1967 Plymouth Custom Kalola Cuda AAR

A 1967 Barracuda wearing ‘AAR’ badging is borrowing a name that wouldn’t exist as a real Plymouth package for three more years. That contradiction is exactly what makes this custom build interesting – a first-year redesigned Barracuda dressed up as a legend that hadn’t been built yet. Here’s what the real 1967 Barracuda offered from the factory, and where the AAR name actually came from.

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Call a 1967 Barracuda an ‘AAR Cuda‘ and you’ll get pushback from purists, because the real AAR package didn’t exist until three model years later – which means whatever custom work went into this particular car was a deliberate wink at a legend that hadn’t been born yet. The second-generation Barracuda that debuted in 1967 finally shed its Valiant-based roots and picked up the swooping ‘Coke bottle’ curves that defined the era. Add a custom name like this one wears, and you’re looking at someone’s tribute build rather than a factory original. So what’s actually under a car that borrows its identity from a legend that didn’t exist yet?

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The Redesign That Freed the Barracuda From Its Valiant Roots

The 1967 redesign was a complete break from the first-generation Barracuda, trading its Valiant-derived shape for European-influenced curves, quick-flip gas caps, and hood louvers that hadn’t appeared on the car before. It came in three body styles: a fastback that sold 30,110 units and became the most popular choice that year, a notchback, and a convertible limited to just 4,228 examples, making it the rarest of the three. Engine choices ranged from a base 225 cubic inch slant-six up to a seldom-ordered 383 cubic inch big block rated at 280 horsepower, available only with the performance-oriented Formula S package. Plymouth sold more than 60,000 Barracudas that year, a strong showing for a completely redesigned car.

Borrowing a Legend That Came Later

The actual AAR Cuda didn’t arrive until 1970, named for Dan Gurney’s All American Racers Trans-Am team and built as a genuine factory performance package with its own specific hardware. A 1967 car wearing AAR badging is therefore a custom tribute rather than a documented factory original – a common move in the hobby, where owners borrow a later package’s visual identity and apply it to an earlier body they already own. It reflects a personal build choice more than a piece of Plymouth‘s official history, but it’s a build that only makes sense once you know what the real AAR Cuda actually was.

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