A custom-built 1970 Plymouth Satellite sedan honoring one of the strangest police pursuit vehicles in American history is heading to the auction block at Mecum Indy this May. The tribute car pays homage to the New Mexico State Police Plymouth Superbird known as the “Blackbird,” a heavily modified aero muscle car that reportedly ran highway patrol duty in the early 1970s.
A Tribute Build, Not A Replica
Rather than an exact reproduction, this is a detailed homage built from a 1970 Plymouth Satellite B-body sedan and dressed to resemble the winged Superbird. Externally, it carries a fiberglass aerodynamic nosecone, fixed LED headlamps in place of the original pop-up units, simulated fender scoops, and the Superbird’s signature tall rear wing mounted on reinforced steel supports — the visual package that made the Superbird one of the most recognizable muscle cars ever built.
Inside, the tribute retains a period-correct push-button radio and includes a Road Runner “beep-beep” horn as a nod to Plymouth’s muscle car heritage. The build goes beyond cosmetics too: it’s equipped with a Whelen roof-mounted light bar and strobes, a Whelen siren and PA speaker system, and a Motorola ISPERN radio, all echoing the original patrol car’s law-enforcement role.
Power comes from a 318-cubic-inch small-block V8 paired with an automatic transmission — notably more modest than the big-block engines associated with the real Superbird. To compensate visually, the engine bay has been dressed to resemble the dual-quad 440 big-block setup Mopar performance cars are famous for, capturing the spirit of the original without claiming to replicate its powertrain.
The Real Blackbird’s Strange History
The original Blackbird reportedly entered New Mexico State Police service around the end of 1969, acquired in Los Angeles by patrolman Rex Sagel. Exactly how the department obtained it remains unclear, though one widely repeated account suggests the car may have been seized before it ever entered police service.
Once in police hands, mechanics reworked the car for highway patrol duty, converting its factory 440’s four-barrel carburetor to an eight-barrel, dual-quad setup using parts sourced from a Chrysler 300 letter-series car. The Torqueflite automatic transmission stayed, but the rear axle was regeared to 2.76:1 to favor sustained high-speed cruising over quick acceleration. The result was a car that wasn’t fast off the line but became extremely difficult to outrun once it reached highway speed, riding on tall tires mounted to 15-inch wheels built for sustained high-speed travel rather than short sprints.
Police duty also brought physical changes: the elongated nose was shortened slightly to accommodate fixed, Plexiglas-covered headlights in place of the original’s unreliable retractable units, and a push bar was added under the nose for pursuit work. The car reportedly earned its reputation intercepting a Ferrari clocked at 169 mph on radar — a speed that exceeded the 150-mph top mark printed on the Superbird’s own speedometer — catching up to it after a multi-mile pursuit.
A Legend That Simply Vanished
The Blackbird stayed in service until April 1975, when it was retired and sold through a used car lot in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Local buyer Al Geiger picked it up for $1,600 and later described it as sluggish at low speeds but ferociously strong once it reached highway pace, capable of sustaining extreme speeds across the open desert.
Geiger owned the car for three years before it changed hands again, and its trail eventually went cold after it was reportedly abandoned in a parking lot near a highway. The signature rear wing was rumored to have been removed at some point, and what happened to the car after that has never been fully documented. Today, the original Blackbird’s whereabouts remain unknown.
The tribute Satellite heading to Mecum Indy doesn’t solve that mystery, but it does recreate the visual spirit of the car that inspired it. It’s scheduled to cross the block at Mecum Indy on May 14, after previously being withdrawn from an earlier Mecum Kissimmee sale this year. For Mopar collectors, it’s a chance to own a piece of one of the more unusual footnotes in American police-car history — even if the real Blackbird itself is still out there somewhere, or long gone entirely.
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