[Editor’s note: In my 20 years of publishing articles for the Mopar hobby, I can count only a handful of times when I’ve encountered a true “original owner” car that is not only driven regularly by the owner but kept seemingly unmolested. While certainly Fred Tonne had made modifications over the years, he’s all but completely reversed any signs of said changes.
Instead, what we have here is an all but perfect example of a factory original 1970 Plymouth GTX. Fred was incredibly giving of his time and welcoming to me and former Technical Editor, Mike Wilkins as we photographed his B-body and peppered him with questions. Again, I cannot emphasize how rare this opportunity was, and I wanted to thank Fred for sharing his GTX and story with us. – Kevin Shaw]
“The year was 1969 and I was growing up in the suburbs of Chicago. One of my best friends came over one day with a brand new 1969 Plymouth Road Runner he had just purchased from Gaines Chrysler Plymouth, a small dealership in Roselle, Illinois,” explains Fred Tonne.
The Road Runner was painted orange with a 383-4bbl 4-speed under the hood and Fred instantly fell in love with it. This inspired him to walk into the same dealership in November 1969 in search of a B-Body of his own.
He shares, “I was looking at several models and decided to go to Gaines where my friend bought his to look. The salesman was a great guy and I told him I was interested in purchasing a new car. I had gone over all of the Plymouth brochures for the 1970 model year since those had just come out.”
Fred decided on a 1970 Plymouth GTX since a lot of the options he wanted came standard on the GTX and he says he chose F4 Lime Green Metallic with a black bucket seat interior because that’s what was shown on the brochure and he really loved it. The salesman worked with him on factory ordering the GTX with everything he wanted.
“When it came down to the engine choice, I was very undecided. Being 19 years old, my dad and the salesman explained all of the pros and cons of each engine choice to me. My dad said the Hemi was far too expensive for my budget and didn’t have much of a warranty. While the Six-Barrel wasn’t much more of a cost, the salesman explained it didn’t have the greatest warranty either.”
He continued to say, “The salesman explained that the GTX’s standard 440-4bbl had a much better warranty and insurance costs would be a lot more reasonable on it so I decided to go with the 440-4bbl in order to keep everything within my monthly budget. Had I only known what the future held for Hemi cars. I did opt for the Pistol Grip 4-Speed though!”
For options, Fred chose the A01 Light Package, A33 Axle Track Pack, B41/B51 power front disc brakes, C16 center console, C62 six-way manual adjustable seat, D21 Pistol Grip 4-Speed manual transmission, G15 tinted windshield, G33 remote mirror, J45 hood pins, M05 door edge protectors, N85 tachometer, N96 Air Grabber hood, R22 AM 8-track radio, R31 rear speakers, S77 power steering, S81 woodgrain steering wheel, V21 performance hood paint, V6W white stripes, W21 15×7 Rallye wheels and U84 F60x15 white letter tires. The total price of Fred’s new GTX came to $4,569.10.
After the GTX arrived at the dealership and Fred took possession of it, he would use the GTX only as his weekend car for the most part as he had a 1965 Pontiac GTO convertible he drove daily. He tells us, “Since it was my first new car, I babied it quite a bit. It was almost always kept in the garage and never driven in any snow or bad weather. As the years went by, the GTX would remain a “Sunday car” per say. When I met my wife and we moved to different homes over the years, I always made sure I had a safe garage spot for the GTX to keep it in tip-top shape.”
Over the years, Fred’s GTX would stay a survivor maintaining its originality. Eventually the mechanical parts of the car needed to be refreshed and after doing a lot of research, Fred decided to take the car to Mark from Magnum Auto Restorations.
Fred explains, “Mark specialized in Mopars and had a fantastic reputation so the choice was made to bring the car to him. He did an absolutely amazing job at putting the car back on the road while maintaining its survivor condition. To this day, the GTX has just over 25,200 original miles on it and runs like it did when I first drove it home from the dealership; even the original 8-track player still works like it’s 1970 all over again!”
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Great car and a great guy. It was very educational to be able to work on this car! Thanks to everyone at Mopar Connection magazine for this article
Such a cool ride…luv everything about this sculpted sheetmetal beauty. Dig the woodgrain trim theme on the interior…steering wheel, dashboard & even the Hurst handle! Out of every shifter i’ve ever tried in my life…nothing fit the human hand as perfectly as the pistol grip. The designers back then had such great attention to detail like the honeycomb grill. If they only knew they were constructing objects that would have such a devoted following half a century later?
Bought my 1970 Plymouth GTX when I returned from Vietnam an got out of the army in March 1970. It is 440 4bbl auto on column TX9 ext B5 int. Restored about 20 years ago.
Thank You Sir!
Seeing these beautiful cars always make me ache for my 1970 banana yellow Cuda with a 440 6 Pack. I used to cruise the streets of Detroit Michigan in my 65 GTO Royal bobcat. It was painted metal flake gold and I used to call it the Golden Goat. I thought I could never love any car as much as I loved that GTO, but when I sat in the showroom in that yellow cuda I knew the time had come.
It’s very strange to me to see and smell these old mopars. I have a 66 Satellite 440 4Spd which I like but not my favorite B-Body. That goes to the 70 Satellite body. My wnd car was a 70 Plymouth Satellite 383 4 speed with a Dana 60. The guy I bought it from in 1982 for $2500.00 ( that was a premium back then) was an avid drag racer. The motor had been rebuilt with a wild cam. I had no clue to It’s specs other than it scared the crap out of my 16 year old self. After about a year of racing at Moroso in Palm Beach Florida ( long gone), I was able to get her down into the high 12s. The builder told me it would do high 11s low 12s though I was never able to do that and averaged high 12s-low 13s.
When I was 18, a drunk driver rear-ended me totalling that beautiful car. The driver fled but drove into a enclosed apartment complex with me running after him on foot. I caught him when he got trapped, and a friend and I wrestled him to the ground until police showed up. Funny enough, I ended up getting hired by them when I was 22 years old!!!
Oh well…..there goes my thought bubble….
I can still smell that car.
I too came home from Nam in Jan 1970 and my best friend just bought a black 70 GTX, automatic 440 4bbl. He said try it out so parked at the curb I held the brakes and stepped on the gas. Holy crap it exploded from the curb in a cloud of smoke and I stopped in the middle of the street and got out! Too much car for me but now I would love to have one