This HEMI Mopar Unicorn 1967 GTX Is a 1-in-10 Convertible, What Would You Pay To Own It?

Truth be told, it wasn't the automobiles themselves , as it was their names that didn’t have the right ring to them. Chrysler nailed the marketing gimmick in the hemispherical head with the 426 motor moniker (HEMI). The top brass quickly realized that a catchier name was vital to fight the GTO from Pontiac, the 4-4-2 from Oldsmobile, and even the brethren Chargers from Dodge.

Coincidence or simply copycat copywriting, the new car flicked one letter from the GM acronym and called it a day. The GTX was born – as a high-trim Belvedere and allowed only two engines. The 440-4 eight-cylinder, the fabled Super Commando, was the standard fitting in the newly launched machine.

The alternative was the elephant 426 cubic-inch HEMI. It was the ultimate Mopar could offer for that year for its lowest-price field division. The GTX badge didn’t last long on the base Belvedere – just one model year. In 1968, significant design changes promoted the nameplate to a standalone status, effectively creating a smorgasbord of nearly identical Plymouths: the Belvedere, the Satellite, the GTX, and the Road Runner.

As for the GTX nomenclature, 1967 is probably the most significant for the whiplashing acronym – not only is it the debut version, but it is also a single-year model. Add a couple of extra distinctions on top of that, and we should get to something exceptional really fast.

As I’ve said, the only engines mounted in a first-year GTX were the 7.2-liter ogre and its smaller but way more ferocious HEMI brother. Out of a total production of 12,000 or so units, only 737 GTXs received the 425-hp, 490-lb-ft honors in 1967. Most of those ‘gentleman’s muscle cars’ wore a hard top above the occupants, but 17 weren’t afraid to be seen topless.

Seven of the two-digit batch received the fun meter hardware: a three-pedal, four-speed smiles-per-gallon generator, and ten came with a three-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission. Here is one of those unicorns, ready for a new caretaker after a life rich in stories and nice memories.

On January 27, 1967, Chrysler's St. Louis assembly plant workers were indifferent about what was rolling off the line. Not that they were careless, but they had no idea that one drop-top GTX would become something much bigger than just the nice car it was. That’s when this Bright Blue Metallic convertible rolled off the line, only to be shipped to West Side Motor Sales in Bellevue, Ohio.

A local bought it, only to later sell it to his best friend, from whom he repurchased it after a short while. And then, he put the car up for sale. Enter a nuclear engineer and his best friend – two hardcore Mopar ultrafundamentalists with proven track records on their names. That track would be Thompson Dragway, east of Cleveland, where John Ward and George Eberst would regularly clench pistons against other members of the high-revs, high-octane society.

In 1980, John Ward was browsing the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, and his eyes stopped in the classified ads section. What caught his attention was the GTX convertible HEMI featured in this story, which the original owner wanted to get out of his garage.

The reason for that decision is lost in time, but it may have something to do with the HEMI ‘sucking in a valve,' as Mr. Ward phrased it. His Fiend George Eberst took the derelict GTX home and dedicated the following six years to restoring it.

The car was far from what it looks like today from an aesthetic standpoint. Rouch, but running – although the fender tag didn’t reflect the reality in the engine bay. A 383 V8 (6.2-liter) replaced the ailing HEMI, but the mighty elephant was still available and complete.

The car had been converted to all-drum brakes because the early discs (with which the GTX came equipped – courtesy of the HEMI option) didn’t like the salt sprinkled on the winter roads. The calipers corroded, and brake fluid would spew out of all four pistons – not the best of treatments for bodywork.

Neither was the salty winter driving: the left quarter panel was rusted through, so it had to be replaced. The car wasn’t so much of a big deal back in the eighties, when convertibles were all but extinct, and a HEMI was the apostle of the antichrist. However, as years went by, the car grew in value significantly. That didn’t prevent George Eberst, its owner, from selling it to his best friend, John Ward, in 2000 – under a right of first refusal clause.

However, the nuclear power engineer had no such intention – at least not until 2019, when health issues took precedence over the ownership of the 1967 Plymouth GTX convertible HEMI. During the ownership, Mr.
Ward re-chromed the car and rebuilt the brakes – namely, he had the original front disc assemblies shipped to a Virginia shop to be heat-fitted with brass. Also, he put the GTX through its paces, averaging 40 miles per week (around 65 kilometers).

The car currently shows 73,338 miles (118,000 km), but we can’t specify how many were covered with the behemoth 7.0-liter motor and what was done by the 383-incher from the seventies. In 2019, John Ward sold the rare Plymouth Belvedere GTX to one of his friends from Arizona, and the car is now heading to an auction on March 9 at the Glendale 2024 car event in Arizona.