Drag racing is hotter than ever in the 21st century, but we rarely get to see stock muscle cars running for glory down quarter-mile. Thankfully, we still have the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race category that reenacts drag racing as it was back in the day. And watching a 1969 Dodge Super Bee take on a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro is fascinating, to say the least.
1969 was a great year for muscle cars, one that gave us at least a dozen high-power machines from the Big Three. Dodge had the Charger and Challenger, Ford had the Mustang, and Chevy had the Camaro. But these are just a few of the muscle cars that were available in 1969. Dodge also offered the Super Bee.
A short-lived nameplate compared to the Charger and Challenger, the Super Bee existed as a model of its own only from 1968 to 1971. In 1969, it was available with three of Mopar's iconic V8 engines: the 6.3-liter Magnum, the 7.2-liter Six-Pack, and the 7.0-liter Hemi. The Super Bee raced here isn't a Hemi, but it's a rare model fitted with the A12 package.
This bundle was mandatory if you wanted the big Six-Pack mill, and it also added goodies like a Dana 60 rear axle with a 4:10 gear ratio, a scooped hood, and heavy duty drivetrain components and brakes. Only 1,907 cars were fitted with the A12 package, making it the second-rarest Super Bee from 1968 to 1970. The Hemi is obviously the rarest, with only 291 examples sold.
While not as powerful as the Hemi V8, the Six-Pack boasted similar torque at 490 pound-feet (664 Nm). Output came in at 390 horsepower, only 35 horses behind the Hemi. That's definitely one of the hottest Dodges from the golden muscle car era.
This pristine Super Bee is being raced here against a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS. I guess we could call it a bit mundane since it's not fitted with a special package, but its 6.5-liter L78 V8 is plenty powerful at 375 horsepower and 415 pound-feet (563 Nm) of torque.
But is the Camaro potent enough to outgun the Super Bee A12 down the quarter-mile? In this case, the output figures are a solid telltale that the Super Bee is the quicker car.
The Mopar runs the quarter-mile in 12.46 seconds, hitting a top speed of 110.89 mph (178.46 kph) in the process. The Camaro SS is more than two tenths slower at 12.72, while its trap speed locks in at 109.38 mph (176.03 kph). But at the end of the day, there's no loser here. Just a couple of winners who keep their classics in tip-top shape and race them once in a while.
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. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News