The Barracuda, Road Runner, and GTX are the namesakes that garner the most attention when it comes to Plymouth nameplates from the early 1970s. The Satellite, though, was as stunning. Although the GTX had replaced it as the highest trim of the Belvedere series in 1967, it was still just as potent.
That’s because, in addition to the smaller V8s, Plymouth also offered it with the powerful 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) Hemi and the 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) RB. 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.
