With more than 200 vehicles on display, the Wellborn Museum is one of the greatest muscle car collections you can drool upon in the good ole US of A. And if you have a fat wallet, you can also take some of the cars home. Six of them will go under the hammer at Kissimmee 2024 in January, and they're all stunning in their own right.
Scheduled between January 2 and 14, Mecum's Kissimmee 2024 event will be the year's first significant automobile auction. It will include nearly 1,000 vehicles ranging from century-old rigs to modern supercars. The Wellborn Museum is hitting the event with six muscle cars from the golden era, including a few rare and unrestored survivors.
An R4 Red 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona is the oldest of the bunch. One of only 503 examples built, this winged Mopar has been part of the museum's collection for 25 years. It's not a rare HEMI car, but the 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) V8 and four-speed manual combo is nearly as fun.
The Daytona looks flawless inside and out, and it's fitted with optional power steering and power brakes. It's one of 433 non-HEMI cars and one of 209 equipped with a manual gearbox. The 440/manual combo makes it much rarer than that.
Next up, the auction will include a 1970 Plymouth AAR 'Cuda. A homologation special designed for SCCA Trans Am racing, the AAR saw daylight in just 2,724 units, and it's a one-year gem. This one's a bit special too. First, it's an unrestored and highly original example. Second, it sports a super rare Limelight over White color combo.
One of 1,120 AARs fitted with the four-speed manual, this bright green beauty was initially sold in Vancouver, Canada. It's one of only a few Barracudas shipped North of the border in 1970, and it could set a new auction record for AAR 'Cudas. The current benchmark was set at $308,000 in January 2023 by an unrestored survivor in Moulin Rouge.
The second 1970-model-year Dodge on the list is a Charger R/T SE, and it's just as impressive. Also an unrestored car, this HEMI Orange hardtop packs a 440-cubic-inch Six Pack rated at 390 horsepower and a Torqueflite automatic transmission. It's an impressively original example still rocking a numbers-matching V8 and 4.10 Super Track Pak rear end—yet another six-figure classic.
If 1970 Chargers aren't your thing, the auction will also see a 1971 version under the hammer. Unlike the R/T SE, this one has been repainted, but it's one of those extra-rare HEMI cars. Thanks to a HEMI/Torqueflite combo, it's one of only 33 R/Ts built like this. The HEMI is factory-original, and the Green Go paint looks fantastic.
1971 is widely regarded as the final year of great Mopars, but the Bright Red 1972 Charger Rallye is nothing to sneeze at. It draws juice from a 440 Magnum, Dodge's range-topping mill at the time. But more importantly, it features a sunroof, a rare feature for any model-year Charger.
In 1972, Dodge reportedly sold 488 sunroof Chargers in the United States. And only 84 were hardtops, like the one you see here. The Rallye package likely makes that figure much smaller, so it's definitely a collector's item.
For the last car from this collection, also a Charger, we're moving even further away from the golden muscle car era. That's because we're talking about a 1974 SE. While not quite as appealing as its predecessors performance-wise, this final-year Charger has plenty of things to brag about. Not only is it a one-owner unrestored gem, but it's also a scarce triple-white example with AC.
Check them out in the video below, and tell me which one you'd take home and why. The 1970 AAR 'Cuda is my personal favorite.
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
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