This 1966 B-body Plymouth Satellite is a survivor. All it needed was some minor paices and detailing to appear as it did back in the day. It’s a long way from being in a used car lot, though…. Clean fresh styling was a big part of Chrysler’s redesigns for 1966. The Satellite was almost hard-edged, a well-chiseled look that defined Chrysler performance through the late 1960s.
 A single large headlight and smaller parking light gave the car a clean mechanical appearance, set off by horizontal chrome ribs in the grill. |
And that leaves us with the design of the cars themselves. The Hemi was offered as an option in all the B-body models offered in 1966 – the redesigned Belvedere and Coronet, and the new Charger. Four door? Rumor has it that the one in the Don Garlits museum was built for the FBI. Convertibles? Just a couple. Station wagons? None known. No, the Hemi was most at home that year in the Charger and two-door cars like the upscale Satellite seen here, and the company turned out almost 1,000 vehicles with this powerplant under the bonnet.
 The center of the hood got this little emblem that looks non-descript from the front but is lettered 426 on the back. |
The Satellite was the top of the line midsize Plymouth model, and this example was even more dressed up than most. For instance, it sports power windows, the remote left hand mirror, the console, bucket seats and AM radio. In contrast, a lot of 1966 Hemi Plymouths were Belvederes, as that was the lightest way to go racing. Whoever put the order in that ended up at Lynch Road where the car was built wanted this car to be a looker. As with other 1966 Hemi cars, the exterior is devoid of thrills save for some small chrome callouts, but the EE1 Dark Metallic Blue paint, as well as spinner-type Dix wheel covers and Blue Streak Goodyears, gave it a certain class that frankly would no longer be possible as the muscle age continued.
 Pop the hood and under the bonnet is the big chrome ‘pie pan’ chrome Hemi air cleaner cover atop of 426 inch of race-bred technology. Nobody doubted what was possible when this engine was between the fenders. |
This particular Hemi Satellite is now in a private collection, but when Chuck Smith of Marysville, Tenn., owned it, it was a highlight among several performance Mopars he possesses, including examples of the GTX that would become the sole Plymouth performance B-body the following model year. Chuck also has Don Grotheer’s old 1968 Hemi Barracuda. After trying to buy this particular survivor car for almost a decade, he finally got it in early 2004 by trading a 1968 Hemi Roadrunner to a Florida collector. When he decided to let it go to help finance a couple of other projects, it crossed the block at Barrett-Jackson for $82,500, not bad for a car that doesn’t have the bells and whistles of later models.
Truth be told, there is a certain sense that the 1966 Coronets and Belvedere/ Satellites are more than simply the first year Hemi cars. They were transitional vehicles that bridged the gap between the all-out race iron of the 1962-1965 era and the street performance era that began in earnest with the debut of the more flashy 1967 GTX and R/T models. The final examples of raw horsepower, packaged in a plain wrapper.
