Scott Frye was told so many times that his 1971 Dodge Charger Super Bee wasn’t legit that he was starting to have some doubts himself.

The Sobieski, Wis., resident had bought his cool MoPar as a fixer-upper when he was still in high school. He was pretty happy with his purchase at the time, but then the naysayers — who didn’t really know what they were talking about — had him questioning whether he had been duped.

“You never heard of the ’71 Super Bees. You always heard of the ’68 through ’70s, but you never heard of the ’71,” says Frye, who showed off his hot Dodge at last summer’s Iola Car Show in Wisconsin. “And I remember the first three years I had it, I can’t tell you how many people said, ‘They never made a Super Bee in ’71! This is a Dodge Charger. They never made a Charger Super Bee!’ But they did, one year.

“And I was a young kid, and I didn’t know. I’d say, ‘Well, where did these Super Bee stickers come from, and all the decals? Why would somebody do all that?’ It wasn’t until I went to the MoPar Nationals and started seeing some other ones that I knew for sure that they made them.”

It was a couple trips to those national meets that actually changed the future for Frye’s ’71. Instead of just looking at the car as some cool, muscular daily transportation, he started hatching bigger plans.

“People were telling me how rare they are, how you never seen ’em. You would never even see them in the magazines,” he adds. “I said, ‘I gotta go through this car. I gotta go through everything and, you know, make it right …And the rest is history.”

The bad news when Frye bought his Super Bee back in 1984 was it had been the victim of neglect and had sat outside for quite a while, wasting away through some hostile Wisconsin winters. The good news is that it was still in remarkably good shape — probably in large part due to the aftermarket rust-proofing it got when it was new. Plus, Frye had already gotten some practice fixing and restoring MoPars by the time he and a friend decided to go check out a group of cars for sale in a barnyard stash that they had heard about.

“My first car was a 1970 Dodge Cornet 500 that my dad bought me for 100 bucks,” he laughs. “I worked on that car for a year, and then my friend called me one day and said, ‘You’ve got to come and check out this barn full of cars!’ So we went there, and it was like something you would see on the Internet, where you see an old barn or a field and all you see is MoPars everywhere! It was unbelievable. We were walking around and I asked the guy, ‘Are you selling anything? Is any of this for sale?’ And he says, ‘Everything is for sale.’ So I saw this car and I talked to my parents. We agreed on a price … He had this one behind one of his sheds or garages, and it was still covered up under the snow. And I remember he had to drag it out of the mud in, like, April or March.”

Bright red 1971 Super Bees are easy cars to take notice of, and Frye was pretty certain he remembered seeing the car in question driving around in Green Bay a few years earlier. Sure enough, the car had been sold originally at a Green Bay Dodge-Chrysler dealership and Frye was the third owner. And fortunately, the first owner apparently had some admirable foresight when he decided to shell out for some rustproofing.

“It had that Ziebart sticker in the rear quarter window on it when I bought the car in 1984,” he says. “Later on I got a chance to talk to the original owner, and he said it was done right out of the factory… It did not need a lot of bodywork. There was some rust in the rear quarters, but it was in good shape.”

The clincher was when the the second owner actually got the car running for Frye before he handed over the key. 

“Yeah, it ran! He did get it running! He had been driving it previously, but for some reason he lost interest in it. I think it was four or five years, sitting in his back yard, outside.”

1971: A BRAND NEW BEE

The Charger was a whole new beast for the 1971 model year. With the Coronet now purely a four-door, Dodge used its only remaining midsize B-body coupe — the Charger — to spawn a whole new Super Bee. It turned out to be a one-year wonder and the only Super Bee based on the Charger.

The 1971 Chargers had a semi-fastback roofline with a flush rear window and an integral rear deck lid spoiler. The Charger Super Bee was manufactured using the same restyled body and was aimed at the same market niche as the old Coronet Super Bee and still represented a value-priced but serious high-performance package.

