Classic Cars of 1970
 

The year 1970 saw the debut of the Dodge Challenger, a Chrysler E-Body car like the Plymouth Barracuda, although the Challenger was a bit bigger. The Challenger was intended to make Dodge a real competitor among the muscle cars of the day, classic cars of 1970 like the Chevrolet Camaro or Ford Mustang. The Challenger came in a variety of models and was available with an I6 or V8 engine.

The Plymouth Road Runner was fast, but the Road Runner Superbird was faster. In 1970, Plymouth decided to take their vehicle named for the speedy cartoon fowl it was meant to emulate, and kick it up a notch. The racing Superbird featured a 426 hemi engine, while the street version featured a 440 Super Commando. The Superbird was highly distinctive due to its aerocar style nosecone and rear wing.

The 1970 Mercury Cyclone was actually a variant of the Mercury Montego, itself an upgraded version of the Mercury Comet. It was available as a sedan or station wagon, and featured distinctive forward thrusting hood and grille centers. Under the hood was a 7.5 liter V8. 1970 offered three available Cyclone models for fans of the Mercury design. In addition to the base model, there was the Cyclone GT and the Cyclone Spoiler.

Some years back, GM pitched some of their cars as “not your father’s Oldsmobile,” but they seem to have forgotten that those fathers may have been tooling around in muscle cars that were some of the classic cars of 1970. In particular, the 1970 Oldsmobile, which rolled of the line with the brand new Olds 455 V8 engine, an enormous V8 that offered 365 horsepower and were believed to actually produce as much as 410 or 420 hp. This classic car was the pace car for the Indianapolis 500 in 1970, and was called by Motor Trend “probably the most identifiable super car in the GM house.” This two door coupe or convertible was a car that any muscle car driver could be proud of.

The GSX was a variation on the Buick Gran Sport, a high performance option package available with a variety of Buick models, like the Skylark, Riviera and Wildcat. The GSX featured the 455 cubic inch V8 engine, and was available in only two colors, Saturn Yellow and Apollo White. Some unmistakable features of the GSX included a full length black stripe outlined in red pinstripes that went around the car from the rear spoiler all the way up the front, a mostly black hood, and a hood-mounted tachometer and black front spoiler.