1971 Plymouth Cuda Custom in Green with Envy Paint

This green 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda wears one of the era’s loud High Impact colors, a signature of a model year that only lasted twelve months before Plymouth changed the design again. Only 16,492 Barracudas were built for 1971, and the truly rare variants, like the 114-unit Hemi ‘Cuda, get scarcer still. Here’s what made 1971 such a distinctive year for the ‘Cuda.

This “thing” looks old, but drives modern!!

“This thing looks old, but drives modern,” says the owner of this green ‘Cuda, and the paint alone hints at why it looks the way it does. Plymouth offered 21 different colors for the 1971 Barracuda lineup, six of them so aggressively bright the factory literally called them High Impact hues, and this build wears something in that spirit. What most people miss looking at a 1971 ‘Cuda, though, is that it only looked this exact way for a single model year before Plymouth changed the design again, and that of the cars built that year, genuinely rare examples are far scarcer than most owners realize.

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The Fender Gills That Only Lasted One Year

For 1971, Plymouth redesigned the third-generation Barracuda‘s front end with a segmented grille and, for the first time, quad headlights, along with new taillights out back. The most distinctive addition were the fender “gills,” vents styled to echo the Barracuda name and found on no other model year, a detail that instantly dates a real 1971 car to anyone who knows what to look for. Underneath, buyers chose between three trim levels: the base Barracuda, the comfort-oriented Gran Coupe, and the performance-focused ‘Cuda, with engine options spanning a 275-horsepower 383, a 300-horsepower 383, a 385-horsepower 440 Six Barrel, and a 425-horsepower 426 Hemi at the top of the range.

How Rare Is Rare?

Plymouth built 16,492 Barracudas total for 1971, a steep drop from prior years, and within that number the truly desirable variants get scarce fast: only 292 of those were convertible ‘Cudas, and the Hemi ‘Cuda, the most sought-after version of all, accounted for just 114 units, only seven of which were convertibles. Whatever engine sits under this particular car’s hood, the color alone puts it in rarefied company among 1971 ‘Cudas, a model year defined as much by its High Impact palette as by what was under the hood. Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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