For a base price of $3,271, Charger Super Bee buyers could get a “base” model that included a standard 383-cid Magnum V-8 that cranked out 300 hp. The engine used a single four-barrel carburetor and came attached to a three-speed manual transmission with a floor-mounted gear shifter. The hood had a “power bulge” with a flat black finish, and on the sides were special tape stripes and bumblebee decals.

The interior was similar to that of the Charger 500, but featured bucket seats. The Rallye suspension package included heavy-duty front torsion bars, heavy-duty rear springs, a front anti-sway bar, heavy-duty shock absorbers all around and heavy-duty brakes (11 x 3 inches up front and 11 x 2.5 inches in the rear). The standard tires were fat F70-14 black walls with white lettering. There was also a lengthy list of goodies on the options list.

All Charger Super Bees carried a big-block V-8. For guys who wanted to go up the ladder from the 383, there was a 440 with “Six-Pack” carburetion or the 426-cid Street Hemi. Unlike the 8.7:1 compression base engine, these muscle car mills had high-test hardware and offered 385 or 425 hp, respectively. The optional goodies list also included: a functional Ramcharger hood scoop, color-keyed bumpers, a Super Trak-Pack performance axle (with up to 4.10:1 gearing), a four-speed gear box with Hurst “pistol grip” shifter, a dual-point distributor and heavy-duty cooling aids.

The 440 Six-Pack Charger Super Bee was now advertised at 385 hp. It did 0-to-60 mph in 6.9 seconds and the quarter-mile took 14.7 seconds. With a Hemi V-8, this 3,640-lb. machine moved into the same bracket as the original Charger 500, needing only 5.7 seconds to get up to 60 mph and a mere 13.7 to reach the traps at a drag strip!

Only 22 1971 Charger Hemi Super Bees were built, nine of which had four-speeds. The rest had had TorqueFlite automatics.

Only about 5,054 Super Bees were built for 1971 (4,325 for the U.S. market), making the ’71s the rarest of the four-year run. The majority of them — 2,889 — carried a 383 Magnum with an automatic transmission, like Frye’s car.

LIFE-LONG BEE KEEPER

Frye was too young and poor to think too much about restoring his Super Bee the first few years he had it. He still shakes his head in disbelief at the idea that he’s had the car for 40 years now.

“Ha! I was just a young kid working at McDonald’s! I eventually became a mechanic and started working at the airport, and then I started going to the MoPar Nationals and started seeing more of these cars,” he recalls. “But I drove it the way it was for the first 3, 4, 5 years. The original tail lamps were all cracked and stuff, but when I got it everything was there, it just needed some work.”

It wasn’t long, though, before Frye faced his first major crisis with the car, and a big decision to make.

“Back then, us kids, we didn’t know anything about numbers matching or VIN numbers or matching blocks and transmissions,” he says. “And I had blown up the motor probably within the first year I got it! And I took the motor out and I just bought another one, I think I bought a 440 … And I remember talking to someone and they said, ‘You gotta check your block.’ So he showed me how to match up the VIN on the block to the VIN on the dash, and sure enough it was the original motor. And back then we were moving from apartment to apartment, and duplex to duplex, and I carried that thing all over! At one time that block was being used as a table in my living room! I put a 4×8 piece of plywood over it!”

It took a few years, but Frye eventually restored the Super Bee from bumper to bumper. He did all the parts chasing, handled all the paint and bodywork himself, and even tackled the upholstery work. His wife Julie helped him fit the new vinyl top.

 “Really, about the only thing I didn’t do myself was the machining on the block,” he says. “This is the way it would have left the factory. Factory FE5 Bright Red, factory white interior, factory spoiler … concealed headlamps. The only thing we really changed was the white vinyl top, and on ’71 Super Bees that hood insert, the louvered section that I have on this car is from a 71 Charger R/T. The Super Bee unit was fiberglass and was a little different, but the hoods are the same. You could change the center pieces. I just like the louvered section better.”

Oh, and there’s the little change in the bottom end that nobody can see, either, but shows up when Frye really flattens the gas pedal. 

