Mecum is holding its 2026 Indianapolis auction from May 8-16, and naturally for events of this sort, there will be plenty of rare muscle cars from the pre-EPA era. One of the rarest of the rare is this 1971 Plymouth Hemi GTX, which left the factory toward the end of that period.
According to Mecum, this is just one of 11 1971 models with both the 425-horsepower, 426-cubic-inch Hemi V8 and a four-speed manual transmission. It’s also one of only four with the Super Track Pack, which included 4.10 gearing and the Sure Grip limited-slip differential. And it’s believed to be the only 1971 Hemi GTX painted Winchester Gray. You’ll need a crack graphic designer to fit all of that onto a car show information board.
This is also just a generally well-equipped car for the period. It has power steering and power brakes, bucket seats, and the period-appropriate combination of Mopar Rallye wheels and Goodyear Polyglas tires with prominent white lettering. It also the distinctive Air Grabber hood, with a pop-out slot instead of a conventional fixed scoop. The car was also treated to a rotisserie restoration, while retaining the numbers-matching engine and transmission.
Before Volkswagen co-opted it for European-market electric cars, GTX meant American muscle. Launched in 1967, it followed the classic muscle-car template of stuffing a powerful V8 into a mass-market chassis. It was positioned as a more upscale option, making room for the Road Runner (which launched on the same Chrysler B-Body platform the following year) and giving Plymouth a proper competitor to the Pontiac GTO, Oldsmobile 442, et al. Like most other Mopar muscle cars, it could be equipped with the 440-cubic-inch V8 as well as the Hemi.
The GTX and other B-Body cars were redesigned for 1971 around the new “fuselage” design language, which is underrated, in my humble opinion. These cars had a bit more flair than the conservatively styled ones that came before. But the fuselage cars were also introduced just as automakers began preparing for new emissions rules, and insurers began realizing cars that were both powerful and cheap were bad for business. With its industrial-strength 426, the 1971 Plymouth Hemi GTX represented the end of an era. Within a few years, the big V8s would be downgraded or outright eliminated.
The Plymouth brand may be long gone (even the Prowler couldn’t save it), but everybody still knows what a Hemi is. Mecum expects this car to sell for $325,000 to $350,000 when it crosses the block on May 15. A manual 440 car (also with a numbers-matching and transmission) is due to be sold at the same auction on the same day, but is only estimated to bring $110,000 to $130,000. That’s the power of rarity.