In 2022, car collector Bobby Knudsen bought a 1970 Plymouth Superbird—you know, the one with the massive rear wing—for a record-breaking $1.65 million (after buyer’s fees). Unfortunately for Knudsen’s family, its value took a massive nosedive when they sold the numbers-matching muscle car at the Indy Mecum Auction over the weekend without reserve, as its new owner only paid $418,000 for it.
Knudsen passed last December, so his family sold off 25 cars from his collection, including a few racing Pontiac Catalinas, a 1959 Nash Metropolitan, and, of course, the aforementioned Superbird.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a classic car drop in value as much as Knudsen’s Plymouth, but that could be because he massively overpaid for it three years ago. Even in its incredible unrestored condition, with 33,085 original miles, and rare automatic transmission (only 77 of these came with autos from the factory), this Superbird wasn’t worth the $1.5 million Knudsen bid on it.
At the time of his July 2022 bid, the priciest Superbird was $990,000, according to Hagerty. During the auction, this Superbird looked like it was going to sell for around $1.1 million, when Knudsen jumped up to $1.5 million to seal the deal. It’s doubtful that the car realistically leaped half a million dollars in value during those six months, but he wanted his badly enough to knowingly overbid for it.
Knudsen’s Superbird wasn’t the only one to sell at this past weekend’s Mecum auction in Indy, though. The other sold for $550,000, with just under 21,000 miles on it. His family seems to have gotten the fair market price for his car, which proves just how far values have fallen in only three years.
With its short-lived NASCAR pedigree, monstrous 426 cubic-inch Hemi V8, and iconic tall wing, it’s easy to understand why the Superbird is so desirable. Still, this car’s story is a painful reminder that everything has its fair price, no matter how desirable it may be to someone.
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Nico DeMattia is a staff writer at The Drive. He started writing about cars on his own blog to express his opinions when no one else would publish them back in 2015, and eventually turned it into a full-time career.
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