“I did put a 440 crank in it. It’s kind of a stroker now! It pulls about 500 horse [laughs]. But the engine compartment looks almost like it left the factory. Original air cleaner, original exhaust manifolds.”

These days, the bright red ’71 certainly sounds and runs as good as it looks thanks, in part, to the regular exercise it has gotten for the past 30-plus years. The odometer says just 47,000 miles, but Frye has never been sure how accurate the total has been. 

“The title from 1984, they put on there ‘cannot verify mileage,’” he notes. “I really don’t think it was turned over, but somebody might have replaced a dash bezel at some point. I can’t verify it.

“But I’ve always driven it. Back in the ’90s and early 2000s, we’d go to car shows it seemed like almost every weekend. There’s a few stone chips, but I can’t worry about that stuff anymore, because then you won’t enjoy it. Buying a restored car like this today would cost you so much money, and then the first stone chip you get ….”

One thing is certain: the car is never going to wind up neglected or put out to pasture again while Frye is around. And it’s not going to have any other owners, either.

“I can’t imagine ever not having it after all these years,” he admits. “Not after all it’s been through. I can’t tell you how many apartment buildings, how many garages, it’s been in! … Now I’ll probably die in it.”

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With a grandfather who was a die-hard Chevy guy, you’d think Joe Sokola’s automotive passion would be for the bow-tie brand. Not so. Instead, he fell hard for Mother MoPar, and he remembers exactly how it happened.

“My grandfather was a collector, but he had ’20s and ’30s Chevrolets, and they’re still around,” Sokola says. “So I grew up ‘Chevy,’ but for some reason, I went to the Dodges and Plymouths.”

To explain the reason Sokola went sweet on “MoPar,” he shuffles back to his childhood memories and describes the driveway next door.

“When we were kids, the neighbor’s [mom] had a Coronet four-door, and she used to drive us to school in it,” he says. “In the late 1970s, you didn’t see so much of them anymore, because they were so rough.”

If the neighbor’s surprisingly well-preserved Coronet didn’t absolutely solidify Sokola’s passion for midsize B-body MoPars, a schoolmate’s 383-powered Super Bee completed the obsession.

“A friend had a dark-green Super Bee, and he’d pick me up in it, and that car was over the top,” Sokola says. “His was a ’68. The thing was shot and he ended up banging it up. It was rough, and he drove it a year and he taught me how to drive a four-speed with that car.”

“His name was Kris Simmons; the Simmons family were all MoPar people. When my friend showed up with the Coronet Super Bee in the late 1970s, I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ I have been hooked on them ever since. Since then, I bought them, fixed them up, sold them and tried to move up in the collector car world.”

Today, Sokola has a 1968 Super Bee of his own — a Hemi version, no less — but it was a long time coming, and he wasn’t necessarily looking for a Super Bee when he landed his dream car. He started at the entry point of the B-body collecting world with the ultimate goal of one day landing a Hemi-powered version, but he had to slowly move up to one of those coveted and valuable examples of a B-body powered by the ultimate MoPar powerplant.

Climbing the B-body ladder

A couple years after Sokola received his driver’s license, he landed his first MoPar B-body — Chrysler Corp.’s name for its mid-size passenger car platform. He says that B-body 1965 Coronet was a “plain Jane” with a 318-cid V-8 purchased in 1981 for $500. Although not the fastest-flying version of the Coronet, it was a good start and fit in with the company he kept.

“The Simmons family were big MoPar people,” Sokola recalled. “They’d go to Connecticut Dragway every weekend back then. They had a lot of nice stuff — Challengers, Super Bees, big-block Darts — and I kind of looked up to them. I was kind of part of their crew with the car stuff.”

With high-performance Dodges and Plymouths swarming around him, Sokola’s lust for a high-performance MoPar only grew. By the 2000s, he had bought and sold his way up to a wicked B7 Blue 1969 Dodge Charger R/T with a 440 Magnum. It was a great B-body MoPar, but it still wasn’t a Hemi car.

“I was looking for a real factory Hemi car, and so I sold my 1969 Charger R/T and was saving money to move up to a factory Hemi car.”

