When it comes to barn-found classics, the best you can hope for is a thick layer of dust and a solid floor. Unfortunately, most of them emerge out of long-term storage with severe rust damage, but that’s not the worst it can happen to an oldtimer. Some don’t even get a barn or some sort of roof over their “heads” and end up spending decades fully exposed to the elements.
It’s the kind of treatment that turns a classic into a parts donor at best. And that’s a sad fate for any vehicle, let alone a cool muscle car from the 1970s. The Mopar stash you’re about to see below is proof that way too many classics are being left to rot away out in the open.
Documented by “Poor Boys Garage,” this small collection spent a few good decades in the woods. Now that the owner has passed away, the family is looking to clean up the property and the cars have to go. Among them is a trio of Plymouth Satellites from the 1970s.
All of them are of the coupe variety, arguably the most desirable body style for this nameplate. Plymouth also offered four-door sedans and station wagons from 1968 to 1974, but it’s the two-door versions that got the high-performance V8 engines. Until 1971 anyway, because the 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) HEMI was retired at the end of the year, while the other big-block mills got detuned.
Unfortunately, two of these coupes are from the 1973 model year, which places them in the early days of the Malaise era. Yes, Plymouth did offer a big 400-cubic-inch (6.6-liter) V8 that year, but at 260 horsepower, it was a far cry from the 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) RB.
The third Satellite is from 1971, the final year of high-performance Mopars, but it no longer has an engine under the hood. It wasn’t a HEMI since it’s a Sebring version, but there’s no way to tell if it came from the factory with a lazy inline-six or a 300-horsepower 383-cubic-inch (6.3-liter) Super Commando V8.
Yeah, these Mopars are quite mysterious, but what we do know for a fact is that they’re in pretty rough shape. Sadly enough, they’re not worth restoring, so they will never become more than parts cars. But I guess that’s a better fate than rotting away in someone’s backyard, especially since third-generation Satellite coupes are getting increasingly harder to find.