the 426 cubic inch Hemi producing a conservatively rated 425 horsepower. The 440 Six Pack included a functional flat black fiberglass hood with an air scoop as standard equipment with the engine option.
Q: How much is a 1970 Dodge Super Bee worth?
A: 1970 Dodge Super Bee’s collector value ranges from $30,000 to more than $300,000 depending on engine, condition, color, and documentation. A 383-powered example in good condition sells for $30,000 to $70,000. A 440 Magnum example commands $60,000 to $100,000. A 440 Six Pack example sells for $80,000 to $150,000. A documented numbers-matching 426 Hemi Super Bee ranges from $150,000 to $300,000 or above for exceptional examples. High Impact Color examples command meaningful premiums above these baselines regardless of engine.
Q: How many 1970 Dodge Super Bees were produced with the Hemi?
A: Approximately 400 to 500 1970 Dodge Super Bees were equipped with the 426 Hemi engine — making Hemi Super Bees among the rarest muscle car configurations in existence. After sixty years of attrition from accidents, fire, engine swaps, and misidentification, the surviving population of genuine numbers-matching Hemi Super Bees is a fraction of the original production. Any claimed Hemi example should be verified through a Chrysler broadcast sheet, VIN decoder confirmation, and fender tag documentation before any purchase at Hemi-level values.
Q: What is the difference between the 1970 Super Bee and the Plymouth Road Runner?
A: The 1970 Dodge Super Bee and Plymouth Road Runner were built on the same Chrysler B-body platform with identical engine options including the 383, 440, and 426 Hemi. The Super Bee used the Dodge Coronet body while the Road Runner used the Plymouth Satellite body. Plymouth held the Warner Bros license for the Road Runner cartoon character and the Beep Beep horn. The Super Bee used a proprietary cartoon bee mascot. In period pricing, the Road Runner was typically slightly less expensive at base. Collector values, the Road Runner often commands a modest premium over equivalent Super Bees due to broader public recognition.
Q: What colors were available on the 1970 Dodge Super Bee?
A: The 1970 Dodge Super Bee was available in all standard Chrysler colors plus the High Impact Colors that define the most collectible examples. The High Impact Colors for 1970 included Go Mango (vivid orange), Plum Crazy (bright purple), Sublime (yellow-green), Hemi Orange, Vitamin C, and In-Violet. These colors were specifically formulated to be visually arresting in ways that conventional automotive colors were not. High Impact Color examples consistently command significant premiums over equivalent cars in conventional colors at all engine levels.
Q: What was the original price of a 1970 Dodge Super Bee?
A: The 1970 Dodge Super Bee base price was approximately $3,012 for the hardtop coupe with the standard 383 Magnum V8. The 440 Magnum four-barrel added approximately $252. The 440 Six Pack option added approximately $463 to the base price. The 426 Hemi added approximately $648. The TorqueFlite automatic transmission added approximately $227. The four-speed manual with Hurst shifter added approximately $200. A fully optioned Hemi Super Bee in a High Impact Color with the four-speed could approach $4,500 to $5,000 in period pricing — still meaningfully below the Charger R/T’s equivalent configuration.
The Bottom Line
The 1970 Dodge Super Bee is the most complete expression of what the budget muscle car concept could achieve at the absolute peak of the muscle car era. It was not the most expensive car of its year. It was not the most luxurious or the most beautiful. It was the most honest — the car that delivered maximum available performance in a minimal-frills body at the lowest possible price, painted in colors that announced its intentions before anyone heard the engine.
The Hemi Super Bee is now worth more than many people spend on a house. The Six Pack with its fiberglass hood and three Holleys is one of the most mechanically satisfying configurations in the classic American muscle car market. The 383 gives the buyer an authentic piece of muscle car history at accessible prices that the Hemi and Six Pack have left behind. Every configuration has its audience, its collector community, and its specific claim on the meaning of this moment in American automotive history.
The 1970 model year ended the Coronet-based Super Bee’s production run. The cars that followed wore different bodies and breathed through increasingly restricted air. What was assembled in Hamtramck in 1970 — the final version of the original concept, in Plum Crazy or Hemi Orange or Sublime, with three Holley carbs or a cast-iron Hemi intake and two Carter quads — was the last time that specific combination was possible.
Fifty-six years later, it has never been more valuable. The buyers who understood what they were buying when these cars were new were getting the deal of their lives at $3,012. The buyers who understand what they are buying now are paying appropriately for what time and history have made of them.
Editorial Note
This article was written and reviewed in June 2026. All engine specifications — horsepower, torque, carburetor configurations, and compression ratios — are sourced from Allpar.com‘s historical Chrysler engine documentation and MoparWiki’s 1970 Super Bee production records, cross-referenced with period road tests published by Car and Driver and Motor Trend (1970 editions).
The 383 Magnum 335 HP, 440 Magnum 375 HP, 440 Six Pack 390 HP, and 426 Hemi 425 HP figures are the published SAE gross ratings for the 1970 model year. Actual dynamometer output was consistently higher than these ratings, a practice Chrysler shared with other American manufacturers in the era. Production figures of approximately 36,000 to 37,000 total units, approximately 400 to 500 Hemi units, and approximately 3,000 to 4,000 Six Pack units are sourced from MoparMuscle historical documentation and represent the most consistently cited figures across specialist sources — exact production records from Chrysler are incomplete due to the assembly plant documentation practices of the era.
Base pricing of approximately $3,012 is sourced from period automotive press pricing guides. The 426 Hemi’s option price of approximately $648 is confirmed by multiple period pricing sources. The collector value ranges — 383 at $30,000 to $70,000, 440 at $60,000 to $100,000, Six Pack at $80,000 to $150,000, and Hemi at $150,000 to $300,000+ — are editorial assessments based on Hagerty Valuation Tool data, Hemmings Motor News listings, Bring a Trailer recent transaction records, and Barrett-Jackson and Mecum auction results for the 2024 and 2025 auction seasons. All values are ranges that reflect significant condition, documentation, and color variation within each engine category.
0 Comments