The 1970 Superbird is a short-lived racing legend that won both on the track, as well as in the hearts of the few lucky enough to actually put the money up to buy one. With an original MSRP at about the $4,200 mark, many of these now rare beauties ended up sitting on the lot long after they hit the local dealerships.

While 4K sounds cheap by today’s standards, it cost more than just about any other muscle car made that year and was a lot of money for the time.

Today’s Plymouth Superbirds, however, are quite capable of selling for well into the 6-figures. The Hemi-powered cars demand a premium, as an actual numbers matching Hemi Superbird is one of the unicorns of the car world and are an utter rarity.

Little is known about them, and few have been seen in the wild. Borrowing designs from its cousin, the Dodge Charger Daytona, the Plymouth Road Runner Superbird was designed for one thing: To go fast. Of these borrowed designs were the ridiculous wing in the back and the front nose cone to help it cut through the wind.

It was speculated at the time that Chrysler had a scientific formula for the wing being so tall, but a few years later one of Chrysler’s engineers came out and said that it was only so big because they needed the trunk’s lid to clear it.

Why does a race car need a trunk? NASCAR rules dictated that car makers had to put the models they raced on the streets for sale. They therefore needed certain parts to actually work. Things like the trunk lid, lights, and other things not necessarily important to race cars were still needed to be sold to consumers.

The Superbirds that were available to the public (not the race-specific cars) came with one of three different engine options. First, obviously, is the venerable 426 Hemi. Only 136 Hemi powered Superbirds were originally produced which is one of the reasons why these cars command such a premium when they do come up for sale.

The Hemi was said to have made an under-rated 425 horsepower and a tremendous 472 lb-ft of torque.

The other two options were both 440s, both respectable powerhouses in their own right. One of the 440s was a 375 horsepower single carb four-barrel, and the other was a 390 horsepower 440 with a six pack carburetor combo (three 2-barrel carbs).

And of course, we can all recognize the taunting beep-beep of the Road Runner Cartoon that Chrysler turned into the car’s horn. It almost seems as if that’s what they were after, with the Road Runner consistently outpacing Wile E. Coyote, dropping boulders on his head, and winning. In fact, I don’t remember an episode where he lost.

To match the horn, the Superbird also got Road Runner graphics.

All in all, less than 2,000 1970 Plymouth Superbirds were released to the public, with the exact number being 1,935 different cars. That number is undoubtedly much less than that, now, about 50 years later as some cars likely ended up wrecked or otherwise destroyed.

Colors ran the gamut of Chrysler’s rainbow, with the pictured Superbird being shown in Alpine White. Other available colors were Lemon Twist, Lime Light, Corporation Blue, Blue Fire Metallic, Tor Red, and Vitamin C Orange.

All 1970 Road Runner Superbirds came with a vinyl top to help hide the welds needed to make the rear window fit, and the interior was definitely nothing to write home about. Some options had a bench seat, others had bucket seats that were available as an upgrade.

There were a couple different transmissions available in the 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Superbird. One of the options was a four-speed manual that is an ultra rare option with an estimated 50 or so being built, with a majority of the cars coming equipped with a 727 TorqueFlite auto trans with three speeds. All three engine models had the ability of being equipped with each transmission.

The fastest of these cars were able to reach 60 miles per hour from a dead stop in 4.8 seconds, and had a reported top speed of over 200 miles per hour. While that top speed is fast for any year, that’s lightning fast for 1970–where cars were a lot rougher around the edges than they are today.

The 1970 Superbird is a rare, funny looking, cartoonish, and yet somehow still gorgeous car that helped redefine what going fast looked like that helped Chrysler win and poke fun at the competition all at the same time. If you get the chance to see one on the street, know that you’re staring at a unicorn, get your phone out, and take a picture. You never know when you’ll get the chance to, again.