From the outside tables at Fat Dan's, the little two-tops with umbrellas on the sidewalk outside the patio railing, you can get a good view north or south down College Avenue, depending which way you're facing. After a while, even when traffic is fairly heavy, you get attuned to the shapes that stand out, that line that's a little too square or has a bit much chrome for a recent car, or the fender line that's a little too low to the ground to be yet another commuter pod.
Yesterday, for instance, this caught my eye from most of a block away...
Is that a...?
Yes it is.
It's a 1967 Plymouth GTX, an upscale performance variant on the midsize Belvedere. The GTX came pretty loaded even in its most basic variant and the base motor was the 375bhp 440 Super Commando. For another five bills and change, you could upgrade to a 426 Hemi, which was a spendy option on a car that cost a little over three grand in its base 440 & three-speed Torqueflite form. Add a Hemi and a 4-speed and you were talking Corvette money, or almost two base Mustang coupes.
It's no wonder that for 1968 the GTX was kept on as Plymouth's luxury muscle car, while a new stripped-down vinyl seat and rubber floormat performance-oriented Plymouth B-body model was sold with a 383 V8 as the base motor and a horn that went "BEEP BEEP" like a well-known cartoon character...
.
