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Smith Stokes is a car guy that possesses what all of us want and very few have - foresight. Take this for an example: Order yourself a loaded, and we mean loaded, Hemi Superbird as your demo in 1969. Drive the car a while, and get a great deal on it when you buy it for yourself. Keep it. Drive it. Enjoy it, but don’t blow it up and don’t paint it.

Do you have any idea what an original owner, original paint, original engine, absolutely maxed-out Hemi Superbird is worth? Yeah, well, we don’t either, but it’s gotta be a bunch.

Truth be told, Smith probably wasn’t thinking about how much the Superbird would be worth someday when he ordered the car. He liked the car, and he thought it would be a hoot to drive one as his demo for a few months. But can you imagine how strong the urge to sell the beast must have been when it was his daily driver during the gas crisis in ‘73? You know, for all the good points about dual-carb, 426 Hemis, gas mileage ain’t one of them. But he kept it. That’s some of that foresight stuff again, coupled with a strong dose of enthusiasm.

Even though he’s been selling Chrysler products since the late-sixties, Smith’s managed to keep up with many of the unique cars he’s sold over the years. He told us about this car or that car, where it lives and who owns it. He even managed to buy one of the more special cars from the guy he sold it to originally! He sold his 1971 4-speed HemiCuda to the original owner, who kept the car just long enough to put 3,000 miles on it (a quarter of a mile at a time), and lose the original Hemi. Smith bought it back, replaced the missing elephant, cleaned it up, and it’s as you see it here.

We didn’t get to see Smith’s ‘69 Six Pack, lift-off hood Road Runner, but he tells us it’s as nice as his other cars. We have no reason to doubt him. It was a pleasure to meet Smith Stokes and to spend a couple of days with him talking about muscle cars. It’s guys like him that make this hobby so much fun in the first place.
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