The Super Bee had one of the shortest runs as a muscle car during the genre’s heyday. It saw production of just four model years, and the last was as a sub-series of the Dodge Charger. This includes the seller’s ’71 Charger Super Bee, one of just 5,000 or so built before the company threw in the towel. Located in New Bern, North Carolina, this Dodge sat under a carport for 23 years before being rescued. Body work and a repaint may be the next step on its road to a full recovery. It’s available here on eBay where the bidding has reached $8,100, but the reserve is still looming.

When Chrysler’s mid-size cars were redesigned for 1968, the Plymouth Road Runner (based on the Belvedere) was born. Dodge got into the low-budget muscle car game at the same time, using the Coronet as the foundation for the new Super Bee. With its Bumble Bee logo, the roots of the name are quite simple: it was a nod to the car’s B-body platform, but now “super” because of the power under the hood. The Road Runner was far more successful than the Super Bee in terms of sales and when the B-bodies were redesigned again in 1971, Chrysler downgraded the car to part of the Charger series before retiring the name. But it wouldn’t due, being resurrected more than 35 years later when the new 4-door Chargers were introduced.

The seller has owned this ’71 Super Bee for about a year after finding it sitting under a carport where it had been since 1997. He put a lot of money into the mechanical side of the car getting it to run again. The drivetrain is no longer original, but a 383 cubic inch V8 and a Torqueflite automatic transmission are still present. It runs well now (with exceptions) and the car is used for weekend jaunts even though it needs some cosmetic attention. The list of new or replaced items includes:

• MSD ignition system
• High-rise aluminum intake manifold with a 750 Brawler carburetor
• Doug’s Headers with a new dual exhaust using cut outs
• Rebuilt transmission with 323 gears in the rear
• New radiator (and the gas tank looks new or newer, too)

While the red paint looks good from a distance, rust has crept into several places, likely due to be exposed to the elements where it sat. The rear quarter panels have been affected as well as the right front fender, door bottoms, trunk drop rail, and around the rear window. To help facilitate repairing some of these areas, the seller has a complete back-half of another ’71 that he will throw in with the sale (bring a trailer). On the other hand, the interior looks pretty good and may need little or no work.

There are few additional things that need attending to under the bonnet. The seller says the 2400 stall is not powerful enough for the car and a 3000 is suggested in its place. There also is a valve tap that needs sorting out as the 383 probably wasn’t rebuilt. The heads should be reworked, and it could probably stand some new lifters. But it’s drivable the way it is. The seller has other projects that need attending to, so this Charger is the “odd man out.” But it comes with its build sheet to verify the production of the car as a real deal Super Bee.