Sokola soon learned the available factory Hemi cars were rougher than what he was looking for, or out of the price range of guys like him — working stiffs with kids in college and a mortgage. That didn’t stop him from chasing Hemis, and he drove from his Connecticut home to North Carolina in order to sniff out a black ’66 Coronet Hemi car in his price range, but it turned out to be a dud.

“The ’66 and ’67 [Hemi cars], they’re kind of the lowest-price Hemis, and then [prices] jump up in ’68, ’69, ’70. Then they jump up again in ’71,” Sokola says.

Dodge hatches the Super Bee

Then as now, there is a clear line of delineation between Hemi car prices from the 1966-1967 generation of B-body MoPar to the restyled 1968-’70 B-body MoPars. Today, Hemi 1966 and ’67 Dodge Chargers generally top out around $70,000, with Hemi Dodge Coronet hardtops and their Plymouth Belvedere hardtop counterparts selling around the same prices. Meanwhile, the restyled 1968-’70 Hemi B-body Dodges and Plymouths usually sell for about two to three times the price of Hemi cars of the previous generation.

The price discrepancy is likely due to the excitement Mother MoPar brought to the scene for 1968. That model year, Chrysler Corp. injected a fresh excitement into its performance line with budget muscle cars based on its restyled B-body platform that undercut the price of the Pontiac GTO. At Plymouth, there came the new Road Runner, a Belvedere-based model available with decals of Warner Brothers’ famously speedy Road Runner cartoon character and a decal on the air cleaner of his nemesis, Wile E. Coyote. There was even a “Beep-Beep!” horn under the hood and a special Road Runner-only variation of the 383-cid V-8 with an exclusive 335 hp built using the heads, cam, intake manifold and valve gear of the 440-cid V-8 that was standard in its costlier Plymouth GTX counterpart. The Road Runner’s appeal to young drivers wasn’t just the cartoon shtick and unique V-8 — the factory price was a relatively affordable $2,870 to $3,034, depending on whether the buyer chose the Road Runner two-door sedan or spendier hardtop.

Before Road Runner came on the scene, Plymouth had been relying on its handsome GTX to give it street cred. The GTX was a high-trimmed version of the Belvedere with a hot 440-cid V-8 as standard equipment or the 426-cid Hemi V-8 as optional. With its standard 440 and luxury features, the 1968 GTX’s $3,300 base price limited the number of performance-minded young men and women who could afford it. Sure, they could instead buy a stripped-down base Belvedere optioned with a big-block instead of buying a loaded GTX, but a Belvedere’s look generally didn’t match the excitement available under its hood. That, and the price of speccing out a base Belvedere with a hyper-expensive Hemi engine put a performance Plymouth B-body out of reach for most young buyers.

Chrysler Corp. outlined parallel paths for Dodge and Plymouth cars during the late 1960s, and for nearly every model and option, there was a counterpart at the other division. With Plymouth launching its Road Runner for 1968, it’s no surprise that Dodge followed shortly after the start of the selling season with a budget B-body muscle car on its likewise restyled 1968 Coronet line. Dodge would crown its econo muscle car the “Super Bee,” a less juvenile yet still youthful name, and place it beneath its Coronet R/T counterpart to the Plymouth GTX. The Super Bee would also be placed beneath Dodge’s B-body Charger which also had the new Coke bottle-shaped styling, but had its own semi-fastback roofline. (Meanwhile, the Coronet and Belvedere shared a glasshouse.)

Just as Plymouth kept down the Road Runner’s price by basing it upon the base Belvedere, Dodge based the Super Bee upon the Coronet 440 — it’s second-step-from-the-bottom midsize model — and stripped most of the Coronet 440 body trim. It then built up the Super Bee with performance that could be seen and felt. The 335-hp 383 once unique to the Road Runner became standard in the Super Bee, and a Super Bee decal was applied to the rear of each quarter panel. Super Bees also received a unique hood with a “power bulge;” a “distinctive ‘Scat Pack’” performance grille that had a blacked-out mesh center; a Rallye instrument cluster from the Charger; heavy-duty shocks, brakes and suspension; wide-tread redline tires; and a standard four-speed manual transmission. Whereas the Road Runner could be had as a coupe or hardtop, the Super Bee was offered only as a coupe in ’68. Since Dodge was a step up from Plymouth in the Chrysler Corp. hierarchy, the Super Bee coupe was base-priced at $3,027, putting it about $150 more than a Road Runner coupe, and $7 less than the price of a Road Runner hardtop.

