The Plymouth Satellite didn’t look like any other mid-sized coupe from the Motor City in 1971. And more than half a century later, it still stands apart.
Satellite Sebring-Plus
For all the acclaim he’s received as an automotive designer, John E. Herlitz (1942-2008) might still be underrated. From the age of 13 he was determined to become a Chrysler stylist, trading sketches with studio personnel by mail, and fresh out of design school at the Pratt Institute at age 22, he created the Plymouth Barracuda Formula SX concept. (See our feature here.)
Just a few years later he produced the stunning 1970 Barracuda, then guided the studios through the front-wheel drive transition as director of exterior design. Destined for the top, eventually he served as Chrysler’s vice president of design from 1994 to 2000. But here our focus is on one more of his original efforts, the 1971 Plymouth Satellite coupe, with a look that remains unconventional to this day.
Satellite Coupe
While still based on the corporation’s versatile B-body platform, the ’71 Satellite coupe was a complete departure from Plymouth’s handsome but boxy ’66-’70 intermediates. And it was totally different from the mid-sized offerings from Ford and General Motors, too. Overall, the new Satellite embraced the Fuselage Look of the Chrysler big car lines, flanks tucked in, but with the sail and quarter panels merged into one surface and radically squared-off wheel openings. Easily the most identifying feature was the large chrome loop, carefully sculpted, that integrated the front bumper and grille as a single element. The single-loop bumper was a recurring thing at Chrysler in this period, but the Satellite’s was the most distinctive and memorable.
Satellite and Satellite Custom Four-Door Sedans
Plymouth packaged and marketed the new Satellite across multiple fronts. With a Slant 6 engine and only the essential standard equipment, the base Satellite coupe was advertised as “America’s lowest-price two-door intermediate” at just $2,663. (See our feature here.) the Satellite Sebring offered more style and features, and in the muscle and performance segment, still a big part of the Plymouth selling story, the Satellite was offered in two flavors, the value-priced Road Runner and the deluxe GTX. There were four-door sedan and station wagon Satellites, too, but on a longer 117-inch wheelbase and with a conventional front bumper and grille in place of the coupe’s big chrome ellipse.
GTX (left) and Road Runner
In typical Chrysler fashion, a broad array of engines was presented: the 225 CID Slant 6, 318 and 340 CID small block V8s, and 383 and 440 CID big-blocks, including the 440-6 with three two-barrel Holley carburetors and 385 hp. The 426 CID Street Hemi was still on the card as well, now with the hydraulic valve lifters adopted in 1970. With its cost of nearly $900, few buyers checked the E74 option to acquire the Street Hemi, and only 55 Road Runners and 30 GTXs were so equipped in ’71, its final year in production. This was the final year for the GTX as a standalone model as well.
Sales for the combined Satellite line actually dipped slightly in 1971 to under 150,000 cars, but that may have as much to do with the corporation’s shifting fortunes as the striking and unorthodox styling. The Satellite coupe lasted only through ’71-’72 in its original form, since the loop front bumper was incompatible with new federal 5 mph impact standards, though the basic body shell remained in production through the 1974 model year.
As a Richard Petty fan, I remember this car well. He won a championship with it. The last one entirely in Petty Blue before Andy Granatelli made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. In retrospect, I think the 1971 Charger was the better looking of the 1971 two B-body coupes
Greek not Latin, eh? The word orthodoxy maintains the “status quo” Greek belief (orthos + doxa), while heterodoxy introduces a “different” one (heteros + doxa). It is a paradox, a statement seemingly “contrary to expectation” (para + doxa)- challenging established dogma, or “settled opinion” (dogma), generateing historical progress rather than plunging society into chaos, which itself originally meant a vast, empty Greek “chasm” (khaos) devoid of all predictable order. This exact dynamic fueled the Industrial Revolution, where defying traditional manufacturing orthodoxies catalyzed the modern era of mechanized human advancement.
Please make my heterodoxical ’71 PLYMOUTH GTX in TX-9 Formal Black, gold strobe stripe and graphics, Go-Wing, rear window louvers, dog dishes and a clutch pedal, powered by any of the 3 available hog blocks: 440+4 or 440+6 wedgies, or the most heterodoxical gasoline engine in human mobility and motorsport- our unbeatable 426 HEMI…
Your beautifully crafted comment nails the etymological journey perfectly, blending Greek philosophical roots seamlessly into the brute-force reality of the end of non-loopholed American engineered Detroit iron. That 1971 Plymouth GTX configuration is the absolute apex of Mopar heterodoxy, 1 of 1 production territory, especially considering 1971 was the final, glorious year for both the standalone GTX model and the legendary 426 Hemi motor itself.
From a friend who makes good income as a Mopar restoration expert and credentialed concourse show judge, the real number of TX9 Formal Black ’71 Plymouth GTXs produced is unknown, but historical trends suggest black accounts for only 2% to 3% of the total of 2,942 GTXs made that year. This means maybe 75 total painted black across all engine/transmission configurations. When filtered by the rare A-833 4-speed manual transmission, the numbers plummet drastically: out of the 327 four-speed 440-4V cars built, perhaps fewer than 10 were black; out of just 62 four-speed 440 Six-Barrels, only 2 in TX9; and out of the absolute holy-grail 11 four-speed 426 HEMI GTXs built for 1971, there is only one factory black specimen, and it is in immaculant shape today Go-Wing and louvers included: THE legendary one-of-one masterpiece…
John Herlitz did a stunning job on the 1971 Satellite 2-doors. I wonder who had to translate this basic design to the Dodge Charger/Coronet twins…
I had the pleasure of meeting John Herlitz in 1996 after sending in a proposal myself (basically what was eventually produced as the 2008 Challenger, but using the 70 Cuda as the starting point. This was back when they were seriously trying to revive Plymouth.) I was an entry-level employee at an assembly plant. He invited me up to Auburn Hills and gave me a 45-min tour of the whole studio. He showed me a PT Cruiser in clay (at that time called Plymouth Pronto). One side was almost “production” and the other was basically a Chevy HHR. He asked which side I preferred and explained the reasons why the company was choosing one side over the other. Just all around a super nice guy and I’ve never heard a bad word about him from anyone who worked with him. If not for his sudden and sad death after retirement, I’m sure he would have been a huge contributor to the classic car scene. Some other pieces of info I recall from that conversation, as they relate to the feature car…
1) The 70 Plymouth refresh was intended to preview 1971.
2) The ’71 GTX was supposed to have the bumper all the ’72 mid-sized Plymouths got as an exclusive GTX styling feature, but the 1971 budget was used-up, so that extra tooling had to wait until the next budget year.
3) Although he did the 1970 Cuda and liked it, he personally preferred the ’71 GTX. I actually feel the same way, but I know that’s not the popular opinion.