The brand is important to car guys, so this 1969 Dodge Super Bee defied the odds when it joined the Dietzen family early in its life because they were a GM family.
Darcy Dietzen is the current owner of this family legacy car and he’s also its historian.
Jerry Sutherland
He explained how his older brother spotted this “gently used” ’69 Bee at a dealership. It was a barebones car with a 383, 4-speed and bench seats, so this Super Bee was a low-option car.
Darcy said he came from a German farm family with an incredible sense of “looking after things”, so the Super Bee was treated to regular, detailed maintenance. Darcy remembers washing the car when he was a kid and that’s when he formed a huge bond with the Bee. He said the family even “left the plastic on the seats”.
This was truly a family car because his older brothers drove the Super Bee–plus his mom used it to haul laundry into town.
Darcy also watched his brother race the car on the road in front of the family farm, so he knew how it performed. He’s read old magazines that compared cars like the Super Bee to other muscle cars of the era, but Darcy said he “saw them perform in real life”—he didn’t need a magazine to tell him how they ran.
The Dietzen family were always GM people, so this Dodge was an unusual addition to their fleet in the early 70s. Time moved on and Darcy said, “they all bought brand new Chevy trucks in the early 80s”, so the Dodge went into retirement.
Darcy never questioned where the Super Bee would end up because he’s worked on it since he was a kid. Darcy became a Cat mechanic, and he said it’s because he learned how to do basic maintenance and change things like starters and alternators on the Super Bee.
He’s proud to say he was “doing stuff the TV car guys do now long before they were”. He brought the Dietzen family detail to the game, so everything was done right.
Darcy’s career took him all over the place, but the Super Bee always went with him. After many years, the car became a family punchline—his dad told Darcy, “He’d never get it back on the road”, but after 40 years he started to take the car apart.
Darcy had the full support of his wife throughout the process, so he began by itemizing every nut and bolt and bagging them. Darcy knew the project would be tougher if it wasn’t done properly.
The goal was to take the Super Bee back to what it looked like when it came into the family. Darcy said his brother turned it into a Day 2 car, so he ditched the factory steel wheels in favor of custom wheels and added headers.
The paint was a major process. Darcy contracted the job out to a high-end European specialty shop because he wanted to use a specific type of paint. They were the only shop that was certified to use this paint so they basically interviewed him to decide whether they would work on the Super Bee.
They took it on to give the shop guys a break from exotic cars and the process took a few years because Darcy wanted the exact shade. They got it right and now the car is back with the Dietzens.
Darcy said all the family members who drove the car are gone now, but this incredibly nice ’69 Super Bee is an amazing tribute to their memory.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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