On Jan. 2, 1968, Chrysler Corp. announced the Super Bee’s launch to Dodge dealers in a letter that noted production would begin on Jan. 12 with the model’s announcement to the public to be followed on Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day). The letter was followed by a special brochure to dealers that showed them all there was to love about the new Super Bee:

“Meet the Super Bee. Newest member of the Dodge Scat Pack,” began the brochure. “It’s the performance version of the Coronet 440 2-door coupe. A new way for you to capture and cash in on the profitable youth ‘performance’ market. (500,000 strong.)

“The Super Bee was designed specifically for a large portion of that market. It’s the super car for the guy who doesn’t want to shy away from GTO’s…only their high prices.

“Super Bee’s for the guy who wants a low-priced performance car that he can drive daily…but still take to the track on weekends. One that commands respect when the Christmas tree lights up.

“The Super Bee’s the car he’s been looking for. It’s a gutsy road car with all the goodies to make it a true performance car. If your customer doesn’t believe it, tell him you’ll meet him with a Super Bee at the local drag strip.”

Although the newest member of the “Scat Pack” — Dodge’s hive of performance cars that included the R/T Charger and Coronet — the Super Bee best made use of the Scat Pack performance car marketing. The Scat Pack’s mascot was a helmeted bumblebee with drag slicks for feet and a smoking engine with headers on his back. Dodge put its colony of performance cars into its Scat Pack and made it easy to identify them; they were “the cars with Bumblebee stripes,” it said.

A Hemi all his own

Ironically, not all Super Bees received the Scat Pack Bumblebee stripes, and the Super Bee that Sokola finally caught in his Hemi car search was among those without stripes. His years of hanging out with fellow MoPar fans led him to the nearby Hemi Super Bee, and he admits the recession helped him eventually put a Hemi in his garage.

“In ’07, ’08, ’09, they were paying big money for [Hemi cars],” Sokola recalls, “and then the bottom dropped out. I bought it during the slump, but it needed help.”

The Hemi that Sokola found in 2010 came to him by word of mouth from northeastern Hemi guru Joe Sica, who told him the long-parked 1968 Hemi Super Bee might be for sale.

“It kind of fell in my lap,” Sokola says. “I knew of the car, but there wasn’t any thought of it being for sale.”

Other MoPar collectors knew of the Super Bee as well, as it was a pretty storied machine in the area. The car wasn’t known for exploits on the track, but for simply being a Hemi car that was once regularly seen.

“It was [originally] bought as a daily driver in the Vernon, Connecticut, area, which makes sense, because it was bought at Chorches Motors in the next town over (Manchester, Conn.),” Sokola says.

The Hemi Super Bee came with a dealer emblem for Chorches Motors and he eventually spoke to Sam Chorches, whose father operated the dealership from the late 1940s to the mid 1990s.

“Sam explained to me that his father was big on selling Darts, Coronets, Monacos — four-doors, two-doors and stations wagons,” Sokola said. “But Sam’s father was big and he loved selling Dodge pickup trucks. His father hated these [performance] cars, because he was into pickups, four-doors — they sold trouble-free — and the Hemi stuff was nothing but a headache.”

Sam Chorches was serving in Vietnam when the Hemi Super Bee was ordered from his father’s dealership, but he confirmed to Sokola that all Hemi cars back then were, indeed, ordered. Due to the expense and power of the Hemi engine ($714.30 in a 1968 Super Bee), dealers always ordered Hemi cars, and almost always for a specific customer.

