16-Year-Old Bought A New 1970 Hemi ‘Cuda With Pocket Money, 56 Years Later Got Back At The Wheel
Most 16-year-olds in 1970 probably had more sensible things to worry about than buying a brand-new Plymouth ‘Cuda with a 426 Hemi. Dan Jones apparently didn’t get that memo. He was 16, and he paid for it with his own money. It wasn’t some beat-up old muscle car that had already passed through several owners, either. He walked into a dealership and bought one of Plymouth’s most serious performance cars while he was still a teenager.
And this wasn’t exactly a gentle introduction to driving. The 1970 Hemi ‘Cuda packed Chrysler’s legendary 426-cubic-inch V8, rated at 425 horsepower and 490 lb-ft of torque. Plymouth built only 666 Hemi ‘Cudas for the 1970 model year, including 652 hardtops and just 14 convertibles. Jones’ car was a red hardtop equipped with a TorqueFlite automatic transmission and a 4.10 Dana 60 rear axle. The combination made it particularly well suited to the sort of stoplight-to-stoplight nonsense that probably wasn’t listed anywhere in the owner’s manual. The backstory includes street racing, police attention and the general collection of questionable decisions that tend to happen when you give a teenager a 425-hp Hemi and very few reasons to exercise restraint.
The Hemi ‘Cuda Spent Decades Hiding On A Lift
Eventually, though, real life caught up with him. After 21 years of ownership, Jones sold the ‘Cuda in 1991. The buyer was a man named Randall, who paid $27,000 for it. That sounds like a lot of money for a 21-year-old Plymouth until you remember what the car was. Even then, Randall understood that he had something special on his hands. He didn’t turn it into a weekend toy or immediately flip it. Instead, the car spent years hidden away in his garage, sitting on a lift. The odometer reportedly sat at only 42,000 miles.
Then came the genuinely cool part. It was discovered that Jones lived only about half an hour from Randall’s garage, meaning the guy who bought the Hemi ‘Cuda new as a teenager had spent decades living surprisingly close to the car without seeing it. In 2026, Jones finally got back into the driver’s seat. That’s a pretty spectacular reunion for any car enthusiast. Imagine buying a brand-new Hemi ‘Cuda at 16, spending 21 years with it, selling it, and then more than three decades later being reunited with it. The car had gone from a teenage toy to a carefully preserved piece of muscle-car history while Jones had, presumably, acquired rather more wisdom along the way.
The ‘Cuda Came With A Bonus Build Sheet
A close inspection of the car even produced a couple of interesting pieces of paperwork. One build sheet was found above the glove box and appears to belong to the Hemi ‘Cuda. Another build sheet was found in the passenger seatback, but it was actually for a 1970 Barracuda Gran Coupe with a 318 V8. That second sheet appears to have ended up in the wrong car during assembly.
The really remarkable thing about this story isn’t simply that the car survived. Plenty of valuable muscle cars have survived. It’s that the original owner got to meet his old car again. And somewhere between buying it at 16 and climbing back behind the wheel 56 years later, Jones went from being the kid with the ridiculous Hemi to being the guy who could tell everyone else exactly what it was like to own one when it was new. That might be the best possible history for a muscle car.
Sources: Mopars5150 Youtube
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