Bob Karakashian has hung on to his A12 Super Bee Six Pack for over 50 years

His parents drove a Coronet Station Wagon, and his older brother had a 1965 Coronet with a 426 Street Wedge. So, it’s easy to see how Bob got his love for the Dodge brand. 

Another life-altering moment for Bob came when his family moved from Highland Park to Farmington Hills, Michigan, in the mid-to-late 1960s. One of his neighbors was none other than Tom Hoover

“In 1969 I was in my second year of college and I wanted to buy my first new car. After driving my brother’s ’65 Coronet with the 426 wedge, I knew I wouldn’t be happy with a 383 Road Runner or 383 Super Bee, as they ran about the same as the 426 wedge. I really wanted a 426 hemi Road Runner, GTX or Super Bee but it just wasn’t feasible, being a full-time college student at Lawrence Tech University,” reminisced Bob.

The Mopar gearhead he was, Bob asked Tom Hoover for some advice on what new car to purchase. “Bobby, I think we have a new package coming out that you’re really going to like,” said Hoover.

With that, Hoover gave Bob all the specs on the new mid-year A12 Six Pack option on the 1969 Super Bee with a matte black fiberglass liftoff hood held on by hood pins, Dana 60 axle with a 4.10 ratio and, of course, a 390-horsepower 440 big-block with three Holley carburetors mounted on an aluminum Edelbrock intake

With a mere 1,400 miles on the Super Bee’s odometer and with that pungent new car smell emanating from the interior, a Racer Brown SSH-25 camshaft and JR Headers got installed to give the already stout 440 Six Pack even more horsepower. “My mother and father were so upset seeing their son take apart his brand-new car, but when they saw Mr. Hoover helping me and teaching me things like how to degree a camshaft, set ignition timing, adjusting the carburetors and other things, my parents’ attitude quickly changed.

By the early to mid-1970s, Bob’s Six Pack Super Bee saw less street duty and more drag strip usage, specifically racing in Super Stock and eventually Stock Eliminator. During this period, Bob’s Super Bee was used as a development vehicle to evaluate prototype performance parts and packages for the new Mopar Direct Connection program.

With its original red paint still shining bright, pristine engine compartment looking as if you can eat off it and interior that smells as fresh as when it was delivered to the dealer in the spring of 1969, it’s hard to tell Bob’s Super Bee has made thousands of passes down the drag strip. Make no mistake, it may look like a restored muscle car with only 20,000 miles, but Bob’s basically stock blueprinted 440 Six Pack Super Bee can click off 12.0-second ETs on the skinny production G70X15 Redline Bias Ply tires anytime at any track.

https://www.dodgegarage.com/news/article/owners-clubs/2020/06/six-pack-super-bee-still-stings-after-50-years.html