On paper, it looks like Sokola’s relatively stripped Super Bee was ordered for the drag strip rather than the street. In addition to the optional J-code Hemi and the Hemi-specific four-speed, the Super Bee only touts an AM radio and tinted glass as options. The rear axle is the standard unit for a four-speed Hemi: the Dana 60 with 3.54:1 gears. The original owner didn’t even specify the Bumblebee tail stripe for his Super Bee!

Sokola has tracked the car through all of its past owners and believes the original owner sold the car in the early 1970s. Then it bounced from owner to owner until 1983, when it spun a bearing. At that point, the grounded Hemi Super Bee was advertised for $1,400, but there were no takers. Six months later, the car sold for $1,000.

Over the next few decades, the two owners previous to Sokola began restoring the car. They completed restoration of the body, interior and most of the mechanical components. Sokola estimates they were 80 percent done with the restoration when he negotiated its purchase.

“It ran rough, and it didn’t want to run right,” Sokola says. 

However, the body work really impressed him and the price was in his range, so he sealed the deal.

Once getting it home in 2010, Sokola began the busy work of putting Super Bee back on the road and as Dodge originally built it. As funds allowed, he sourced a correct original radiator and 15-inch wheels to replace the “Dukes of Hazzard” mags on the car. He also installed a wiring harness, went through the brakes again and had the car’s original carburetors rebuilt. As with anything related to Hemis, the parts were expensive, he says, but rebuilding the Hemi engine was the biggest blow to his pocketbook. However, Sokola says the engine rebuild was worth it since it was done by Bill Atwood, an experienced and respected builder who knows Hemis inside and out. Since getting the Hemi Super Bee back on the road in 2013, Sokola has put thousands of trouble-free miles on the Super Bee.

The 440 Magnum-powered 1969 Charger R/T that Sokola sold to buy the Hemi Super Bee is a pretty choice car. Was it worth selling the Charger for the Hemi experience?

“Without a doubt, yes,” Sokola says. “It runs good, and I like it. I am happy now, but for a while, the sorting out was driving me nuts. But I finally got it. I finally feel like I am not going to get stuck anywhere. But at first I thought, ‘What did I get myself into?’ Then I got over the hump and prevailed and was able to move on.”

And move he does. Now that it’s one honey of a Super Bee, Sokola drives the Hemi car to events around his Connecticut home, even in neighboring states. He’s added power steering, so “instead of fighting the wheel and fighting the stick, I am glad to be just fighting the stick,” he says. He’s also added the dual Bumblebee stripes to the Super Bee, giving it the proper look that many associate with the model.

Sokola says at shows, people either walk right by his Super Bee or it creates enough buzz that it’s awarded best-of-show honors. Either way, it doesn’t matter to him. He finally has his Hemi B-body and he’s enjoying every minute behind its wheel.

“I don’t get stupid with it. I take my time and use my head. I am going to be 60 in a couple months — I am not this crazy kid anymore.” 

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Old Cars hits the road and celebrates the classics while bringing the sights and sounds to you.

We spotted this Magnificent MoPar during the 2021 Iola Car Show. This 1971 Dodge Charger Super Bee has us lusting for an open stretch of pavement.

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The post Old Cars out and About: 1971 Dodge Charger Super Bee appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Growing up on the plains of Northern South Dakota there were miles of roads that seemed to go on forever, the perfect place to foster Alan’s need for speed. Linda Rietz, his wife of over 30 years, remembers Alan was a football star that loved to drive fast. Linda was kind of a “nerd”, and it was a blind date that she met Alan. Linda stated, “Alan, was a quiet person, but when it came to the cars, they seemed to bring out his wild side and he loved horsepower.” The 1970 Dodge Challenger was a perfect match for his personality.

Alan went to college at Northern University for industrial arts but the family farmed called to him. He eventually started farming by Mansfield, South Dakota. Linda and Alan were married in 1985. Linda remembers that every chance Alan could buy a car he would. They spent their years going to car shows, swap meets, and buying cars in South Dakota. They loved to go to Midwest MoPars in the Park. Alan had his trusty pocket guides and was constantly on the hunt for parts. Alan absolutely hated to see a Dodge or Plymouth heading for a Demo Derby or Dirt Track and would rescue them under the guise of future projects.

