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1970 Plymouth Satellite Was Left to Rot in the Woods, Comes Back to Life After 40 Years

abandoned 1970 Plymouth Sport Satellite 8 photos
Photo: ThunderHead289/YouTube
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When it comes to early 1970s Plymouth nameplates, it's the Barracuda, Road Runner, and GTX that get all the attention. But the Satellite was just as impressive. Sure, it was no longer the range-topping trim of the Belvedere line, a spot taken by the GTX in 1967, but it was just as powerful.
That's because Plymouth also offered it with the mighty 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) Hemi and the 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) RB in addition to the smaller V8s.

The Satellite was also quite a popular nameplate, moving twice as many units as the Road Runner. But this also means that many of these cars are now rotting away in barns and junkyards.

This 1970 Sport Satellite is one of those classics that were retired too soon from public roads and left to rot away in a backyard. Parked back in the 1980s, after fewer than 15 years on the road, the Satellite was conquered by vegetation and spent some four decades buried in the bushes.

But all those years of bad luck and neglect came to an end when the folks over at YouTube's "ThunderHead289" decided to save the old muscle car and get it running again. And amazingly enough, the Satellite came out of its resting place still in one piece and still sporting what appears to be its original V8 engine.

Now before you get too excited, this Satellite is not one of those rare Hemi cars. It doesn't have the massive 440 either. That dirty and rusty mill is probably of the 318-cubic-inch (5.2-liter) variety, which was the base mill in the Sport Satellite in 1970.

Rated at 230 horsepower, it was far from impressive compared to the Hemi, but hey, it provided enough grunt to run the highway at more than 100 mph (161 kph).

But it doesn't really matter what's under the hood when the car in question gets a proper revival and manages to run under its own power. And that's exactly what happened to this Satellite, which took its first (albeit short) drive in around 40 years.

Yes, it needs a good cleaning and lots of work to become road-worthy again, but at least it won't spend another day abandoned in a backyard.

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About the author: Ciprian Florea
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Ask Ciprian about cars and he'll reveal an obsession with classics and an annoyance with modern design cues. Read his articles and you'll understand why his ideal SUV is the 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer.
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