There were some cars that Alan had on his “wish list.” Linda remembers when he tracked down a rare 1970 Road Runner convertible in Mellette, South Dakota. This rare 1 of 824 Road Runner was sitting behind the Chrysler dealership in Mellette, SD, which has long since been closed. The rare ivy green metallic, white top and interior, coded 383 V8 was the personal car of the owner and was in need of a motor. Linda remembers pulling the car 12 miles down Hwy. 281 to get it home. They put a 440 c.i.d.-V8 from a cop car into the engine bay. The fast Road Runner ended up driving Linda to work each day.

Alan was fortunate enough to keep his high school cars, the 1970 Dodge Challenger and 1970 Plymouth Cuda. He also fulfilled another goal to buy a 1970 Dodge Super Bee 440- 6 pack car. Linda said Alan loved that car as it was a screamer. They took it to area shows and road trips.

Alan made a habit of car hunting with his Buddy Doug Rush and brought home many parts and projects. Linda always wondered what he would do with all the cars. She didn’t mind him buying them, as long as the bills were paid. She actually encouraged the hobby, as it made him happy and they always had great times in the cars.

I asked Linda if he sold anything. “He never would sell anything, but he would trade with someone. If he knew that you were going to cut something up, he wouldn’t trade with you. But if you were going to restore it, then he would. People would stop all the time and ask to buy cars and parts, but unless he knew you, the answer was always ‘No’.”

There are a few Corvettes and later model Imperials in the collection. Linda said these weren’t added till it got harder to buy his MoPars.

About 3 years ago, he lost his car buddy Doug, and Alan slowed down on the buying. Alan kept farming the family farm and working in his shop. Linda always wondered if his cars were a big deal or worth anything. Alan always said that it wasn’t junk and there were many valuable and desirable cars and parts.

Tragically, one day Alan went out to the shop, as usual, but didn’t come back in the house. There was an accident and he was found dead in his shop. This tragic loss led the family to wonder what to do with all Alan’s cars, parts, and guns. The family farm was rented out and his family wondered what to do with his collections. The family called VanDerBrink Auctions, LLC, after some recommendations from friends. The collection of MoPars was impressive and included: Road Runners, Cudas, a Super Bee, Satellites, Furys, Chargers, Power Wagons, Aspens, and hundreds of rare parts.

When entering the farm I could tell this was going to be special. Cars were everywhere and in every building. You could tell that he was a true collector, the farm machinery was outside and the cars were inside the sheds. So the work started on getting things ready for a series of auctions of the Rietz collection. The preliminary listing is posted on www.vanderbrinkauctions.com and will be updated as new additions are documented.

Here’s Dates to remember:

The Farm Machinery Sale will be Saturday, March 24th, at 10AM

The Alan Rietz Gun Collection- Friday, June 8th, 2018 4PM during Mopar Preview 10AM-7:30PM

The MoPar auction will be held on Saturday, June 9th, 2018. 9AM

Friday June 8th, 2018 will be the MoPar auction preview and the gun collection will be sold at 4PM. There are many Winchester Long guns, along with Colt handguns, and more. FFL guidelines apply to bidders. Come back on Saturday June 9th at 9AM to kick off the MoPar cars & parts, and motorcycle auction. The auction will be held LIVE, in person, at the farm by Mansfield, South Dakota, rain or shine. If you can’t make it to the auction, the vehicles, and an assortment of rare parts will also be available for online bidding. There are hundreds of motors, sheet metal, and many more parts, and guns, that will be ONLY for ON-SITE bidders.

For Inventory, Pictures, Terms, and more details on this and other auctions go to www.vanderbrinkauctions.com or call 605-201-7005. See you in South Dakota!

Yvette VanDerBrink
VanDerBrink Auctions, LLC
605-201-7005
www.vanderbrinkauctions.com

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